Objection: We Cannot Say That We Can Do the Acts That the Apostles Did, Because We Cannot Write Scripture, and They Did
Some apostles in the Bible did indeed do certain things that we cannot do today. We should not even try to do them. There are no more apostles who lay the foundation of Christian doctrine through their writings. No apostle today can add to or subtract from the words written in the Bible. There has been no opening in the ranks of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb since Matthias was chosen to replace Judas.
Let’s examine this objection in detail. Only a few of the apostles wrote Scripture. Most did not. (There are people called apostles in Scripture who were not among the twelve original Apostles of the Lamb. Even Paul is not one of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb. Mark and Luke did not call themselves apostles and they did write Scripture. No one claims that we should write Scripture today. We claim only that we can do the works that Jesus did in healing the sick. When we talk about the acts of the apostles, we do not refer to writing Scripture, because not all of them wrote Scripture!
So this objection is partially true because there are no apostles today in these categories: (1) Apostles of the Lamb (2) Scripture-writing apostles. However, there certainly ARE apostles in the category of Andronicus and Junia, who were neither in the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb group or the Scripture-writing apostles group, yet were still apostles according to Scripture.
Ephesians 4:11-16 makes it clear that there will still be apostles until “we come to a perfect man,” which will not happen until Jesus returns. While being with Jesus on earth and writing Scripture are not prerequisites for being an apostle, there are “signs of an apostle:”
2 Corinthians 12:12:
Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.
Anyone who claims to be an apostle but does NOT have “signs, wonders and mighty deeds” in his ministry is a fake apostle who should be avoided! Simply handing out business cards that say that you are an apostle does not make you an apostle any more than handing out business cards that say that you are a nuclear physicist makes you a nuclear physicist.
So now we can see that (1) there are still apostles today and (2) there are signs of an apostle. Put together, this proves that there will still be apostles today who flow in signs, wonders and mighty deeds.
Will everyone flow in the signs of an apostle? Of course not. Only real apostles will. In fact, if everyone flowed in the signs of an apostle, they would cease by definition to be the signs of an apostle! So we have to be careful how we parse this objection. If you don’t stand in the office of apostle, you won’t do what apostles do. However, we can see that ANY believer can do plenty of things without being an apostle.
Jesus said that we (not just apostles) would do the works He that did (John 14:12). His works were primarily preaching, teaching and healing. Jesus did not say that those who believed in Him would write Scripture, but He did say that those who believed would lay hands on the sick and they would recover (Mark 16:18). He did not say that only apostles would do that. Philip was not an apostle but got many paralyzed people healed in Samaria (Acts 8:6-7). Stephen was not an apostle but did great signs and wonders among the people (Acts 6:8) and saw an open vision of heaven (Acts 7:55-56). Ananias was not an apostle but he laid hands on Paul and spoke prophetically to him (Acts 9:17). You don’t have to be an apostle to do such works.
We have the same Holy Spirit that Philip, Stephen and Ananias had. We have the same Holy Spirit that Paul, Peter, James and John had. We have the same Holy Spirit that Jesus of Nazareth had! We can do the works that they did because we have the same Spirit they had. The Holy Spirit has not changed or lost His power. We don’t have some wimpy, weak, watered-down version of the Holy Spirit! We don’t have “Holy Spirit Trial Version” or “Holy Spirit Lite!” We have the same Spirit by whom Jesus and His followers did all their mighty works. So let’s start expecting to do what they did!