Can Modern Jews Have Prophets?

[JVW]

Seeing as how all of the Holy Bible was written by Jewish prophets and apostles it stands to reason that the Jews could have more prophets called among them to call Israel to repentance.

I'm aware that after 70 AD-ish when the Jews were scattered that prophets couldn't have been among the people because there wasn't really a people to prophesy to. But with the state of Israel being regathered in the mid-20th century and many Jews returning to their homeland it seems like the ground is ripe for the Jews to have prophets again and write more Bible.

I don't think that the nation's level of righteousness or belief in Jesus Christ would be much of a factor since prophets have preached in Israel during times of righteousness and times of apostasy. Could a Jewish prophet exist without believing in Jesus Christ even though they would believe in the God of Israel and the Messiah?

Also, I've heard LDS cultural rumors that the two witnesses prophesied of in the book of Revelation will be LDS prophets, and protestant cultural rumors that one of the witnesses will be named David, but I don't know where those rumors come from or what kind of merit they have.

[teddyaware]

37 minutes ago, JVW said:

Seeing as how all of the Holy Bible was written by Jewish prophets and apostles it stands to reason that the Jews could have more prophets called among them to call Israel to repentance.

I'm aware that after 70 AD-ish when the Jews were scattered that prophets couldn't have been among the people because there wasn't really a people to prophesy to. But with the state of Israel being regathered in the mid-20th century and many Jews returning to their homeland it seems like the ground is ripe for the Jews to have prophets again and write more Bible.

I don't think that the nation's level of righteousness or belief in Jesus Christ would be much of a factor since prophets have preached in Israel during times of righteousness and times of apostasy. Could a Jewish prophet exist without believing in Jesus Christ even though they would believe in the God of Israel and the Messiah?

Also, I've heard LDS cultural rumors that the two witnesses prophesied of in the book of Revelation will be LDS prophets, and protestant cultural rumors that one of the witnesses will be named David, but I don't know where those rumors come from or what kind of merit they have.

5 Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.

6 Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?

7 Why should I desire that I were an angel, that I could speak unto all the ends of the earth?

8 For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that hs seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true. (Alma 9)

“Many beautiful lessons might be drawn from this passage (Alma 29:1-9) of scripture, but I have only time to dwell upon one. It tells me that Providence is over all, and that he holds the nations in the hollow of his hand; that he is using not only his covenant people, but other peoples as well, to consummate a work, stupendous, magnificent, and altogether too arduous for this little handful of Saints to accomplish by and of themselves. Alma seems to have thought, for the moment, that man was doing God's work for him, instead of which it is God, who is doing his own work, and using men as his instruments. Nor is he limited in the choice of instruments to his own people. He sways the scepter over all nations, and they are all playing into his hands, knowingly or unknowingly. Alma knew this, but had momentarily lost sight of it.

All down the ages men bearing the authority of the Holy Priesthood -- patriarchs, prophets, apostles and others, have officiated in the name of the Lord, doing the things that he required of them; and outside the pale of their activities other good and great men, not bearing the Priesthood, but possessing profundity of thought, great wisdom, and a desire to uplift their fellows, have been sent by the Almighty into many nations, to give them, not the fulness of the Gospel, but that portion of truth that they were able to receive and wisely use. Such men as Confucius, the Chinese philosopher; Zoroaster, the Persian sage; Gautama or Buddha, of the Hindus; Socrates and Plato, of the Greeks; these all had some of the light that is universally diffused, and concerning which we have this day heard. They were servants of the Lord in a lesser sense, and were sent to those pagan or heathen nations to give them the measure of truth that a wise Providence had allotted to them.” (Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, Apr. 1921, pp. 32-33)

Edited January 2 by teddyaware

[teddyaware]

1 hour ago, JVW said:

Seeing as how all of the Holy Bible was written by Jewish prophets and apostles it stands to reason that the Jews could have more prophets called among them to call Israel to repentance.

I'm aware that after 70 AD-ish when the Jews were scattered that prophets couldn't have been among the people because there wasn't really a people to prophesy to. But with the state of Israel being regathered in the mid-20th century and many Jews returning to their homeland it seems like the ground is ripe for the Jews to have prophets again and write more Bible.

I don't think that the nation's level of righteousness or belief in Jesus Christ would be much of a factor since prophets have preached in Israel during times of righteousness and times of apostasy. Could a Jewish prophet exist without believing in Jesus Christ even though they would believe in the God of Israel and the Messiah?

Also, I've heard LDS cultural rumors that the two witnesses prophesied of in the book of Revelation will be LDS prophets, and protestant cultural rumors that one of the witnesses will be named David, but I don't know where those rumors come from or what kind of merit they have.

