Fourfold Ministry and the Origin of the term FiveFold MinistryI am curious about the origin of the term five-fold ministry. I have read that the concept of fourfold ministry (with pastors and teachers being one group) and the term ‘fourfold ministry’ was used by the group associated with Irving in the 1800’s, which called itself the Catholic Apostolic Church after his death. Cardale, the first one ordained as an ‘apostle’ in that movement, gave a sermon on the Four fold ministry.Prior to that, I found a reference that referred to the Fourfold ministry from 1851.Historically, how did ‘five fold’ come to be used? Who actually coined ‘fivefold’ as opposed to ‘fourfold?books.google.co.id/books?id=3LIHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA6&dq=The+Fourfold+Ministry+and+the+fourfold+Constitution+of+Man&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=evangelist&f=falsebooks.google.co.id/books?id=Vc4CAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false________________
My guess is that it was debated on a forum with some folks claiming the language was ambiguous as to whether pastors included a group apart from teachers.
Okay, this is interesting. This is from Gill’s Commentary, which I believe is John Gill, who wrote his
I am not sure who first coined the term, but I have heard it used pretty much all my life (I’m fixin’ to turn 50). The first time I ever heard the fourfold view taught was at Southwestern AGU in the late 1980s, from textbooks which were written by AG scholars in the 1970s, such as Dr. Stanley Horton.
Interesting stuff.So far, I’ve come across the term ‘fourfold ministry’ from Cardale in 1851. Early on in the movement Irving was a part of, someone had prophesied that God would restore the apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist, and teacher, and that Jesus would come back soon. They believed in speaking in tongues. A quote from Irving seemed to imply that he believed in the initial evidence doctrine. But they also turned into something like a highly liturgical, high church version of the NAR, but with a more prominent and essential role for apostles.Their ‘apostles’ were mostly British aristocrats, with one chemist (pharmacist, I think.) They ended up dying out so their movement died out in 1901, a few months after Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues. But a splinter movement in Germany appointed some new ‘apostles’ and continues on today.I found reading some of their stuff strange and hard to relate to. I wonder if someone in the Pentecostal movement, maybe someone in the Latter Rain Movement, read the term ‘four-fold ministry’ from the Catholic Apostolic Church writings and thought it should be ‘five-fold ministry’ instead or if Pentecostals or the Latter Rain Movement in particular came up with the term ‘five-fold ministry’ independant of this other movement. The idea of Ephesians 4:11ministry in the church is nothing new, of course. It’s in the Bible. Barclay, a Quaker author in the 17th century, used Ephesians 4:11to describe the ministry roles of the church. I don’t know who they cosidered to be apostles, but they certainly did believe in prophets and consider George Fox to be one________________
Link, are you talking about the concept of 5 ministries or specifically the word "fivefold"?
From the quote above, Gill, writing in the mid 1700’s says he sees it as four ministries, but if I understand what he means by distributively, he is saying that the Syriac version of the Bible (2nd century AD?) reads in a way such as to make it 5 ministries.
Most COG’s I have been associated just believe in one fold ministry. Could anyone guess which fold it might be?
Billfold?
That’s how I interpret what he wrote, too.I was curious about the terminology ‘five-fold ministry’ where the term originated and if there is any connection with the fourfold terminology used by the Catholic Apostolic Church movement of the 1800’s, which started out with fairly Pentecostal/Charismatic beliefs. They jumped from Presbyterianism right into some kind of liturgical high churchy NAR belief system rather quickl________________