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What does it mean to be Apostolic? Today, when asked about my faith, while some may say they are Pentecostal, I respond, “I am Apostolic.” The usual response to this statement, is the question; “What does Apostolic mean?” Well first let me say that Pentecostal is not the name of our faith, but rather an experience with God. Each of us, of like precious faith, have at some point had our own personal Pentecostal experience.

To be Apostolic is to follow the doctrines taught by Apostles in the first century after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus our Messiah. To understand those teachings we must first realize that the New Testament of the Bible was nonexistent during the time of Jesus and the early Apostles. The foundation of Apostolic teaching is the Hebrew Torah, Psalms and the writings of the Prophets. Since the remaining eleven original Apostles, lived and walked with Jesus, they were inspired by their first hand accounts of the teachings of the Messiah. Those teachings were based on the spiritual meaning of the teachings of Jesus. We are able to find these teachings in the historical account of the first century church as recorded in the book of Acts of the Apostles and the epistles written to the early church.

Acts 1:2 “. . . after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:”

By Biblical definition, an Apostle must be called of God. Today, many men in our world profess to be Apostles, but unless it has been revealed by a true prophet of God, only God knows who the real Apostles of today are. Some contend that the office of Apostles ceased after the Lord chose the original twelve, however the Bible gives us a different account. Saul of Tarsus was chosen by God to be an Apostle.

Rom 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

Others contend that only the first century church had the offices of apostles, however, again the scriptures disagree with that position.

Eph 4:11-13 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Since God is still calling people to become saints in his assembly, and they are in need of training, edification and perfecting, there is still a present day need for apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. It is unfortunate, that in our day, among those of the Apostolic faith, there are men in leadership who do not recognize the offices of apostles and prophets.

Acts 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

During the first century of Christianity, there was the doctrine or teaching referred to as the Apostles doctrine. This doctrine can be summarized as follows:

1. Believing there is One God, who’s Spirit was manifest in the human vessel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ the prophesied Messiah of the Torah, the Psalms and the Prophets.

2. Receiving the revelation of Jesus being the covenant name of God for the dispensation of the Church age.

3. Accepting the death, burial, and resurrection of the Son (flesh) of God, through which the Spirit of God had revealed himself to pay the sin price for all humanity.

4. Obedience to the new birth experience, our unique spiritual calvary, in the spiritual death, burial and resurrection of a person, through repentance, water baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ for the purpose of remitting our sins and receiving the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as God gives the utterance.

5. Living a holy life, wholly and separated to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Developing an intimate relationship with God our Savior, so that we might be a vessel through which he can operate in our current world.

6. Spiritual procreation of the body of Christ through evangelization of our world. From the very beginning, God had commanded man to be fruitful and multiply, taking dominion over the earth. We are to take spiritual dominion over the fallen world, where Satan now reigns as the prince and power of the air, and the “god of this world.”

7. Live continually looking for that day, for which the Lord will come for us, whether through our own individual parting from this life, or through his coming for the remaining body at the end of this current age.

8. Finally, we have a commandment to share the power that God has given to us when we received the Holy Ghost with others.

Mt 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee:

Peter said, “such as I have give I thee.” What did Peter have, but the power of the Holy Ghost operating in his life. Many scriptures point to the Apostolic age as being a time marked not just by the wisdom of God, but confirmed by manifestations of the power fo God.

Jn 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: . . .

Lk 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Lk 16:17-18 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

II Cor 12:12 Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

I Cor 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power:

Mk 16:20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

All throughout the book of the Acts of the Apostles, just as in the ministry of Jesus Christ, the ministry was confirmed with miracles, signs and wonders. Sometimes I sense that there is a fear of the miraculous among some in the leadership of the Apostolic movement. It is almost as if they were to acknowledge the miraculous, they will loose control. Who in their right minds believes that man is in control of anything the Lord has wrought. While we all need to take the power of God seriously and protect against abuse, we also need to encourage the supernatural and not try to suppress it because of fear. God has not given us the spirit of fear. Perfect love casts out fear. If we love others, that love will manifest it’s self, through our sharing of the resident gifts of the Holy Ghost. We will not be afraid to pray for the miraculous, because our love and concern for the condition of the individual is greater than our fear of failure. So where might we be going astray? Well suffer me to share one thought with you.

I am always fascinated by how the Old Testament, by example serves as a warning and foretells of the pitfalls of the future, which the men of our current age must be cognizant. Let me paraphrase a little bit of Hebrew history in the interest of time and space. From the time of Moses, until the time of Solomon, God dwelt in a tabernacle. The tabernacle, was a tent or temporary dwelling place, just like the physical body, my heart, mind and soul, now dwells in is temporary. It represents how God did not desire to dwell in temples like the deaf, dumb gods of the heathen nations, but rather desired to dwell in the physical bodies of his followers.

There are two accounts of the story of the Temple. The account in Samuel is from the God’s perspective as told by the prophet, while the account in Chronicles is from the human or carnal perspective as told by the king’s historian. David comes along, according to the book of Samuel, and decides to build a temple for God, however God tells David that he does not desire to live in a temple. He then tells David he has never lived in a temple, but desires to live in a tabernacle, or temporary dwelling place.

