Apostles And Prophets
By Pastor G. Reckart
Copyright All Rights Reserved

Prophets of God have been upon the earth from the early days of man.  Enoch may be the first who openly prophesied of things to come and spoke openly to his generation about the things of God.  We know Noah was a Prophet.  These early Prophets and their lives and messages set the hermunetic foundation for the true identity of a Prophet of God.  

In observing the life of Enoch we cannot mistake he was a righteous man.  Therefore we must examine all who claim to be Prophets of God to check if they are righteous.  By righteous we are speaking of their entire life.  If there is any unrighteousness they are disqualified to claim the office of a Prophet of God.  Prophets of God do not evolve over a period of time while they wrestle over living in sin and living for God.  Then decide one day they are a Prophet and how they live is no one's business. Prophets of God were proper children usually have a calling upon them at birth. They are never men that once lived wicked and unholy lives.  Prophets came forth from holy and Godly parents.  Such was John the Baptist.  We know others in the Old Testament who fit this profile also.  When a man tells me he is a Prophet I want to ask about his parents and their spiritual lives.  I want to know something about is legacy as a holy man before the Lord our God.  I want to examine his faithfulness to see if he is indeed a man who is a Prophet or has he usurped this office and title unto himself.

If any Prophet of God missed the mark in the Old Testament he would be required to acknowledge his error, repent, and obtain God's favor again (such was David who made a serious mistake).  

There is no such thing as a Prophet of God who lives in sin and who makes no effort to live a righteous life.  These are false prophets and their words should not be followed or acknowledged as coming from God.  God does not use profane mouths to do his work upon the earth.  One of the first objects of ordination is that first the mouth of the one being ordained has been counted righteous and is thereby trustworthy to speak for God and can be trusted by those who hear them.  

Prophets of God like Enoch are a separated group of men whose purpose in life is to serve God among the people as spiritual advisors.  They are seers, one who has such a walk with God that God reveals not only secrets of the heart but also the future.  These men are a special quality.  They judge the heart and mind with such perfection they do not miss the works of the flesh and count them as holy or works of God.  You cannot deceive a Prophet of God when it comes to spiritual knowledge and understanding.  It is right here that a Prophet of God builds his legacy.  He may not have a public life and may not be known wide-spread by great multitudes.  He does his work of God in humility and often in obscurity.  From time to time he comes forth as character of great importance being respected for his Godliness and holy life.  This is the Prophet of God's testimony.  He lives his Prophetship among the people and does not use his gifts to elevate himself to obtain dignity from the unrighteous.  God's Prophets do not seek the rewards of nor the praises of the ungodly.  Therefore, you will not find God's Prophets living and cohorting with those who have given themselves to unrighteousness.  The testimony of a Prophet is his faithfulness.  He is not God's man one day and then walks in the flesh for a few days, weeks, months, and then tries to work back up his gifts to gain attention.  Prophets of God do not hold revivals and special meetings to show off God's power or his ability to do miracles.  Indeed, Prophets of God are public figures and speak openly calling those whom he is sent to, to repent and return to God.  He may even be sent by God to an individual and deliver a message from God.  In all of his Prophetic work he is faithful to Him who called him.  This faithfulness becomes his testimony.  

It was said of Enoch that he had a testimony that pleased God.  It is right here that the Prophets of God are separated from false prophets.  False prophets please the people, not chastising them for their ungodliness and unrighteousness.  False prophets do not live a faithful life.  They are not men of holy character.  They are those who call light darkness and who call darkness light.  They speak lies and deceive their followers that they speak the truth.  They lead souls into spiritual captivity and with their false teachings cause the minds and hearts of thousands to reject the true ways of God.  Having a testimony that pleases God demands a high caliber ethical man whose heart and soul are totally and completely Godward.  A Prophet of God must have a testimony that pleases God.  This testimony is not about his salvation, his salvation experience, about people following after him, or about his deeds and miracles.  It is all about his holiness, Godliness, and righteousness, that qualifies him to be an ordained spokesman for God.  The Church today has few men who qualify to be Prophets of God and the most who claim this office and title have a covetous heart for a ministry they have no calling to hold or fulfill.  They love the title PROPHET attached to their name as if this makes them more special then Pastors and others whom they deem lower in rank.

