Sunday, February 06, 2005
How many apostles were there?
Speaking of Matthias, I caught a sermon by a fundamentalist preacher on the radio somewhat in the middle of it, but it seemed to me that he was arguing that the election of Matthias was invalid, presumably because it was done by casting lots, and that God over-ruled the early Christians by making Paul an apostle. The moral, he said, was that we shouldn't force God to choose between two man-made choices, but rather, we should give him the maximum freedom in revealing his will. (He used Matthias as an example of this, although the principle seems valid).
My question is: how common is this line of thought? And, if Paul was an apostle and so was Matthias, then weren't there 13 apostles?
My question is: how common is this line of thought? And, if Paul was an apostle and so was Matthias, then weren't there 13 apostles?
