Where are the Apostles today?
I seem to have been inundated with Mormon apologists on Twitter recently and one thing I’ve seen them often ask is “Where are the Apostles today?”
I always answer “In Heaven, praying for us!”
The Argument
The argument the Mormon Apologist is trying to make is that the modern Church doesn’t have Apostles, but the LDS Church does because Jesus came to Joseph Smith and restored the Church, including the office of Apostle.
The Problem
There’s a line of argumentation which I don’t see other people using in response to this:
- James the Great was martyred in AD 44, yet he wasn’t replaced.
- Years later the Apostles gathered for the Council of Jerusalem, yet James wasn’t replaced.
- The Apostles then die one-by-one, with the John departing in AD ~100, yet James still wasn’t replaced!
If the Mormon narrative is true, the Apostles have FIFTY years to ordain new Apostles and thereby prevent their authority from being lost from the earth… yet not a single one of them thought to do it…. Why?! Why didn’t one of their disciples like Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp point out the disastrous state in which the Apostles were going to leave the world?