Apostles

The apostles were the disciples of Jesus, and they preached to those who then became the first churches. They are those who were sent by the Lord out from Jerusalem to the whole world to tell others the Good News of God’s forgiveness of sin by faith in Jesus.

The disciples of Jesus were by name, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. These men are those who walked with Jesus and who became pillars of the faith as they stood on the truth of God in Christ. The disciples were the first apostles.

The apostles were the first to be "the church." We call them pillars of faith and we, who would be the church, are built upon them, living stones, with Jesus as the chief cornerstone of us all, our firm foundation. This church is nothing man has made or fashioned, but it is the workmanship of God, the very thing that Jesus said, ‘the gates of hell could not prevail against.” However, when discussing the "church," some people perpetuate the idea that the gates of hell have come crashing it and destroyed everything in sight and that God is doing something new. They even believe that God is doing this "new" thing, with new "apostles" ....THEM

There are the voices saying that the old ways of Christianity are too rigid for our ever-changing more modern minds, and that the church is has become outmoded, out-dated, old-fashioned, and obsolete. They defame the church, speak slanderously of it, even though it is the bride of Christ. in place, they promote themselves and their own ministries and ideas, meanwhile faulting the fundamental beliefs of the traditional Church for the problems of the world. Their voices, carried far and wide by every form of media, tell their vision to build the church anew. They bring new or fresh revelation to mankind, and appoint leaders, well equipped leaders, to lead the church, under their direction with a NEW gospel, a different Jesus and the law.


In preparation, these new apostles have divided the planet into appropriate geographical locations as they herald the message that the traditional church is a failure. "Something of deep substance is missing in our church today," they say. The failure of the church is: _________ (fill in the blank.) This New Apostolic Reformation would have the world believe that Christ through the ages has been of no effect, yet they describe themselves as an “extraordinary work of God at the close of the twentieth century, which is, to a significant extent, changing the shape of Protestant Christianity around the world.” (quote from C Peter Wagner, The New Apostolic Churches, As posted at www.globalharvest.org; 2004) They focus not on changing the world for Christ, but in changing the structure of the church and in making world leaders.

In fact, if you feel lead by God to be an apostle, the Global Harvest Ministry, the Global Ministry Resource Network, GMRN.org, (now http://www.gmrnet.org) a “fivefold” ministry, will train you to be one. Yes, you can go to an “apostolic” college and learn the necessary skills you need, and obtain the correct and approved apostle-type accreditation, after all, as the GMRN believes, “what is needed in the world today is effective leaders working together to finish the work He began 2000 years ago." Besides being interested in your vision and your passion, their “entire premise is to find out how great you are!” They, and other like them, are here to help you be an apostle, and "a leader."

In his 1999 book, Apostles Prophets and the Coming Moves of God, (endorsed by C. Peter Wagner, Oral Roberts and Cindy Jacobs,) Dr. Bill Hamon says he is sure that there are things happening throughout the world that show God is currently preparing “for the full restoration of his apostles.” Hamon himself is an Apostle, as well as leading Bishop and Prophet of the Fivefold Ministry teachings. Crying for “reformation” and “revival” he often remarks about the new things God is doing, including raising up a new breed of men to lead the church.

There are new revelations, there is new power, and new authority! There are so many “new” things that one listening might even say, a whole "new" age is upon us! “God is doing new things,” they proclaim and there are many well-respected and familiar “Christian” voices speaking.

C. PeterWagner, whose name is respected in many Christian circles, has written several books on the topic. In his book, Apostles of the City: How to Mobilize the Territorial Apostles for City Transformation, he stressed the point that these new apostles must be incorporated into existing churches and work with the existing pastors for real success to happen in their communities and cities. Wagner also founded the International Coalition of Apostles, (ICA) in 2001 in Colorado. The ICA, (the world largest professional society of Apostles, has a website at www.apostlesnet.net, and membership is by invitation only.

And what exactly is an “Apostle”? According to the ICA, “An apostle is a Christian leader gifted, taught, and commissioned by God with the authority to establish the foundational government of the church within an assigned sphere of ministry by hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches and by setting things in order accordingly for the extension of the kingdom of God." They believe that “The Second Apostolic Age began roughly in 2001, heralding the most radical change in the way of doing church at least since the Protestant Reformation.”

