Are they really teaching the doctrine of the Apostles?
Denominations are similar to small and large business today. They look for a way to distinguish themselves from other religions and denominations. In business, this is called “branding” Such is the case of the “Apostolic Church.” There are several groups which call themselves “Apostolic.” Generally speaking, these churches all seek to uphold or return to the teachings and practices of the first church. The largest groups are probably the Apostolic Church (or Apostolic Faith Church), which was born out of the Welsh revival of 1904-1905; and the New Apostolic Church International, which is traced back to the British revivals of the 1830s.
One of the first problems that we see with the Apostolic Church of today is that they claim to have the teaching of the early Apostles. These Apostles of course were taught by Christ himself who then commanded these men to go out and preach the gospel unto all nations. (Matthew 28:19) Christ also said unto Peter “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) If the early church was built upon Peter, why did these new denominations feel the need to establish a new order with founders and dates of establishment?
From the Apostilicfaith.org website:
The Apostolic Faith Church sprang from the Azusa Revival of 1906 which took place in Los Angeles, California. Our founder, Florence Crawford, was one who received the infilling of the Holy Spirit at those meetings, and in 1908 she moved to Portland, Oregon, and established the headquarters of this ministry.”
If people took the time to read the Bible, they would discover that what Christ taught the Apostles is a contradiction of what these apostolic denominations are teaching today, yet their claim is that they are teaching the Apostles doctrine.
One of the main selling points of the Apostolic Church movement comes from the Apostle Peter. When some of the Jews had recognized that Baptism the person that they were responsible for killing was the messiah, the Son of God, they asked Peter and the rest of the Apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter’s response to him was to “repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Is this actually what Peter told them? While the Bible is correct, we must take a research methodology approach to determine the correct answer to this question. Here are a few indisputable facts:
With the introduction of the printing press (invented by Johann Gutenberg in 1448) to Great Britain in the mid 15th century by William Caxton, English became more standardized and modern English appeared. Sometime in the mid-16th century, V and U were split into two letters, with U becoming the vowel, and V, the consonant. In 1604, Robert Cawdrey published the first English dictionary, the Table Alphabeticall, and about this time, J was added to create the modern English alphabet we know today. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Yes, the letter J was the last letter added to the English dictionary in the 1600’s. Prior to this time, there were no words that had the”J’ sound as in Jeremiah. Joshua, or Jesus. The letter is a late modification of Roman -i-.
Even a quick glance of the Geneva Bible of 1560 (prior to the publication of the 1611 King James Bible that is popular today) shows that the NAME JESUS had not yet come into use. Did the person exist? Of course he did. But his parents never called him JESUS nor did the Apostles teach that one must be baptized in THAT NAME because the English language had not been yet developed. While the Geneva Bible does not show the original name for the son, it does show that within the English language alone, he was called by other names until the development of the “J”. Prior to this time, the name for the son was known as Iefus. That’s right, if your ancestors were baptized during the Middle-English error and were part of some form of the “Apostolic Church”, they would have been baptized in the name of IEFUS.
Not only is this doctrine of today’s “Apostolic Church” NOT a Biblical doctrine, this doctrine is a doctrine established by English Speaking people. Now imagine this. They have made this English name popular and have even spread this doctrine to non-speaking English nations, teaching them that in order to be saved, they must be baptized in the name of Jesus (an English name that is only about 550 years old) according to Acts 2:38. We must repent, we must be baptized, but it must be in the same name that the Apostles used. That is the true Apostles doctrine!
Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Apostolic-church.html#ixzz3MAftpgDd
http://www.apostolicfaith.org/OurFaith/History.aspx
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/09/the-origin-of-the-english-alphabet/
Geneva Bible of 1560
