Prepare yourselves for the third and final reformation of the Christian church. Yes you heard me right. From John the Baptist and our Lord in the 1st century to Martin Luther in the 16th century and now the greatest reformation of them all in the 21st century. The whole world will be swept into this. The governments and power brokers of the world will be helpless against it. The “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21) is about to begin and at the top of the list is the restoration of Biblical Apostolic ministry. There’s room for some doubt on all this at the present time, but don’t wait to long. It will come with increasing speed and force.

So let’s think about this real hard, and I do mean hard because the current understanding of the church on this issue is covered with hardpan. Trying to get through it will not only take some serious thinking. It is also going to take a jackhammer of fresh biblical revelation to break it up and plant fresh seed. Noxious attitudes of arrogance, pride and so-called self preservation are all over this hardpan surface. Rare is the individual who is willing to get below such things because they too are usually taken up with the same problems. Those who do will quickly find themselves walking alone in this present culture of the church, and that is one of the major problems right there ie. recognizing truth in the absence of popularity. Popularity, not scripture, dictates so much of what we believe or what we want to believe these days. It is often the deciding paradigm not only in the church but in our culture at large. To step away from that and follow the unconventional path is not common. You have got to be a lover of truth. You have got to be an independent thinker; not a rebel, just an independent thinker. People who are able to place the Word of God above the favor of man. Are you comfortable with that dear reader. I am assuming you are or you probably would not be reading this fourth article on restoring Apostolic authority.

We have got a ways to go on this cutting edge subject. You can’t ignore what is supposed to be the highest office of the church without a bunch of ramifications that need to be addressed. And so we are doing our best to address them here and you dear Christian; past, present or future are getting the benefit of all of this free of charge. Welcome to cutting edge revelatory thinking that you will be hard pressed to find any where else. Is that arrogance? Well many would say so. But this writer knows from whence it came and gladly acknowledges heavens gift through Christ that has made it so. In fact let’s all bow the knee for a moment in humble adoration to our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Apart from Him you and I wouldn’t be here, nor would the rest of this world we call home. Let us never forget dear friends the holes out of which we have been dug. Ok?, ok. Let’s move on.

It’s really not that hard to see the relevance of this subject Biblically. It practically leaps out of every page in the book of Acts and the Epistles. It is our four-walled Protestant and Catholic blinders that cause most of the difficulty in seeing this, and the more vested a person is in it the harder this subject becomes. It’s time to get out of our Protestant and Catholic concepts of Christianity and open up to the Kingdom of God and all that governs it. Ignorance is not bliss and that certainly applies here. Truth is its own master. It is unalterable by nature. There is no second guessing or waffling with it. Dr. Merle D’ Abigne, the author of an outstanding history of the Reformation in England, once wrote,

“Principles it is said have no modesty. It is their nature to rule, and they steadily assert their privilege. Do they encounter other principles in their paths that would dispute their empire, they give battle immediately. A principle never rests until it has gained the victory; and it can not be otherwise- with it to reign is to live. If it does not reign supreme it dies.”

Dr. Merle D’Aubigne- History of the Reformation.

That is what we are dealing with here. Principles of truth that will not bow the knee to anyone’s four-walled composite fabrication of what has already been dictated from heaven and given to us in the form of Holy Scripture. Certainly the Christian Church needs to get their head out of the sand of four walls thinking long enough to understand this and quit fighting against what has been “Written.” The old ways aren’t working any more people. I say again “the old ways aren’t working anymore.” It doesn’t matter how many different packages we wrap them in or how many evangelistic dollars we throw at them, they have lost their “gravitas.” A person hardly has to open their eyes to see the immense disparity between “what has been written” and what we call Christianity today! God save us from this so-called Western Christianity. How long and at what cost to humanity will it be before we understand this folks. Two thirds of the ship is already under water and people refuse to recognize the rest is soon to go. Hello church! Open your eyes. Lay hold of the life raft of God’s grace and move away from this disaster before it’s too late and the rest of your life is consumed with religious babble. Culture is rolling over us at an ever increasing rate. We have already lost generations due to our fetish with walls and now we are seeing it happen at an increasing speed. So many of our youth and the leaders of the modern world our sold out to darkness and it all trails back to generations of Christians and Christian leaders who settled into walls and the whole dumbed down compromised gospel of self. I repeat, let’s open our eyes! Our greatest enemy in this is not really the devil. It is ourselves and our whole damning unwillingness to rescind our control to Jesus. We have come to love this stuff but it’s an affair with hell. Happy words aren’t they? Many can’t take this kind of talk. They consider it mean. Well let me be very candid here. As one of my favorite ministers once said, “You know when I was out in the trenches risking my life, I looked around for you to tell me how to do things better but you just weren’t there.” So true. When I was facing the attacks of the devil I saw a lot of backs leaving the scene or criticizing from a distance. Armchair critics are a dime a dozen or cheaper. They can give you a cheap ticket to hell if you want it. True Christianity will cost everything especially in this day.

