Book: The New Testament Church
Chapter 2
Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
After Jesus arose, HE gave to the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers … for the work of the ministry … Eph. 4
So who are they? Where are they? What is their role in the NT church today?
The church I was attending believed there were apostles and prophets along with evangelists, pastors, teachers, but no one could tell me "who" the apostles were at our church. Several people were identified as prophets.
Since no one could tell me what apostles do, I asked God and HE taught me. (God had also told me I was called as an apostle, shocking me.)
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Concerning NT apostles:
A question arose which had to be settled concerning church doctrine:
At Jerusalem, James presented the final statement setting the NT doctrine for the churches. James presented the scriptures to provide a foundation for the ruling he was about to present on the matter at hand.
Then James said:
Acts 15 ... Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
I could see from this example that God gave an anointing to HIS apostles to deal with scripture and doctrine in the church.
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We have so much perversion of doctrine in today's churches, we have to hold fast to scriptures in spite of what they do in churches, keeping such scriptures as the following:
Jesus said:
Mt. 5:32 ... But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
- If the husband divorces "a faithful wife" and she remarries another man, she will commit adultery but the husband who divorced her will be the cause of her adultery
- And the man who marries this divorced woman commits adultery.
I Cor. 7:10-11 ... And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
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After Jesus arose, after the crucifixion and resurrection ... Jesus gave to the church the ministry offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. Ephesians 4:11
The
NT apostle, is given an anointing by God which equips him to deal with
scripture ... keeping doctrine straight in the church.
Paul spoke a doctrine that greatly upset the Jews in his day.
Paul said the Gentiles who believed in God did not have to be circumcised!
Certainly
this sounded to the Jews like heresy for God gave Abraham circumcision
as a sign of the covenant made between God and the nation of Israel.
Now Paul is telling them they are not saved by circumcision but by faith in the work of God through Jesus. (the new covenant after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus)
In several epistles to the church in the New Testament, Paul speaks of this.
This
is a large part of the work of those who are called as apostles ... to
deal with doctrine, comparing scripture with scripture.
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As a young child, when we visited my aunt, I would often go to church with her.
During
the service they would pass a tray with broken bits of crackers ...
and then pass a tray with grape juice cups ... They called this "The Lord's Supper."
They told me I couldn't partake of this until I became a member of the church.
I
would watch my aunt and she took a bit of one of the crackers and very
solemnly ate the bit of cracker... then she very solemnly took the cup
and drank the
grape juice ...
Later, I went forward and was baptized in water because I
didn't want to go to hell and I thought this is the way you kept from
going to hell.
(I was not born again. I just didn't want to go to hell.)
(I was not born again. I just didn't want to go to hell.)
I
was about 15-years-old the first time I was baptized in water. Later,
when I was 37-years-old, God spoke to me by HIS Spirit causing me to be
born again.
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Some things greatly troubled me:
In I Corinthians 11, it says ...
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Even before I was born again, I had great concern over this for how was I supposed to judge myself? And how was I to know if I was eating and drinking in a "worthy" way? And how was I to "examine myself."
Years later, after I was born again, God showed me the Lord supper was not eating crackers and grape juice at the church service.
The Lord's supper was the eating and drinking of the Word of God. In fact, the entire church service where scripture was presented was "eating the Word of God" ... partaking of "The Lord's supper" by correctly listening to godly sermons and applying such to your life in an appropriate way.
You "judge yourself" by that which the scripture says.
You eat and drink the scriptures "worthily" by applying the Word of God in a correct way to your own life, conforming yourself to the scripture by doing what the scripture says.
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All of I Corinthians 11 , which pertains to the Lord's supper, has to do with the eating and drinking of the Word of God.
I Corinthians 11:23-25 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which HE was betrayed took bread: And when HE had given thanks, HE brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is MY body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of ME.
After the same manner also HE took the cup, when HE had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
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The churches took this as being the eating of fleshly crackers (substitute for bread) and grape juice (substitute for wine).
We see they were performing a work of their own mind in a fleshly way by setting up crackers and grape juice.
They didn't even do what Jesus said. If Jesus said bread, as natural bread, then it should not be crackers. Wine would not be grape juice.
These churches that profess the Lord's supper is partaking of crackers and grape juice don't even follow the scripture which they profess to believe ... if they did they would have to partake of "bread" and "wine".
But Jesus was speaking of the Word of God and eating and drinking the Word of God as the Lord's supper.
These churches viewed this in a fleshly way by their own understanding.
But what Jesus was really showing is the following.