As the mighty angel who was the Apostle John’s personal guide while he experienced the vision that became the Book of Revelation testified, “… the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Therefore in spite of the inclusive perspectives elucidated by the Prophet Alma and Orson F Whitney in my previous post, it’s quite literally impossible to be a prophet of God without first having a strong and abiding testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, bestowed through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless this verity doesn't at all negate the fact that what Orson F Whitney said is also true! The Lord does indeed send forth men unto the nations of the world who are knowingly or unknowingly inspired by the light of Christ to prepare the way for him to accomplish his great purposes, the work of the United States’ Founding Fathers being a perfect case in point.

4 For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also ALL the holy prophets which were before us.

5 Behold, they believed in Christ and worshiped the Father in his name, and also we worship the Father in his name. And for this intent we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our souls to him; and for this cause it is sanctified unto us for righteousness, even as it was accounted unto Abraham in the wilderness to be obedient unto the commands of God in offering up his son Isaac, which is a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son.

Edited January 2 by teddyaware

[The Nehor]

It is worth noting that the pre-exile prophets were not what we think of as prophets. In the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament we generally get two kinds of prophets. The ecstatic prophets would put themselves into ecstatic states to prophesy. They would act out dramas and put themselves into trances with things like self-cutting and (in some cases) hallucinogenics. Ezekiel probably falls into this camp. Elijah is more ecstatic. You also have the prophet groups like the one Saul joined.

Then there are the apostolic prophets. This doesn’t mean apostle in the LDS sense, it means apostle in the “messenger” sense. These are prophets that get a message and deliver it. This is people like Jeremiah.

Prophets generally deliver bad news. They are telling people what is wrong. Prophets are curmudgeons and doomsayers. They function because they have political backing. Once they lost political backing there wasn’t much of a niche for prophets to fill. 

Generally the prophets are not leaders. They are consultants. The equivalent of modern Church leader prophets isn’t there in the prophets of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel or any of the post-exile prophets.

As to why they vanished most of those with a prophetic cast to them in early New Testament times were apocalyptic. In other words they were preaching a coming end of the world or transition to a messianic age. John the Baptist and Jesus fit into this mold as did many others. The Essenes who left the Dead Sea Scrolls were a group dedicated to apocalypticism. After the series of revolts against Rome that wiped out multiple rebel groups who were expecting a literal deus ex machina to save them from Roman power the Jewish leadership was sick of apocalypticism. It was getting lots of people killed. Expecting the messiah to come down and save you was turning a lot of these groups into what amounted to death cults. Read what the Essenes wrote that they expected to happen when they went to war and it is pretty easy to guess what happened to them. So the Jews largely abandoned that kind of apocalyptic fervor.

There were resurgences of it within Judaism. Sabbatai Zevi in the 1600s is probably the most prominent. When he abandoned his faith when threatened with death and then died some of his followers created a movement somewhat similar to what happened with Jesus where they insisted he would return and fulfill the Messianic promises but so far that hasn’t happened. There was a lot of pushback against that kind of messianic fervor again and some restrictions and warnings were put in place around the study of Kaballah to try to restrain this kind of apocalyptic fervor.

There are groups and leaders within the modern state of Israel fulfilling the mandate of the ancient prophets. They tend to be more like teachers. They call for ethical conduct in the mold of prophets like Isaiah and social justice in the mold of prophets like Amos and ‘speak unpleasant truths to power’ in the mold of Elijah. They aren’t state-backed though.

Edited January 2 by The Nehor

[ZealouslyStriving]

1 hour ago, JVW said:

Seeing as how all of the Holy Bible was written by Jewish prophets and apostles it stands to reason that the Jews could have more prophets called among them to call Israel to repentance.

I'm aware that after 70 AD-ish when the Jews were scattered that prophets couldn't have been among the people because there wasn't really a people to prophesy to. But with the state of Israel being regathered in the mid-20th century and many Jews returning to their homeland it seems like the ground is ripe for the Jews to have prophets again and write more Bible.

I don't think that the nation's level of righteousness or belief in Jesus Christ would be much of a factor since prophets have preached in Israel during times of righteousness and times of apostasy. Could a Jewish prophet exist without believing in Jesus Christ even though they would believe in the God of Israel and the Messiah?

Also, I've heard LDS cultural rumors that the two witnesses prophesied of in the book of Revelation will be LDS prophets, and protestant cultural rumors that one of the witnesses will be named David, but I don't know where those rumors come from or what kind of merit they have.

Lubavitchers essentially believe that the Rebbe was a prophet, if not Meshiach himself.

The Rebbe: A Brief Biography - Chabad.org https://share.google/K9RNImo0pvc4TyljJ