The Bible tells us that in the beginning of His Ministry, Jesus chose twelve of His disciples who were to become His Apostles to the new Church arising because of the New Covenant which God the Father made between Himself and His people. Those original twelve Apostles were Simon Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John also a son of Zebedee, Matthew called Levi, James the brother of Matthew, Lebbaeus also called Thaddaeus the brother of Matthew and James, Philip from Bethsaida, Bartholomew also known as Nathanael, Thomas called Didymus, Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot.
Prior to the day of Pentecost, when the Apostles were commissioned and anointed to spread the Gospel throughout the World, Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord Jesus and ceased to be an active apostle because of his death. Believing that it was their duty to select another person to replace Judas in the office of an apostle, lots were drawn and a person named Matthias was chosen to become the twelfth apostle.
A point to be made here was that in the beginning Jesus himself chose those twelve men to be His apostles and if one was to be replaced, it was His right to choose who it would be and not the other apostles to make the choice.
Since Jesus did not chose Matthias, He eventually appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and commissioned Saul, who was to be known as Paul, to be the twelfth apostle replacing Judas who died.
Now might be the place to clear up a misunderstanding about who actually chose these men to become apostles even though this was the way I stated it previously. Why did I state that it was Jesus who chose these men to become apostles? It was because the teaching of this has been taken out of context by Bible Teachers for years and was taught to the Church in this manner.
In reality, it was not Jesus who chose these particular men, but God the Father, Jehovah himself did the choosing and made it know to His Son Jesus and with this knowledge Jesus called these men into service. Ephesians chapter one and verse four makes it clear that these apostles were chosen by God the Father before the foundation of the World.
I would like to insert just one thing at this point that may be swirling around in your head because of this last statement I made concerning what God did verses what Jesus did. If you are of the false belief that God the Father, Jehovah and Jesus the stated Son of God are one and the same, then I would like to suggest that you read another article concerning Jehovah God and His Son Jesus. Click on the following link:
The original twelve apostles were chosen to take the Gospel message to the Jews only who were scattered throughout the World and their commission had nothing to do with the Gentile people. That is why Saul of Tarsus was chosen by God and called into service by Jesus on the road to Damascus, for him to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
Out of the original twelve apostles and if you will, including Matthias who the other apostles chose to replace Judas, only three of them are recorded in the Bible to have been active in delivering the gospel to the Jewish people. These three were Peter, John and James, the very three who were always part of the inner circle with Jesus during His ministry. With reference to the gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke, it points out the close association of these threw men with Jesus when others were not present.
According to our Bible, from the day of Pentecost onwards through the remainder of the Bible, only the ministries of Peter, Paul, James and John are noted. Absolutely nothing is said about the ministries of the other nine apostles is mentioned, if in fact they exercised a ministry of preaching the Gospel throughout the World. Peter, James and John ministered mainly to the Jews and Paul ministered to the Gentiles. If these other apostles were in active ministries, don’t you think it would have been important enough to be included in our Bible?
There are many stories, myths and legends concerning the other original apostles and in some cases have been published in book form, but why were the ministries of these apostles not included in our Bible as a part of the Acts of the Apostles? Were these men not as important as Peter, Paul, James and John to have their acts included in the Bible for us?
It is my belief that because of the decisions made by the Nicene Council as to what writings would be included in the Canon, these men that Jesus called into His ministry have been slighted and determined to be of lesser importance to the Church. This should not have happened.
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