By Richard Rice
The phrase "Five-Fold Ministry" is of recent origin within a strain of the Charismatic Movement which began in April of 1960 when an Episcopal priest and his wife began speaking in tongues. The term was never used by original Pentecostal leaders from 1900 through the 1960s.
"Five-Fold Ministry" is a description of what Charismatic teachers saw as five offices given by Christ to lead the local church based on Ephesians 4:11.
Early Charismatics taught that Jesus had lost control of His church through the centuries, and they had been commissioned and empowered by God to "restore" what the church lost since the Book of Acts. They taught that in order for Christ to return to the earth (these leaders were all post-Millennial, ie, the church will take over the world and thus prepare it for Christ's return), the church had to be returned to what it was in the Book of Acts, including the ministry and gifting of apostles and prophets. The restoration of the Church is fundamental in the Latter Rain and Kingdom Now heresies.
The concept of the five-fold ministry is faulty in title, as in the Greek text, the phrase "pastors and teachers" are linked together as one unit describing overlapping functions of one office. At best, Paul was describing a "four-fold" ministry in the early church.
One of the basic principles of interpretation is context; context within a sentence, a paragraph, and even an entire book of the Bible. Paul uses the phrase "apostles and prophets" in Ephesians twice before he uses it in Ephesians 4:11. His use of the phrase must be considered together.
In Ephesians 2:20 and 3:5, Paul writes of "apostles and prophets" and links them inseparably. Paul explains that these two groups of men were responsible for laying the foundation of the church by the writing of Scripture. No other power, authority, or mission was given to them by Paul in Ephesians. The office of apostle and prophet would therefore cease once the foundation of Scripture was complete. If the Bible is God's final and full revelation of Himself to the world, there is no further necessity for foundation laying.
In First Corinthians 15:8, Paul wrote that he was the last of the apostles to be chosen by Christ. There would be no others like him, Peter, John, or Thaddeus.
Early Charismatics defined apostles simply as missionaries or church planters, and prophets were anyone who preached the written gospel. That has evolved to something wholly different over the years as the idea of "restoration" took on a life of its own. Today's Charismatics use the term of apostle to mean an absolute authority and leader over churches in a geographical area or country, and prophets as those who reveal new doctrines and divine truths never before preached.
The apostolic writers of Scripture indicated early on that the church was led and ministered to by pastors and elders, not apostles and prophets (Acts 14:23, 15:2 ff, 20:17; 1 Timothy 5:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1, etc). Paul's pastoral epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus) were written specifically to address leadership and function in the local congregation; no apostles or prophets are mentioned. Qualifications for pastors/elders were given to the church to ensure godly leadership and continue true doctrine. No qualifications were given for apostles and prophets because their office ended when Scripture was complete.
The word "apostle" literally means "one who is sent" or "messenger" and is used in that sense in 2 Corinthians 8:23 and Philippians 2:25, for example. But these "messengers" had no authority over any congregation, did not write Scripture, nor spoke on the Lord's behalf. They were messengers sent by the 12 apostles or a local congregation and were subject to the local congregation. They were under the authority of their own pastor, sent to deliver messages.
To say that Ephesians 4:11 is a blueprint for the restoration of apostles and prophets today is not only exegetically false, it has been an open door for false teaching of every kind. Saying that the church is in need of new revelations denies the sufficiency and finality of the Bible as God's Word (2 Tim 3:16-17).
If God is giving new revelations today by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they MUST be at least equal to the Bible; and where those new revelations disagree with the Bible, they MUST replace what is in the Bible. Either way, restoration theology demands and results that the Bible is NOT the believer's sole authority for faith and practice; that authority lies in newly ordained apostles and prophets.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Rice is Pastor at Sellwood Church, a Historic, Reformed Baptist Community in Portland Oregon. Richard is a gifted Bible teacher. His online teaching articles can be accessed through the links on his Facebook page and at his website teaching blog at www.wherelivingbegins.wordpress.com
It seems we can then only talk of 3 fold. Also just to say that there are many terms used in the Church including the very crucial one (Trinity) that are not found anywhere in the Bible. So should terms just be dismissed because they are not found anywhere in the Bible
ReplyDeleteThanks for the question.
ReplyDeleteThe word "Holy Trinity") may not be mentioned in the Bible but we cannot deny its revelation in Scripture. The five fold concept is not representative of the Biblical constitution of the church offices after the New Testament period.
It is therefore unbiblical to teach that apostles and prophets continue to exist in the Church.
We should let the Bible speak to the Church and not vice versa.