This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Making sense of contemporary Charismatic Apostolates An historical and theological appraisal McNair Scott, Benjamin Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 25. Sep. 2021 This electronic theses or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Title: Making sense of contemporary Charismatic Apostolates An historical and theological appraisal Author: Benjamin McNair Scott The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ You are free to: Share: to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Making sense of contemporary Charismatic Apostolates An historical and theological appraisal Benjamin G. McNair Scott Thesis submitted in part fulfilment of the Degree of Doctorate in Theology King’s College, London 2012 Abstract This thesis explores the emerging phenomenon of the charismatic apostolate (CA) within various Christian communities. It aims to make sense of contemporary CAs from a theological and historical perspective by incorporating historical investigation, theological analysis and biblical exegesis. The thesis describes the current situation with regard to CAs in the USA and UK; traces its history within the Church catholic and amongst the theological reflection of the Christian churches; identifies current trends and issues; offers detailed descriptions of CAs being propagated by influential teachers; explains the reasons for a widespread growth of CAs across a broad church spectrum; critically engages with the exegetical debates that still surround it; offers both a theological and ecclesiological critique of popular modern portrayals of CAs, and provides an analysis of potential future trajectories of the CA within the British churches. This thesis defends the position that forms of the CA are a legitimate theological development enjoying biblical support which should be welcomed by the Church catholic, and argues that the ongoing development of the CA needs to be ecumenically sensitive to alternative understandings of apostleship as well as historic orders to avoid having a negative impact on the flourishing of the universal church. 2 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Andrew Walker and Professor Andrew Wright: Professor Walker for his belief that this study was important and for his advice and encouragement; Professor Wright for his willingness to take up supervision in light of Andrew’s illness and casting a very insightful eye over everything and giving indispensable pointers. I would also like to thank all those who contributed to this study through enduring phone calls, emails and face-to-face interviews. I am indebted to Father Peter Hocken whose writings on the Charismatic movement provided me with a framework to see the challenge of new ‘stream movements’ to the older churches, and the respective challenge that the older churches might have to these movements. I would also like to thank my father who has generously sponsored this study from first to last; to my mother and Terry J. Wright for proof-reading it; and finally, to my wife Cecilia, who has lived with this time-consuming aspect of my life for the last five years. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. 3 Table of Contents Page no. 2 Abstract 3 Acknowledgments 6 Abbreviations 9 Glossary 12 Introduction 12 Thesis theme 16 My Proposal 18 Methodology and methods 28 Literary Review Disclaimer and Limitations 29 Outline of Study Part 1: WHERE WE ARE 33 Chapter 1: Apostles Today USA 33 Introduction 35 Pentecostal/Charismatic churches and ‘Apostleship’ today 37 Historic Pentecostal Denominations: USA 44 Historic Denominational Charismatics: USA 53 Independent Charismatic Churches/Neo Apostolic Churches/ Modern Independent Pentecostal Churches: USA 61 Another noteworthy independent stream: House Church. 63 Conclusion 64 Chapter 2: Apostles Today Britain 64 Introduction 70 Historic Pentecostal Denominations: UK 72 Historic Denominational Charismatics: UK 83 Independent Charismatic Churches/ Neo Apostolic Churches/ Modern Independent Pentecostal: UK 89 Conclusion 91 Chapter 3: Popular Charismatic Teachers on Apostles 91 Introduction 93 Derek Prince – ‘Acts 13; The Missing Link apostles’. 99 Peter Wagner – ‘Ephesians 2:20; Authoritative Multi-type apostles’ 106 Mike Breen – ‘Luke 10 apostles’ 112 Terry Virgo: ‘1 Corinthians 3:10; Master-teacher apostles’ 116 Kenneth Hagin: ‘Ephesians 4:11-13 – Ascension gift, non-foundational apostles’ 121 Conclusion 4 Part 2: HOW WE GOT HERE 125 Chapter 4: Post-Biblical History of Charismatic Apostles 125 Introduction 126 End of the 1st Century to the 5th Century: The Didache to Jerome 139 6th Century to the End of the 16th Century 144 End of the 16th Century to the end of the 20th Century (circa 1990) 168 Conclusion 169 Chapter 5: Shifting Perspectives – How a Minority Viewpoint Became Widespread 169 Introduction 172 Reasons for the Shift 183 Conclusion Part 3: WHAT WE SHOULD MAKE OF IT 186 Chapter 6: Biblical Counter-Arguments and Legitimations for an Ongoing CA 186 Introduction 186 Part 1: Biblical counter-arguments 201 Part 2: Biblical legitimations 212 Conclusion 213 Chapter 7: Theological/Ecclesiological Critique of Popular Evangelical Conceptions of the CA 213 Introduction 214 Part 1: Appraising CAs generally 224 Part 2: Appraising specific types of CAs 224 Apostle type 1 240 Apostle type 2 244 Apostle type 3 245 A Proposal 247 Meeting the Challenge 251 Conclusion Part 4: WHERE IT MIGHT GO 254 Summary and Conclusion 254 Summary 256 Mapping the Future of the CA 258 Apostle type 1 in Britain 260 Apostle type 2 and 3 in Britain 262 A final word APPENDICES & BIBLIOGRAPHY 265 Appendix A: Example of email questions and answers 269 Appendix B: Example of telephone interview 274 Appendix C: Example of face to face interview 278 Appendix D: Log of correspondences and interviews 283 Bibliography 5 Abbreviations A1 – Apostle type 1 A2 – Apostle type 2 A3 – Apostle type 3 ACNA – Anglican Church of North America AFC – Apostolic Faith Church AoG – Assemblies of God APEPT – Apostle Prophet Evangelist Pastor Teacher ARC – Alliance of Renewal Churches BEM – Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (World Council of Churches Document) BM – Baptist Mainstream CA – Charismatic apostolate CAC – Catholic Apostolic Church CofE – Church of England COGIC – Church of God in Christ CGC – Church of God (Cleveland) CCR – Catholic Charismatic Renewal CMS – Church Missionary Society DPM – Derek Prince Ministries 6 ECG – Equipping, Calling, Going – yearly Methodist Renewal conference in the UK ECPN – European Church Planting Network ECUSA – Episcopalian Church United States of America FLF – Fort Lauderdale Four/Five GAFCON – Global Anglican Future Conference GEAR – Group for Evangelism and Renewal HSRM – Holy Spirit Renewal Ministry HTB – Holy Trinity Brompton IC – Independent Charismatic ICA – International Coalition of Apostles ICFG – International Church of the Foursquare Gospel IHOP – International House of Prayer IPHC – International Pentecostal Holiness Church IVP – Inter-Varsity Press KCP – Kansas City Prophets KICC – Kingsway International Christian Centre KF – Kingdom Faith LR – Lutheran Renewal MET – Methodist