• Definitioin of Terms
• Implications
• Refutation

 

The basis for the "five-fold ministry" is found in Ephesians 4:11, which states:

 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

Apostles are for the ordering and direction of the church.  Those with an apostolic office are gifted to speak with greater authority than anyone else, even prophets (though this distinction is very, very often blurred, as some prophets have attempted to unseat apostles because they didn't like what the apostles were doing; this is remedied largely by claiming both the offices of apostle and prophet).  Specifically referred to as "The LORD's Anointed, to mess with or question one of these special few is to mess with or question God -- not a healthy proposition.  "Touch not the LORD's anointed..." and all that...

Prophets are those who consistently operate in the prophetic.  They are able to speak ex cathedra for the church on matters of doctrine and practice.  As with apostles, their utterances are unquestionable.

Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers are understood much as ordinary evangelicals do, except in the case of authority.  Much like apostles and prophets, but at a reduced level, these men are unquestionable.  (We caveat "at a reduced level" because either an apostle or a prophet can call an evangelist, pastor, or teacher into question, though this occurs usually only in conjunction with a pastor or teacher who rejects some or all of the message/direction of the apostle or prophet.)
 
 
 

Implications
Whereas it is true that much truth was lost to the Church in bygone years -- hence the necessity of the Protestant Reformation, the Fundamentalist/evangelical revival of the late 1800's - early 1900's, and the rediscovery of the charismatic gifts (caveat: when excercised Biblically) -- it is nontheless not a light thing to claim to bring either "new" revelation, or "restored" revelation.  Restorationism, as a doctrine, must be severely tested by Scripture to see whether or not it is valid.  For whereas it is not necessarily incorrect (the doctrines of sola gratia, sola fide, sola Christi, sola gloria Deum, sola Scriptura were indeed necessarily restored to the Church through Luther, Calvin, and Melancthon et al, for instance), it is historically far more likely to be incorrect than correct.

Some clearly heretical groups that teach restorationism are:  The "Church" of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (and all its factious offspring), the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (ditto), and Kenyonism (aka, the "Word-Faith Movement").

One of the more alarming implications concerning this doctrine is that the Protestant Reformation is lacking in authority what both the Roman Catholic Church and Mormonism have:  Apostles and Prophets who speak with absolute authority.  (The Pope speaks ex cathedra, which for all intents and purposes is both apostolic and prophetic; the LDS "Church" has "restored Apostles and Prophets," etc.)

Perhaps, however, the most disturbing implication of "Five-Foldism" is the de facto jettisoning of the foundational doctrine sola Scriptura.  Not only are the "restored apostles and prophets" unquestionable even by Scriptural standards, but they are placed in the position of being infallible interpreters of Scripture.  They become the final court of arbitration on all matters of faith and doctrine, not Scripture.  And this becomes a confusing mess more fractured in voice than even Mormonism, since you can hear as many different prophecies concerning the same item and many different interpretations of the same Scripture as there are "restored apostles and prophets."  What results is not order and edification but confusion and cacophony [I Corinthians 14:33].

This queer doctrine had its genesis in the post-WWII years in Canada as the Latter Rain movement, and had such clearly heretical proponents as William Branham and A. A. Allen.  It (along with Latter Rainism) was rejected by the Assemblies of God in the 50's as deadly heresy.
 
 
 

Refutation
Perhaps the first thing to point out in the refutation of this curious doctrine is the fact that they misinterpret the very verse upon which it is based.  If taken as it reads in Greek, there are only four "ministries" being referred to; "pastors and teachers" are connected by kai -- a copulative -- and probably should be hyphenated (pastor-teachers), and definitely should be considered together in union as representing two aspects of the same office.  In Greek, the passage reads:
 

Kai autos edoken tous men apostolous, tous de prophetas, tous de euangelistas, tous de poimenas kai didaskalous.
(Aland, Kurt, Black, Matthew, Martini, Carlo M., Metzger, Bruce M., and Wikgren, Allen, The Greek New Testament, [Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgar] 1983.)

Further, it must be emphasized that the apostolous being referenced are not in the same "class" as the twelve Apostles of our LORD.  twelve - and only twelve - men in the history of earth have ever held this specific office [note:  That number can be inflated to fourteen by counting Judas and Matthias; but even so it is still a strictly limited number].  Rather, what is being referenced is the lesser apostolic office held by a great many in the early church and beyond (Galatians 1:19 refers to James as an apostle, though he was not of the Twelve; in I Thessalonians 2:6 Paul uses the pronoun "we" in referring to the evangelism team that entered Thessalonica as "apostles," though only Paul was of the Twelve; etc.).  This office indeed seems to be concerned with the ordering and overseeing of multiple congregations/bodies of the Church, but never by imparted authority; that is, the non-Twelve apostles are questionable, and derive their authority from Scripture [even the Twelve were not infallible, uttering things ex cathedra; Peter was rebuked by Paul; Paul had a hissy-fit and unceremoniously kicked John Mark off his evangelistic team; the Bereans are specifically commended by the Holy Spirit for checking Paul's teachings out by the Word of God to see if what he was saying was so; etc.].  Individuals in Church history who seem to have operated in this lesser-apostolic capacity would include Athanasius, Tertullian, Basil the Great, Irenaeus, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, and others of this caliber.  Present-day individuals who might be said to hold apostolic ministries would possibly include Dr. R. C. Sproul, Chuck Smith, John MacArthur, and Chuck Swindoll.

To aid in distinction, a convention might be adopted that when referring to the Twelve we capitalize the "A" in "Apostle;" when referring to a lesser apostle, we drop the capitalization.  [Note:  Some argue that the "some" coupled with the aorist "gave" implies that the Twelve fulfilled the offices of Apostle and Prophet entirely; this cannot be correct since even rank cessationists agree that we still have evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  More on that and the doctrine of Perpetuity later.]

Finally, even if Peter-and-Paul class Apostles were restored today, they would not be infallible any more than Peter or Paul were.  [Their infallibility extended only to the Scripture the Spirit produced through them.  The vast majority of what they wrote or said was purely human in origin, and therefore quite fallible.].  Even John himself, under the Theopneustos inspiration of the Spirit, commands us to "test the spirits" ["doctrines"] -- including his.