Apostolic-Prophetic Movement
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The Apostolic-Prophetic Movement in millennial-era Charismatic Christianity is seen by its participants as a restoration of the neglected elements of the Five-Fold Ministry described in the New Testament book of Ephesians, "some apostles, and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ". Because of the deeply held and culturally distinct shared idiolect of this movement, it is often ill-understood by critics and observers who have not invested sufficient study to master its vocabulary and world-view, which is throughout a culturally contextualized interpretation of the Apostolic Christian world-view expressed in the canon of the New Testament -- as seen through the lens of the late 20th and early 21st century Third Wave Charismatic or Pentecostal experience.
This movement is Primitivist, in that it defers more to the authority of original documents and doctrines than to the later developments and elaborations transmitted by the authorities of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. It may also be associated with primitivism in as much as outsiders interpret prophetic interpretation and descriptions as a variety of magical thinking. Prophecy has been a part of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian practice for more than 100 years, since the Azusa Street Revival, and that world-wide, not merely a local phenomenon of the United States, as witness for example the Kimbanguist Church in Belgian Congo which began with vigor in the 1920s and flourished through 40 years of rigorous, often violent, suppression by the colonial rulers. But in the U.S., the practice gained new impetus in the 1990s, taking on the form of a distinct movement (or "move of the spirit") and defining a new subculture. A notable early forerunner of this movement is David Wilkerson whose book The Vision which made dramatic and incredible predictions in the 1970s which arguably have been borne out, as well as subsequent books such as America's Last Call, and Set the Trumpet to Your Mouth have defined prophecy for a large audience, although he eschews the title of Prophet, for which he does not believe himself qualified.
[edit] The Kansas City Prophets
In the United States, some of the original kernel of influential leaders who shaped the recent movement were Bill Hamon, Rick Joyner, Paul Cain, Bob Jones, Mike Bickle, Jim Goll, and Lou Engle. Cain and Jones were elderstatesmen, who had participated in the Latter Rain Movement of William Branham during the 1950s. A number of these notables, and several less notable leaders and their associates and hangers-on operated frequently out of Kansas City, Missouri during the 1990s -- many still do -- and came to be known to their detractors and supporters alike as the Kansas City Prophets. Of the aforementioned leaders, Paul Cain, in particular, fell into disgrace on moral grounds, leading to a public apology to the "body of Christ" (meaning, Christians at large) by Rick Joyner for promoting Cain's service in the Prophetic office, while overlooking the flaws of his character as judged by Christian standards. Andrew Strom disassociated himself from this leadership circle on related grounds, but remains an active figure in the movement at large as of this writing.
The influence of the movement was, and remains, both controversial and pervasive in Charismatic Christianity It increased the influence and frequency of the practice of prophecy as a Charism, and changed the norms of prophecy in charismatic churches to include not merely pronouncements in the name of God expressing biblical principles and language, but also more directly addressed utterances, directed to individuals or specific groups of individuals, which are notable for evoking credence by demonstrating, either explicitly or through penetrating symbolic language, a detailed knowledge of the private thoughts and circumstances of the addressees. Detractors see this as little more than Cold reading, or as an inimical Psychic clairvoyance, while supporters see it as a work of divine love, inspiring and directly addressing the spiritual needs of the recipient of the message. Even the supporters of the practice are deeply opposed to False prophecy, and emphasize the need to exercise "spiritual discernment" in dealing with the phenomenon.
[edit] The Apostolic Culmination and its Intrinsic Paradox
Following on the heels of the Prophetic Revival, restoring the office of the Prophet to the church, it was predictably inevitable that the last neglected office would gain attention. As people received prophecy that they were to fulfill the role of an Apostle, and attempted to do so, the movement, towards the end of the 1990s, came to be known as Prophetic-Apostolic, Apostolic-Prophetic, or even just plain Apostolic. Aspiring candidates for the Apostolic role were not lacking, but absent any accreditation outside of the supernatural little can be verified. The very meaning of the Apostolic office seems to be a highly variable factor. The etymological origin of the term is a Hellenistic Greek word meaning "one who is sent". One common usage takes the role of the Apostle to be planting churches. Another declines to qualify anyone who has not been commissioned by Jesus Christ in person, or at least by voice mail. A common middle ground seems to be that one is qualified as an Apostle if one is spiritually commissioned by God, and sent to fulfill a task, rather than merely to convey a message, and one's spiritual credentials are validated by supernatural works, or "signs and wonders".
Many readers may be amused by the paradox inherent in this movement, in that the best of it regards the movement itself as inconsequential. It is only by betraying its own ideals that it can be successful as a movement. To be true to its own ideals, it must rather play a very humble role, as an aid to others in their focus on Christ as the quintessential self-expression of God in the temporal world, and as the Perfect form of Humanity. While it is inherent in the practice of Prophecy -- and of Apostolic "signs and wonders" -- to work by means of attracting attention through its extraordinary phenomena, it must, according to its own ideals, always attract that attention to the person, the ministry, and the transcendental reality of Jesus, God, never to the very real, present and visible Prophet or Apostle who is manifest to the senses as uttering the words of supernatural knowledge or executing the miraculous wonders. Surely such a paradox that would have delighted Kierkegaard.
