Episode #4 - Why Prophets
Good morning and welcome to this episode of Jesus Christ & His 2nd Coming. I am your host Spencer, and we are very excited to have you here. If this is your first time to the channel, welcome and please make sure to take a minute to subscribe so you can be notified when future episodes are available.
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In today's episode, we are going to talk about prophets and what is the significance of a prophet especially in these last days. Over my years of talking and meeting different people from different religions, especially those in Christianity, I've heard comments along the lines of “we don't need a modern-day prophet”, or “how prophets are a thing of the past”, or “are a thing of the Bible”, and “they serve their purpose but they're not needed in today's world”, which is why in all of the other sects of Christianity you don't have a prophet. The closest thing to a prophet would be the Catholic church who has the pope.
In fact, I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a gentleman on a flight many years ago. He used to be a pastor at another Christian church. So I asked him out of a level of curiosity, and a level of ignorance, who is the head of their church to lead and set standards across the body of the church. Fundamentally I agree with his response as his response is also the same for the LDS church, which was Jesus Christ. However, I asked him who helps clarify principles of doctrine for the church, as a whole, who leads the growth of the church and overseas the administration of the church. And his response, was something along the lines of that it isn't needed to have a single figurehead, because everybody follows Christ and has their own personal revelation.
And so when I asked him what happens when members of their church, need clarification or understanding or insights who is that key person within the church to provide a universal or standardized approach? His response was something along the lines of how the members will simply move around from one congregation to another until they find the pastor or preacher, who teaches in ways that align with their understanding and beliefs. To me, this comment provides a glaring problem in the fact that this approach does not provide one central direction from someone in authority to receive direct guidance from the Savior himself as to how his church should operate.
Additionally, what this approach does is simply let men and women pursue faith and religion to the point that it agrees with their personal view of the world and not necessarily how the Savior teaches and wants things to be done. This becomes a problem when you have political and social issues that arise in the world that differ and move away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And there in lies the premise of having a prophet, one key and central person who is in direct communication with and has authority from Jesus Christ to direct, respond to, and counsel the rest of us on exactly how we should respond to the world around us, especially various topics unique to our time.
Now, before we dive into this topic further, if you are a listener who does not belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, first I want to say welcome and that we love having diversity in our audience. I’d actually like to hear from you in the comments below why you or your church doesn't believe in the need of having a modern day prophet? What have you been taught about the role and significance of prophets? What have you learned in your own study as to why prophets are no longer needed?
For those who are members of the LDS church, what is your testimony about the Prophet?
I ask these questions because the reliance on a prophet is key to this channel. Largely, because, as we talk about, and study the topic of the second coming of Jesus Christ, we will have many instances where we will rely upon, and look to the words of modern day prophets to help provide further insight.
Now, one of the common arguments that I hear that explain why we don’t need a modern day prophet is that modern-day prophets would be essentially adding to the teachings of the Bible, and how in the book of Revelations, it says that you should not add on to these words. And without getting off onto a tangent about that particular scriptural reference, I'll provide a quick response as to why that is not actually an accurate statement for receiving further light, knowledge and revelation from the Lord. Fundamentally it is this, that phrase, that expression of thou shall not add unto these words found in the book of Revelation were given to John in context to those revelations. And that book and those revelations were given and written several hundreds of years before the Bible itself was even a book of scripture.
So that phrase of thou shall not add unto it is exclusive to the book of revelation. And for those who try to argue that the LDS church is going against that scripture I say to you that's not true we have not added unto it we don't add unto it, nor has there's been an attempt to re-translate or add anything to the book of Revelation.
Now I think this is an important starting ground about the next point that I want to talk about which is really the premise of today's episode and that is the scripture found in Amos chapter 3 verse seven.
In Amos, chapter 3 verse seven it reads in the king James version of the Bible "surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets".
Before I provide my response to this scripture, I want to hear from you in the comments below your thoughts on the meaning and understanding of this scripture.
For me, this one scripture provides all of the clarification and understanding about why we as followers of Jesus Christ need prophets, even today. Notice, this scripture does not put an expiration date on when prophets are no longer useful, or when prophets are no longer needed, or an expiration on when we stop listening to prophets.
Let that sink in for a minute. Any future doings of the Lord, especially as it pertains to His second coming events will be communicated to the Prophet before it happens. This is why we need a modern day prophet. Plain and simple.
And like I said earlier, this is another foundational understanding necessary to a successful and helpful study of the Second Coming. Any future episodes will include looking to the words of prophets.
So, my next question to you is, Who is the most important prophet to listen to? Not, who is your favorite prophet, but who is the most important?
We have prophets as far back as Adam, and as current as Russell M. Nelson. If we were to put words of advice or insight between Adam and President Nelson side-by-side, whose words would take precedence?
In the New Era magazine, which is aimed to the youth of the world, there was a one page statement published in the April 2015 edition titled, ‘The Most Important Prophet for Us’.
This statement refers back to a talk given by a former Prophet, Ezra Taft Benson during a Brigham Young University devotional given on Feb 26, 1980. In his talk, President Benson said the following,
“The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet. …
“… God’s revelations to Adam did not instruct Noah how to build the Ark. Noah needed his own revelation. Therefore, the most important prophet, so far as you and I are concerned, is the one living in our day and age to whom the Lord is currently revealing His will for us. Therefore, the most important reading we can do is any of the words of the prophet … contained each month in our Church magazines. Our marching orders for each six months are found in the general conference addresses, which are printed in the Ensign magazine. … Beware of those who would pit the dead prophets against the living prophets, for the living prophets always take precedence.”
What are your thoughts and feelings in response to this statement from a prophet? Please share in the comments below.
This is an important topic to understand and have a testimony of prophets. Even more so, modern day prophets. We are going to look to the prophets as a large part of studying and preparing for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Yes, we will look at the words of previous prophets as a point of clarification and insight. But, if the modern and living prophet has any additional information on the topic, we will use and rely on them as the latest source of truth.
That is it for this episode. Please feel free to share any thoughts or ideas on this topic in the comments below. We’d love for your to not only like this episode and to subscribe to our channel, but to also share this episode. Sharing will be the best way we grow and get this message out to the world. There are those who are looking for further light and knowledge and know not where to find it. So, they turn to the internet and YouTube to find their answers. Help share the answers.
Thank you so much for listening and we will see you next time!
