The rejection of modern prophets

This is meant as a friendly dialogue to our brothers and sisters of faith both Judaism and Christianity alike. I'd like for those of different faiths to prove how its logical now to have modern prophets/or why there are modern prophets....I will post my answer when enough can respond.

God has always spoken to his people through prophets.  They are his voice on earth.  If God has always had Prophets, why would he suddenly stop having them?  A prophet is the voice of God on Earth and a leader to the people of God.  Without prophets, people go astray, they forget the message of the previous prophets and they start doing what they think is right and not what God wants. 

I have seen numerous arguements in here from different muslims on what this surah means or that hadith.  There seems to be much confusion at times on what is meant by Mohammed's words.  His message is very beautiful, full of peace and love.  Yet, there are those who take his message and convince 14 year old boys to blow themselves up to kill a few Jews.  Do you really think Mohammed would approve of such actions?  I do not think so.  Nor do I think God would approve.

How do I know what God wants of me?  Because my Prophet tells me.  Twice a year, my Prophet speaks to us at General conference.  Every month there is a message from them in our Ensign church magazine, giving us guidance and knowledge.  Years before the Massachucetts Gay Marriage debate our Prophet and his counselors made A Proclamation to the World about marriage and its purpose.  When the debate rages now, we now what God wants of us. 

Revelation is another reason for modern prophets.  There are truths lost to time and as so many here like to point out scriptures get corrupted by men.  When the Council of Nicea cut and pasted together the bible, they lost many truths and they corrupted many scriptures.  Prophets like Mohammed and Joseph Smith were sent to correct these corruptions.  They were also sent to prepare their peoples for the last days.  They reveal to us the nature of God and the paths of salvation. 

Now, I'm not going to argue who's right and who's wrong.  The logic behind living prophets is simple.  God is unchanging. He has sent prophets throughout creation to us and he has given us these teachers to guide us.  Why would he change?

Amos 3:7

7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

 

Edited by Angela

Israfil, what do you mean by modern prophets ? forgive me if this sounds naive.

My apologies to everyone as I have been lately busy but i'm
glad to see that this subject is of interest to everyone. Now first
before I go into detail my opinion on this matter let us first
define a "prophet." Now i'm sure none of you are ignorant of the
word prophet as we have seen it in our respective doctrines.
We hold such individuals prophets (or prophetess) as
individuals who are "inspired by God" and who are equipped
with the knowledge of the divine either by direct contact or
through some form of meditation which can transmit a type of
divine knowledge.

Now I must say that all humans with their intellect are equipped
with the faculty of divine reception, what i mean is that we all
have the capability of being prophets and prophetess. The
philosopher Moses Maimonides in his book "Guide for the
Perplex" he notes that the faculty of divine reception is evident
in humans but this is not what makes an individual a prophet
but the divine knowledge which comes from birth to adulthood.
This knowledge is a type of training which trains the faculty
(The divine reception).

Along with this faculty there is the faculty of morality, purity etc
that comes into play. Most prophets most notably Jesus and
Mohommad withdrew from society rejecting the physical nature
of the world and meditated on the metaphysics of life and the
beyond. We see now that the extremely religious of our society
today practice this. We also know that many monks in the times
of Jesus and Mohammad practiced this as well.

This type of practice can be seen as a spiritual purifier which
can stimulate the mind to get aligned with the divine nature of
the planet isolating all senses and being attunded with the
reality of God. We see in the bible Jesus did something similar
with his asting for 40 days, and Muhammad did this at Mount
Arafat.

All of these qualities accumilate to being a prophet a legitimate
prophet along with the signs and miracles that God wills
through them. I believe every prophet that God has sent had an
additonal "supernatural" quality which also verified the truth
they brought to their respective people. Now as we turn to the
current subject we see that in our time, the time since the
advent of Muhammad and Jesus the two worlds famous
prophets along with Moses there hasn't been prophet like those
three.

Now most of you may know that God in the qur'an verifies that
Muhammad is the seal of the prophets. It is later said that Allah
(God) has sent over 100,000 prophets to various nations. Of
curse many of you who may frown on the fact that God would
not "seal" the prophetic mission with Muhammad may want to
look at my argument for why that is.

