Ephesians 4:12 & 11 say that until we all reach unity in the faith etc., Jesus will continue to give His Body apostles, prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers.
Institutionalists may choose to take over leadership in the Body--and they have--by substituting their own parish priest oriented and shepherd dominated leadership culture for the Spirit's leadership but, in the end, it is still Christ's church.
You may know that my training is in history. Since I discovered APEST, I have spent a little time poking around, looking for APEST people in our history. Apostles are easy to find, as are evangelists. Prophets are there to be found, but to find them requires knowledge both of history and of the New Testament.
In later posts, I'll mention some prophets from church history. Most are either obscure figures or have been made prominent by circumstances beyond themselves. All I will mention will be known to you, if only by name.
Can you think of any?
One more introductory note [until I think of others ;-) ]:
ReplyDeleteWhen I was near the beginning of my transition from Christendom, uh, theology, toward a search for an unwashed, primitive, New Testament way of thinking and acting, I did some studying of the three New Testament apostles we know most about from the Book of Acts, i.e., Peter, Barnabas and Paul and I concluded that it is true that their primary calling was to be apostles but each also had what I thought of as a secondary APEST calling which dictated the style with which they carried out their apostolic calling.
There is no biblical teaching to support this conclusion, as is the case with much that Christendomites teach. Most of what I came up with during that transition time I have abandoned because it is neither taught nor modeled in the Bible. And, I have taken some shots in my own mind and faith at this secondary calling/style idea and, to this point, at least, I'm still holding on to it because I see it demonstrated in the way Peter, Barnabas and Paul executed their apostolic callings. Please feel free to shoot holes in it, if you can.
Anyway, briefly, I see Peter's secondary calling as that of being an evangelist. As an apostle, he clearly had the ability to proclaim the gospel with power, as is evident from Acts 2, 3 and 4.
Barnabas' secondary calling was to be a shepherd, as is seen in the courageous, forward-thinking nurture he provided to the disciples in Antioch and in his conflict with Paul which led to the separation of their ministries.
Paul, I believe, possessed, as his secondary gift, the gift of prophecy which accounts for his passion for and ability to integrate the simple gospel with concepts of Greek philosophy, which he addresses in Athens and which he quotes in 1 Corinthians, and with principles of Roman law, which leads to his profound treatment of salvation in terms of the legal verdicts of justification and condemnation in his letter to the Romans.
This primary/secondary/style principle also applies to figures I see in church history whom I see as prophets. Each of these men (I'm currently thinking of listing four people, all men) shared common passions that are those of the biblical prophets but they also conducted their prophetic gifts with a style that is unique to them, at least as far as the other three on my list is concerned.
As always, your comments on and off the blog are appreciated but, in this case, those on the blog will be very much appreciated.