Five Fold Ministry

By Mark Swarbrick

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The Five Fold Ministry and Apostles Today

The concept of the five fold ministry has gained popularity in many modern churches. Groups such as the Catholic Church, which views the pope as an apostle, and cults like Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism, and The Perfect Church, promote their own apostles or prophets as spiritual authorities. In recent years, movements such as the New Apostolic Reformation, International House of Prayer (IHOPKC), and various charismatic networks have also embraced the language of the five fold ministry, often emphasizing the role of apostles and prophets alongside pastors, teachers, and evangelists.

It is important to note that not all churches that speak of the five fold ministry in the Bible are cults. Some are sincere Christian congregations that genuinely love the Lord. However, opening the door to modern-day apostles and prophets raises serious questions: what is five fold ministry as Scripture defines it, are there apostles today, and are there prophets today in the same sense as those in the Bible? The danger is clear—once someone is recognized as an apostle with authority equal to Scripture, it creates fertile ground for false teaching and cultic control.

What Is the Five Fold Ministry?

The term five fold ministry comes from Ephesians 4:11, where Paul writes of five positions of ministry that existed in the 1st century church:

“And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers…”

From this single verse, many modern churches build the idea that all five roles should still operate in the church today. Supporters argue that apostles and prophets remain essential alongside pastors, teachers, and evangelists. What is often overlooked is that Ephesians was written in the 1st century when apostles were still alive. Paul was speaking of what existed in the church at that time. The apostles’ God-given role was to provide a permanent foundation for Christians of every generation to stand upon. That foundation endures today in the New Testament Scriptures. For this reason, historic Protestant theologians have long recognized that apostles and prophets were unique to the early church. The truth is that all genuine apostles passed away in the 1st century, exactly as God intended.

Still, various groups attempt to revive the idea of modern apostles. Catholicism insists that the pope is an apostle, while non-Christian cults such as Mormonism and Seventh-day Adventism also promote the authority of apostles or prophets in their systems. These claims blur the biblical teaching and open the door to error.

What Is an Apostle?

According to five-fold ministry advocates, anyone can just proclaim themself to be an apostle. But the Bible says otherwise. There are requirements. The word apostle comes from the Greek word ἀπόστολος (apostolos), which literally means “one who is sent out” or “a messenger.” In the New Testament the term specifically refers to those chosen and sent by Jesus Christ Himself to be eyewitnesses of His life, death, and resurrection, and to establish the foundation of the church.

Thus, the primary requirement of apostleship is that Jesus Christ has appeared in person to you and told you that are called as an apostle. This is not something you can imagine in your head and lay claim to. There  must be witnesses. Every apostle in the New Testament had witnesses to Christ calling them. Even the anomoly of the calling of the Apostle Paul had a witness in Ananias of Damascus. (Acts 9:17).

Secondly, an apostle must be a Jew. All apostles in the Bible were Jews. Jesus said, “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). In every town where the apostles took the Gospel, they preached to the Jews first before the Gentiles. (Acts 13:46, Romans 1:16).  Luke 2:32  says the Jews were called to be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.” and Isaiah 49:6 proclaimed to Israel, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” The message of Scripture is clear: It is the Jews who were initially called to evangelize the world and write scritpure. Jesus never called a Gentile to be an apostle.

An apostle is someone who can give eyewitness testimony to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They had incredible power to work miracles and were commissioned to write Scripture. Our New Testament is written exclusively by apostles, or the close associate of an apostle.

Apostles as the Foundation of the Church

Apostles were given to the Church to establish its foundation in the 1st century. If one thinks of building a house, one lays down the foundation and then builds on top of that. One does not keep putting down new foundations after the house is framed. Apostles were intended to function only at the beginning of the Church. The benefit of this foundation is available to us today through the Bible. The New Testament is our apostolic foundation. Each New Testament book was written by an apostle or the close associate of an apostle. The Old Testament is our foundation that comes down to us via the Old Testament prophets. Prophets and apostles together give us the entire Bible, which is foundational to the Church. All doctrine must fall in line with the teachings found in Holy Scripture.

