Do We Need Prophets Today?
Filed under: Basic Beliefs of Mormons, Gospel Principles, Practices & Precepts
Have you ever played the children’s game of telephone? In this game, children line up. The child at the start of the line whispers something to the person next to him. That person whispers what he heard—or thought he heard—to the next person. The game continues until the last person has heard the sentence. He announces what he heard and nearly always, it has little or no relationship to the original sentence. The message got scrambled in the excitement of the game.
When Adam was created, he spoke directly with God, and was the first prophet. God taught Adam the gospel in its fullness. When Adam died, a new prophet took his place in the role. Practices changed over the years, but not truth. God instigated preparatory practices when His children were unable to live the higher laws. He taught the gospel line upon line as people were ready for it. Some took on other beliefs however, and it was not many generations before other religions developed.
When Jesus Christ began His earthly mission, He chose apostles to assist Him and to carry on the work when He was gone, knowing His mission would be brief. His apostles worked hard to share the gospel and manage the churches. However, as they traveled, they realized false doctrine and misunderstandings were occurring throughout the church. As in the game of telephone, the messages being sent were getting scrambled along the way, and people were adding their own interpretations and ideas to those offered by the apostles.
After the apostles were gone, there was no one with the authority to act as a prophet or to receive instruction from God. Without anyone to straighten out the misconceptions, they grew rapidly. In only a short time, there were many different groups teaching differing versions of Christianity. Periodically councils were held to try to come to an agreement on the differences, and while the majority were able to vote on a doctrine, not everyone agreed and those groups often went off to form their own churches.
Today, as we look around us, we can see the confusion of messages has become very complex. There are thousands of church within the Christian label, each differing from the others. Even some denominations have splits as they try to decide what to do about issues that are more common now than they were in the Savior’s time, such as women in the clergy.
God has instructed us to seek truth, and promised He is not a God of confusion. However, it is certainly easy to get confused when we set out to find out where the truth is located. Churches have a variety of methods for figuring out what is true, but in Biblical times, doctrine was not put to a vote.
From the beginning, God set out an orderly plan for His gospel to proceed. He had a prophet who told us what was true and what to do. Those who recognized the prophet were not left to figure out what was true—they needed only to follow the prophet. Those who did not recognize him or listen to him suffered the consequences.
The purpose of those prophets was to bring God’s truth to mankind, to warn them of danger, and to prepare them for the arrival of Jesus Christ. Look around our world today. Do you see a need for those three things in our modern day? We know the Second Coming is rapidly approaching, and so, if prophets were necessary to prepare people for the first coming, wouldn’t it be equally necessary to have them to guide us through preparations for the final coming? Do you see a need for sure truth in today’s complex world? Do you see danger in changing world conditions?
It is no wonder God needs to return the prophets to the earth. There is a great deal of work to do to prepare the world for the return of the Savior, and there needs to be a leader for the work.
While it is true we have the Bible to guide us, we can easily see people do not understand the Bible and disagree over what its teaching mean. Even essential doctrine such as baptism is debated. In addition, the world has changed dramatically since Biblical times. Every day, new technologies, new issues, and new ideas about morality arise. The Bible doesn’t mention many of the issues people struggle with today. A prophet can guide us through these challenges and help us to stay on God’s path without having to guess or interpret.
It’s important, having recognized the need for a prophet, to follow the right one. Mormons are taught not to take anyone’s word for his identity. Before baptism, prospective members, including children, are asked to pray to God to know if Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. He is the current prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes referred to as Mormons. When he dies, an orderly process will occur to place the next prophet into the office without campaigning or voting.
A person who wanted to know for himself, without trusting the opinion of any earthly person, can do so if he has faith. God has promised that if we lack wisdom, we can ask God and He will give it to us. (See James 1:5 in the New Testament.) A good way to begin is to talk it over with God, explaining what you are going to do and why. Ask Him to guide you through the process and help you recognize His “voice.” You most likely won’t hear an actual voice, of course, but you will learn to recognize how He communicates with you when you pray.
Next, Mormons are taught to put some personal effort into it. Mormons believe in doing all they can for themselves, and letting God make up the difference. You can learn more about prophets by visiting the official Mormon site designed to help curious people learn more about Mormons. Visit Mormon.org.
You can also read about prophets on internet sites by members who are not official, but who want to share what they know. One unofficial place to learn about prophets is MormonProphets.com. On this site, you can learn about the prophets who have been sent to lead us toward the Second Coming of Christ. To learn specifically about Thomas S. Monson, the prophet at this writing, visit the unofficial site ThomasMonson.com
Once you feel you have some information, it’s time to think about what you’ve learned. Ask yourself:
Do we need a prophet today?
Does the world seem confused about truth?
Does Thomas Monson teach things a prophet might teach?
What is the spirit telling me as I study?
How do I feel about all this so far?
Then go to God in prayer. Share all you’ve learned and felt. Be honest with God—He knows your heart. Tell Him what you think and then wait patiently for confirmation. It may take time. It took me many months to receive my first answers to prayers because I had to learn how. I began receiving small answers, and then larger ones over time.