Over the past twenty years a new breed of prophets have come forth out of the abyss of the modern apostolic renewal or apostolic restoration movement. These claim they are restoring the foundation of the Church.  They claim the missing office of Prophet must be restored or the Church is not complete and will not be perfected for the second coming of Jesus. Those of this new-ecumenicalism claim God has chosen them to restore this office to the Church. The most of these men claiming this are trinitarian.  Why Apostolics even fall for this falsehood tells us why so many now are fellowshipping trinitarians. These men have no holiness about them at all.  Their wives have all the appearances of Jezebels.  One so-called Apostolic Prophet I saw recently had a large diamond studded earring in his right ear.  They are not men or Godliness or Righteousness.  They are a new liberal backslid generation of smooth talkers who are going forth doing miracles in the name of Jesus Christ while at the same time preaching against old fashion living for God.  These rebels against righteousness are leaders of the post-denominational charismatic movement.  Everything that was once sin is now accepted.  They preach against holiness as being legalism and bondage.  They pontificate about how God is accepting homosexuality and lesbianism and the Church should not condemn these conducts.  These modern prophets of Sodom are gathering thousands to their meetings and revivals. They are holding training seminars where those lusting to have the title and office of prophet or apostle can pay $2,000 or more and be anointed and given a certificate of authenticity.  One thing I have noticed among many of these prophets is the wearing of Catholic robes and turned around collars, accented with gold chains about their necks with large dangling five pound brass crosses.  I observed one so-called prophet who had what looked like a round quaker oat box wrapped in white fluffy material upon his head.  It towered about a foot and a half above his head.  It was slipped down upon his head covering part of his ears.  He has a man down on his knees in front of him being ordained a prophet.  Those gathering around were dressed in black Catholic shirts and robes with turned around collars.  It was a real circus. How is it possible there is a generation of people within the Apostolic church that can accept such flim-flamism as authentic?

I will accept no prophet from among this generations ungodly and unrighteous.  I will accept none of them whose wife is a Jezebel.  If he knows not how to keep his own house, I reject him trying to keep the house of God and ministering to the members.  I do not accept any prophet whose ordination comes from a man dressed like a Catholic priest, and furthermore I accept none of his baptisms.  I will rebaptize everyone I can who was baptized by a man who wears Catholic priests garments.  Either we Apostolics are Catholic or we are not.  If we are not then let us make this confession by departing from all the ways of the great whore and her daughters.  Those Apostolics who refuse to separate from Catholicism should be identified for what they are and avoided. This is not a true restoration movement of God.  We are in a generation that now has come to accept the fake and the fraudulent why would they not accept the antichrist upon the same merits and trickery they have accepted these modern false prophets?

Along with these who need to be rejected, there are also modern so-called apostles.  Should we take a good look at the original Apostles of the Lord Jesus we would see holy men.  The one who fell, seeking after religious approval and money, is not our example of a true Apostle.  Apostles are more then "sent" men.  They were qualified BEFORE THEY WERE SENT!  They were already holy men, all of them.  They were devout keepers of the Law. Apostle Peter reveals this about himself in Acts 10 when he replied to the Lord in heaven that he had never eaten anything common or unclean. This tells us a lot about the quality of man Peter was.  He was not a religious play-boy flirting with all the girls and getting as much adultery as he could without anyone knowing.  He and the other Apostles were men of righteousness.  They did not follow after the sins and evils of unholy Israelites.  And, we can be sure they did not follow after the sinful and evil ways of the Gentile world.   Their lives were impeccable.  They lived and breathed God.  They were simple men whose lives so impressed God that Jesus was led directly to each of them and chose them to be Apostles.  They were chosen BEFORE they were trained and SENT!  Many modern so-called apostles were never chosen by God to be Apostles.  These men lusted after and coveted this office and title because they believed it gave them more power and authority among the people and over Churches, Pastors, and Ministers in training.

