As I taught my sons from the time they were young, “God’s greatest present is His Presence.” That is The Main Thing. Ezekiel closes his book by revealing the glorious name of the glorious city he just spent nine chapters describing: “Yahveh-is-There.” The last two chapters of the Christian canon likewise confirm that what makes the eternal abode of the saints indescribably delightful is that The Lord God Almighty and The Lamb are there, and they will see His face! John Piper correctly summarizes, “God is the gospel.”

Unfortunately, when applied to the present condition these profound truths are easily used as mere sentimental aphorisms rather than describing a substantive, objective reality for personal and communal subjects to actually immerse in. I present, therefore, three crucial claims in increasing order of their specificity and controversial nature.

Claim #1: The Presence of God with His people is the sine qua non of true religion since at least the days of the exodus from Egypt, with precursors in the theophanies to the patriarchs, Noah, Enoch, and Adam and Eve. God’s image-bearing children were made to walk with Him. The key feature of Moses’ Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple was that the God of Israel, aka the Creator of the Universe, actually dwelt in a house within the physical realm of the nation. The second temple was a mere pile of stones until visited by the incarnate Logos, the new locus of the tabernacling Presence of God among His people.

Division #1: This doctrine distinguishes the message of the Bible from that of the Quran more than any other, even more (I say) than works vs faith-based soteriology. The Kaaba houses no living entity, and indeed it is a point of pride, not shame, for Muslims that Allah is too transcendent to be found on earth. Orthodox Jews recognize the centrality of the Shekinah in Tanakh, and hence some continue to weep and wail at the Western Wall, but since their lack of a consecrated Temple for two millennia is undeniable most find appeasement in assurances such as, “We still have Torah and Shabbat.” As we will shortly see, lampstand-plundered Christians apply their own analogous balms.

Claim #2: The distinguishing Manifest Presence of God with His people is empirically seen and heard via supernatural signs. It is not merely deduced from doctrines and syllogisms. In the Hebrew Scriptures it was sometimes necessary to pass down memory of God’s demonstrations of power from generation to generation, but Jesus’ inauguration of His Messianic Kingdom and Pentecostal endowment on His church initiated the dispensation of ongoingly and indiscriminately available outpouring of the Spirit of God on His people as prophesied by Joel. Passages to be adduced could also include: John 14:12, Acts 10:44-11:18, 15:14, 1 Cor 12-14, Rev 11:4-6.

Division #2: Charismatics say, “Amen.” Cessationists are dropping out at this point, viewing aspects of this claim as not giving (sufficient) heed to the uniqueness of the Apostolic Age in redemptive history.

Claim #3: Apostles and prophets are the foundation of the Spirit-filled church (Eph 2:20), the “first” and “second” members necessary to incorporate God’s people into one body in one Spirit (1 Cor 12:28, Ephesians 4:4ff). This foundation must be laid afresh whenever and wherever the church is established in new geographic and/or ethno-linguistic territory (Rom 15:18–24), which is itself the priority focus of the apostolic ministry (2 Cor 10:13–16). Apostles and prophets are needed “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:7-14), which has not yet reached consummation. A genuine apostle performs signs and wonders and mighty works (2 Cor 12:12) and preaches publicly even in the face of potentially deadly persecution and opposition (Mt 10, Acts 2-28). A genuine prophet provides specific, actionable revelation (Acts 11:28–30).

Division #3: A few frontier-missions-oriented Charismatics accept these things, recognizing that without genuine apostles and prophets bold, thriving, reproducing, healthy churches will not be established in Muslim-majority or other “hard to reach” lands. There is also a slowly growing academic awareness¹ that the semantic range of “apostleship” in Scripture is wider than just the Twelve (plus Paul), and that indeed “apostle” is the best Biblical category to map to what we call frontier missionaries today, but this literature tends to ignore or downplay the supernatural evidence and public-heralding focus of genuine NT apostleship. Nevertheless, very few people, in established “Christian nations,” even among the missionally Charismatic, feel the need for genuine, living apostles and prophets and either haven’t given the matter much consideration or have various theological reasons as to why they are not necessary.

Conclusion

If these three claims are true, then the absence of genuine apostles and prophets in our midst would most likely indicate the absence of the special, manifest, distinguishing Presence of God among His people, which would thus mean we are indeed missing The Main Thing.

Cited references

1. Arthur F. Glasser et al., Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2003), 301–302, and references therein.
   Leslie B. Flynn, 19 Gifts of the Spirit (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2012), 47–48. ↩︎