By:
Kenneth E. Hagin
By not
rightly dividing the Word of God, some people have misinterpreted the office of
the apostle and taken it to the extreme. Anything taken into extreme is in
error.
People need to interpret Scripture in the
light of other Scripture on the same subject. Therefore, in order to rightly
divide the Word of truth on any subject, people need to take all the scriptures
on a given subject and study them in the light of all the Bible has to say on
that subject.
By assuming the apostle is listed first because
it is preeminent over all the ministry gifts, some people are going from church
to church in a dictatorial attitude declaring that they are apostles and
demanding that people and churches submit to them.
Obviously, in the establishing of the universal
Church following the resurrection of Jesus, the apostles and prophets were of
primary importance because they brought forth the revelation of the New
Testament that is the foundation upon which the Church in all generations is to
be established.
However, in terms of the operation of the
local church today, First Corinthians 12:28 could not be referring to the
offices of the apostles and prophets as the most important offices or the the
governing offices with the local church, because Paul listed governments as an
entirely separate category.
Therefore, Paul couldn’t be listing ministry
gifts in their order of importance within the local church because in the
passage in First Corinthians 12:28, Paul lists teachers third. However, in
Ephesians 4:11 he lists the office of the teacher last. That’s not consistent.
Also, assuming that the “governments” is the
pastoral office, in First Corinthians 12:28 Paul lists the ministry of helps
before the pastoral office. If he were listing them by importance in the local
church today, then the teacher and helps ministry would have authority over the
pastor in the local assembly.
That’s
not scriptural. And according to the list in Ephesians 4:11, that means the
evangelist would be in authority over the pastor in the local body! That isn’t
biblical, particularly because the evangelist’s ministry is usually not a
stationary ministry in the local church; it is usually more of a roving
ministry to the unsaved outside of the church.
So we can readily see that Paul does not
list the ministry gifts in their order of importance in the local church today.
Neither was he establishing the hierarchy for local church government by the
order in which the ministry gifts were listed. No, the office of the apostle
was not listed first because it is the most important office in the local body
and is supposed to rule over all the other ministry gifts.
Actually, in
Ephesians 4:11 and First Corinthians 12:28, it would seem logical that Paul listed
these offices in that order by the way God "set" or developed the
ministry gifts in the Early Church. The Early Church didn't have the five fold
ministry to begin with because it takes time for God to develop ministries and ministers.
And God doesn't put novices in positions of authority or in ministry offices
because He won't violate His own Word (1 Tim. 3:6). So for a time, the apostolic
ministry was the only ministry in operation in the Early Church.
Therefore,
the apostolic office was the first ministry gift that was initially evident in
the Early Church. The twelve Apostles of the Lamb were the only ministers in
the beginning days of the Early Church. These men had acompanied with Jesus in
His earthly ministry (Acts 1:21). They were chosen by God, and the Holy Spirit
had equipped and qualified them as ministers of the gospel.
The apostles
seemed to have the ability to operate in all the ministry gifts to some degree.
And, really, they needed that ability because the Church was in its infancy
stages and no other ministry gift had developed in the Church yet. It would also
be safe to say that they ministered prophetically to some degree, and they did
minister evangelistically as well. There was also an element of pastoral oversight,
and we know for certain that they taught the Word.
Apostles,
however, did not remain as the only ministry gift in the Church. As time
progressed, those who ministered as prophets also began to appear. The prophets
spoke by inspired utterance. The scriptures don't give us much detail on this
subject, but we do know that the ministry of the prophet was well established
by the time the account in Acts 13:1 occurred:
"Now
there were in the church that was at Antioch certain PROPHETS _______ "
Similarly,
the Scriptures don't give us the exact beginning of the evangelist's ministry.
However, we see the office of the evangelist first mentioned in Acts 8 in
Philip's ministry. By then the Church had already been in existence for many
years, and there had been time for the Holy Spirit to develop the ministry of
the evangelist in the Church.
Pastors or
shepherds were raised up as the Church grew and believers matured spiritually
(Acts 14:23; 15:2; 20:28). And the ministry of the teacher was developed in the
Early Church as believers were trained and instructed in doctrine (Acts 2:42; 13:1).
Another
reason it is erroneous to exalt the apostle's office above all others is that
even in the Early Church, the apostles didn't govern all the churches — even
churches they had helped to establish. Paul only had spiritual oversight of
churches while he was establishing them. But he had no oversight in the church
at Jerusalem or any other church whatsoever. Once he left a church he had
established, he delegated oversight to others (Acts 20:28).