The twelve Apostles of the Lord were faithful men like the Old Testament Prophets of God.  For three and a half years they proved faithful.  Only in the last days of the life of Jesus, were they fearful of the priest and temple cult and ran and hid.  But they soon recovered from this and stood eye to eye and faced the Sanhedrin Council and refused to be intimidated.  They were proud to be public witnesses of Jesus and his resurrection.  There is not a single case after Judas of any Apostle backsliding and going into the world.  Not one single case of one changing the holiness and righteousness of the Gospel message to water it down.  There is nothing but a testimony of great men endangering their lives to stand for Christ and the Church.  These Apostles are the foundation of the Church and we DO NOT NEED ANY MORE.  The foundation is LAID!  The CORNERSTONE has been set and LAID.  There is no need for more Scripture to be written, so there is no more need for Apostles in the Church.  The original ones already delivered to us to things we are to observe and keep in matters of faith, doctrine, practice, conduct, and order.  We have their testimony in the New Testament.  All we need is the 27 books of the New Testament and we have the Apostle's Doctrine before us.  In spite of this fact, many men today are coming forth and claiming to be apostles. what I am observing is these men are mostly a joke.  They are not real.  And those who follow after these pretending deceivers have very hard hearts and rebellious spirits.  Who among us today has the authority to ordain a man to be an Apostle?  Yet these self-appointed men and women are claiming an office to which there is none to qualify and ordain them.

Recently I attended an Apostolic function where I was invited to have a few words at a Pastor's 25th anniversary.  I traveled over 1400 miles to go there. What I observed shocked me greater then I have been shocked in the past  few months.  I was in the presence of 12 apostles, several prophets, some prophetess, and an assortment of pastors, bishops, and ministers.  Six of the so-called apostles were women.  Of all the apostles, prophets, prophetess, and pastors and bishops only one woman apostle and one man apostle had on common clothes, well sort of.  The woman apostle had on a short-sleeved long dress, had earrings, and rings on nearly all of her fingers.  The man apostle had on what looked like a bell-hop's hotel uniform with gold bands around his sleeves just above the cuffs and gold stripes down the sides of his britches leg.  All the others had on Catholic robes or Catholic black shirts complete with turned around collars.  It looked like I was in the midst of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome and all that was missing was the pope.  There was quite a fan-fare of program events, testimonies, songs, a dance team, and a sermon.  I was there three hours when I was called to come greet the people and give my remarks concerning the Pastor's 25th anniversary.  Some of the large crowd had grown tired and left.  But over 300-400 remained. I made mention that the Pastor's 25th anniversary resembled to me the life sentence a man got for being guilty of some bad crime.  I asked the pastor if he was guilty of something that would cause him to spend 25 years of his life?  He smiled and shook his head yes.  The audience got it and clapped their hands.  I then made reference to the blood of Christ how holy it was.  How that we as sinners were not acceptable to the Lord.  That when we were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and our sins were washed away, that we stood there in our first holiness.  I mentioned that we were at that moment without condemnation before the Lord God and we were holy.  I ask the audience to repeat after me:

If it is not holy, God does not want it!

I did not receive a great response.  Some repeated it but I could tell others were not going to say it.  One woman sitting near my wife spoke to someone sitting near her and said:  "do I have to repeat THAT?"  Of course she was told by the person she asked: "no, you don't have to repeat it."

As quick as lightening, as soon as the people responded in a very subdued manner, I noticed two apostles got up and walked to the rear of the auditorium and about 100 of their members got up and went back there with them.  In one parade of protest they walked out on me.  I observed this rebellious conduct and could not tell if it was a racist response to a white-man's boldness (I was among African-Americans), or if these were flat out rebelling against my saying "if it is not holy God don't want it."  It might have been both.  But, one thing I saw and observed was two apostles leading about a hundred members out of the auditorium.  This was their protest against my statements about being made holy by the blood of Jesus in water baptism, and this being our first holiness.  When these two so-called apostles go up and walked out on me I saw the spirit of hate for the true message of God.  I saw how men like these two deceivers were leading many other thousands down to hell.  Yes, these so-called apostles had been ordained by other unordained men. They had certificates showing they were apostles having received the proper training and ordination.  They looked like Catholic priests back there with their members.  What I saw shocked me!

Today there are many more so-called apostles who need to strip off this Catholic mess.  They need to remove the title apostle from their name.  They need to humble down and seek the life of a real Man of God. I don't expect many men to do it.  But just in case there is an honest one out there who has been caught up in this modern trend of Apostles and Prophets, I want to reach out to them.  I want them to know should they repent of this false religious sham they are involved in, there is mercy and grace from God.

Pastor Reckart
August 9, 2007