Why Should the Apostles Be Trusted? - By Doug Powell

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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*Sigh* There isn't a single Scripture in this entire presentation. No quotes, not even a reference. We will provide Scripture references for the author, since he can't bother with them himself.

It seems that he isn't trying to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the apostles so much as he wants to show how unique and special they are, and by implication that there are no more apostles. 

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During his three years of ministry, Jesus taught many people, sometimes several thousand at a time. And a number of those probably heard him more than once. But there was a group of twelve men personally selected by Jesus to be specially trained by him. (Let's do the author's work for him:

Mt. 10:2-3 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Mt. 10:4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

We will need to revisit this list later.) 

They traveled together, ministered together, learned together, and did life together.

Jesus gave this small group access to him in a way that no one else had. (Mt. 24:3)

They received intense instruction and were able to ask him for clarification about his public teaching. (Mt. 13:10) 

They watched how he interacted with all kinds of people from different social stations, and they observed him in many different situations. Some of the most powerful miracles—such as walking on water (Jn. 6:19)

or calming the storm (Mt. 8:26)

—were witnessed only by them. They became better acquainted with Jesus’s message and character than anyone else. In fact, after Jesus commanded the storm to calm, the twelve not only worshipped him as God, [At the moment Jesus did this, they did not worship him [Mt. 8:27, Mk. 4:41, Lk. 8:25]. But they did worship Him when Peter walked on water [Mt. 14:33].)

but Jesus accepted it—an acknowledgement of his deity. (There is no record of Jesus accepting worship. However, in several instances He was worshiped but did not stop them from doing so. This implies acceptance, of course, but there is no statement in the Bible that aligns with the author's assertion.)

At the discovery of the empty tomb, these were the people to whom the angels sent the women. (Mk. 16:7)

And that evening, it was to this group of men that Jesus appeared. (Mk. 16:14)

For forty days, he gave them many proofs that he was truly resurrected. (Ac. 1:3)

But he mainly taught them truths they couldn’t have understood before the resurrection. (Mk. 6:52, Mt. 16:9, Mk. 8:17, Mk. 9:32. But of course, they also understood a great deal [Mt. 13:51, Mt. 16:12, Mt. 17:13])

New teaching was revealed, and the instruction they received before his death took on new meaning.

At the end of the forty days, (Ac. 1:6-8) 

Jesus met them on a mountain (Ac. 1:12)

and gave them final instructions. He commissioned them to spread his teaching throughout the world to make and baptize disciples. He gave them the authority to speak in his name, and he equipped them to do it. Then, before their eyes, he ascended into heaven. Ten days later, the Holy Spirit came and empowered them to act on that commission. (Ac. 2:1)

The Greek word for their special office is apostle, which means messenger. (https://biblehub.com/greek/652.htm)

Given that Jesus is God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, being sent by him is the same thing as being sent by God. In the Old Testament, a person given a message from God is a prophet. Therefore, the apostles are the New Testament equivalent of prophets. They had the authority to teach the message of Jesus, correct those who misunderstood it, and protect it from attack. No one else was equipped and commissioned for that work in such an authoritative way. True, Judas was not a true believer and fell away. But the remaining eleven, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, replaced him with Matthias, (Actually, we don't know that the Holy Spirit guided them to make this choice. The Bible mentions that they prayed [Ac. 1:24], but they cast lots to choose between Barsabbas and Matthias [Ac. 1:26].)

a follower of Jesus from the beginning and witness of many of the same things. (The author is alluding to Ac. 1:21-22:

Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.

Unfortunately for the author, this passage is not about what the apostles witnessed. The text is clear: "Become a witness with us." The new apostle was to join with them in the ministry of providing witness regarding the resurrection, i.e., testifying.)

In addition to these twelve, Jesus appeared to his brother, James, who became not only a believer, but an apostle. (We shall do the author's work for him. There are three James: The brother of John, the son of Alpheus, and the brother of Jesus.

