Why Do Some Pastors Call Themselves Apostles

[daveleau]

What do you think about pastors that call themselves apostles? I have seen a few on TV that call themselves apostles (usually on TBN) and it always kind of gives me bad vibes. I do not mean any offense to anyone who calls themselves apostles, but if you do, can you explain why you call yourself such? What do you guys think, can someone call themselves an apostle? It seems pretty self-aggrandizing to me.

God bless,
Dave

 

[Sword-In-Hand]

I asked my pastor about this subject once and like you, there was raised flags when people referred to themselves as Apostles. He made a good point. All the men referred to in the Bible as Apostles had seen Jesus face to face. If that is a qualification to being an Apostle, then there is no such thing as a modern one.

 

[PapaLandShark]

Wow...I sweat enough with the knowledge that I'm a Saint. Why would anyone take the title Apostle?

I had a similar conversation with my Pastor...got the same answer Sword-In-Hand.

 

[daveleau]

Interesting. I'd heard that we are all ministers, but I've never heard of us as being called apostles. I fully beleive we are all ministers as we are all sent to voice the Word of God to others.

 

[daveleau]

Wow...I sweat enough with the knowledge that I'm a Saint. Why would anyone take the title Apostle?

I had a similar conversation with my Pastor...got the same answer Sword-In-Hand.

Yep, all of us are saints. We are all set out ofr God's work, so we are all by this definition saints.

 

[MbiaJc]

Interesting. I'd heard that we are all ministers, but I've never heard of us as being called apostles. I fully beleive we are all ministers as we are all sent to voice the Word of God to others.

Yes we are all Priest, for how can we be a member of a nation of priest without being a priest.

As far as Apostles, a Misinarie, serving where the Gospel is fist being spread in that country would come close to being an Apostle. Definately not a pastor of a Church. Because these so called Pastors, don't know enough about God's word to know who is the Pastor.

 

[DawnTillery]

I always thought an apostle was someone who was with Jesus and learned straight from Jesus, everyone after that was a disciple?

 

[ZiSunka]

Main Entry: apos·tle
Pronunciation: &-'pä-s&l
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French & Old English; Old French apostle & Old English apostol, both from Late Latin apostolus, from Greek apostolos, from apostellein to send away, from apo- + stellein to send
1 : one sent on a mission: as a : one of an authoritative New Testament group sent out to preach the gospel and made up especially of Christ's 12 original disciples and Paul b : the first prominent Christian missionary to a region or group
2 a : a person who initiates a great moral reform or who first advocates an important belief or system b : an ardent supporter : [size=-1]ADHERENT[/size]
3 : the highest ecclesiastical official in some church organizations
4 : one of a Mormon administrative council of 12 men

 

[daveleau]

DA Carson in Exegetical Fallacies writes that apostolos (apostle) and apostello (to send) is an exegetical mistake and that apostolos (apostle) means messenger, not sent. It's not really a big difference, I guess. In the same book he says there is no way to determine the difference between phileo and agape love because of the huge overlap in terms. I hate it when I don't know enough to check things myself so I can find which writer is correct. I need to study Greek.

Dawn, that was my understanding.

 

[arunma]

What do you think about pastors that call themselves apostles? I have seen a few on TV that call themselves apostles (usually on TBN) and it always kind of gives me bad vibes. I do not mean any offense to anyone who calls themselves apostles, but if you do, can you explain why you call yourself such? What do you guys think? It seems pretty self-aggrandizing to me.

God bless,
Dave

I think it's blasphemy (unfortunately, TBN does that quite often, which is why I don't consider them a good Christian ministry). As Sword-in-hand said, you need to have seen Jesus face-to-face, and have him commission you in order to be an apostle. The only people who satisfy these requirements are the Twelve (substitute Judas Iscariot with Matthias), Paul, I think Barnabas, and a few others. Unfortunately for our TBN friends, they're all dead. Calling oneself an apostle sounds a lot like the Roman Catholic belief in apostolic succession. And we all know that such beliefs usually lead to false teachings.

 

[novcncy]

I think it's blasphemy (unfortunately, TBN does that quite often, which is why I don't consider them a good Christian ministry). As Sword-in-hand said, you need to have seen Jesus face-to-face, and have him commission you in order to be an apostle. The only people who satisfy these requirements are the Twelve (substitute Judas Iscariot with Matthias), Paul, I think Barnabas, and a few others. Unfortunately for our TBN friends, they're all dead. Calling oneself an apostle sounds a lot like the Roman Catholic belief in apostolic succession. And we all know that such beliefs usually lead to false teachings.

I don't know that it's a blasphemy. I agree that an apostle should have seen Jesus, but perhaps that's a cultural understanding as opposed to one explicitly spelled out in the Bible. I do share your dislike for TBN, btw.

 

[M21]

I think t is interesting that Matthias was chosen by the eleven to be the Apostle to replace Judas. He was not choosen by Jesus.

What I find interesting is that when MEN choose an Apostle as in the case of Matthias we don't hear from them again.

Just something to think about.

 

[novcncy]

I think t is interesting that Matthias was chosen by the eleven to be the Apostle to replace Judas. He was not choosen by Jesus.

What I find interesting is that when MEN choose an Apostle as in the case of Matthias we don't hear from them again.

Just something to think about.

Good point. Some have used that to support Paul as the "12th".

 

[arunma]

I don't know that it's a blasphemy. I agree that an apostle should have seen Jesus, but perhaps that's a cultural understanding as opposed to one explicitly spelled out in the Bible. I do share your dislike for TBN, btw.

Hey, another TBN hater! Well...I don't hate them, just what they do. Anyway, I'm not sure what you mean by "cultural understanding." Calling oneself an apostle means to say that one has a divine commission. And if this isn't true, then God will judge the person for leading people astray. After all, the punishment for false prophets in the Law of Moses is death by stoning. So this is a pretty serious offense. TBN has taught many false teachings in the past: claiming that God will financially bless thouse who donate to TBN, implicitly claiming that Jews can be saved without Christ, public display of Benny Hinn D ), etc.

Good point. Some have used that to support Paul as the "12th".

The thought crossed my mind once, but I think it's wrong of us to assume that Saint Paul is the twelvth apostle. The Apostle stated many times that he was inferior to the Twelve, so we shouldn't give him more credit than he gives himself (or rather, than what God gives him, since Paul's letters are inspired by God). Also, we should remember that the Twelve aren't the only apostles that ever existed. There were many apostles in the New Testament church. Paul just happened to be God's instrument for Scripture-writing purposes.

I think t is interesting that Matthias was chosen by the eleven to be the Apostle to replace Judas. He was not choosen by Jesus.

What I find interesting is that when MEN choose an Apostle as in the case of Matthias we don't hear from them again.

Well, Saint Luke does record that the disciples prayed about this decision, and that they cast lots. Also, we don't know that God didn't make this decision. Just because it isn't recorded in the Bible doesn't mean it didn't happen. Finally, let's remember that Matthias was with Jesus during his entire ministry.

By the way, we didn't hear much from many of the apostles. We never heard anything about one of the Simons (I think Simon the Zealot). And we don't know much about Saint Thomas, other than a second-hand story about him going to India and planting a church there.