Should the Apostle or Apostles Use the Title of Bishop or Bishops?

One of the keys the devil uses to try to destroy a society is to destroy the language. We have seen in America since the 1960's when prayer was banned from the United States governmental schools that we have fallen far below the European nations in academic achievement. Along with this has come a severe erosion of the English language as spoken in America. The King James Bible is considered archaic by many modern churches though it was standard reading even in the schools at the turn of the 20^th century. Our present generation calls good, "bad", and bad is called, "good." There are secular movies such as "Good Guys Wear Black," in contrast to white robes of righteousness.

To counter this attack of the devil, it is essentially that at the least we the Church say what we mean, and mean what we say:

The word "bishop" in the original Greek Bible manuscripts simply means, "overseer". An overseer was and is an elder in the local church. An apostle is always an overseer, but all bishops are not apostles.

Due to the misunderstanding produced by men's traditional churches, which forsook the New Testament pattern in a variety of ways, the word, "bishop," has in some circles acquired a medieval connotation implying that a bishop is an head of the elders of a church or region.

To reiterate, a bishop is an elder who oversees and shepherds the flock. In some cases, he may not even be a pastor, teacher, prophet, or evangelist, let alone an apostle. It is certain that the bishop is not to have authority over the apostle, unless the bishop in authority is himself an apostle; or it may be the case that the bishop has authority over an apostle-in-training. (An apostle is called before he is ever commissioned, hence he is mentored by saints, deacons, and elders.)

Since God is not the author of confusion, and since clear communication is essential in the transmission and dissemination of the Gospel, it is unadvisable for apostles to TITLE themselves as "bishop." In practice the apostle is a category of bishop, but the word, "bishop," is too general to be adequately descriptive, considering that the Bible offers us a more exact word for the apostolic office.

It is likely that those who have titled themselves, "Bishop," rather than using one of the fivefold titles, do so because the title, "Bishop," is more palatable to the taste of man's tradition.

Our goal should not be to gain acceptance among the multitudes, but to fully obey God as His bondservants.

To balance this issue, it must be said that we are all in transition as we embark on this renewed apostolic move of God. We are not splitting hairs about words, but are rather presenting the ideal laid out in the Scriptures that people of integrity should gravitate towards as we grow together in our understanding of apostolic terminology and technology. God desires a people speaking the same thing, being of the same mind and judgment. (more about the title of "Apostle")