A Modern Ninety-Five

Questions Today's Evangelicals Need to Answer

Almodovar

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781498275699
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In 1517 an Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed ninety-five statements to the door at Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. This was not a means of open debate but a desire to discuss scholarly objections to church practices of the time. Five centuries later, many of the same errors and heresies have crept back into the evangelical church. A modern ninety-five theses, couched in new terms for a new generation, require scholarly debate once again. Through modern-day apostles and prophets, and through the elitists within the evangelical church, the doctrine of buying God's grace and favor has been propagated through appeals for seed offerings and "atonement-day" donations in order to garner God's blessings. Pragmatic approaches to preaching the gospel through such movements as the seeker-driven models have moved the focus of the message of Christ and the worship of God from being God-centered to human-centered. Sound historical doctrines, such as the Trinity, have been relegated to the sidelines in favor of unity and ecumenicalism with Oneness preachers. In the words of Martin Luther, "Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light," the following propositions need to be discussed in their entirety by church leaders, pastors, and laypeople alike.

1

Apostles/Prophets

1. If the Church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, why is the foundation being laid a second time?

2. If there is a new foundation, what happened to the old foundation? Was it faulty or in need of repair? Was it removed?

3. If the so-called new apostles have met the Risen Christ, where did they see him?

4. And if they have seen him, should we not take heed to what our Lord said regarding visions of the Christ after his departure?

5. If the least of all apostles was St. Paul, the least being also the last, how is it that there are new apostles?

6. If Paul was not the last of the apostles, then scripture is in error.

7. If scripture is in error in this part, how are we to be assured of its accuracy in others?

8. The preaching that God is once again raising up prophets and apostles is laying again a foundation where one has already been laid.

9. We are taught, then, to fear our spiritual leaders and serve them, which is in exact opposition to our Lord’s teachings that those who are greatest in the Kingdom are to be servants of all.

10. This is utter pride as even King David, the greatest of the anointed kings, was confronted by a servant of the Lord in his sin. He was called to account for his iniquities and judgment was proclaimed upon himself and his family.

11. These influential men encourage us to rejoin Rome, hugging the harlot. They encourage us to discard the fact that Rome is diametrically opposed to the biblical doctrine of justification by faith and instead embrace them as brothers and sisters for the sake of unity. Compromise is the cancer that kills churches.

12. Seated in their ivory palace in Kansas City, these modern-day apostles and prophets would place the chain of imprisonment upon our necks and lead us back to Rome and slavery with their doctrine of ecumenicalism and universalism, trapping us again in the harlotry of that wicked and evil antichrist, the pope, and committing whoredom with the kingdoms of this world.

These statements begin where the greatest error lies: taking authority that no longer belongs to us—that of apostle and prophet.

The basic aspect of all these statements is to understand the terms that have been employed by the Church Militant compared with the modern idea used by Pentecostals and Charismatics. If we fail to learn from previous generations of how this term “apostle” was interpreted by Bible-believing Christians, then we will fall into the same errors generation after generation. In history it is said that if someone has not learned from it, he or she is doomed to repeat it. We must line up our interpretations with those of other Christian leaders who have honored scripture in times past in order to continue our faithful exegesis of God’s word.

Therefore, if by the term “apostle” we mean “one who is sent on a mission,”1 then that is still a functioning office. If by the term we mean one who has biblical authority, has seen the Risen Christ personally, has infallibility in preaching, has a direct call from God, and performs signs and wonders on demand, then this is the criteria by which we challenge the claimant to prove by the written word of God that his or her authority is from above.

If by prophet we mean one who speaks the revealed word of God or as Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary says, “An effective or leading spokesman for a cause, doctrine, or group,” I have no quarrel with this preacher. If, however, we speak of a prophet as one who speaks “words” from God that have not been revealed in scripture, or who speaks foretelling events and is not 100 percent accurate 100 percent of the time, this is a charlatan who must be challenged to show by what spirit he or she speaks.