After
leaving, Paul did respond to questions the Church asked, and he offered godly
input to them. But he did not control or govern them.
I don't
really like to use the words "spiritual authority," in reference to
the apostolic office because that gives the idea that apostles rule and govern
people and churches, and they don't.
But the
point is that in First Corinthians 12:28 when Paul said, . . God hath SET some
in the church . . . he was probably referring to the order in which God
"set" or developed ministry gifts in the Early Church. Another error
in this doctrine is a teaching which says that all the ministry gifts make up
the "government" of the local church, and each church, regardless of
its size, is to be ruled by the five fold ministry.
Again,
people haven't rightly divided the Word. They haven't distinguished between the
Church as a whole — the universal Body of Christ — and the local church. In the
Church as a whole, we will find all five ministry gifts in operation. But every local
church will not have all five ministry gifts operating in its assembly.
These
misconceptions really put the Body of Christ into bondage instead of liberating
believers. The Bible says that the Word of God will set us free (John 8:32),
not bring us into bondage.
You see, if
we aren't careful, we can have misconceptions on both sides of this issue. We
can get in the ditch on one side and deny the true office and function of the
apostle. Or we can get in a ditch on the other side and give the apostolic
office unlimited preeminence and authority.
Those who give the apostolic office too much pre-eminence and claim to
stand in that office, seem to take the attitude, "I'm an apostle! You've
got to do what I say because in order to have correct New Testament government,
the local church has to be governed by apostles."
Actually, I
can't find anywhere in the New Testament that there is any higher office in the
local church than the pastoral office. I don't see anywhere in the New
Testament where apostles ruled over pastors and other ministry gifts. These
unscriptural teachings that apostles and prophets are to rule and govern people
and churches are not new. I've been in the ministry more than fifty-seven
years, and I've seen these same unscriptural teachings in the Body of Christ
before. These errors run in cycles. They crop up in every generation in the
Church and have to be dealt with.
You see,
another generation will come up that hasn't been taught the truth of God's Word
on a particular subject, and they'll get off in a ditch in an area and get
off-balance scripturally.
In every
generation God has to raise up someone in church leadership to deal with these
issues. God raised up Donald Gee in the 1930s to deal with this same extreme
teaching on apostles in his book, The Ministry-Gifts of Christ, which is now out
of print. Donald Gee was one of the pioneers and great teachers of the
Pentecostal Movement.
Then we had
the same problem surface again in the Body of Christ in the 1950s. Gordon
Lindsay addressed it again in his book, Apostles, Prophets and Governments, and
the problem died down. Lindsay was the founder of the Bible school, Christ For
The Nations, and he published the magazine, The Voice of Healing. Almost all
the leading healing evangelists of the day published their articles in this
magazine.
Because
Donald Gee and Gordon Lindsay were respected leaders in the Church, and their
books were scripturally balanced, they stopped much of the wrong doctrine that
had surfaced back then. There was a real revival in those days, and that's
usually when the devil starts all of these spiritual tangents to try to stop the
move of God. He diverts believers by getting them off in spiritual error,
trying to abort the real move of God's Spirit.
In our day,
a new generation has grown up in the Church.
And this same controversy has resurfaced in the Body of Christ, so it
has to be addressed again. I tried to get God to have someone else do it, but He
said, "No, you do it." That's the reason for this book.
I will quote
from Gordon Lindsay's book, Apostles, Prophets and Governments from time to
time in this book, because it amplifies what I believe and his insights help
explain some of the things the Lord said to me in that visitation. But one
reason these errors have occurred again in our day is that people try to give
the apostolic office of today the same status as the second or third class of
apostle in the days of the Early Church. But it simply does not have the same
status.
Now there is no doubt at all that some folks in our day could rightly
be called apostles in the fourth class. (We will discuss the fourth class of
apostle in the next chapter.) But a fellow who goes around broadcasting to
everyone that he is an apostle, probably isn't one. If you are a minister, I would
encourage you to let others call you what they will based on the spiritual
endowments or equipment and fruit they see manifested in your life and ministry.
Let's just rejoice to see the ministry gifts in manifestation and glory in the
work the Lord is doing in the Body of Christ without being concerned about
titles.
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