Raleigh Bagley Reformed Theology
Resources
The Apostolic History of the Early Church
An increasingly popular trend overwhelmingly seen in many Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in the West, especially America, is the use or designation of “apostle.” Today, myriads of pastors and church planters wanting to be apostolic use the title. However, the title’s use is illogical. It suggests that there are actual apostles today in how the term is overwhelmingly used in Scripture- for illustration, the “apostles of Jesus Christ.” Two points are made here. Historically, it is impossible to be an “apostle of Jesus Christ.” Second, Christ’s apostles’ authority was distinctive and a standard. The apostles of Scripture were called and commissioned by Christ as his plenipotentiary representatives who preached the gospel to a degree fundamentally to its spread. They represented a standard of teaching and administered God’s commands, of which their authority as foundational in the church is irrefutable (Eph. 2:20).
