Are there Apostles and Prophets Today?

The first class of Apostle mentioned is Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1). Obviously He was in a class of His own as an Apostle.

The next category of apostles was the 12 apostles of the Lamb. The criteria for was that they had been directly chosen by the Lord Himself (in the case of the eleven) or (in the case of Matthias – Judas’ replacement) he must at least have accompanied the entire ministry of Jesus from start to finish and been an eyewitness of His resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:21-22). Again, obviously no-one today qualifies to be an apostle in that class.

But the Bible mentions others, not in the above category of apostleship, but who were nonetheless named as apostles – for example: Paul, and the Lord’s brothers (e.g., Jude, James). These apostles also had a unique function, because each of them wrote part of the New Testament. We can’t have any apostles with that function today.

Then the Bible mentions others who were neither part of the 12 nor wrote any part of the New Testament – and yet they were named as apostles – e.g., Barnabas (Acts 14:14) Apollos (I Cor.3:22) and Epaphroditus (Phil.2:25).

There isn’t any reason why we can’t have apostles today in the class of apostleship that doesn’t lay any new foundations of doctrine, doesn’t bring any new revelations, doesn’t claim to write any new books of the Bible, and of course doesn’t claim to have been eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry and resurrection.

These are simply “sent ones” – those who have been called and ordained to “go” into ministry. It is a distinct function from pastoring; distinct from teaching; distinct from evangelizing and distinct from prophesying – because it has the element of “going”. It includes a stronger pioneering and overseeing role than the other ministries - yet they will not start a work upon any new foundation of doctrine other than the foundation of doctrine already laid by the Bible apostles.

The same can be said for the office of prophet.

Jesus Christ is named as a prophet – in a class of His own.

Then there were New Testament prophets who stood in a class of their own, such as John, who wrote Revelation (Revelation 10:11).

And there were others named as prophets but who didn’t write any of the New Testament, such as Agabus (Acts 11:28) and some of the five at Antioch (Acts 13:1).

There is no reason why we can’t have prophets today – in the category that doesn’t bring any extra-Biblical doctrine, that doesn’t write any new books of the New Testament.

The role of present day prophets is distinct from teaching and evangelizing and is a unique responsibility different to that of pastoring. They bring the specific word which God wants a person or church to hear at the time. As well as preaching and teaching, they may function with the gift of prophecy, the interpretation of tongues, and they may see visions - but any vision they see will confirm and not add to Biblical doctrine.

All of the gifts and manifestation of the Spirit are to remain until the Lord comes. None have been withdrawn ( Acts 2:16-21, Acts 13:8-10).

I think someone like John Wesley could rightly have been called an apostle, in a sense; and I think someone like George Fox might rightly have been called a prophet – because both of them functioned more than just as a pastor, teacher or evangelist. Wesley was both pioneer and overseer of many works; Fox brought a specific word to the church and society of his day – he even prophesied the great fire of London. Yet neither of them were in the same class as any of the writers of the New Testament.