“In the Beginning” A Very Important Introduction

Authors Preface: It’s time to take a really cold shower church. We have quite a day ahead of us and we need to be wide awake. It is the sleepers who are going to be taken off guard by the whirlwind of change that is now beginning. Feel it? It’s there! It is a light wind right now but it is going to become a violent storm with worldwide implications. Hold your finger in the air. Catch its direction. It is blowing due North. That’s right, I said due North. Everything is moving toward Heaven and the increasing velocity of it all is going to sweep everything in its path. Those who are wise will give in to it. The foolish will fight it and have little left. Look at the church. Our walls are going to fly off in the wind and everyone who holds onto them will fly off with them! This is the time of the rise of great leaders whom God has been preparing behind the scenes for some time now. Don’t look for them in all the common venues. They won’t be there. They are hidden. These are the John the Baptists of the Last age of the Church. They are in the Wilderness “until the day of their appearing” which is just ahead of us. We are on the verge of “the restoration of all things” spoken of in Acts 3 and at the top of the list is the restoration of the Apostolic Office. God will not allow His original plan to lapse much longer. Please open your hearts dear people for what is on the horizon. It will come fast, it will move swiftly and everything that can be shaken will be!

We live in an unusual day with increasing problems. I often chuckle when I hear people say, “I can’t wait till things get back to normal.” Excuse me! Since when is our day the standard of normal? Since when is any day apart from the New Testament a standard of normal? Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, walked the earth some 2000 years ago and made it very clear what God’s definition of normal is. With rare exceptions, that definition of normal has been absent for most of the church’s history. To want things to get back to what should be normal is a far cry from what we are used too and what we need. So let’s be real frank here. Do we really want things to get back to normal or do we want them to get back to “abnormal”? That is the real question and rare is the individual who will face it or even understand it. So as we enter this amazing subject that has been under wraps far to long ask yourself the question: What normal do I want? God’s or man’s. “Your Kingdom come” or my kingdom come ( Matt.6:10). What is our prayer? What is our passion? Or are we content with “churchy” religious sounding rhetoric? Moving on.

———( Disclaimer: Although this article applies to the entire Christian Church across our globe, it is especially true of the church in the Western world with all its walls and divisions of one sort or another; a “convenience” other parts of our world fortunately can not afford.)——-

The Apostle John wrote,

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” 1Jn.2:19

These marvelous words my dear reader were recorded some 2000 years ago by the Apostle John and therein begins one of the most profound stories of enemy infiltration and subterfuge within the Christian Church ie. the overturning of the Apostolic office; the effects of which we have been dealing with ever since the end of the first century. So effective has been the suppression of this office that even to this day, pushing 2000 years later, the deception goes on with seemingly no one recognizing what should stand out as an obvious departure from Biblical church government. It’s this story and its suppression that underscores most of the problems the church has had to deal with down through the centuries. And it is the restoration of this office that will highlight the church’s soon rise to preeminence on the world scene. Uncovering it all and restoring the dignity and authority due the Apostolic Office is what this article is all about. May God grant His grace to this writing.

It’s extremely difficult if not impossible to read through the New Testament without being impressed with the ministry of Apostles. They were by far the most featured ministers. From their calling and training in the gospels, their ministry in the book of Acts and their writings in the epistles and Revelation; their contribution to the New Testament church was beyond immense! Without question there would have been no New Testament church without them just as there would be no Christian Church today without their history and writings. So how is it, I repeat how is it that the office of an Apostle moved from such a dominant role in the first Century to practically no role throughout the rest of church history? Please think about it? Where are the questions about this? Why haven’t there been questions? Obviously, we are not just talking about the first century here. We are talking about WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN: the recorded history and truth of scripture! That is not something you pass off like another page of history! It deserves top priority attention. Why has this been so ignored? Doesn’t someone smell a serious cover up of huge proportions here? Oh yes and it stinks! The rot of hell is all over it. And this didn’t happen in a corner. It happened right out in the open and yet such silence! What I am drawing attention too should have been a source of controversy for thousands if not millions over the last 2000 years!! So Why Not?? There’s got to be some head scratching here and hopefully anger at one of the greatest rip-offs the devil has ever pulled on the Christian church. You know the scripture on this. It says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (Jn.10:10). That’s not just a nice scripture to throw in here. It is a pinpoint accurate statement of exactly what has happened. So effective has the devil’s ( I refuse to capitalize this name ) swindle been that all of hell must be laughing at the rip-off, and we are the stooges on the losing end of the whole thing; ignorantly patting ourselves on the back for where we are today, not understanding our incredible loss and apostasy. While there should be shame and repentance, there are smiles and justifications everywhere. Please get angry about this! Somebody needs too!! There’s just no end to our ignorance when we leave the Word of God and we have left it royal on this one!

