No Modern Prophets? (Jesus Christ, reject, Moses, Earth, Mormonism)

[GoldenDragon]

Wasn't sure if this was ever covered here but it doesn't hurt to revisit a topic. Today in World Religions class we're on the monothesic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We got on the subject of the prophets. Something that all three religions believe in is that there were people who heard and talked to God known as prophets. All three believe that Abraham and Moses were great prophets and talked to God, Jesus is considered a prophet in Christianity , Mormonism believes Joseph Smith was a prophet and Islam believes that Mohammad is their prophet. Each religion believes that these prophets heard and talked to God which today people would label them as being psychotic and offer them therapy rather then listen.

People of today are willing to accept that "back then" in Bible days that people could talk to God and He talked back. Yet today if someone says that they heard God talking to them we would considered them to be crazy and through them in a mental hospital. Even today a majority of Christians believe that Joseph Smith was a false prophet maybe to the point of being labeled as "crazy" simply because he was rather new compared to all the other prophets before him. Have we accept the fact that there are no modern prophets? Can there be NO more prophets? Do we now believe God no longer talks to us through special people like Abraham,Moses,Jesus,or Mohammad ?Has God sent other prophets and yet we misunderstood them as being "crazy"?
What's the difference between people who talked to God in the Bible days to people who beleive God is talking to them today?
Imagine if Abraham were to have lived in our times trying to kill his son Isaac saying God told him to do it. Would we say "ok God must have told him to do it" or would we just throw a straight jacket on him and throw him in a nut house?
In simple in these modern times have we just run out of prophets? Are there no more to come? So many questions so what does everyone think?

[Popeyesays]

www.bahai.org

[Bishka]

GoldenDragon,

It's very wonderful that you brought this up. As soon as I get more of a chance I will try to respond.

[Scott1]

Originally Posted by GoldenDragon

In simple in these modern times have we just run out of prophets? Are there no more to come? So many questions so what does everyone think?

"The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.

Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".
CCC #66-67

[James the Persian]

Christ is not a prophet for Christianity, only for Islam. The last prophet for us (by which I mean the last one called a prophet) is St. John the Baptist. As Scott pointed out, prophecy that contradicts the faith delivered to the Apostles must immediately be rejected by Christians. We have no new revelataions of that sort and hence no 'Prophets'. That doesn't mean that the gift of prophecy has vanished, however, just that it is given to those, such as the Apostles, evangelists, monastics etc. whose primary role is rather different and who, as a result, are not referred to as prophets.

James

[SoyLeche]

Originally Posted by GoldenDragon

Mormonism believes Joseph Smith was a prophet

I'd like to point out that Mormonism does believe this, but we do not believe that there have been no prophets since. Actually, we believe there has been a continuous stream of prophets since then, with the current being Gordon B. Hinckley.

I believe that God still can and does talk to his prophet on the Earth, both through actual visitations and more subtle methods. We don't hear about the visitations very often, but I believe that they happen.

[BruceDLimber]

Greetings!

In the Baha'i view, there have been Divine Messengers (like Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, to name three) in the past, and more since then! (though we tend not to call them prophets.)

Indeed, we believe there well NEVER be an end to God's Bounty nor to the Messengers He sends to renew religion and guide humanity!

They generally tend to come at intervalls of 500-1,000 years, and our scripxtures do state, though, that the next won't come for at least another thousand years (now down to about 840).

Best, :-)

Bruce

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by JamesThePersian

Christ is not a prophet for Christianity, only for Islam. The last prophet for us (by which I mean the last one called a prophet) is St. John the Baptist. As Scott pointed out, prophecy that contradicts the faith delivered to the Apostles must immediately be rejected by Christians. We have no new revelataions of that sort and hence no 'Prophets'. That doesn't mean that the gift of prophecy has vanished, however, just that it is given to those, such as the Apostles, evangelists, monastics etc. whose primary role is rather different and who, as a result, are not referred to as prophets.

James

Wait, huh? If Christ wasn't a prophet, then what was he?

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by jmoum

Wait, huh? If Christ wasn't a prophet, then what was he?

You mean from a Christian perspective? He was the Incarnate Son of God, one Hypostasis of the Trinity, both fully man and fully God. That's very much more than a prophet and, in fact, cannot, from our perspective, be considered a prophet at all. A prophet receives revelation from God but Christ was God and hence did not receive but rather revealed. I'm sure you should be able to see the difference quite easily. I appreciate that for your religion, like Islam, Christ is a prophet but for us He most certainly is not.

James

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by JamesThePersian

You mean from a Christian perspective? He was the Incarnate Son of God, one Hypostasis of the Trinity, both fully man and fully God. That's very much more than a prophet and, in fact, cannot, from our perspective, be considered a prophet at all. A prophet receives revelation from God but Christ was God and hence did not receive but rather revealed. I'm sure you should be able to see the difference quite easily. I appreciate that for your religion, like Islam, Christ is a prophet but for us He most certainly is not.

James

Ah. I got you now. Thanks for the clarification. Cause to me, the word "Prophet" means they have the authority to say what they say because God gave them that authority (and I guess in your perspective, he kind of did because as part of God, he gave himself that authority). So if he wasn't a prophet in that sense, then I'd be really confused as to why Christians followed him.