So what do we do in light of this? How do we respond? The greatest percentage turn a deaf ear and at worse criticize the messenger. I said culture is rolling over us at an ever increasing rate and those who fail to quit being rolled over will be reduced to a meaningless voice. We have entered a very, very dangerous day on planet earth. It’s time to step up to the plate or stand back and take a neutral position until you can make up your mind about what is going on. Many are going to die in the wake of what is now happening. Yes you heard me right on that. The time of game playing is over. God is moving His church and the world toward the soon return of Jesus Christ and He is not playing games. All things will be brought into alignment with that. No one can stop this. It has been ordained. I repeat, it has been ordained from the beginning of time and you friends have been born into it. This is not a time for waffling or maintaining the status quo. It’s not a time to be timid about evil especially in the church. It’s time to feel the tremors of the approaching earthquake. Decisions, decisions, decisions need to be made and they need to be made quickly. Will we pay attention to the changes in our world? Will we take them to heart and seek God on what it all means and how to respond or will we refuse to wake up? The consequences of not waking up to this hour could be eternal. Ok, let’s move on with this subject.

Apostles were the founders of the New Testament church not pastors and that is not just a historical fact it is a binding truth. Even a basic look at the New Testament especially the book of Acts demonstrates that. As was said in the previous article ( blog ), pastors were never given the tools to found churches. They are a maintenance ministry not a church planting ministry. They were set up by Apostles after a church was planted not before. The concept of pastors ( biblically referred to as elders ) was not even thought of before apostles established them. The whole concept of church and the body of Christ was basically post-apostolic not prior. Talk about the cart before the horse, that is certainly where we are today and we don’t even have the horses any more. The reigns are on the ground church! There’s nothing there to move us forward. A bunch of pastors shaking the reigns violently shouting “getty-up”, we all say “Amen”, but there is nothing there. It’s all so impressive we think. We just build bigger and bigger carts with longer and stronger reigns and make the whole experience of basically going nowhere even more exhilarating. Let’s all pretend harder. And everyone said “Amen.”

Most Christian churches today, whatever their brand, are extremely weak and unfruitful because they lack the authorship and the giftings of an overseeing Apostle. This can not go on anymore and all the thinking that has promoted it is going to have to bow the knee to the Biblical model. Pastors, pastoral organizations, church leaders and ministerial schools are all going to have to embrace serious reformation if they expect to remain relevant in the days ahead. THERE IS A HUGE SHIFT COMING!! Those who fight it will be left behind as God wraps up His plan in Jesus.

It was noted in the last post that the apostle Peter went up to the cities of Lydda and Sharon and “all who lived there got saved” due to a notable miracle by Peter (Acts 9:33-35). Obviously a church began via Peter. The Lord gave him, as an apostle, the keys to the Kingdom. It was Peter who opened up the Kingdom to the Jews and then to the Gentiles ( Matt.16:19; Acts 2:14-41; Acts 10:1-48 ). Apostles are regional and national in their reach and authority. Pastors are not. Paul exercised authority over much of Asia. Many of his churches were there. The obvious limitations of authority in the pastorate have caused an incalculable loss of power and relevance throughout the body of Christ. And honestly dear reader ( if you can handle this ), it has also caused irreparable damage to God’s purpose in many saints who just never had the drive or prayer life to get beyond the limitations put on them!! Only heaven knows the number of ministries, callings and giftings that have been lost due to the absence of apostolic oversight and authority down through the centuries. The scripture says,

