Five-fold ministry
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The Five-fold Ministry is an ecclesiology utilized by a variety of minority religious movements whose primary emphasis is original textual-source practice over "orthodox" government-based institutional traditions. The concept of the term "five-fold ministry" itself is usually derived from the New Testament teaching concerning the organization of the early Jewish/Christian communities in which five functions of house ministry were conducted in relationship to making disciples and establishing households of faith: apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher and shepherd. (Ephesians 4:11)
In Christian history, the two functions of "apostle" and "prophet" were officially deemphasized after the beginning of the Roman Church Councils and thereafter declared to have "passed away", though their appearance continued to surface throughout western history. Girolamo Savonarola, a Florentine monk, is one example. The bulk of the available evidence suggests that such ministries as Apostle or Prophet were validated by "signs", and that these ministries ceased early in the life of the Church.[see: Robert Duncan Culver, "Apostles and the Apostolate in the New Testament," Italic textBibltotheca Sacra/Italic text134(April-June 1977):137.] Bishop John Chrysostom said concerning such miraculous signs that as of his time (c. A.D. 381-385), "...not a vestige of the former is left." [see: Colman J. Barry, ed., "Bishop St. John Chrysostom: On the Priesthood," in "Volume One -- From Pentecost to the Protestant Revolt," Readings on Church History, (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1966), p. 114] Walvoord makes a compelling case that these gifts were limited to the First Century Church. [John F. Walvoord, "The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts," Bibliotheca Sacra 143 (1986):112.
Perhaps in part because of this cessation of orthodox practice and in part because these two functions had been formally criminalized under Roman canonical law, their existence and practice became in many places largely a secret tradition continued in the shadow of state prosecution. More orthodox traditions maintained that the "cessationist" view is clearly taught in the scriptures, which also discouaged attempts to revive them. The occasionally resurfacing of these gifts or practices can also be observed in the history and writings of Nostradamus.
At the advent of Martin Luther's reformation in Germany, many declared Luther along with many other reformers to be New Testament "prophets", though later Protestant state churches themselves, though advocating a return to Biblical based practice, decided themselves to follow Roman canonical and council law on these matters instead.
Mohammed was considered both an "Apostle" and a "Prophet" among Arabian Ebionite Christians and the Quran was the development of this belief in the continuation of the prophetic gift in Arabia. Islam, as in Christianity, eventually outlawed its own basis for development, following the model established by Rome with a turn toward Academic scholarship in place of its original prophetic practices. The Quran, like the New Testament, gives no internal basis for such termination policies, and consequently minority groups and certain individuals within Islam continue the practices without government-ecclesiastical or dominant religious group sanction.
As a result of disapproval by orthodox Christianity, disciplines of intuitive based phenomena took other paths of development in western culture. In modern vocabulary the term "psychic" became employed as an alternative term for "prophet" and continued to be practiced within many of these same government-based ecclesiology systems, but it a manner disconnected from its biblical mode and practice and in the murky shadows of official disapproval.
In American revivalism and free-church movements, the development of the pentecostal movement, the charismatic movement, the "full-gospel" movement, the discipleship movement, the home-church movement, the restoration movement, the Jewish-Christian movement all gave rise to a return of both roles in religious practice. The use of the term "Apostle" is generally used by some as an equivalent of the term "missionary" and "prophet" is the equivalent of a biblical practice of the charismatic gift of prophecy.
Some New Testament practitioners, whether through home churches, discipleship groups or even traditional sanctuary based religious services, consider the five ministries as having never "passed away" as alleged by other traditions. While most majority religious groups claim the five-fold ministry is something that "no longer exists", that opinion is said by some to be based on extra-biblical tradition. A basis for this belief does exist within the New and Old Testaments, however. Acts 1:21 indicates that an Apostle must have been a witness to the resurrection of Jesus, which is a qualification that can no longer be met. Furthermore, Deuteronomy 18:20-22 indicates that a true prophet must predict the future with 100% accuracy, a qualification that modern "prophets" lack. In some versions of five-fold ministry, the classic ecclesiastical roles (bishop, elder, deacon) are considered descriptions of the tasks of the ministers rather than actual ministerial titles. Farnell, in an exhaustive review of the literature, supports the cessassionist view, holding that the weight of the available evidence leads one to this conclusion. [see: F. David Farnell, "When Will the Gift of Prophecy Cease?" Bibliotheca Sacra 150 (1993):187-188, 201]
Most book-based revelatory religious traditions consider the "primary means" of their own "revelation" to have "passed away". Some claim that this belief is an effort to establish stability for certain doctrinal positions and to insulate the tradition from any further change. Others say that this is simply based on respect for the Word of God. This is true in all 3 major traditions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Each claimed prior to the arrival of the other that its revelatory functions had officially ceased and/or would exist no more until some future apocalyptic age. Minorities within all 3 of these traditions continue to practice their tradition's original functions. But this occurs in the larger context of the dominant group's opposition toward their practices.
As societies become more educated concerning intuition in general and more open and tolerant in general, the rise of these gifts and functions may become more prevalent and inevitable. Major strides have taken place among dominant religious groups to be more "open" and "accepting" of their possibilities. This "open" acceptance, however, is not likely to sway people of faith who have a high view of the scriptures.
It is speculated that a study on the advisory functions of minority religious practicioners to major figures in western history will reveal their presence in the background of many historical periods and persons, from religious leaders to presidents to kings and even to the Papacy itself.
