HatGuy
Some guy in a hat
- Jun 9, 2014
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In 1 Corinthians 9:2, Paul says:The five fold ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher were designed to function in a church that was totally unified and all the regional churches in the then-known world totally complied with One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism. In our current church environment we have many Lords depending on the denomination's theology, a particular baptism for each denomination, often not transferrable between them, forcing the believer to be re-baptised when changing denominations, and many versions of the faith, also depending on that denomination's view of the Gospel and its theology.
What this means is that persons can view themselves as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers in their own denomination, but in all case, they are not recognised outside of their particular movement or denomination. This means that these ministries as part of the five fold ministries cannot function as they were designed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not respect denominational labels, and therefore does not practice favouritism.
The Scripture says that the household of faith (the Christian church) is based on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The problem is that one the last Apostle and Prophet died, that foundation ceased to exist. Because there are no general apostles and prophets recognised by the whole church, that foundation no longer exists. This means that our present factionalised churches have no secure foundation in the same way that the early unified church had.
Therefore the New Apostolic Restoration movement is man's mistaken view that the Holy Spirit has restored the five fold ministries to their particular movement. But the Holy Spirit's criteria for the restoration of the five fold ministries is that the denominational structures are done away with and the Christian church is restored to a totally unified body once more where there is truly one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism, and one God and Father over all.
2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
Indicating that some did not see him as an apostle in his time.
Not everyone will recognize someone's ministry. I don't think this is a bad thing.
But onto Eph 4 - the verses explicitly state that the reason why the five-fold ministry exists is to create unity. Your hypothesis is the wrong way around - it's not that we need unity before we have the five-fold ministry, it's that the five-fold ministry is necessary to create unity. The ministries themselves are designed to work in a disunited state. The scripture says they are to exist UNTIL we reach unity of the faith.
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