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ..”
Eph.4:11-12

The equipping of the saints for the work of ministry is a fivefold undertaking. Pastors and their organizations are not the beginning and the end of this. For the Body of Christ to be fully equipped for the work of ministry these fivefold offices have got to be restored. At the top of the ladder is the office of an apostle. As was stated above, the damage to the body of Christ due to the absence of Apostolic oversight has been irreparable for many and incalculable. Pastors can not make up for this loss. They are not capable of it, even if they burn themselves out trying. You can not sidestep the plan of God in Christ and expect to be successful. As long as pastors and their congregations continue to be blinded by walls we will go on in this debacle with all its shortcomings and failures. God will not abridge His plan in Jesus Christ to accommodate our version of the gospel. This blindness has not only resulted in an incredible loss of power and fruitfulness throughout the church, but it has also resulted in sickness, pain and suffering that could not be dealt with causing the misfortunes of many. Can you handle this dear reader? Is it too overwhelming?? We are not talking trifles here! We are taking about our God ordained assignment against the damning incursions of hell on mankind; our current inability to deal with it and why. We may choose to justify and accommodate all the loss and suffering under a dumbed down version of the gospel, but hell’s rip-off goes on and many, many are suffering because of it. While God’s people should be armored up to deal with this; we serve latte’s, a comfy pew and a seeker friendly gospel. We are not in an Entitlement people we are in a Covenant paid for by the shed blood of the only begotten Son of God- Jesus Christ. We have broken that covenant and the penalties have been enormous. Moving on.

When we look at the ministry of the apostle Paul and fellow apostles that worked with him to the Gentiles, one phrase stands out,

“According to the grace of God that was given me, like a
wise master builder I laid the foundation, and another is
building on it.”
1Cor.3:10

Over and over again the apostle Paul laid the foundation for churches in Asia, Greece and apparently in Spain. His epistles to the various cities and the region of Galatia bear witness to his authority and authorship. Phrases such as,

“..Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His names sake..” Ro.1:4-5

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” 1Cor.3:6

“Seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised ( for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me to the Gentiles..” Gal.2:7-8

It is absolutely remarkable how blinded we have become too what is so blatantly obvious throughout these words. “I laid the foundation”, “I planted”, “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith..” Can we see this or is our reasoning smothered with self justifying, wall-friendly rationales? Have we gone so long in our blindness that we don’t even understand what it means to “see” or that such a condition exists. When the blinders actually come off the reality of where we are at will be shocking, and so it should be. A truly unbiased person can’t miss this- THAT THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCHES WERE FOUNDED BY APOSTLES!!, and that was never meant to change even in our so-called “more enlightened era” of the church. Or so we like to think. Churches that have been founded any other way since that day have never risen to the standard of the New Testament. They never will! Hell itself will freeze over before that happens!! Much if not all of the trauma pastors and churches face stem from this gross departure from New Testament truth. I could repeat that statement a thousand times and it wouldn’t be enough!! Oh the amount of time and money we have spent on fixes that fix nothing, programs that accomplish nothing, ministries that minister little. Scripture aptly says,

“Ho everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?..”
Isa.55:1-2

Let’s move this a step further but first,

~Please lay aside all the sectarian reasonings that negate the need for apostles today or promote many of those who presently claim it~

Ok with that said let’s say this; what would be the purpose of the apostolic office if there isn’t some kind of uniqueness associated with it?? The scriptures are very clear on its uniqueness. It’s not about plenty of people with different titles doing the same thing. It’s about differing positions of authority and power to oversee the church and advance the Kingdom of God. We circumvented that by elevating pastors and other church leaders to unprecedented levels of authority that they were never meant to have, nor do they have, regardless of how hard we and/or they try to convince themselves otherwise. The proof is in the pudding or in the building as the case may be. The track record of the pastoral paradigm is very obvious. It simply does not have the power or the revelation needed to promote the gospel on a level that fully encompasses the power of the Cross of Christ or the fruitfulness of the Book of Acts. What Jesus demonstrated was to be duplicated in His church. A far cry from where we are at today. We try to level the playing field to make room for a pastor driven church system that in turn justifies our walls. The playing field can not be leveled and there will never be any justification for our walls. “Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers” is the field we’ve been given. It can not be leveled out too primarily one office and as obvious as that should be, we still don’t get it.

Ok with that said let’s dig a little deeper and consider another facet of apostolic ministry probably completely absent from Western world Christian church thinking today ie. The amazing subject of “Binding and Loosing.” Yes this subject is all over the map today, especially in Charismatic circles. We have gotten our dirty little Catholicized & Protestantized mittens on practically every facet of New Testament truth and sectarianized it into oblivion but cheer up earthlings, we will get all this straightened out as painless as possible. Most of the “ouches” will probably come from the balcony, those who prefer to stay on the periphery of orthodoxy and not among the “front row” crowd. I believe you are a front row patron or you would not have been with this discussion thus far. Hang in there Christian Soldier. We’ve got much more ground to cover. So with those necessary disclaimers out of the way, let’s consider this interesting subject of “binding and loosing” in light of Biblical Apostolic authority.