The men in the upper room:

Ac. 1:13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

Here's that list of apostles again:

Mt. 10:2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Mt. 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Mt. 10:4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Notice that the list is different. The men in the upper room included Judas, the son of James, while the list of the apostles included Thaddaeus but not Judas son of James.

The first James in this list from the upper room was the brother of John, while the second James was the son of Alphaeus. The first James was put to death:

Ac. 12:1-2 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.

Then we have Jesus' brother:

1Co. 15:7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles...

He was called an apostle:

Ga. 1:19 I saw none of the other apostles — only James, the Lord’s brother.

But remember, Jesus' brothers did not believe:

Jn. 7:5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

This means James believed later, and was not part of the Twelve, though he was eventually became an apostle. Despite the author's claim about the apostles, not all apostles were a follower of Jesus from the beginning and witness of many of the same things.) 

The only apostle to be commissioned after the forty days was Saul of Tarsus, who became known as Paul. (This is spectacularly false. Clearly other men were also apostles, and they were leaders and builders and messengers within the church. Let's count them.

First we note that the betrayer Judas Iscariot committed suicide and was replaced by Mathias (#13). Then according to the below verses, there were others:

Acts 14:14 But when the apostles Barnabas (#14) and Paul (#15) heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: "Men, why are you doing this?"

Romans 16:7 Greet Andranicus #16) and Junias (#17), my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was."

Ph. 2:25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus (#18), my brother, fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, who is also your messenger (apostolos), whom you sent to take care of my needs.  

Ga. 1:19 I saw none of the other apostles — only James [#19], the Lord’s brother.

2Co. 8:23 As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives (apostolos) of the churches and an honor to Christ.

This last verse is interesting in that it does not identify these apostles by name. Apparently there were many apostles, and they were working in every church and doing excellent work. 

1Co. 9:5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 

Hmm, "all the Lord's brothers." It seems that all of Jesus' brothers became apostles. Those men are 

Mk. 6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph [#20], Judas [#21], and Simon [#22]? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Though not specifically identified as apostles, we could assume by their prominent mention that these might have been apostles. Notably,

• Apollos (1Co. 1:12)
• Priscilla and Aquila (Ro. 16:3)
• Epaphras (Phile. 23)
• Silas (1Pe. 5:12), and
• Demetrius (3Jn. 12).

In addition, we might add

• many, if not all, the people listed in Romans 16
• Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus (1Co. 16:17)
• Tychicus (Col. 4:7) as well as many of the others listed in Galatians 4, and
• Artemas (Tit. 3:12), as well as the others listed in Titus 3. 

Remember that someone named Judas the son of James was mentioned as being in the upper room? It seems likely he was an apostle as well.

So. There are way more than 12 apostles. In fact, since we know there were dozens of apostles named, and several more implied, it is therefore quite possible that the churches were actually obeying Ephesians 4:11-12:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up...

There are 12 foundational apostles in the Holy City, not named:

Re. 21:14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

So there were foundational apostles of particular note, but there were many other apostles at work in the early church, none of which qualify according to the apostles' criteria in Ac. 1:21-22. 

This means that either all these people were full apostles in every sense of the word, which negates the idea of the exclusivity and temporary nature of apostleship; or, there were a variety of kinds of apostles, which would be even worse for the author because it would negate his implication that that there can be no apostles today.)

The apostles radically reoriented their lives to focus on spreading the good news given to them by Jesus. And they were rewarded with hardship, torture, and eventually martyrdom, which indicates their conviction that what they were teaching was true. Although tradition varies about where the apostles travelled or how they were killed, only one—John—died of natural causes. All of them gave their lives for what they’d been taught and equipped for.

The earliest believers considered the teachings of these men as authoritative. They even collected their letters and writings. In some cases, the followers of the apostles—Mark and Luke—wrote down their teachings. (What about Jude?)

These writings form the authority that the early church fathers appealed to as they explained and defended Christianity to a world that didn’t know anything about it. The writings of the apostles were preserved and passed down, and are still the authority for the church today: the New Testament.