George Otis Jr., a friend of Wagner and fellow “apostle” wrote a book titled, The God They Never Knew (1982) and made a movie called Transformation, (1999) to show how cities are transformed and reformed by implementing strategic spiritual warfare, and Moral Government Theology which he says bring about “Revival.” Otis is one of many individuals working hard to make transformation possible in the world.

In addition to being an apostle, Otis is also CEO, Founder, and President of the Sentinel Group. This group is self-described as, “a Christian research and information agency dedicated to helping the Church pray knowledgeably for end-time global evangelization and enabling communities to discover the pathway to genuine revival and societal transformation." They say that they are, “a community of cutting-edge researchers, filmmakers and ministers dedicated to the task of preparing needy communities for spiritual revival and societal transformation.”

These apostles are committed to networking around the world, in any way possible, to infiltrate every church, denomination and parachurch Christian group with the new revelation from God, in order to build what they believe and others who believe as they do, is the Kingdom of God on earth. One means of doing this is organizing cells, called call church structured under the World Prayer Center in Colorado and implemented by the Lighthouse Movement.

With the Prayer Center and the orchestration of the Lighthouse Movement the plan was to spiritually map every community in America and abroad. The method was simply, to have neighbors witness to neighbors and report back to headquarters on the spiritual temperature of the people. They would then create a map of target areas that needed to be reached “for Christ.” With a glance at the database these Spirit led apostles could tell who was on board with the "new" and determine the spiritual condition of specific areas of the world, nation, community, neighbor or street.

Perhaps they mean well, for they obviously believe that this work accelerates the advance of the Kingdom of God. They believe that they do it all with nothing but the highest possible levels of integrity of personal character. Unfortunately, as they target specific areas that need their evangelization they promote what is called Moral Government Theology, (MGT) a false and faulty doctrine when contrasted with biblical truth and teachings.

According to researchers including Anton and Janet Hein-Hudson who publish the internet site apologeticsindex.org, some of the things MGT believes and promotes are: God does not fulfill some of his own prophecies; the Atonement does not pay our debt for sin; God does not have sovereign control over the earth and the sin of Adam is not transmitted to us, therefore it would be unjust for God to pronounce us guilty because of Adam’s sin.

Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, calls Moral Government Theology “a theological error.” They document that it “denies that the atonement pays for our sins, denies Jesus’ substitutionary death, and denies the imputed righteousness of Christ to the believer. It asserts that people are capable of keeping the whole Law of God, that there is no depravity of human nature.” In a nutshell, there is no question that it is opposed to what scripture teaches.

The apostles of the New Reformation are revolutionaries with a warring mentality, they are filled with passion to cross the boundaries laid of old, willing to challenge and change what is considered Christianity’s norm. They say those who question this “outpouring of the spirit” do so simply because they love the “status quo, ” and these apostles like to make the accusation that such resisters simply resist change because they are outside the true will of God, under the control of satanic forces or simply are afraid of anything "new." The church has seen them rise and fall like waves with names like Promise Keepers and Joel’s Army as they assert morality and justice, after all, they are Apostles, leaders, men and women of impeccable moral standing who believe that they will take the city, transform the world and the church into something blended and new.

Carl George, another “apostle,” is also the director Fuller Institute of Evangelism & Church Growth. Like Wagner and friends, (William Beckman, Ralph Neighbour, Rick Joyner, David Herzog, and Paul Cain) he works hard to promote this idea of transforming today’s church into the church of the future. The church of the future, according to Carl George is, "Big enough to Celebrate, Small enough to Care," he calls it, “Meta Church.” and describes it as something new and greater than church itself.

But what, in God's eyes can possibly be greater than the very thing God himself redeemed and calls his own, his bride? What can possibly be greater than the church itself? More importantly what can even thwart the church if the gates of hell cannot prevail over it?

Jesus Christ did not try to set up an ''earthly kingdom,'' in fact he said that His kingdom "is not of this world.'' Yet the Bible does inform us that one day there will be a kingdom upon the earth established by humanity in their rejection of God. Everything will be formed, organized according to man’s standards and ways, offering to all the best life one could have in a wonderful world like our own. In that day, one will rise to power and oppose God and exalt himself over everything that is called God. (2 Thessolonians 2:4) The Bible has told us it would be so, and that such a state would be established over the entire world united politically, religiously and economically. It will be one where true Christians are despised and killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.

There are true apostles, but not all are apostles. We are warned that there will false apostles, deceitful workers, who transform themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (2 Cor 11:13-15 )