by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
The apostles of Jesus were eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus (Acts 1:13f). They had to have personally seen Jesus alive from the dead. Nobody today meets that criterion. But those Jesus chose to be sent out by Him as His personal eyewitnesses were also equipped by the Holy Spirit with miraculous power.\u00a0Again, no one has these signs and power today. Paul had all the “signs” of an apostle (II Corinthians 12:13f). Not only could such eyewitnesses testify of what they saw, but could verify that God was confirming their testimony with miracles (Hebrews 2:1-4).<\/p>\n
One “sign” of an apostle of Jesus was the power to lay their hands on others and impart Holy Spirit power to others. Peter and John displayed this “sign” in Samaria (Acts 8:13-19). Paul displayed this “sign” of an apostle in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-6). There are none who can and are doing this today! That is because the original eyewitness apostles were not for just first-century disciples, but would deliver “all truth<\/em>” (John 16:13), the faith “once for all delivered to the saints<\/em>” (Jude 3-4). The original hand-selected-by-Jesus apostles are the ones we stand on for truth and judgment for all time. They left the complete testimony in the 27 books of the New Testament of Jesus Christ. We stand on that foundation (Ephesians 2:18ff).<\/p>\n All others who claim equal authority with those eyewitnesses are but false apostles with lying and deceptive spirits with no better-verifying credentials than Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8 ). If modern men cannot demonstrate (I Corinthians 2:2) the signs of an apostle, we have no obligation to respect anything they say (Galatians 1:6-10). Beware of false teachers!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton The apostles of Jesus were eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus (Acts 1:13f). They had to have personally seen Jesus alive from the dead. Nobody today meets that criterion. But those Jesus chose to be sent out by Him as His personal eyewitnesses were also equipped by the Holy Spirit with miraculous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[170,428,340],"class_list":["post-62260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-apostles","tag-gifts-of-the-holy-spirit","tag-signs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68992,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/modern-apostles\/","url_meta":{"origin":62260,"position":0},"title":"Modern Apostles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton We know the names, power, and testimony of Jesus's twelve eye-witnessing apostles. We read their names and powers here: \"Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63873,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-apostles\/","url_meta":{"origin":62260,"position":1},"title":"The Apostles (Sermon)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Corinthians 11:1-15 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I Corinthians 12:28-29; Ephesians 4:11-13 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The world contains many strange ideas regarding apostles. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Mormons and some other denominations claim their organization is more truly like the first century church because they have apostles. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have had some strong discussions with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92667,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-baptism-of-the-holy-spirit-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":62260,"position":2},"title":"When Did Baptism of the Holy Spirit Change?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton At the beginning, when Jesus performed the baptism that no man could perform, baptism with the Holy Spirit, people knew it because of the powerful miracles from heaven that attended it and demonstrated it. They knew Jesus did this from heaven because there was a display\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18130,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-jesus-and-the-apostle-only-do-miracles-after-receiving-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":62260,"position":3},"title":"Could Jesus and the apostle only do miracles after receiving the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you think that Jesus was able to perform miracles after His baptism because the Holy Spirit came to Him and that Jesus was not able to perform miracles before this because He didn't have the Holy Spirit? This was presented in class and my gut feeling is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55455,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-certified-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":62260,"position":4},"title":"The Certified Gospel (Adams)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Connie Adams via\u00a0Searching the Scriptures \"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man\" (Galatians 1:11). In this statement, Paul placed the gospel he preached in contrast to the perverted gospel which some had brought to the churches of Galatia (Galatians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/certified.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29961,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-any-believer-cast-out-demons\/","url_meta":{"origin":62260,"position":5},"title":"Could any believer cast out demons?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could believers who had been baptized cast out demons as well or just the apostles? 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