Once God has confirmed to you that President Monson is His prophet, you can begin to learn more about the messages He shares with the world. This coming week, you can watch Him on television or the internet and listen as he speaks to the world in General Conference. At Mormon.org, you can ask to talk to a missionary about the new things you have been learning, or you can ask a Mormon friend.
How Do Mormons Know the Prophet is Telling the Truth?
Mormons teach that God’s prophets today, like those we read of in the Bible, are authorized to speak on God’s behalf for the entire church. Often, people who are not LDS find this concept amazing or even alarming. They wonder how we know if they’re telling us the truth. We are often asked silly questions like, “If your prophet told you to only wear blue, would you?”
Brigham Young had an answer for this question. He’s said to have told people his greatest fear was that people in the church would start to take what he said as the will of God and not take the time to go to God personally to receive confirmation of it.
Although Mormons are taught to honor their prophets and to follow them, it’s not a blind following. Only God can be completely trusted to always tell you the truth, and only God knows the truth of all things. Mormons are taught even before they join the church to pray and ask God if the current prophet really is God’s prophet. Then, afterwards, at any time, th
ey can return to God and ask about specific teachings the prophet has given.
In the case of the hypothetical situations Mormons are always being asked about, a member who reads an article by a church leader will generally follow the following pattern:
Before reading or listening, they pray for the spirit. This will often tell them what is true while they’re receiving the information. Once they received the counsel, they place it in context of other teachings they’ve received. For instance, if the prophet said to store food away so you’ll have enough to eat if you lose your job, a member would say, “Oh, I’ve heard that many times before and already know it’s true.” He wouldn’t likely take time to pray about this, since it’s repeated often.
If it’s new counsel, he might compare it to see if it fits in with previous teachings. For instance, prophets often tell us to store wheat. If this were the first time we’d been told to store wheat, we might think to ourselves, “Well, that’s the first time wheat’s been mentioned, but we’ve often been told to store food in general, so I’ll just add that to it.” It fits into previously given counsel.
However, if a member heard entirely new counsel, and just couldn’t quite feel comfortable with it-maybe because it would require him to stop doing something he loved-he could then take it to God in prayer. Following the established pattern for prayer, he would study the problem in his mind, come to a decision, probably based on what he already knows about God and the gospel, and then come to a conclusion. He’d then kneel in prayer and ask God if he’s made the right choice.
Spencer W. Kimball, a past prophet, spoke on the subject of blind faith. “When men obey commands of a creator, it is not blind obedience….God’s every command is righteous, every directive purposeful, and all for the good of the governed. …
Is it blind obedience when one regards the sign “High Voltage-Keep Away” or is it the obedience of faith in the judgment of experts who know the hazard?
Is it blind obedience when the air traveler fastens his seat belt as that sign flashes or is it confidence in the experience and wisdom of those who know more of hazards and dangers?
Is it blind obedience when the little child gleefully jumps from the table into the strong arms of its smiling father, or is this implicit trust in a loving parent who feels sure of his catch and who loves the child better than life itself? …
Is it then blind obedience when we, with our limited vision, elementary knowledge, selfish desires, ulterior motives, and carnal urges, accept and follow the guidance and obey the commands of our loving Father who … created a world for us, loves us, and has planned a constructive program for us, wholly without ulterior motive, whose greatest joy and glory is to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life” of all his children? [See Moses 1:39.]
It is not blind obedience, even without total understanding, to follow a Father who has proved himself. (”Chapter 13: Obedience Born of Faith in God,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball, (2006),135-44
In the case of the hot stove, it’s likely a child touched a hot stove against the advice of a parent at some time in his childhood. Having done so, he learned first that stoves can be hot, and secondly, that parents can be trusted. Over time, as his parents continued to be right about physical danger, it’s likely he stopped feeling the need to touch every stove or try out every dangerous thing. Whereas, as a toddler, he might have heard a parent say the stove was hot, but he had to find out for himself. As an eight-year-old, if his parents told him it was too dangerous to go outside in the current weather conditions, he might obey without first testing, having learned his parents were usually right.
In the same way, Mormons learn to trust their prophets, and they learn to trust God. A new member is likely to pray about every individual doctrine, but a later member, having learned that when he does so, God always says yes, the prophet is right, no longer needs to do this. He can spend his limited life doing more important things. He saves his confirmation prayers for those situations which leave him uncertain, or which require greater sacrifice to carry out.
Being able to turn to God is one way God protects his children from unscrupulous leadership. They need never take anyone’s word for any part of the gospel, but can always go directly to the source. The prophet delivers God’s message and guides the church, but each member is individually responsible for confirming the truthfulness of what they’re being told.
Someone just learning about the church through Mormon missionaries will be taught how to pray almost immediately. Then, after each lesson, he will be asked to pray about it privately to know for himself it’s true, rather than taking the word of the missionaries. This is a critical step in the member’s progression, because someone who does this is far less likely to fall away from the church in the future. His testimony will be based on a firm foundation-God.