You all know the scriptures on this right? Yes there are anxious little people: so-called Christian fanatics frenzying around “binding” and “loosing” this or that as they will. It reminds this writer of a Shakespearian statement that captures the sentiment well. It said, “A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!” No we are not talking about modern day politicians or so many of our pulpits, though the allusion is striking. We are talking about many modern day Christians, especially of the charismatic variety, binding and loosing with “sound and fury” but accomplishing NOTHING! That’s right- nothing! It all sounds so effective and self-justifying when we rattle off a “binding” rebuke here or a blessed “loosing” there but when the day is done and the sun sets, nothing has been accomplished. But hey many feel a little more religious, and in so many cases that’s what it’s all about right? Wrong! So the scripture in question says,

“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. And I will give you the Keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matt.16:18-19)

So what is meant here? Firstly let me say this. It is in the nature of our folly with walls to ignore the context of some scriptures to service our divisive mindsets. We unwittingly filter out anything that may say otherwise. Acts 1:8 is another great example of this. Jesus said, “you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses…” Jesus specifically said, “You (the apostles) shall receive power..” Not everyone who claims to be a Christian. Many like to broaden out the implications of scriptures like this and apply them to all Christians because it accommodates what they want to believe. So we barge through the gates, fences, no-trespassing signs and a few flower gardens of scripture to apply it all to ourselves and anyone else willing to cross all the lines. But the context here is clearly apostolic. The promise of “power” in Acts 1 was given to the apostles not the rest of the church. Please look carefully at the context here as well as the context of the same promise in Lk.24:49. He is talking to the apostles. Did we run into a wall there dear Christian? Did we burn the straw-man a bit? Think about it. Give it time to take seed and blossom. A lot more could be said on this and we could qualify it a bit, but back to Matt.16.

The authority to “bind” and “loose” was a legislative phrase employed by the Jewish government of the day. It represented the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrin to legislate binding laws for the people to follow or loose other laws that no longer were binding upon the people. Jesus’ remarkable statement here meant that He was removing that authority from the Jewish Sanhedrin and placing it into the hands of the Apostles and the Apostolic office: the new leaders of the work of the Kingdom. Yes this was spoken to Peter as the man who would first open up the Kingdom to the Jews first ( Day of Pentecost Acts 2 ) and then to the Gentiles ( The house of Cornelius the Roman Centurian Acts 10 ). But let’s get this right. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. He could do whatever He wanted to do whenever and however He wanted do it. So His decision to remove this authority from the religious elite of the day and give it to the apostles was unquestionable.

The Jewish leadership were His greatest enemies and they had also forged so-called laws that were not only ridiculously stringent for themselves but excessively heavy for the people. Something that disturbed him. He said,

“For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their
fingers.” Matt.23:4

This was now going to change by his discretion. The age of grace and truth was now going to come in. The “old wineskin” would be replaced with a “new wineskin.” The “old cloth” with new and the Apostles were given the authority and power to bring this about and usher in the era of the Church. While many of the Jews ferociously wanted to maintain the old ways, the Apostles brought about an abrupt change of thinking and laws. “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” were the words of both John the Baptist and Jesus ( Matt.3:2; 4:17 ). A “change of mind” had to be embraced and a new way of thinking and law that governed it. It was this “binding” and “loosing” power that set the stage for the greatest transformation in thinking and rule this world has ever seen or will see. We call it “Christianity”, the Bible calls it “the kingdom of God.” The apostles were given the power to set the laws of the Kingdom of God and to “loose” the people from so much of what was “binding” from Old Testament law. Acts 2:42 aptly says,

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching..”

This apostolic authority has not been revoked. It comes with the office and is so needed today to bring the churches back into an alignment with God’s will and one another. Our divisions and inability to lock arms across denominational and so-called nondenominational lines will not change until biblical apostles are restored to the church. Count on it! Much more to say. We will continue next article.

~By the way. I now have included podcasts. Please click the podcast button at the top of the main page. God’s rich blessings~~

Luther Canon
Sola Scriptura