The Common Argument
The common argument against the need for modern apostles and prophets is often framed around an interpretation of Ephesians 2:20 (ESV), which says the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”. Cessationists argue that what Paul means here is that the church’s foundation is the prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles — meaning the Twelve, who were witnesses of Jesus, and, together with Paul, wrote the New Testament and so laid the only foundation that will ever need to be laid.
As with most errors, many of these concepts are partly true. But if we actually let the text speak for itself, it is quite easy to see that much of what they claim is spurious and false.
“The Bible Is All We Need”
The cessationist argument goes that the Bible is all we need — which sounds true and is partly true. But in practice, every reasonable cessationist will state that we need church community, the work of the Holy Spirit, Bible teachers, and more to help develop and grow individual saints. So, the sufficiency of Scripture is not actually what is in dispute here. Yes, Scripture is our final rule, and we should never add to the text of Scripture. But is this what Paul means when he speaks of the foundations of the church being laid by apostles and prophets? That is the real question.
Does Ephesians 2:20 Refer to Scripture, or Something Else?
My thinking is that the cessationist reading is actually eisegesis — reading their understanding into the text instead of letting the text do the speaking.
The text says the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20, ESV). It does not say anything about Scripture. Paul — and in fact the entire New Testament — regularly does speak of “Scripture”[1] and could easily have said the church is “built on the foundation of Scripture.” But that is not what he says here.
In fact, nowhere is Scripture called the foundation of anything. Where foundation language appears, it is consistently about the founding of ministries and churches, and about the person of Christ. Jesus is the only foundation, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:11 (ESV): “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Thus, Scripture itself shows us that Christ is the foundation — and every time the gospel is preached, Christ must be laid into the individual or the community that is to be built, as the only foundation that anything in the Kingdom can exist upon.
Where foundation language appears, it is consistently about the founding of ministries and churches, and about the person of Christ.
Scripture is called many things — a lamp, a sword, a seed, a mirror — but it is never called the foundation. The foundation is Christ, always. Scripture’s role in the building metaphor is a different one: it is the plumb line, not the foundation. The Bereans examined the Scriptures to test whether apostolic preaching was true (Acts 17:11). Scripture measures the building; Christ is what the building stands on. Already the cessationist reading is showing its flaws.
But there is more to this.
The Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets
But doesn’t Ephesians 2:20 itself create a problem here? If Christ is the only foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11), how can the church be “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”?
Paul is not contradicting himself. “The foundation of the apostles and prophets” means the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets — not a foundation consisting of them. The grammar allows either reading, but Paul’s own usage settles it: “… like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation … For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:10–11, ESV) Apostles and prophets lay the foundation; Christ is the foundation they lay. That is why Ephesians 2:20 (ESV) continues, “Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” — he is not one stone among the apostles; he is the stone that determines the whole building.
Foundation-Laying Is Founding Ministry
Foundation-laying is spoken of in Scripture as founding ministry. In other words, Scripture uses foundation-laying as something that is to be done every time Christ is preached and established as the foundation stone of a new Kingdom enterprise.
This is how Paul uses “laying foundations” in 1 Corinthians 3:10 (ESV): “Like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation.” It is patently clear that Paul is speaking about this very thing. Whenever the gospel is preached, or churches are founded, Christ must be laid into that individual or community. This is an ongoing reality until Christ returns, and it is clearly not speaking about Scripture.
Again, in Romans 15:20, Paul speaks about not building “on someone else’s foundation.” Here too, it is patently clear that “foundation” is not being used to speak of Scripture but of pioneering new gospel works. Some individuals had preached the gospel and laid foundations in a community. It was Paul’s desire not to build on those foundations but to go and lay new foundations where the gospel had never been preached before. Thus “the foundation of the apostles and prophets” is speaking of something other than Scripture — it is describing how these two primary gifts lay Christ into individuals and communities on an ongoing basis.
Whenever the gospel is preached, or churches are founded, Christ must be laid into that individual or community.
Some will object that Ephesians 2 pictures one universal temple, and that a foundation is, by definition, laid once at the beginning — you do not keep pouring the foundation after the walls are up. But the very next verses answer this: the whole structure “grows into a holy temple in the Lord” and is continually “being built together” (Ephesians 2:21–22, ESV). The one temple grows by the addition of new living stones, and every new person and every new community joined to it requires Christ laid as the foundation there — which is exactly how Paul describes his own ministry in 1 Corinthians 3 and Romans 15. The foundation of Christ needs to be laid into each work, and the laying of foundations goes on wherever the gospel pioneers new ground.
Do “Prophets” Refer to Old Testament Prophets?
