There's a big move to reinstate Apostles and Prophets as key leaders in church government. You gotta wonder, what's wrong with the "old" apostles and prophets? Well, according to the proponents of the New Apostolic/Prophetic Movement (C. Peter Wagner among others), the Church is missing the mark on two accounts - It is nothing like the Church found in the Book of Acts, and It is resisting the leading of the Holy Spirit to become the glorious Church of the Latter Rain to usher in the return of Jesus the King. This movement is said to be setting everything to rights again.
Okay, well if this is the claim, they must have some very profound hermeneutics to support this view. It would have to be as important as Luther's rediscovery of "the just shall live by faith." And they feel they have this support, namely in 1 Kings 18:44, which refers to a little cloud as a man's hand. Don't miss this folks, this is a key scripture in the foundation for this new move. The cloud was the size of a man's hand, but these new prophets have misconstrued the text to say 'shaped as a man's hand', in other words, having 5 fingers. And what is the other key scripture? Ephesians 4:11, the 5-Fold Ministry. 5 fingers, 5-fold ministry, get it?
Now go back and read 1 Kings 18. There is no way you can read this chapter and get "5-Fold Ministry". But somehow the higher-ups in this movement say they have gleaned this meaning by the Holy Spirit, that the scripture has contained this treasure all along, waiting for someone of discernment to find it.
This is a very important point in their exegesis, that scripture has this underlying "secret meaning" which has to be discovered. Every scripture has this secret level of meaning, and it is the job of those who are spiritual leaders to discover and communicate these mysteries.
So it doesn't matter what the text actually says, the truth for us today is found somewhere beneath the surface, but we laity who lack the 'spiritual discernment to understand' must put our faith in this new self-appointed priesthood to mete out this new revelation to us, and we must as good followers not question this teaching in any way, or else we are classed as infidels and enemies of God. How dare we question their teachings based on what is obviously written in the Bible?
Look up the word "occult" in the dictionary and you will find something like:
oc·cult
adj.
1. Of, relating to, or dealing with supernatural influences, agencies, or phenomena.
2. Beyond the realm of human comprehension; inscrutable.
3. Available only to the initiate; secret: occult lore. See Synonyms at mysterious.
4. Hidden from view; concealed.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/occult
Does it seem at all odd to you that the Church today is promoting occult mysteries rather than the actual plain reading and meaning of the Bible? One of the most important rules in hermeneutics is not to read something into the text, that the text can never mean something that it was never intended to mean. And yet that is precisely the thing which is being neglected today.
The diametric position of the New Apostolic Movement can best be described as follows: ask a new Apostle what is the shape of things to come and he will say 'a glorious move of God', ask Jesus the same question and He will repeat what He said in Matthew 18 & Mark 13.
2 Thess. 2:3
