What are the requirements for being an Apostle or Prophet?

[thunderbolt94]

Hey,

I recently found this absolutely bizarre website for what appears to be a cult, but I wanted to get an informed second opinion (preferably from someone who is more informed about the faith than I am) regarding this.

Here is the website:
amightywind.com/

And here is the certificate of ordination of the woman in charge of it:
amightywind.com/elisabeth/ordination.htm

On the website as a whole makes claims that this woman is an apostle and prophet for Jesus who receives prophecies from God, which leads to my question: What are the requirements for one to be an apostle or a prophet of God? Does it strictly have to be a person who first walked with Jesus? If so, does that exclude Paul (not that I doubt he was an apostle, but I’m hoping for clarification)? Is it possible to be an apostle or prophet in today’s times?

Thanks to anyone who can help me here.
God Bless.

 

[Skeptic92]

Hey,

I recently found this absolutely bizarre website for what appears to be a cult, but I wanted to get an informed second opinion (preferably from someone who is more informed about the faith than I am) regarding this.

Here is the website:
amightywind.com/

And here is the certificate of ordination of the woman in charge of it:
amightywind.com/elisabeth/ordination.htm

On the website as a whole makes claims that this woman is an apostle and prophet for Jesus who receives prophecies from God, which leads to my question: What are the requirements for one to be an apostle or a prophet of God? Does it strictly have to be a person who first walked with Jesus? If so, does that exclude Paul (not that I doubt he was an apostle, but I’m hoping for clarification)? Is it possible to be an apostle or prophet in today’s times?

Thanks to anyone who can help me here.
God Bless.

Apostles were the 12, the Apostles of Christ that walked with him, they have all been dead for 1900 years or so, St Paul was a disciple at most, not an Apostle.

Prophet I can’t help you, but the age of public revelation has long come to an end

 

[MarkThompson]

Hey,

I recently found this absolutely bizarre website for what appears to be a cult, but I wanted to get an informed second opinion (preferably from someone who is more informed about the faith than I am) regarding this.

Here is the website:
amightywind.com/

And here is the certificate of ordination of the woman in charge of it:
amightywind.com/elisabeth/ordination.htm

On the website as a whole makes claims that this woman is an apostle and prophet for Jesus who receives prophecies from God, which leads to my question: What are the requirements for one to be an apostle or a prophet of God? Does it strictly have to be a person who first walked with Jesus? If so, does that exclude Paul (not that I doubt he was an apostle, but I’m hoping for clarification)? Is it possible to be an apostle or prophet in today’s times?

Thanks to anyone who can help me here.
God Bless.

There are no Apostles or Prophets today in the sense this person seems to mean.

1. In one sense, the word “apostle” means “one sent forth,” so anybody who is sent into the world with a mission from Christ – like you or me – is an apostle. In the more specific sense in which the word is generally meant, though, the Apostles were the associates of Christ to whom he entrusted the mission of spreading his teachings (see, e.g., Mk 3:14-15). When the last of these Biblical Apostles died, that was the end of Apostles. You can read about Catholic teaching on this topic here.
2. The Prophets were sent by God as precursors to the Christ, but Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of old, and so the age of Biblical Prophets came to a close. Again, there is a more informal sense in which any person given knowledge of the future by God can be called a prophet. The Catholic Church investigates credible cases, and no one should pay attention to any self-styled prophet until the Church has ruled that he or she is worthy of belief. This is very rare, because the world is full of fakers and people desperate for attention.
3. Why are you even reading this lame stuff? Let me give you two tips: First, hideous, garish, super-long homepages that look like they are from the Geocities era and are packed with lots of flashing lights and rambling, insane-sounding nonsense about conspiracy theories and the Mark of the Beast are always by crazy people. Always. Second, this person is as legitimate a “prophet” as David Koresh. Anybody can say anything on the internet. Oh, and anybody can get ordained (fauxrdained) online too, so I wouldn’t be too impressed by a fake certificate.

 

[TimothyH]

Truly wierd, especially this statement in the good Reverend’s prophecy about the bride of Christ…

***For YAHUSHUA is your Bread of Life and I want to see if you will still praise ME, and hang on to your faith though I don’t answer right away. I am not always a microwave GOD.

Yes, I know about microwaves, who do you think gave you the invention? ***

Kinda reminds me of the time I visited worship service at the Messianic Jewish Temple, It’s like Rock & Roll Evangelicalism, reformed Judaism, and hard-core East Tenessee KJV fire and brimstone, all mixed together with a copy of HTML for Dummies.

-Tim-

 

[ConstantineTG]

Apostles were the 12, the Apostles of Christ that walked with him, they have all been dead for 1900 years or so, St Paul was a disciple at most, not an Apostle.

Prophet I can’t help you, but the age of public revelation has long come to an end

The Apostles were more than the 12. St. Paul is indeed an Apostle as he refers himself to be one:

[BIBLEDRB]Romans 11:13[/BIBLEDRB]

There are also other Apostles outside the 12, including St. Mark the Evangelist, Barnabas, Timothy, etc.

