Objection: Apostles and Prophets Were to Give Revelation. Now That the New Testament Is Complete, They Are No Longer Needed.
The problem with this objection is a misunderstanding of the roles of apostles and prophets. If their sole role were to provide doctrinal revelation, they would indeed be obsolete. However, Scripture itself proves that this is not the case.
Agabus is called a prophet. He makes two appearances in the Bible. In the first, he predicts a worldwide famine (Acts 11:28). In the second, he predicts Paul’s troubles at Jerusalem (Acts 21:10-11). He neither wrote Scripture nor introduced new doctrinal revelation to the church. There is no logical reason that a prophet could not minister today as Agabus did.
Many of the people called apostles in the Bible, including many of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, did not write Scripture. Very few authors contributed to the New Testament. This shows that you can be an apostle and not give new doctrinal revelation to the Church. Thus, you could be an apostle today and not give new doctrinal revelation to the Church.
Acts 13:1 lists some people who were prophets and teachers. With the exception of Saul/Paul, none of them wrote Scripture or introduced new doctrinal revelations to the Church.
If a prophet’s job were to hand out new doctrinal revelation, it would be wrong to question his revelations from God. But 1 Corinthians 14:29 says that a prophet’s prophecies must be judged. We never “judge” Scripture, we just believe and follow it. So even back then, there were prophets who were not putting forth infallible Scripture in services.
Ephesians 4:11-16 shows that apostles and prophets were given for the building up of the Church until we all come to be “a perfect man” – which will clearly not happen until Jesus returns. Thus, apostles and prophets will still be needed and commissioned until Jesus returns.
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