My own belief is therefore ,that for those saints and faithful followers upon the earth,irrespective of however large or small in number,in any generation,Christ ,by the sending of the gift of the holy Spirit to,never does ,and never will leave them.
He said that He would send the Holy Spirit, specifically to the Apostles, first, and to the disciples that they chose and blessed to preach the Gospel. Also, to the others that would follow them, until the end of days."[26] But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me. [27]
And you shall give testimony, because you are with me from the beginning. " The Apostles received their ordination and became Priests when Jesus breathed the Holy Ghost on them to give them their powers to preach and forgive sins, etc…
And, St. Paul says:"2 Corinthians 10: [14] For
we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as if we reached not unto you. For we are come as far as to you in the gospel of Christ. [15] Not glorying beyond measure in other men’s labours; but having hope of your increasing faith, to be magnified in you according to our rule abundantly;
[16] Yea, unto those places that are beyond you, to preach the gospel, not to glory in another man’s rule, in those things that are made ready to our hand. [17] But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. [18]
For not he who commendeth himself, is approved, but he, whom God commendeth. "
He did not give the same gift of the Holy Spirit to all of His followers, even if they followed His teachings. Nor did He give the gift of the Holy Spirit to anyone else in the world. Some, like the Apostles, received that special blessing to preach the Gospel, to perform Baptisms and the Breaking of Bread, which was not imposed in the same way as the rest of the faithful were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Those were things that only those who belonged to the Priesthood of Christ, were given the power to perform.
Even though we are all said to be part of a ‘priesthood’, the gift of the holy Priesthood of the Apostles was not given to anyone except those who received that special grace, directly through the “laying on of hands” from an Apostle (or Bishop); from the time of the first Priests and Bishops (Apostles), all the way up to the Bishops who continue to impart that special gift to Bishops and Priests in the present day, it’s basically been done in that same way. The gift that Jesus gave to the Apostles is only conferred through the same means which they first used to pass it on to others (through the Sacrament of Holy Orders).
That doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit cannot inspire others, such as Saul/Paul. But, those extraordinary instances are few and far between. Even he went to the Apostles to receive their approval and blessing for his work, because he was inspired to do so through a ‘revelation’.
As to that ‘falling away’ since the close of scripture,we need not venture outside of the same recorded testimony:
Paul declares 1Timothy1:15 ,‘all they of Asia be turned away from me’
Even earlier, the weak ones turned away from Jesus in John 6, because they didn’t believe what He said. They only saw things from that same temporal perspective I mentioned, earlier, because they had no understanding of spirituality. They were hoping for a temporal king to lead them to defeat their earthly enemies, like the Romans.
Peter ,knowing his own death was near warns his readers ,of those who ,in regards to Paul’s writings ( the same ,being equal to scripture) would ‘wrest’ his holy words,‘as they do also the other scripture’(2Peter 3:16)
As I said in another post, Peter refers to the misinterpretation of all scripture. He says that, in contrast, Paul has a real gift of interpretation, because he subjected himself to the Authority of the Church.
Of the seven churches mentioned at the beginning of the Revelation ,what faithfulness is recorded ( for us) in way of praise by this revelation to the ‘churches’ ?
Very little!
Very true. It’s clear that God always sees who is truly faithful, and who is not. But, there will always be a faithful remnant that remains in His Church. To believe any differently, is to deny the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to do exactly what He said They would do, until the end.
‘He that hath an ear,let him hear’
Notice the cry by the Spirit,is it not for an individual hearer in the midst of all that professed to his name?
Absolutely, but it will only be ‘one’ who has the true gift of the Holy Spirit, and not someone who is trying to interpret Scripture on his own.
John in his epistle mentions and reminds his readers,on a number of occasions,about ‘that which was from the beginning’
Already in his own long ,lifetime,things apparently,with only this apostle remaining,were dangerously slipping away,then what after he had gone?
The true followers of Jesus will always continue. The Apostles weren’t idiots, as so many people seem to imply by their disbelief, or more accurately, their complete lack of faith. They passed on all of their knowledge, as well as their own powers, to the Priests and Bishops whom they ordained, and therefore on to the rest that would eventually follow them, and so on, and so on… until Jesus comes, again.
I read somewhere that “more ink has been spilled over Matt 16:18 than any other verse in the entire Bible.”