Again, these statements/questions are posited to the leaders in their Plexiglas pulpits and from their TV stations to answer for their abuses, errors, heresies, and anti-biblical teachings. For the pew Christian, true discernment is needed so he may act as the noble Bereans to test and see if indeed it is the wheat of the word of God or the poisonous tares (weeds) of the word of man.

It was the characterizing peculiarity of specifically the Apostolic Church, and it belonged therefore exclusively to the Apostolic age—although no doubt this designation may be taken with some latitude. These gifts were not the possession of the primitive Christian as such, nor for that matter of the Apostolic church or the Apostolic age for themselves; they were distinctively the authentication of the apostles. They were part of the credentials of the apostles as the authoritative agents of God in founding the Church. Their function thus confined them to distinctively the Apostolic Church, and they necessarily passed away with it.2

Yet, the claims that modern-day apostles and prophets make is that God is once again restoring these foundation offices to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ.

And the Lord says, “I’m giving you new grace to begin to operate and function apostolically and prophetically like you’ve never known before and there is a new dimension of my grace and my glory that’s even being released upon my leaders in this hour and you shall rise up with a new force and with a new authority and with a new power and with a new strength and with a new dynamic in your churches and you shall begin to see breakthroughs that you’ve never seen before,” says the Lord. “For I break off the limitations that have tried to hold you back and have tried to hold back your gift and have tried to hold back your church, I begin to break the limitations through apostolic and prophetic release,” so the Lord said. “Get ready, I’m shifting you, I’m moving you into a new grace. For all over the earth there is a new breed being raised up. There was a new leadership coming into place and many men and women are taking their place in leadership and the apostles are rising and the prophets are rising and even the elders of the local churches are rising into a new dimension of grace to begin to release that which is not been released in generations.”3

In scripture there is no mention of successors to Peter or the apostles except the place that was vacated by the traitor Judas Iscariot. However, Peter in his discourse in the upper room gives the criteria for apostleship which we read in Acts 1:21–22.

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. (Acts 1:21–22)

The position of the apostles was unique to them and to Paul—all directly chosen by Christ Jesus with no hint of succession. In the New Testament, the apostles appointed not apostles but rather elders and deacons. This false presupposition is the essence of the papacy and all other churches that believe in “apostolic succession.” It is a huge system based on the concept of apostolic succession. Apostolic succession is a fraud and it is no accident of history that the Charismatic movement has found its strongest ally in the papal church. The Lord God never entrusted his truth to a personal succession of any body of men. Such a foundation is flawed. Visible apostolic succession throughout history is impossible—it is impossible for popes and modern-day apostles and prophets. There is no sacramental ordination of one apostle by another, which is the key concept of the whole satanic doctrine.

What were the criteria for apostleship? Let’s look at Acts 1:15–26.

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and ‘Let another take his office.’ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

But here we read Peter giving the criteria. To be an apostle, you had to have been with Jesus during his entire three years of ministry. You must have been called to follow from the beginning or as Peter says, “From the Baptism of John.” In other words, you must have been there, in that particular place, at that particular time. You also had to have seen the physically risen Savior, as Paul did on the road to Damascus, and have been personally taught by Jesus, as we learn from Paul’s letter to the Galatians that he had been (cf. Gal 1:1, 12).

Now these qualifications alone should make us recognize that there is no one today who can rightly fulfill these qualifications. One may argue that one was baptized and therefore follows Christ from his or her baptism onward, thereby enabling him or her to be an apostle, but this is horri...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Apostles/Prophets
• Chapter 2: Can We Know Absolute Truth?
• Chapter 3: Oops, They Did It Again!
• Chapter 4: Two Classes of Christians
• Chapter 5: Down They Go . . . Again!
• Chapter 6: Just a Little Discernment, Please!
• Chapter 7: Protestant Indulgences with Prophets and Profiteers
• Chapter 8: Another Gospel: “You Too Can Be Gods” and Other Assorted Heresies
• Chapter 9: Doctrine Matters: The True Gospel
• Chapter 10: Seeking Purposes or Trusting Sovereign Promises?
• Chapter 11: The Final Word
• Bibliography