Answer:
The apostolic movement is something C Peter Wagner has been a big part of starting… it seeks to restore apostles and prophets to the church. Not all people in this movement view modern “apostles” and “prophets” in the same way. Many believe that “apostles” are simply gifted, visionary leaders who have a strong, evangelistic calling to a specific geographical region or people group (like church planters) and that “prophets” simply have the New Testament gift of prophecy. However, it is true that others in the apostolic-prophetic movement believe that “apostles” and “prophets” are authorized by their gift to give new teachings not found in the Bible and that all Christians must submit to the “apostles” and “prophets”.
At AC3, we believe and teach that there has been no cessation of the gift of prophesy or apostleship. I’m of the opinion that some traditions have so squelched the supernatural out of fear of unregulated "weirdness" that they've choked out any possibility of God working and speaking in fresh and powerful ways through gifted leaders and teachers. Some in this camp would go so far as to deny the existence of an apostolic or prophetic gift entirely.
However, the argument that these gifts (alone among the gifts listed in Scripture) somehow ceased or died out is weak. The argument is usually built on Paul's statement in 1 Cor 13:11 that, "when i grew up, i put away childish things". This passage is made to be a reference to the formation of the Biblical canon, that once it is formed the childish thing "put away" would be the early church's reliance on the prophetic gift. It may be true that the formation of the canon allowed the church to lean less on the gift of prophesy, but Paul is clearly not referring to the NT canon in 1 Cor 13 - it's doubtful such an idea was ever in his mind. He is referring to the childish behavior of the Corinthians who are clearly and lovelessly misapplying the gift of tongues and prophecy in their public meetings.
Clearly, Scripture gives precedence to the first Apostles - distinct apostles called, "the Twelve", who had unique authority to frame the faith once for all (Rev 21:14, Eph 2:20) - and their teaching is enshrined as our Scripture. But later, others would come, not of the Twelve, who had the apostolic gift (which simply means, "Sent One") - even some women, like Junias (Rom 16:7). So there seems to be no good reason to think that the gift died out with the 12.
There are other traditions, however, that have given their Apostles and Prophets such far ranging authority that they at times threaten to contradict the 12 (IE, the Bible) or at the very least are given carte blanche leadership, creating serious excesses, which in some cases qualify as spiritual abuse and/or actual charlatanism.
Peter Wagner was the first to call the apostolic-prophetic movement the “New Apostolic Reformation.” I like Wagner well enough, and have read several of his books on church growth, prayer and spiritual warfare. But in my view, he's often showed poor discernment. For example in the 90's he was pushing spiritual mapping which endeavored to label and associate specific spiritual forces with certain geography or territory. While I have no doubt that evil spiritual forces are active in this world, I've never understood why spiritual mapping was important, or what the biblical precedent was for such practice. Wagner I believe stops short of full blown prosperity theology but many others in the NAR are guilty of embracing it fully - and exporting it to Africa as I read in Christianity Today recently.
Wagner has said, "2001 ushered in the new apostolic age.” which seems a bold statement that underlines the authority that's claimed for prophecy, pronoucements and people in the NAR. When these bold endorsements fail the test of time, it never seems to bring the expected humility. Wagner for example, comissioned Todd Bentley, author of Lakeland Revival, who specialized in kicking, punching or drop kicking sick people to command illness out of them, and he is now divorced and going through other scandal. None of this is unique to the NAR, but it seems like the risk of abuse is higher, and the healthy push-back is lower when Apostles are looked at on a level akin to the original 12 Apostles. No modern apostle has authority anything like the Twelve, and therefore ought to operate accountable to the Body of Christ in some very clear way. The surest way is to remember the principle of plurality in leadership implied by Jesus picking 12 in the first place (rather than just 1), and Paul placing elders - plural - over every local body he planted (Titus 1:5).
The basic idea that church offices ought to be driven by those with certain demonstrable leadership gifts is biblical and so is the idea that those leaders should be followed. The idea that these gifts confer on a person the freedom to have their excesses or behaviors unchallenged or the authority to change what the church was given by the first Apostles, or to operate unaccountable to the Body, is not biblical.
