To qualify as a prophet, one must receive direct revelation from God. As in the Old Testament, a prophet needs to be tested by giving some near prophecies which must come to pass (Acts 21:10-11, 33). Furthermore, a prophet could even write Scripture which would be inspired and without error.
As for the qualification of an apostle, there are two groups of apostleship. The first group requires that one had to have been a follower of Jesus from the baptism of John. He was first to have been a disciple of John the Baptist, then to have followed Jesus, and to have seen the resurrected Messiah and His Ascension (Acts 1:15-26). The Twelve Apostles belong to this first group. The second group requires only that one must have seen the resurrected Messiah (1 Corinthians 9:1). The apostle Paul did not fulfil the first requirement as he had never undergone John’s baptism, but he did fulfil the second requirement because he had seen the resurrected Messiah. Furthermore, one must prove his apostleship by many signs, wonders, and miracles (2 Corinthians 12:12; Hebrews 2:3-4).
According to the Book of Ephesians, the gifts of prophecy and apostleship have two purposes. The first purpose is to lay the foundation of the Church (Ephesians 2:19-22). The second purpose is to record New Testament revelation (Ephesians 3:1-9).
With the death of the last apostle, John, around 90 A.D., the foundation of the Church had been laid and the New Testament has been recorded. Therefore, the clear implication is that these two gifts are no longer given. In the case of apostleship, people today are not seeing the resurrected Jesus Christ, which was a prerequisite for the gift of apostleship. In the case of prophecy, people today are not receiving direct revelation from God. If they were, they could record Scripture. There are many people claiming to receive direct revelation, thereby claiming to be “prophets of God,” yet none of them are claiming the ability to write Scripture without error. Nor are any of them willing to take the test of a prophet as specified in Deuteronomy 18:20-22. If they are prophets and are receiving direct revelation from God, they should be able to predict some clear events that would come to pass within a short period of time. Yet not one of them is willing to accept this challenge.
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