Modern Day Prophecy

One teaching that distinguished Mormons, who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from most other religions is a belief in modern day prophecy.

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. (King James version of the Bible)

God has always had prophets. A prophet is one who is learns truth through inspiration from God and then teaches it to God’s children on earth. They testify of the Savior. The first prophet on earth was Adam, who spoke directly to God in the Garden and who was always entitled to receive inspiration from God to establish the gospel for the benefit of those who came to earth to live. The words of the many prophets are recorded in the scriptures. By reading the words of Noah, Moses, and other prophets, we can learn what God wants us to know.

God established prophets from the very start. There have been times when the people refused to listen to the prophets. At those times, God withdrew access to the prophets, and thus to timely guidance from God concerning God’s desires for that specific time on earth. These times were known as times of apostasy. The Bible shows us there were multiple periods of time when the people were not entitled to prophecy, due to their own wickedness. After a time, God has always restored prophets to the earth. The times which were led by prophets are called dispensations.

After Jesus was crucified, many of the apostles were killed. Even during their lifetimes, corruption of the Savior’s teachings had begun. Paul referred to those who were attempting to alter teachings or who were sending out letters said to be by the apostles, but were not.

When there were no apostles left to keep truth in place, God withdrew from a wicked world the right to receive prophecy and to have His church operating with full authority on the earth. This time was known as the Great Apostasy. Without apostles to safeguard truth, truth became corrupted. We see, as we study religious world history, that people began to change doctrine and then to disagree and argue over what was true. In 325 AD, a council was convened in Nicene to try to straighten out the confusion of doctrines and to choose a formal set to adopt. Through debate and argument, formal doctrines were chosen-but note they were chosen by committee, not God. At this time, not in the time of Jesus, the doctrine of the Trinity was established as being the official description of God. If it were clearly understood by everyone, it would not have been the subject of intense debate at this council. It is not found in the Bible and was clearly not a Biblical teaching, as seen by these verses in the King James Version of the Bible:

“John 8: 28-29: Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”

And this is just why the world needs prophets. We can’t let truth be decided by committee. For this reason, with the Last Days upon us, God has re-established his prophets in the last dispensation. We need to have the truth as we prepare for the second coming, just as we needed it to prepare for the first coming.

God has promised He will never again leave us alone without prophecy to guide us. To learn more about today’s prophet, visit Mormon Prophets