My stance based on the word of God is that there are indeed still prophets and apostles and gifts of the Holy Spirit active among God's people today and that they haven't ceased. I believe the leaders in Ephesians 4 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry and for the edification of the body of Christ are all still around and needed for us as given by God. Not everyone who calls themselves apostles or prophets are real.
Jesus never told us that apostles and prophets would cease, but He told us how to test prophets. We will know them by their fruits. Matthew 7:15-20 and He commended a church that knew how to test apostles that said they were apostles but were not, and found them liars. Revelation 2:2 We shouldn't rule out that any of them exist today but we should test the spirits whether they are of God. 1 John 4:1
Thanks, that's pretty much how I would see it as well.
I found this sermon and Q&A following it on this subject to be very stimulating:
https://www.followers-of-the-way.org/messages/sermon/2021-01-21/church-leadership-part-1-finny-kuruvilla
https://www.followers-of-the-way.org/messages/sermon/2021-01-21/church-leadership-qa-part-2-finny-kuruvilla
I agree to the above statements but would note that only Elders and Deacons were ordained in the New Testament. Unlike some of the modern and often apostate churches that ordain Apostles and Prophets. Also note that an Apostle is one set out a modern equivalent of a missionary.
As students of the early church, we really ought to be immune to this teaching about apostles today.
I would outline the problems with this teaching as follows:
1) It has problems with history:
We know that the apostles appointed bishops and deacons, and not apostles.
Aside from the Didache, there are few if any references to apostles other than the 12, and that writing is early enough that they may have still been living.
Anyone who believes in there being apostles today is forced into saying that the early church went directly into error on this matter.
2) It has problems of qualifications:
The Biblical qualifications for leadership in the church today are the matters of character and maturity, as mentioned in 1 Tim and Titus.
The qualification for apostles is in Acts 1:21-22, which restricts it to "men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us".
Those who call themselves apostes today have introduced other criteria, such as personality, which never was a biblical qualification.
3) It has problems with authority:
It's common enough that those who take on this title today are taking advantage of people by the authority they've given themselves.
Eph 2:20 puts apostles and prophets as the foundation of the church. That foundation was laid once in the days of the apostles.
There is no distinction in the New Testament about lesser and greater apostles.
So then, in regard to other apostles who are mentioned in the New Testament, there is a much sounder proposal: they are of the 70 whom Jesus appointed, Luke 10.
If you look at the purpose of Jesus' sending them out, and how He empowered them to work, there is little if any difference from the 12.
Here is quote from Tertullian, which I found in Bercot's Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, under the topic, "Seventy, the Disciples":
"He also chose seventy other apostles besides the twelve. Now the twelve followed the number of the twelve fountains of Elim. Therefore, why should not the seventy correspond to the like number of the palms of that place?"
He is alluding here to Numbers 33:9, which says, "At Elim were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, so they camped there".
This also is the Orthodox view. If you look at their list of who they believe were the 70 - their list is admittedly speculative - but it includes all the names of those who are called apostles in the NT.
This is also consistent with the criteria for apostles.