 

[Timawa]

ConstantineTG - no, there are 12, plus one. The 12 apostles represent the 12 tribes of Israel. The thirteenth, who is St. Paul, represents the people outside Israel - the Gentiles, that is why he is called even by himself as the Apostle of the Gentiles. But how did St. Paul become an apostle if it seems that he didn’t see Christ face to face, you ask?

I will let Father Ryan answer that for you:

We must assert that St. Paul did not have a “vision” on the road to Damascus. It was no mere intellectual or imaginative “vision” – a purely mental reality. Rather, just as our Savior appeared in his true and proper body before the other apostles, so too did our Lord reveal his natural and proper body to St. Paul.

Consider the commentary of the learned Fr. Cornelius a’ Lapide:

“It appears from this verse that Christ appeared to Paul, not by an angel, as Haymo thinks (Comment. on Apocalypse, c. ii.), but in person; not in a vision, as He appeared to him in Acts xxii. 18, nor in a trance, as is recorded in 2 Cor. xii. 2, but in the air in bodily form; for it was in this way that Christ appeared to Cephas, James, and the other Apostles; moreover, if it were any other kind of appearance it would be no proof of the resurrection of Christ. The appearance of Christ alluded to here is the one at Paul’s conversion (Acts ix. 3), when he saw Christ before the bright light blinded him.”

From this fact – that Jesus appeared in his one, natural body in which he had been crucified and which had risen and ascended into heaven – another follows:

“Hence it further appears that Christ then descended from heaven, for, as S. Thomas and others say, S. Paul heard the voice of Christ speaking in the air”

This is precisely the great mystery of St. Paul’s election as an apostle – the Lord Jesus returned from heaven to the earth in his proper, physical, and natural body and appeared to the Apostle in just the same manner as he had appeared to the Magdalene outside the tomb.

For the rest of the article, read here:
newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-st-paul-saw-on-road-to-damascus.html

 

[MorEphrem]

ConstantineTG - no, there are 12, plus one. The 12 apostles represent the 12 tribes of Israel. The thirteenth, who is St. Paul, represents the people outside Israel - the Gentiles, that is why he is called even by himself as the Apostle of the Gentiles. But how did St. Paul become an apostle if it seems that he didn’t see Christ face to face, you ask?

Actually ConstantineTG is correct; if you look at the Eastern traditions, there’s even the custom of venerating the 70 Apostles (in the West - the 72 disciples).

As someone has already said the literal definition of an apostle is literally someone who is sent out. We share in the apostolic mission. Now perhaps you are thinking of the biblical Apostles who, as you said, represent the 12 tribes (hence why Matthias needed to be elected after Judas’s betrayal).

In terms of giving a definition for a prophet that’s coherent for all prophets, that’s a tough one. For starters, they no longer exist since revelation is as complete as it will be until the Apocalypse (which by etymology means the uncovering). Apart from that it’s hard to limit it to, say for instance, people who have contributed to books of the OT because although prophet includes great saints like Isaiah and Daniel, it also includes John the Baptist and Anna the Prophetess. Perhaps a receiver of revelation.

 

[bben15]

There are still Apostles today. Bishops are successors to the original 12 Apostles. There are over 4,000 Apostles today. The Pope is the leader of those Apostles.

At the Last Supper, the New Covenant was established. There will be no more prophets. Prophets were a thing of the Old Covenant.

The official definition of “disciple” is: A personal follower of Jesus during his life, esp. one of the twelve Apostles. So, there are no more disciples today.

God bless you.

 

[MorEphrem]

There are still Apostles today. Bishops are successors to the original 12 Apostles. There are over 4,000 Apostles today. The Pope is the leader of those Apostles.

At the Last Supper, the New Covenant was established. There will be no more prophets. Prophets were a thing of the Old Covenant.

The official definition of “disciple” is: A personal follower of Jesus during his life, esp. one of the twelve Apostles. So, there are no more disciples today.

God bless you.

The definition of disciple doesn’t inherently mean a personal follower. By definition of the word, it means someone who follows/learns from a teacher. You can still learn in the way/school of a teacher even if that teacher is dead. Apparently the root of the word itself means to simply accept something from a source.

 

[Chatter163]

ConstantineTG - no, there are 12, plus one. The 12 apostles represent the 12 tribes of Israel. The thirteenth, who is St. Paul, represents the people outside Israel - the Gentiles, that is why he is called even by himself as the Apostle of the Gentiles. But how did St. Paul become an apostle if it seems that he didn’t see Christ face to face, you ask?

Actually, the Church venerates fourteen apostles: the Twelve (includes St. Matthias), plus St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who are the divinely called apostles. The Church celebrates St. Barnabas’ feast as an apostle on 11 June.

 

[bcuster]

Wow! What a trip! Yes, it is a cult. Takes me back to the days of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh here is Antelope, Oregon. History repeats itself. Nothing good can come of it.
Flashy website, though.

 

[fabio_rocha]

if there aren’t no more prophets, then what you call a person who has the gift of prophecy, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit indicated by St.Paul?