Lady Crosstalk
Well-Known Member
So what you are saying is that today there are Missionaries and Evangelists, which I agree.
You do realize today there are those self proclaiming themselves as Prophets and Apostles,(mostly associated with NAR and those influenced by them) who claim these Offices are for today? This is my contention.
Those who claim the gift of prophecy, often have contradictory messages and still one must resort to testing their utterances against Scripture.
1 John 4:1 NASBS
[1] Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Not that familiar with the NAR but I suspect that many of their teachings are heretical--which makes them false teachers, since they don't seem to correct the false teachings. The whole notion of separate "offices" is somewhat erroneous anyway, since, pastor, elder and overseer are somewhat interchangeable. There was no rigid hierarchy over the early churches (up to around 150 A.D.). It was thought that leadership would "emerge" rather than being selected by some kind of governing body over the local churches. Bishops began to govern the local churches under their purview and then, under Constantine, the entire hierarchy was moved into the grand basilicas. In contrast, Jesus said, in Matthew 23:8--->"Don't let anyone call you 'rabbi' because you only have one teacher and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters." It appears that humans are seduced by the power and wealth that comes with holding a privileged position in hierarchies.