The Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ does not have an issue with Pastors,Teachers and evangelists functioning in todays church. The issue comes in the Prophets and Apostles functioning as they did in the old covenant and first century church. We will in this post examine this churches position and you are free to rebut if you wish. We will first deal with the office of the Prophet. The Prophet in the old covenant and first Century functioned as the mouthpiece of God, communicating the mind of God. Why did they do this? the people were not hearing God on a universal level. God spoke to the Prophet and the prophet spoke to the people. Today we have the Holy Spirit in the Church and the Lord speaks to his people plainly through his word. There is no mystery regarding the mind of God concerning his people. He has revealed it to us through his son according to Hebrews 1:1-2. There are still gifts in the church as word of knowlege, word of wisdom etc. but the office of the Prophet as the sole communicator of God's mind is no longer neccessary. We have the word. The communicators of the mind of God now do it through the word of God and the Spirit and Word agree. One might even call the propogater of God's word through the leading of the Holy Spirit, todays Prophet. Again we have the word and the Holy Spirit.
We will now turn our attention to the Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is significant that we give the full title so that there is no mistaking what we are talking about. We are refering to the 12 Chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ including The Apostle Paul also chosen by the Resurected Christ. These are Apostles, Special Messengers Hand picked by the Lord Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry, They were witnesses of the resurection and foundational to the Church as were the Prophets. They stand out and apart from all others because no one else qualifies. (To be continued)
