Oh? And what Scripture do you have to say that there cannot be more apostles? Yes, the 12 were chosen to judge the 12 tribes- but what about the rest of the world, the Gentiles that God himself directed Peter to begin baptizing in the name of his Son?
Sorry, you are mixing up issues. Responsibility to baptize is nothing to do with the number 12! To begin with God chose Abraham. Are you questioning that too?
Uh. Proof please? As in, Scripture stating as such.
Preaching of Jesus is the proof. What more you need?
Some excerpts show casing your point would be nice.
Excerpts from the book "Did Saint Paul Deviate From The Gospel":-
Paul appears to stumble right from the start when it comes to understanding the preaching of Jesus since he was not a part of the earthly ministry of Jesus! Whatever preaching Jesus made was conveyed to him by Peter—to what extent we cannot be sure—when he stayed with Peter after his conversion. This is seen in his letter to Galatians: “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days” (Galatians 1:18). Paul started claiming the apostleship without understanding the spiritual significance of the number 12 that Jesus used to choose 12 apostles to begin with for His ministry on earth. The number 12 represented the twelve tribes related to Jacob. The 12 apostles meant to judge them as Jesus declared, “Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). Therefore, there was no question of Paul becoming a 13th apostle unless he had plans to have his own tribe extra which was unlikely since he remained single! Also Peter clearly defined who should be selected as an apostle after Judas Iscariot committed suicide. He said, “For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take. Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.”
And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles (Acts 1:20-26). Many ‘pick-and-choose’ Pauline Christians do not want to accept this replacement of Matthias for Judas Iscariot by Peter only because they want to rebut the succession claim of spiritual authority from Peter by Roman Catholic Popes! They tend to argue that Peter acted without the guidance of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit was given first during the Pentecost. It only proves that they are ignorant of the blessing of Jesus on the ten apostles breathing them the Holy Spirit after His resurrection as can be seen from this verse: “And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost” ( John 20:22). Peter wanted the group to be completed with 12 persons in the absence of Judas, who betrayed Jesus, before starting on any work related to sharing of the Gospel and baptizing the new believers! Paul did not qualify any of the conditions the great apostle Peter stipulated before choosing Mathias! James who took up the leadership of Jerusalem Church did not claim to be an apostle in his letter even though Paul and Luke appear to consider him to be an apostle!
Obviously, both missed out the spiritual significance of the number 12. Same thing holds good in case of Jude. Even as secular halfbrother, he did not claim apostleship in his letter. In contrast, Paul repeatedly self-claimed himself to be an apostle going by the common understanding of the word in a secular world! Both Luke and Paul, the rank outsiders, tend to call some others also as apostles against the spirit behind in calling of 12 apostles by Jesus! From the following verse one can see that Luke who wrote the book of Acts considered Barnabas and Paul as apostles too: “Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out” (Acts 14:14); and Paul considered James as an apostle along with him: “But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19). However, the apostle John who was dear to Jesus made clear cut clarification after Paul had created confusion in apostleship by his later book of Revelation: “ I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars” (Revelation 2:2). It is further endorsed by the following verse that fixes the number 12, no more, no less! “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:14).
The problem that Paul had was that he wanted the authority of apostleship because he did not get proper reception and hearing to his preaching about Jesus Christ when he was preaching in Arabia immediately after conversion and later after meeting the apostles through Barnabas. Nothing has been recorded of his preaching during that period. But only when Paul got the support of the apostles in Jerusalem and accompanied Barnabas in his first missionary journey along with Mark, he was able to realize the encouraging results! Without this support, probably, Paul’s work would have become any other missionary work of repute mentionable at best or totally forgotten and unrecorded at worst! It would not have brought him the importance he generated with this support and recognition, leading to complete domination in the Christendom right from the beginning! Paul with his Pharisaic background and scholarship mixed with shrewdness sensed his superiority in knowledge in the OT writings compared to semi-literate and gentle minded Barnabas and Mark in their first mission work. Consequently, he sets his own terms for second missionary journey, unbecoming of a Christian! Probably, Mark might have sensed Paul’s domineering spirit during their mission, and that might have resulted in Mark deciding to quit the mission when half way through. However, Barnabas, with his humility of giving Mark another chance as any believing Christian would do, was opposed by Paul, who never knew compassionate and forgiving Jesus personally well, and, consequently, he initiates the first division in the Jerusalem Church.
“And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark,” and “and the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus” (Acts 15:37, 39). Unfortunately, this has set a trend in all Paul believing groups creating divisions after divisions! Basically, it has become a practice of picking a verse from Paul and parting ways! Of course, the self-claim of apostleship was questioned during his ministry. For that reason, he kept on driving home his claim forcibly time and again that can be seen by a couple of these verses: “Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord?” and “if I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 9:1&2). These claims of apostleship abound in his letters written away from the place to which they were addressed to. We do not know what type of answers he gave when he was questioned when he was available in person! The examples are: “Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?” (1 Corinthians 9:5); “for I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office” (Romans 11:13); and “(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles)” (Galatians 2:8). .............
Um. Yes he did.
2nd Peter 3:16
The authorship of 2nd Peter is questioned. Even otherwise, that is your biased interpretation.
