~ A place to find answers to gnawing spiritual questions ~
Question: Can you please explain how it is that Paul became an apostle? Wasn't the criteria for being an apostle that he must have seen the resurrected Christ, performed a miracle, and been chosen by Jesus himself?Answer: The criteria for being an apostle is simply whoever the Lord sees fit to put into that office. Man looks on the outside but God sees the heart. We are put into the body by God. The Lord knows what He wants each person to do. An apostle's job is to bring forth the final word on church order and doctrine. He also is a messenger or one sent forth to pioneer a work in a foreign land. It takes a powerful anointing to establish a church in a city that is wholly given over to sin and vice, such as Corinth or Ephesus, where people worshipped the god of sex. An apostle definitely has the gifts of the spirit operating in his life to a great degree.
Paul saw the Lord Jesus on the way to Damascus and it blinded him. He also had an angelic visitation. He worked miracles and cast out many devils.
Paul was a teacher and preacher; then he was promoted to prophet. He spent three years in the Arabian desert alone with God, probably being told by the Lord what to write in his epistles, and was caught up into the third heaven and told things he was not allowed to write about. John the apostle was allowed to write things in the book of Revelation.
There were other apostles mentioned in scripture besides Paul and the twelve Jesus called, such as James the Lord's brother, Matthias, Andronicus, Barnabas, Silas, Epaphroditus, Junias and Apollos. A book written by Herbert Lockyer called "All the Apostles of the Bible" has a lot of information on this subject.
Copyright © 2008 - The Lorain County Free-Net Chapel
North Central Ohio, U.S.A.
Home of David Wilkerson's Times Square Church Pulpit Series Multilingual Web Site
http://www.tscpulpitseries.org
Webmaster
This page was last updated December 23, 2008.
Why Revival Tarries/ "Help!"/ What's Here/ Bookstore/ Statement of Faith/ Bible Study/ Around the Piano/ Bulletin Board/ Library/ Home