Ephesians 3:5 (ESV) specifically defines what is meant by “apostles and prophets”: the mystery of Christ, “which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” Clearly, “prophets” does not mean the Old Testament prophets, because Paul explicitly tells us that this revelation was “not made known to the sons of men in other generations” — it has been revealed now, by the Spirit.
Paul’s “now” draws the line himself. This revelation belongs to the present era and was given to present apostles and prophets, not to the generations before. The whole structure of the sentence places the Old Testament prophets on the far side of that line: they did not know the mystery of Christ in this way, so they cannot be the ones laying Him as the foundation. The Christ-revelation is on the “now” side, which clearly excludes the earlier generations of prophets. It is worth noting that even the leading cessationist scholar on this passage, Richard Gaffin, concedes that the prophets of Ephesians 2:20 are New Testament prophets — the “Old Testament” reading has been abandoned even by the best of its own side.
The word order confirms it. “Apostles” is mentioned first, before “prophets” — which is backwards if “prophets” meant the older group. And in Ephesians 4:11, apostles and prophets are listed together among the gifts of the ascended Christ, which is post-ascension, by definition. These apostles and prophets come after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, so to make “prophets” mean the Old Testament is to read into the text something Paul has explicitly ruled out.
“Apostles” Does Not Mean the New Testament
The claim that “apostles” in Ephesians 2:20 means the writings of the New Testament fails on its own terms, because the equation “apostles = the men who wrote Scripture” does not hold. Of the Twelve, only Matthew, John and Peter wrote anything — nine of the Twelve Apostles wrote nothing. Mark and Luke were not Apostles, yet Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts — roughly a quarter of the New Testament. Hebrews is anonymous.
On the critics’ equation, the largest single contributor to the New Testament laid no foundation. And cessationists do not recognise James and Jude as apostles, so the claim fails again: not only apostles wrote the New Testament.
Some will reply that Mark wrote Peter’s testimony and Luke wrote in Paul’s circle — but this only concedes the deeper point: Ephesians 2:20 is not about the writing of documents at all. Foundation language in Paul is ministry language, every single time. “Apostles and prophets” here are people who lay Christ into individuals and communities, not a collection of texts.
It is striking that those arguing Scripture is the foundation end up adding their own tradition to Scripture, rather than letting Scripture speak for itself.
What About the Twelve?
Let us be clear about what is, and is not, being claimed. The Twelve hold a unique and unrepeatable place: eyewitnesses of the risen Lord, chosen from among those who had been with Him from the beginning (Acts 1:21–22), their names written on the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14). No one today stands where they stood, and no one today writes Scripture.
But the New Testament itself distinguishes the Twelve from the wider apostolic gift of the ascended Christ. Barnabas is called an apostle (Acts 14:14); so is James the Lord’s brother (Galatians 1:19); Silas and Timothy are included among the apostles of Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2:6). None of these were of the Twelve. The apostles of Ephesians 4:11 are gifts given by Christ after His ascension — a continuing grace to the church, not a reconstitution of the Twelve. Modern apostles are not new members of the Twelve and claim no new revelation; they are Ephesians 4 gifts who lay the same foundation — Christ — into new people and places.
No Other Foundation
Now it must be said again: no new apostle or prophet may lay any other foundation than the one already laid, which is Christ. We never go beyond Scripture. The canon is closed. That said, every time the gospel is preached, and churches are planted, Christ must be laid into the foundations of new individuals and new communities. This will continue over and over again until perfection is attained — “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13, ESV).
And this needs to happen again and again through faithful ministers who guard and protect the work, to ensure that Christ remains the foundation. As Paul says in Galatians 4:19 (ESV): “My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”
Now it must be said again: no new apostle or prophet may lay any other foundation than the one already laid, which is Christ.
The Galatians had genuinely received Christ and the Spirit, yet they were drifting from Him into a different gospel. Paul must lay the foundation of Christ into them all over again — founding labour, repeated.
The remedy for the world is for faithful ministers — primarily apostles and prophets — to continue laying Christ as the foundation in every community and to labour until he is firmly established as the only foundation. Churches need ongoing apostles and prophets to ensure that Christ is laid properly into every community, that tradition or eisegesis does not remove Him from the foundation, or that anything or anyone impersonates Him as the foundation.
Notice, finally, that Ephesians 4:11 lists apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers in one breath, under one “until” (4:13). If apostles and prophets expired with the first century, by what logic do evangelists, pastors and teachers continue? The list stands or falls together — and nobody preaches the cessation of pastors.
[1] Scripture is called “Scripture” in multiple places (e.g., 2 Timothy 3:16–17). In Acts 17:11, the Bereans examine the Scriptures to test whether apostolic preaching is true. Scripture is the standard of verification, the plumb line against which apostolic ministry is measured — a different role in the building metaphor. Scripture is never actually called the foundation.