An important part of being an apostle was to serve as a witness to the facts of Jesus life, death and resurrection. In Acts Chapter 10 Peter proclaims the authority of the apostles to be witnesses:

“And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” (Acts 10:39–41)

The idea of being a witness to the resurrection meant far more than just claiming a vision of Jesus. One had to have known Jesus had lived, seen Him during His earthly ministry, been aware that He was killed, and then spent time with Jesus after His resurrection while being personally called by Him to be an apostle. Obviously, one cannot give such an apostolic testimony without having been a contemporary of Jesus.

Requirements for Apostleship

• A Contemporary of Jesus: An apostle must be able to give witness to Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. The apostles proclaimed: “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed…we are witnesses to these things…” (Acts 5:30–32). To be this kind of witness, one must have lived during the time of Jesus. Acts 1:21–22 shows that qualification plainly.

• Be born a Jew – Israelites were given priority in evangelism. All New Testament apostles were Jewish.

• Have Seen Jesus: In 1 Corinthians 9:1, Paul defends his apostleship by saying, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?”

• Taught by Jesus: Paul explains in Galatians 1:11–12 that he received the gospel by revelation directly from Christ. All apostles in the New Testament were personally taught by Christ. This did not mean some esoteric and nebulous one-time claim to a vision, but the actual and repeated presence of Christ, as was the case with the 12 disciples who became apostles. Even in Paul’s case this was so. For example, In Acts 26:16 Jesus says to Paul, “But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.”

• Work Miracles: 2 Corinthians 12:12 describes “the signs of a true apostle” as including signs, wonders, and mighty works. To those who tried to say Paul was not an apostle, he responds with: “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.”

• Write Scripture: Apostles had authority to write Scripture, and Peter recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture in 2 Peter 3:15–16.

• Called by Jesus: An apostle must be called by Christ, in person.
• Witnesses: There must be witnesses to one’s calling as an apostle, just as there was with Paul and the other twelve disciples.

Are There Apostles Today?

Since one must have lived in the 1st century to be a witness of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, it is impossible for there to be apostles today. God gave apostles (past tense) when He founded the Church. We still have them only in the sense that their writings are Holy Scripture which still guides us.

Jude 1:17 says, “Remember the words having been spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Notice the word “beforehand.” This was written around AD 80, when most of the real apostles had already been martyred. We are never told in Scripture to look to the words of new apostles. Instead, Jude 1:3 says to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” While the Bible gives qualifications for elders and deacons, no such instructions exist for appointing apostles. That is because they were not intended for today. If the office of apostle was intended to continue through the entire Church age, then the Bible would have stipulated the requirements for apostleship, just as it does for deacons and pastors.

The Special Case of the Apostle Paul

Five fold ministry advocates often point to the Apostle Paul as as an example of the calling of more apostles today. Paul was an exception, in that he was not one of the twelve disciples. Nevertheless, he was a Jew who did live in the 1st century and met the qualifications for Christ to call him as an apostle. His apostleship was confirmed by Ananias, and then later by Peter, and finally by Scripture itself, and by the miracles he performed. No one today can meet that standard. Even so, Paul himself declares that his calling was an anomoly, declaring hat he is the last apostle. For example, Paul himself called his apostleship unique and wrote that his apostleship was as one “untimely born” (1 Corinthians 15:8–9). He considered himself the last apostle to see the risen Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:8 Paul declared, “And last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.”

What About Prophets?

Those who promote the five fold ministry also insist that prophets are active today in the same sense as in the Old Testament. While the New Testament does mention prophets in the 1st century Church, many fail to realize the distinction between Old Testament prophets and the gift of prophecy in the New Testament. While the gift of prophecy does carry on through today, the office of  prophet does not exist under the New Covenent as it did under the old. Old Testament prophets spoke the very words of God with full authority. They, like apostles, wrote scripture. Today, preaching, exhortation and prophesying remain, but there is no exclusive office of prophet. New Testament prophets do not write Scripture or deliver infallible revelation. To claim otherwise is to undermine the sufficiency of God’s Word.