John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them,
I (THE WORD) am the bread of life: he that cometh to ME (the Word) shall never hunger; and he that believeth on ME (the Word) shall never thirst.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
(THE WORD, JESUS, is the living bread ... We eat "of this bread", the Word ... )
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John 6:52-54 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
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All of this pertains to the eating and drinking of the Word of God.
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When we view the eating and drinking of the Word of God as the Lord's supper, then the following scriptures in I Corinthians 11 make sense:
I Corinthians 11:26-33 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread (the Word), and drink this cup (the Word) of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself (by what the Word says), and so let him eat of that bread (the Word), and drink of that cup (the Word).
(As we read the New Testament, we examine ourselves by The Word ... making changes as needed by The Word ... and so let us eat that bread, The Scriptures, looking for needed changes ... and so let us drink of that cup (The Word), examining ourselves by The Word.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
(He that reads the Bible in an "unworthy" way, failing to make changes to his own life in spiritual ways, fails to discern the Lord's body which is The Word, making the sacrifice of Jesus by HIS broken body and shed blood of no effect in the man who partakes incorrectly of the scriptures.)
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (die).
(Often people who identify themselves as Christians are in such bad physical and mental conditions ... and usually it is because they failed to partake of the Bible correctly, applying scriptures to their own lives in spiritual ways. Often they have years of failing to do the scripture they are reading. Scripture upon scripture is read and discarded. Therefore sin upon sin continues in those who eat the scripture in an unworthy manner.)
For if we would judge ourselves (by the word of God), we should not be judged.
(If we do the scriptures in spiritual ways we are going to correct ourselves.)
But when we are judged (by God), we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
A teacher at a church I once attended was committing fornication at the time he was teaching our Bible class at that church.
A few years later, he told me fornication was no longer a problem to him. He said "Age took care of that." I thought he was saying he was now impotent.
I would view that as a "chastening of the Lord" that he would not be condemned with the fornicators of this world.
I certainly hope that is the case in his life, and I would hope he came to recognize his sin because of the destruction of his flesh which he brought upon himself by his sin.
Concerning a fornicator in the church, Paul said:
I Corinthians 5:3-5 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
A teacher at a church I once attended was committing fornication at the time he was teaching our Bible class at that church.
A few years later, he told me fornication was no longer a problem to him. He said "Age took care of that." I thought he was saying he was now impotent.
I would view that as a "chastening of the Lord" that he would not be condemned with the fornicators of this world.
I certainly hope that is the case in his life, and I would hope he came to recognize his sin because of the destruction of his flesh which he brought upon himself by his sin.
Concerning a fornicator in the church, Paul said:
I Corinthians 5:3-5 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
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Concerning the eating of the flesh of Jesus and drinking of the blood of Jesus, Jesus said:
John 6:55-58 For MY flesh is meat indeed, and MY blood is drink indeed.
(Eating the scripture is real meat ... the blood of Jesus is real power.)
He that eateth MY flesh, and drinketh MY blood, dwelleth in ME, and I in him.
As the living Father hath sent ME, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth ME, even he shall live by ME.
(You cannot live by Jesus, the Word, unless you eat and drink the scriptures correctly.)
This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
(For the Word of the Lord endures forever.) I Peter 1:25
John 6:59-63 These things said HE in the synagogue, as HE taught in Capernaum.
Many therefore of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
(At that time the disciples, who did not yet have the Holy Spirit, saw this by their own fleshly understand and saw what Jesus said through natural eyes and thought Jesus was speaking of eating HIS real flesh and drinking HIS bodily blood... but Jesus was showing the eating and drinking of the Word of God.)
John 6:61-63 When Jesus knew in HIMSELF that HIS disciples murmured at it, HE said unto them, Doth this offend you?
What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where HE was before?
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
(The Word is spirit and life. The Word is the supper given by the Lord.)
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If you are eating crackers and drinking grape juice at a church group, this will profit you nothing, for all this is fleshly viewing of the scripture by man who set up crackers and grape juice and called it "The Lord's Supper".
Viewing the eating and drinking as partaking of the word of God is spiritual and has great power of God when we eat and drink the scriptures correctly, doing the scriptures.
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In essence, the entire church service where scripture is presented and doctrine is presented is the Lord's supper, when the doctrine is correctly presented at the church service.
If the doctrine presented at the church service is incorrect, then that service is not the Lord's supper. That church group is the end-time apostasy from which we flee.
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Also I Corinthians 11:33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
This means not all have heard the doctrine of Christ. Therefore we speak that doctrine. Those who already know the doctrine "tarry one for another" as those new to the doctrine learn the doctrine.