I have committed 5 reasons why:

1) When we talk about modern time I talk about the zenith of
civilization, meaning the time of the climax of our socieities.
Because mankind has evolved psychologically it is not
necessary to send another prophet since mankind has
developed the faculty of morality in contrast to the ancient
people of Biblical and Quranic doctrine.

What i mean from here is that the philosophical principles
which would define religion, morality, law and the like were not
as developed in those societies as they are today. Most people
even in the time of Muhammad followed a particular law which
was openly against the laws of God (i.e the tribes of Quraysh
who were openly pagan and the people in that empire had to
follow the State religion).

The moral faculty of today along with the faculty of reason is
another contrast because today in our respective societies we
are able to follow our respective religions freedom of
persecution. Unfortunately its not as consistent in every society
as persecution of religion still exist today, but we must
understand that our moral and reason faculty both allow us to
make distinction religiously versus those in the past who
undertsood spirituality in physical objects. we still have some of
this today but on a lesser degree hence the spiritual message
of God's Oneness does not need to be repeated since
historically it is evident that there is a message of the Oneness
of God.

2) The spirituality of God's message has not been duplicated.
Since Muhammad there has been no religious institution
whose leader has duplicated the spiritual text which the Qur'an
has presented to humankind. We see from religious sects and
additional gnostic beliefs presenting something which is in
contrast to their orthodox brothers and sisters but nothing
dynamic enough that would be of divine providence. The
message of God's oneness is not unique since it is repetative in
our doctrine as well as through reason therefore there is no
need to reaffirm this for ages to come. this along with the faculty
of our reason is enough to decide on this matter.

3) Anyone can claim prophethood. We have modern day
prophets who claim to be successors of Jesus and Mohammad.
I can claim prohethood and I can sit at my house and write 500
page book on the message God gave me through a vision or
claim that I had direct contact with God. Using theory I can
claim to foretell the futue and give futuristic predictions. We've
had prophets who have claimed to have had visions of God
and Jesus both. We have had prophets who have been
"abducted" so to speak and have been transported in front of
the court of God (similar to the beliefs of Sikhs of the advent of
Guru Nanank) and later claim to be a prophet sent by god with
divine knowledge. Anyone can claim prophethood but not all
has the training of prophets this is what distinct modrn prophets
from those of the old. Training, meditation are just basic forms
of training. but even then just these alone cannot make a
"prophet."

4) When we talk of prophets we talk about miracles of course
and of course miracles doesn't have to be magical spells or
tricks that can convince an entire populace, but a type of divine
reaction in the natural world. We see with the flood and the
parting of the seas as miracles because of divine reaction to
the natural world. when challenged there has yet to be a
prophet who has come from God who can meet these
challenges. Although we Muslims agree that the Qur'an in itself
with its beatific language is a type of divine artistry that is
unmatched, but ven still Muhammad still perform "empirical
miracles" in which his followers saw with their own eyes the
divine inspiration within Muhammad.

Of course you have prophets who can predict a certain
"forecast" of events but we are talking about clear miracles in
which the people has seen with their own eyes in consistency
with the divine message. Of course God in the Qur'an even
says that even if the Angels were shown to people there would
be people still in denial calling what they see "magic." But for
prophets who perform miracles this is an extraordinary event.

And finally 5) Is that the continuation of God's spiritual message
alone does not signify God's love for mankind. Many who
would argue opposite would say that God's love and care for
mankind is the continuation of his message. I disagree. The fact
that humans are still on earth and are still free even now to sin,
worship gods before the court of God and curse the planet is
enoug proof that God continue to love mankind. Also we have
found that even through the continuation of God there still is the
greater possibility of corruption.

We know that all prophets in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic
tradition that have died and had successors whose empire
flourished eventually fell. With the exception of the Qur'an most
of the doctrine within such empires were lost and re-recorded
some using the interpretation of individuals. We also know that
many of these empire had so-called prophets after who
claimed to be from God, nullifying current laws. This reminds
me of a story where an individual in Iraq proclaimed to be a
true successor of Muhammad and proclaimed to the people
that they didn't have to pray 5 times a day!

There are of course reasons to believe in the possibility of
modern day prophets but as I have said before modern day
prophet are extraordinary and are unlike the general
population. I agree that we do have prophetic faculties but that
alone and even with the particulars of being a prophet are even
not enough. It takes the accumilation of these qualities along
with divine will to put that individual in the divine category.