FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Question: Are Latter-day Saint prophets not really "prophets" because they don't foretell unknown events?
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Contents
Criticism
Some critics that Latter-day Saint prophets aren't really "prophets" because they don't prophesy. They commonly issue challenges such as, "If Gordon B. Hinckley is a prophet, tell me one event that he's prophesied."
Response
The LDS Bible Dictionary has a good response to this:
- The work of a Hebrew prophet was to act as God's messenger and make known God's will. The message was usually prefaced with the words "Thus saith Jehovah." He taught men about God's character, showing the full meaning of his dealings with Israel in the past.... It was also the prophet's duty to denounce sin and foretell its punishment, and to redress, so far as he could, both public and private wrongs. He was to be, above all, a preacher of righteousness. When the people had fallen away from a true faith in Jehovah, the prophets had to try to restore that faith and remove false views about the character of God and the nature of the Divine requirement. In certain cases prophets predicted future events, e.g., there are the very important prophecies announcing the coming of Messiah's kingdom; but as a rule prophet was a forthteller rather than a foreteller.[1]
Foretelling future events is only one calling of a prophet. Many Biblical and modern prophets have carried out their calling by focusing on other roles. For example, Elijah is considered one of the great prophets of the Old Testament, and yet he didn't prophesy about the future.
Conclusion
Prophets have many roles, only one of which is to prophesy future events. Most modern LDS prophets have been forthtellers rather than foretellers.
Endnotes
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
- Fallibility of prophets
- General authorities' statements as scripture
- Prophetic test in Deuteronomy 18