Later the Bible tells the story of how David, because of Israel’s sin, is prompted by the Holy Spirit to number the children of Israel. The angel of the Lord appears to David at the threshing floor of Arnon the Jebusite, where David offers a sacrifice to appease God and his conscience, for the ensuing judgement that befalls Israel.

The threshing floor represents a place of judgement. If we understand the threshing process, we know that the grain was beaten against the rock, where it was separated from the stems. The chaff is also separated from the grains of wheat　in the process. Then a winnowing fan is used to blow away the chaff, leaving the kernels of grain. That is how Jesus uses the threshing floor in the following illustration from Luke.

Lk 3:17 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

The version of Nathan’s response to David wanting to build a temple in Samuel, is prophetic of Jesus Christ being the seed of David, who would build the Spiritual Temple of God, through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost during the dispensation of the church. The other version, is how David perceived Nathan’s response. It is clear in the book of Chronicles, that David mistook God’s response to Nathan the prophet as, David’s son Solomon, would build a physical temple for God.

So what does Solomon do? He proceeds to follow his father’s instructions and build a physical temple. In the process, he enlists the aide of a heathen King Hiram of Tyre and another Hiram who is an occultic artificer. Under the influence of these men, a temple is built which does not adhere to the commandments God gave Moses for the tabernacle. Where does Solomon build the temple? He build it on the place that represents the judgement of Israel, or the threshing floor of Arnon the Jebusite. Now God tells Solomon, that because you have done this thing, I will honor the temple with my presence, as long as you obey me and do not turn your heart to foreign gods. We know the outcome of Solomon’s activities leads to dividing of the Kingdom and eventual downfall of the nations of Israel and Judah. Twice in the Bible, Israel builds a temple to God and prophetically, the temple will be rebuilt during Daniel’s 70th week. All three times, the temple is blasphemously desecrated by idiolatry and eventually destroyed.

The threshing floor of Arnon the Jebusite, represented a turning point for the nation of Israel.  It was the point at which all Israel would be judged.  The greatness of the nation of Israel had been previously defined by miraculous demonstration of the power of God.  How God through people like Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Debra and others miraculously delivered Israel from their enemies and prospered them.   This turning point for Israel, was when their perspective of their greatness was defined by their numbers rather than the miricles of God.  They no longer trusted in miraculous power of their God, but wanted to know how many were in the army.  How big have we gotten?  The greatness of their God was thenceforth defined by how big the temple was and how well educated and wise was their ruler, Sol0mon.  The little tabernacle in the wilderness from which God did so many mighty works was no longer sufficient to define God or his people.  It is interesting how the prophet Hosea, summarizes the fate of Israel. 

Hosea 8:14 “For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples …”

We seem to be living in an age of a desire for the mega-church. Everyone wants to grow their church to be something big, as if bigger were better.  It sometimes appears to also be, ”all about the numbers.”  How many are we running?  Remember the judgement floor of Arnon started with the numbering of Israel.  How many were baptized in Jesus name? or How many got the Holy Ghost?  Maybe we should be more concerned about how many stayed to be discipled and became fruitful in the Kingdom of God.  

Acts 4:13  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Have we forgotten that the Lord qualifies men for the ministry?  Has it become about how well educated our leaders are?  Has it become about promoting the image, we are no longer on the wrong side of the tracks? Have we forgotten that the focus of Jesus ministry was on the rejects of society, those people that were on the side of the tracks from which we came? 

Are the leaders of the Apostolic movement, looking to the lost world from which all of us came, for wisdom?  Are they looking at men like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels (modern day Hiram’s) for direction on how to build God’s church, rather than looking to what the Master Builder of the Universe wants us to do? I can’t help but wonder sometimes, if we, as Apostolic’s are not following in the path of Solomon, building monuments to show how big our God is.  We  may have forgotten that Jesus only desires a tabernacle. Are we more focused on building the building, rather than the building up the body?  Do we need to focus more on teaching and encouraging the saints to operate in the resident gifts of the Spirit, so God can build his church the old fashioned way?  Do we need to just let the supernatural power of God draw men to him, instead of the focusing on the size of the building.  I believe, if we build the body, God will miraculously provide the building.

Mat 6:32-33 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Are we, in the process, losing a bit of our apostolic heritage? We had great revivals and miraculous moves of the Holy Ghost in the first part of the　20^th Century, when Apostolic’s worshiped from the tabernacles of our homes, tents and brush arbors. We have lost, because of a spirit of fear, the miraculous heritage, that marked not only the first century church, but the beginning of the current Apostolic revival in America.

Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

Is the temple, Luke refers to in Acts, the spiritual temple of the body of Christ as opposed to the Temple in Jerusalem? Men were worshiping in the temporary setting of the homes of the believers and not necessarily in Hebrew temple. I for one do not believe that Jesus dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem anymore. The only manifestation of Jesus in the temple, would have been when a Holy Ghost filled believer showed up to proselytize the Jews.

Acts 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; . . .

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