Prophets

In order to prepare myself for General Conference, I decided to study up a little on prophets and their divine role.  I'll admit I don't have any burning questions regarding the topic of prophets as I often do on topics in my weekly study questions, but it has been a really great experience merely to augment my testimony of them through a directed study.

A few questions I went in with:  Why do we need prophets?  What is their role to receive revelation for us when we can receive it for ourselves?

I started my search in the Book of Mormon Topical Guide with
1 Nephi 11: 27 "... a prophet should prepare the way before Redeemer..." 
        A prophet prepares the world for Christ- both when he came to live on earth and when He will come again.  We can't do that individually.  We need a leader- one leader- to hold that role and purpose with God showing him how to do it.

1 Nephi 22:20 "the Lord will surely prepare a way for this people ... a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you."
         A prophet is the means God devised to watch out for His people.  A prophet is how God speaks to us through a medium we recognize and understand- another person, a leader.  We are used to listening and following leaders throughout history.  It makes sense.  God cannot come down and speak to us because that would negate faith, but we need faith to listen to prophets.

1 Nephi 22:23  "... all churches who are built up to get gain ... to get power to become popular in the eyes of the world...."
        Churches and church leaders can easily go so terribly awry, God must be at the head and the only way to make sure the church doesn't veer off on its own is through a LIVING prophet.  A constant check and security to make sure God and not man is running the church.

2 Nephi 25: 20 "There is but one Messiah spoken of by the prophets."
         A role of prophets is to clarify Christ- who He is, what He does, what the atonement means for us.  There is one Christ and all prophets, ancient and modern know the same one.  With so many differing opinions of Christ, we need the strength in numbers of clarification from those who know and have known Him so very personally.

Jacob 4:6  "... we search the prophets and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy ; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope and our faith becometh unshaken."
        We wouldn't have scriptures without prophets. We need their words- both past and present.  We need their combined witnesses.  They prophecy.  They strengthen faith and give us hope.

3 Nephi 1:13 "... come I into the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets."
        This struck me as interesting- this verse makes it sound like Christ came just to prove the sanctity of prophets.  He was the one who caused them to speak and prophecy of Him and then He came to fulfill their words.  Interesting thought. 

3 Nephi 11:10 "I am Jesus Christ whom the prophets testified shall come."
     The very first thing He says.  Same idea as above.  Obviously proving the sanctity of prophets was/is a top priority to Christ.  And so should be for us as well.

3 Nephi 12: 11-12 "... blessed are you when men revile against you and persecute you... for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.."
       Prophets are an example of the believers- they give us hope.  People gain a lot of hope from the thought that Christ went through all the same trials everybody goes through.  Like Christ, prophets can often be a source of comfort and hope amid persecution.  They have had about every trial out there, though not as personally as Christ has gone through our trials.
      Also, it's important our faith isn't based on the popularity of the church or prophets.  Prophets have never been popular.

Finally, I checked the Bible Dictionary, which outlines the role of prophets in ancient Israel.  I believe the duties of prophets are the same today.  Some of these duties include:
- ".... to act as God's messenger and make known God's will (message usually prefaced with 'Thus saith Jehovah.'
- teach men God's character
- show full meaning of God's dealings with Israel in the past
- preserve and edit records
- denounce sin and fortell is punishment
- redress both public and private wrongs
- remove false views about the character of God"

So the roles of a prophet, that an individual cannot do include:  preparing the world for the Savior, speak for God to the world, lead the church and make sure it runs according to God's rules/will, clarify the character of God and Christ, write scripture, provide a faith-strengthening example of persecution to the world, and redress public wrongs.  In short, the world desperately needs a living prophet.  Always has, always will.