A question was presented to me concerning the Apostleship...my Apostleship in particular.
"Regarding you being an Apostle, can you trace your apostleship back to the original 12 Apostles? If you can please start a new blog, listing all the men in your spiritual genealogy back to one of the 12.
Of what significance is it if the authority behind the hands laid on you, cannot be traced by, man to man to man, through the centuries to the original 12? Black people probably can't trace their spiritual genealogy back past slavery. Then you get into Protestant Europe, then back to the Roman Catholic church.
If you cannot list your spiritual lineage, I suggest that you refrain from using the term "Apostle".
The doctrine/idea this individual has set before me and us all to see is one called Apostolic Succession. This comes from a thought on the Papacy/Bishopric being able to trace its origins all the way back to the original twelve Apostles as a lineage/family tree.
There are several problems with such a doctrine, but for the sake of this conversation, I am going to approach it from the office of the Apostle. We Apostles do not trace our line all the way back from person to person, Apostolic fathers ordaining us along the line as time passes and people die. The Apostleship is not gained by such. Such an idea derives from the thought of a "monarchy", and not from the origin of the office. A king chooses his successor after him to fill the place of rulership.
Contrary to such, the Apostles do not choose who will be the next Apostle down the line. It is the LORD GOD the FATHER, the LORD JESUS, and GOD the HOLY SPIRIT who decide the next Apostle. Only in the case of the 12 did the LORD choose one to replace a fallen Apostle. This Apostle was Matthias (Acts 1). By definition, Judas has to be the Apostolic father of Matthias. This is heresy because Judas was dead already, so there was no "succession", but a replacement. Each Apostle is elected and ordained directly by the LORD JESUS Himself. Man cannot ordain an Apostle, only "affirm" his Apostleship. Paul was not ordained by any man on Earth. James, Peter, and John gave him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, thus affirming their Apostleship (Galatians 2:7-10). If Paul was to trace his Apostleship back to the 12, then he wouldn't have said what he said in Galatians 1, or 1st Corinthians 9:1-2.
It was the Papacy and the "Episcopal Monarchy" that brought about the heresy of Apostolic Succession.