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If you are attending a church today where they have cast aside portions of the scriptures and you know this is wrong but you remain there to partake of crackers/grape juice thinking it is "The Lord's Supper," you need to reexamine this doctrine for crackers/grape juice is not the Lord's supper.
Crackers/grape juice has no power.
Neither are you better if you eat ... nor are you worse if you do not eat.
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In addition to above, there are other "strange" doctrines in church groups.
The Church of Christ group will not allow instrumental music in the church service.
They use the following scripture as the basis for their doctrine.
Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
But you could sing and make melody in your heart without making any sound at all.
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Another extremely strange doctrine in Church of Christ, which is completely contrary to scripture is this:
They do not approve of their minister being called "pastor". Instead they call him "minister".
There is no basis for this.
In Ephesians 4, we read the following ...
After Jesus arose, HE gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (verses 11-12)
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Another terrible thing in churches today are men who call themselves "Reverend."
There is no example in Bible of a man calling himself "Reverend."
Nor are there popes, nor cardinals in Bible.
All this was added by wicked, fleshly men.
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I'm sure there are other strange doctrines, contrary to the doctrine of Christ in church groups.
It is the time of antichrist in the churches.
Paul
said Jesus could not come back for the church unless the apostasy
happened first ... and that man of sin be revealed who sits in the
temple of God showing himself to be God. II Thessalonians 2 NASB
This sets the stage for the wrath of God that will come upon the whole world ... and the apostate churches which we see today.
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Paul said he knew after his "departure" (death), many would rise up to bring perversions into the churches.
Paul was an apostle, appointed by God, and as long as he was there, he would not allow perversions in the church even when Peter tried to dissemble in the church.
Paul stood up to Peter before everyone and fought down what Peter was doing. And even Barnabas was swept away in Peter's dissimulation (hypocrisy and pretense).
Gal. 2 ... But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
Paul confronted Peter head on, in front of all, not trying to spare Peter's "good name" but bringing truth out to the church without sneaking around closed doors.
So all learned truth this way, by openness in front of all.
(And God put it into the Bible so we could learn from this example 2,000 years later.)
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NT apostles have an anointing from God to deal with scriptures and doctrines in the church.
The terrible times we live in today concerning churches doing what they want to do, removing scripture, changing scripture, omitting parts of scripture, does not negate the work of a real apostle for he will continue to object one way or another, though he can't continue to sit among them when they continue to do this in the church groups.
It is impossible to hold this flood in the churches back because this is the apostasy which Paul said had to come into the churches before Jesus could return.
We are seeing this apostasy today through the removal and changing of scripture in the church group.
Antichrist is everywhere in churches.
Antichrist is not one man but is a spirit in many men just as the devil is not one man but a spirit in many men.
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The poison gas dream:
In 1979, God gave me the following terrifying dream:
Destruction was everywhere.
I went into a meeting room where a meeting was going on. A man was speaking to a room filled with people. I went in and began to listen.
A second man rushed in and said: "Stop ... Wait ... Can't you see ... It's too late ... It's already begun."
The first man resumed speaking.
I went into a meeting room where a meeting was going on. A man was speaking to a room filled with people. I went in and began to listen.
A second man rushed in and said: "Stop ... Wait ... Can't you see ... It's too late ... It's already begun."
The first man resumed speaking.
I looked out the window to see what had "already begun."
There was a tall pole with a yellow civil defense speaker at top of the pole. A gas was coming out of the speaker. I knew it was poisonous and would kill the people. It was coming directly toward us!
The shocking thing was the speaker that was set there for the purpose of warning us was being used as the instrument which dispersed the gas that was poison and would kill us!
I looked at the man seated next to me. He had a big grin on his face and was looking directly at the man who was speaking to the group. But then I saw this man was a corpse, though he looked alive. He was already dead!
I looked about the room at the other people and realized they were all dead.
As I sat back in my chair and listened to the man speaking I began to feel sleepy and I knew as I sat there among them this was killing me too.
God was showing me the anarchy in the church groups, at the time of the dream, 1979. The destruction in the churches was everywhere, even at that time. And it is much worse today.
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Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed
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The restraint was the scripture. When portions of scripture were removed from the church, lawlessness moved into the churches ... thus the apostasy in the churches and antichrist takes over in the church groups through pastors and others.
You will say, "My church isn't a part of the apostasy."
Does your church teach the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery?
This is what Jesus said: Mt. 5:32
If your church allows men to marry divorced women, it is a part of the apostasy.
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BOOK: The New Testament Church
Chapter 2
Joan Boney
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Chapter 2
Joan Boney
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