So as I said earlier this is a subversion of Biblical truth and practice of immense proportions and that is far from being an exaggeration. The fact that we have gone nearly two thousand years without serious demands for the restoration of this office and a people willing to pay any price to see it restored is incredible. So I want to highlight this one more time before we move on. How do you take the most preeminent office in the Christian Church, established by Jesus Himself, and practically make it disappear off the face of the earth after the first century?? Our first order of business starts there: to try and figure out what happened. But firstly let me say this,

-This writer is well aware of the many, at least in the West, who allow themselves to be called Apostles. I’m also aware of the various movements and organizations promoting it. For the most part I have one thing to say about it and this scripture captures it well,

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars…Rev.2:2

Do we know how to test these people. These individuals have risen out of the current system of the church and are part of it hook, line, sinker, pole and boots. While they should be drawing attention to our departures from Biblical faith and practice and calling us back, they are one with it and are profiting by it. That by itself makes them extremely suspect. It absolutely doesn’t matter how popular they may be; popularity has nothing to do with it! Usually the opposite is true. Additionally who ordained them as Apostles or are they self-proclaimed? Why don’t they carry the “signs” of a God-ordained Apostle? The Apostle Paul wrote of himself,

“The distinguishing marks of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs, wonders, and miracles” 2 Cor.12:12

So where are these “distinguishing marks” among these people?? Also for true Apostles to rise up again it’s going to require a huge shift in the current environment of the church for them to be accepted. Biblical Apostles have a corporate, regional mindset that dominates everything they do not a divisive “four-walls” mindset so commonly promoted today. They would be unwelcome in this current mess. Much more could be said. There are just too many white flags flying everywhere on this and no one has picked them up yet, until they do there are unresolved fouls everywhere. It’s time to pick up the flags!

Considered one way there is a lot to lose in reformation, but it’s all Fat!
LC

We largely live in the day of Tinkertoy theology, castles of clay, pulling rabbits out of “biblical” hats. It just looks so impressive but when all the ‘ooh’s’ and ‘ah’s’ are over we are left with nothing but fabrications and random emotions that have absolutely no “street value” in the Kingdom of God. Is that what we want church; a good show, infantile machinations that stir up the warm and fuzzies catering to the simple minded and outright buffoons? God save us from this wayward generation that have the Word of God right in front of them and don’t know what to do with it! Welcome to the show ladies and gentleman if that is what you want. God gave Israel meat until it ran out their noses and He will give us all the flesh we want if that is the extent of our concept of Christ. There is hardly no end to the amount of tears that can be cried to redeem us from all the vanity we have settled for. Generations have come and gone buying into this non-kingdom of God sideshow. We have bought tickets for this so many times it’s amazing we still find it interesting. Yes, it’s a great show we like to think, incredibly well attended but it has no more Kingdom value than a traveling circus and the clowns dominate the show! Strong words? Hardly strong enough!

“You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead..” (Rev.3:1) Is the label of this age of the church. Everyone wants a piece of the action; just add some applause, a good following, a catchy name and the greatest percentage settle down and are content. I trust you are not one of them or you wouldn’t be at this site. Kudo’s to you my friend. Truth is a solemn traveler but it will gladly wrap its arms around anyone willing too join it. Considered one way there is a lot to lose in reformation, but it’s all Fat!!

Enough with Walls, enough with Divisions, personal pulpits, followings, numbers, big names, big bucks, got to have a building here and got to have an organization there mentality from the darkest regions of hell. It’s time for big shots to step down and realize position in the church was never meant to be celebrity status. It was meant to be Servanthood: grab a towel and start washing feet! By order of Heaven the Kingdom of God is coming back to the church and Apostles will again take the lead. Amen! Let it be so.

So back to the first order of business stated earlier. What happened to the Apostolic office? Well let’s start with some words from the Apostle Paul spoken to the elders of the Ephesian church,

“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.” Acts 20:28-30

Did you get the drift of that; extremely important! Did you note the last phrase- “To draw away disciples after themselves.” Key, key, key phrase! Therein lies the primary motivation for the loss of biblical Apostolic government. The tap root of all that has been wrong with the church since those first glorious days. Oh we’ve dug around the bush a bit and pruned a few branches now and then but the tap root is untouched and it keeps going deeper! Let me repeat that last phrase one more time- “To draw away disciples after themselves.” God’s way was replaced with man’s way. “Hath God said” found yet another expression in the usurpation of God’s ‘servanthood’ plan with the preeminence of man. Washing the saints feet took on a far more self-serving air of ‘you scratch my back and I will scratch yours.” The New Testament Israel wanted a king or should I say “kings” and soon found them in the rise of the ‘prelate era’ and then that of the rise of the ‘pastorate.’

A Heads Up
-The church is broken without the ministry of Apostles. It is going down the highway of life with a huge square wheel on one hub, half its cylinders out and the wrong people at the steering wheel: jerking and jumping everywhere all over the road. We have been a part of it for so long now hardly anyone questions how rough it is! Oh yes God has graciously sent revivals always trying to restore the whole package but we have never gotten beyond the ribbon. Much more next article.

Luther Canon
Sola Scriptura