Every Christian recognizes an apostle means someone who was sent by God. But not every Christian believes God makes apostles any longer.
Yes, they say, God gives people certain duties and sends them forth. Yes, it sounds an awful lot like an apostle. But they’re not apostles. They’re called missionaries. Whereas apostles—real apostles—only existed in the first century. They were commissioned by Jesus personally, back when he walked the earth. That’d be the Twelve.
And Paul. We gotta make an extra-special case for Paul. ’Cause Jesus made a special trip back to earth to commission Paul.
And Barnabas. Not sure when Jesus called him to be an apostle, but the scriptures call him one. Maybe he was one of the 72 people whom Jesus sent to proclaim the Kingdom. Okay, so assuming the Twelve were included, and Paul’s an extra, that’d make 73 apostles. But no more.
(That means Andronicus and Junia, whom Paul called apostles, must’ve been been among the 72 when Jesus sent them round Israel, even though those names sound suspiciously Roman; not so much Judean. Still.)
So that’s as far as these Christians will go: There were 73 apostles. That’s it. And Paul was the very last of them. That’s how they interpret Paul’s statement as being the last in a list of people to see the risen Jesus. They figure it means he was the last guy, period, to make contact with Jesus. They might count Jesus’s appearance to John; then again, in Revelation Jesus is all apocalyptic and cosmic and glowy. Beyond that, Jesus made no more appearances.
And since Jesus no longer makes appearances, he can’t commission new apostles. He can at best only commission pastors and missionaries.
Now. If apostle means someone whom God sends, and God sends forth pastors and missionaries, exactly why can’t the word be applied to those people? If God has sent them, they’re apostles. Right? No? Why not?
Really it’s because these particular Christians have a hangup with the title apostle. They don’t like it. They don’t approve of the people and churches who use it. They want to save it only for the Twelve, or the 73. And no others.
Why is this? Cessationism, mostly.
If God’s still making apostles…
Y’see, if God’s still making apostles—if God’s actively speaking to Christians in the present day, and telling us, “I’m sending you to this nation,” or “I’m commissioning you to proclaim my word,” or “I want you to be an evangelist,” and so forth—then this behavior counts as special revelation. And cessationists are insistent that special revelation stopped, stopped entirely, once the bible was complete. The only special revelation which exists anymore is the bible.
So prophecy stopped, they say, back when God stopped making apostles. And God stopped making apostles because he stopped talking to people, i.e. prophecy stopped. Yeah, this reasoning is a bit circular. That’s okay; false teachings don’t have to be logical.
Here’s the odd thing. Why do cessationists become pastors and missionaries and evangelists and ministry CEOs? Ask ’em and they’ll near-universally tell you, “God called me to do this.”
They don’t notice the utter contradiction in their beliefs: God doesn’t call people anymore, or talk to people other than through bible. Yet somehow God called them. Exactly how’d he do that? Is there a verse in the bible, “I want you to be a pastor,” written in special ink so it only appears when God wants to make pastors out of whoever’s reading their bibles? Well, of course not. The reality is they’ve compromised their cessationist beliefs in order to justify their positions of authority. They’ll permit the odd prophecy to squeak through whenever it’s to their advantage.
But if God’s still making apostles, it opens up the floodgates to all the things cessationists don’t approve of. New revelations—which they claim they’re afraid will contradict all the old revelations (i.e. bible), although no true revelation will; truth is, they’re afraid the new revelations will contradict them, ’cause they often do. Faith-healing—which they’re afraid will attract people away from their faithless, powerless ministries. Tongues—which will get people to seek God directly, and stop being so dependent upon them for insight and knowledge. The tangible presence of God—and their worst fear is how God’s light will expose all their dark secrets, their manipulation of the people in their churches, the ways they twist the bible to suit their own ends, and their fruitless behavior which looks nothing like a Spirit-led Christian ought.
Cessationists fear the acts of the living God. Much as they claim they want Jesus to return, they’re far more comfortable with a 20-century gap between them, and God and his apostles. ’Cause once Jesus returns, their reign is over.
Sorta-kinda apostles.
Now, there are Christians who do believe miracles still happen, but are still hesitant to use the word apostle. Some of that is because of the cessationists’ influence: Their favorite teachers and pastors and writers don’t like the word, so they don’t either. Sometimes it’s upbringing. Sometimes prejudice: “Apostolic” sounds too Episcopalian, too Catholic, too old-school, for their tastes. Some of ’em just got comfortable with using the word “missionary” instead.
It really doesn’t matter which word we use. If you’re sent by God, you’re an apostle, whether anyone calls you one or not. Jesus was sent by God, and that makes him an apostle, even though very few Christians ever call him that. So can he make you an apostle, even though your church doesn’t like that word? Sure.