Apostle-ship is not an Office its a word describing being "sent" with a message.. by man or God.. As, by the way, we all are.. We are ALL apostles.. "Pick up YOUR cross and follow me"-Jesus.. ALL are preaching a message more by what we do than what we say.. but also by what we say..
YES YOU are an apostle.. you have a message to others in your life.. and are preaching it.. MEE TOO..
Jesus handed down apostle ship to all of us.. if indeed you are a member of his family.. So in that sense apostleship is handed down.. Selecting ONE human on earth to be "THE" apostle is silly.. however that one is an apostle too.. Did I say the Pope was an Apostle?.. Shazaam, I guess I did.. WEL,, God v\bless him, and you too.. preach on dear apostle.. preach it.. For we all will be held accountable for what we preach.. for good or ill.. "the flesh is weak but the spirit gives life"..
Indeed, we Christians are all witnesses of Christ - for good or ill - in our words and deeds.
Maranatha, Jesus!!!
According to Scripture, it's most definitely an office:
Acts 1:20
For it is written in the book of Psalms, `Let his
habitation become desolate,
and let there be no one to live in it';
and `His office let another take.'
Timothy 1:3
"A faithful saying: if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work."
The Apostles - the Twelve, then Matthias and Paul - were explicitly differentiated from the 72 disciples sent out by Jesus. They were referred to by different title: Apostle or Disciple.
Selecting ONE human on earth to be "THE" apostle is silly..
We will have to disagree, given the Church's interpretation of the naming of Peter and the handing of the keys to the kingdom.
I strongly recommend the Protestant Theological Dictionary of the New Testament edited by Gerhard Kittel and published by Eerdmans. The lengthy article (pages 398-447, Volume I) links "authority" with being "sent" in both NT Greek and usage and in the word Shaliach (which apostolos seems to translate in the LXX.)
And while I'd agree that we all have an apostolate and are called and even "sent" to be "witnesses", I don't see how the Pauline corpus can be understood as saying everyone has the same kind or degree of apostolic authority. Again the I COR12 passage seems to apply.
The article points out that Apollos is never called an apostle, and Timothy is called an adelphos and a synergos tou Theou, but NOT an apostolos.
While the original apostles are witnesses of the Resurrection, not all witnesses are called apostles.
In short, it ain't so clear.