developing within the church.
The local church and universal Church is not a democracy. Neither
are the elder-meetings a democracy. Some apostolic churches are
teaching equality of the elders. Others rank the prophet with the
apostle on one level, and then the pastor, teacher, and evangelist on
another level. This is also wrong. The apostle is number one,
like it or lump it. Common sense, experience, conscience, and
the Scriptures say this to me.
Incidently, I'm an assistant to an apostle, not an apostle myself,
(to the best of my knowledge), so I'm not tooting my own apostolic
horn. I'm under an apostle, submitted to him, and occasionally argue
with him; I am even sometimes in "civil" disobedience to him, but
I know who the local boss is---he's my apostle. I don't put him on
a pedestal; I am familiar with his faults, and occasionally downright
dislike him for a time, but I plainly recognize the call on his life.
The church needs to be the army it claims to be. That means
"rank and file"---None of this modernistic equitable equality. We
all have certain generic unalienable rights, but there is an authority
structure in the church, which means that there are unique rights
applicable to and emanating from special callings and offices.
A multi-headed church is utter confusion. If we say Christ is the
Head as He is indeed, there still needs to be a single local arbitrator
who can sum up and vocalize that which the leadership has heard
from God. He must be a man who can implement that vision.
There will inevitably be disagreements among the leaders in a local
church. One God-ordained man has to be able to stand up and
declare, "The buck stops here!"
The prophets have prophesied that the Lord is raising up apostles
as the GENERALS in God's spiritual army, but yet a few of these
prophets attempt to place themselves at the same level as their
commanding officers, the apostles.
John the Baptist recognized that his job was to prepare the way
for the head Apostle, Jesus, NOT to strive to be equal with Jesus.
Modern prophets need to follow John the Baptist's example.
Notice also that John's job did not end when Jesus arrived; John
continued to prophesy and preach the baptism of repentance.
The apostle does not replace the prophet; he is the next incremental
link in the progressive unfolding of the mystery of the Church.
--But yes, there is a shift in the ratio of relative emphasis from the
prophet toward the apostle, not negating the prophet altogether.
The prophet is the friend, counselor, and confidant of the apostle,
just as the Old Testament prophets were to the kings. The prophet,
though indispensable, did not, usurp the king.
There have always been apostles, but they have not been recognized
as such. Unless the Church both recognizes AND submits to apostolic
authority, we are "playing church", and all our apostolic jargon will
be reduced to hollow theological rhetoric. So we must not merely
acknowledge the existence of modern-day apostles as the current fad,
but we must also submit to them, or the universal Church is nothing
but a club.
There has to be flexibility as we move into this. There are bona fide
heads who are not apostles. They are the mentors who are raising
up the new generation of apostles. Hence, we will see apostles
being ordained and commissioned by presbyteries composed
predominantly of other fivefold officers. Ultimately we'll see the
apostles as the *generals immediately under the Head Apostle,
Jesus.
*(For those who did not read our last post: God's army is a spiritual
army mandated to conquer wicked demonic principalities. We war not
after the flesh. But prayer is futile unless prayer is accompanied by
commensurate action i.e. saying and doing. The Bible says that
faith [prayer] without works is dead. Political activity is NOT SIN
as some would try to teach; however, political action alone [i.e. works
without faith] affects the symptoms, not the hearts of individuals.)
BACK ON TRACK:
The primary emphasis of this message is about authority WITHIN
the Church, not authority (whether real or imagined) outside the
Church. We can deal with the world's rebellion after we deal with
ourselves.