In the Old Testament under the Old Covenant not everyone could prophecy, but only select individuals were selected to be a prophet – think of Elijah, Elisha, Moses, etc. But in the New Testament we find a dramatic change. Under the New Covenant, any Christian can prophesy. We know this, for Paul said he desired that all the Corinthians would be used in the gift of prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:5). He went on to say, “For you can all prophesy…” (1 Corinthians 14:31). So, all Christians can be used in the gift of prophecy if they want to be. (Though some are used more than others and some not at all for they don’t desire to minister to others in power) In Peter’s sermon on Pentecost he quotes from Joel 2:28, saying:

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” (Acts 2:17018)

This marks a great change between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Under the Old Covenant only a few select individuals were elevated to the office of prophet. Under the New Covenant the Spirit is poured out upon “all people,” so that all Christians may have gifts of the Spirit. The office of prophet is done away with under the New Covenant. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord and all can prophecy.

New Testament Prophecy is Never Doctinal

Another important distinction must be pointed out: New Testament prophecy never involves defining new doctrines. If a prophecy touches on doctrine, it can only be truth already defined in the Bible. To ignore this essential point is to open a pandora’s box of heresies. Scripture tells us, “one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” (1 Corinthians 14:3) This is essential to understand. New Testament prophesy is not for defining doctrine, but for encouragement and consolation. We see an example of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14:24, where Paul writes:

“If an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

You see the pattern: “Everyone is prophesying…” Not just a select few. You also see that prophesy is not teaching, but is laying bare “the secrets of their hearts.” Many times I have seen people blessed to tears to be prophesied to, hearing that God knows the details of what they are struggling with and that God has the answer for them. The realization that God loves them enough to reveal hidden matters lets them know that God is working among these Christians and it prepares their heart to accept the truths shown them in the Holy Scriptures.

The cults violate this principle. They twist prophecy into an “office of prophet” and make it all about authority and doctrine. The Mormons have their head prophet or apostle who defines doctrine for their church. Seventh Day Adventism has Ellen G. White as their prophetess. Their entire church swallows her false doctrine, hook, line and sinker, because they see her as an infallible prophet. The Catholic Church sees their “infallible’ pope the same way. The cult of Christian Science has Mary Baker Eddy as their prophet. Jehovah’s Witnesses claim their publishing house is an infallible prophet that defines their doctrines for them. Name almost any cult, or aberrational Christian church, and you will find some central charismatic self-proclaimed prophet or apostle who tells them what to believe. True New Testament prophecy is about love energized by power that touches people’s hearts and draws them closer to God through obedience to the Holy Bible. The perversion of that, used by the cults, is a dead, dry “office of prophet” that is about authority, control, and false teaching.

False Apostles and Prophets in Five Fold Ministry

Many who believe in apostles for today are sincere Christians, but their error opens the door to false teaching and authoritian control and abuse. Non-Christian cults such as Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism, and The Perfect Church recognize apostles and prophets in order to prop up their false teachings. Recognizing apostles today also contradicts Christ’s teaching that we are all brothers (Matthew 23:8–10). Calling someone “Apostle So-and-So” smacks of religious pride. Cult leaders often use this unbiblical façade to create their own doctrines, write their own scripture, and exercise false authority.

The true standard in a proper New Testament church is not, “does it agree with the prophet or apostle,” but rather, “does it agree with the Bible.” Isaiah 8:20 says, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Acts 17:11 praises the Bereans for examining the Scriptures daily to test what Paul preached. That remains the safeguard for the church today.

Conclusion: The Five Fold Ministry in the Bible

The five fold ministry is often misunderstood and misapplied. While pastors, teachers, and evangelists remain vital, the roles of apostles and prophets were foundational. To insist they continue today undermines the sufficiency of Scripture and opens the door to error. The Bible declares “And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers.” Yes he did. He gave – past tense – apostles, to write Scripture and be the foundation of the Church. It does not say he would continue to give apostles.

Scripture tells us that the Church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:19–20). In this context, it is referring to Old Testament prophets. We have that foundation today in the Holy Bible, the Old Testament written by the prophets and the New Testament written by the apostles.

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