The apostle Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians deals with their compound spiritual problems including the abuse and misuse of spiritual gifts, in which the apostle Paul prescribed regulation and order for the exercise of gifts. The widespread carnality and apostasy of the Corinthian Church tried to find ways to continue the application of the sign gifts such as tongues and healing, beyond the closing of the Canon in A.D. 96.

Anyone today who claims to possess the first century gifts of apostleship, prophecy, miracles, healing, words of knowledge is apostate. These are sign gifts given to Church Age believers before the completion of the Canon.

Possession of spiritual gifts that put you behind the scene never indicates spiritual inferiority, and eye-catching gifts do not indicate superiority and must never be a source of splitting up in the church. There are no superior or inferior spiritual gifts. They are all from God but each has different angle of manifestation and service but with the same purpose.

The temporary gifts of apostles and prophets were designed for several purposes:

• To provide leadership in the infant Church
• To declare divine will by verbal mystery doctrine
• Recording the New Testament
• Founding the Church
•  Establishing local churches
•  Laying out local church policy
• Training teachers-pastors
•  Training local church leaders

After the pre-canon communication gifts were terminated in A.D. 96, the permanent communication gifts of pastor-teacher and evangelist were established.

The pastor-teacher communicates the whole realm of Bible doctrine inside the local church, while the evangelist communicates the Gospel to groups of unbelievers outside the local church.

The gifts of the pastor-teacher and evangelist are bestowed to men only (1 Corinthians 14:34-35, 1 Timothy 2:12, 3:1-7). There were ladies evangelists in the books of Acts, but those were under the pre-canon period not post-canon.

Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.

The qualifications of the pastors and preachers must be patterned to the biblical criteria, and not by criteria set by the local church council, or pastoral “hiring” committee. The pastors are not employee or hired workers but men called by God to set apart their selfish desires and aspiration to give their entire life for shepherding their local congregation. They are men on duty assigned to communicate the whole realm of Bible doctrine on seasons or out of seasons.

Pastors are not contract workers left to the mercy of the executive committee of the local church. The pastor of every local church must be the most spiritually matured believer in that group not a spiritual novice. The local church is the very classroom for training pastors and workers not the seminary. Most seminary are like canned foods factory. They produce sardines, edible but not nutritional value. They provide your souls nothing but junk foods.

©2005-2009  J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries