During a severe crisis before going to battle, and terribly worried that his armies would fail against the Moabites, the Biblical King of Judah, Jehoshaphat, asks the King of Israel:

 

“Is there not here a prophet of the LORD,

that we may enquire of the LORD by him?”

 

And one of the King’s servants answered saying:

 

Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat.

 

And Jehoshaphat said:

 

“The word of the LORD is with him”

 

(2 Kings 3:10-12)

 

On a prior occasion, Jehoshaphat counseled with the wicked king Ahab, King of Northern Israel, concerning whether to go to battle against Syria:

 

And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel,

Enquire, I pray thee at the word of the LORD today.

 

Then Ahab, King of Israel gathered together his false prophets who always spoke to him smooth things rather than right things.  And all of Ahab’s false prophets said for Ahab to go up to battle, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

 

And Jehoshaphat said,

Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides,

that we might enquire of him?

And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat,

There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah,

By whom we may enquire of the LORD:

But I hate him;

For he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.

And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said,

Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah.

 

(1 Kings 22:5-9)

 

Jehoshaphat will rise up in terrible excoriating judgment against modern Christian orthodoxy’s grandest heresy of all heresies—that there shall be no more true Apostles nor Prophets on the earth!  When Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, “Let not the king say so” after Ahab disparaged the prophet Micaiah, so should not Christianity likewise give profound heed to Jehoshaphat, King of Judah?

Just as most kings of Israel and Judah rejected the prophets of old, so likewise does all of Christianity today, when Christians should be the most willing, eager and most earnest of all people to look for and hear the words of a true Apostle or prophet, even as King Jehoshaphat did!

All of the converts of the heathen nations who repented at the teachings of the true Apostle Paul will rise up in excoriating judgment against modern Christian orthodoxy’s  grandest heresy of all heresies that there shall be no more true Apostles or Prophets on the earth!

Christians of all people should be most eager, willing, and most earnest of all people who have ever lived to accept the true Apostles and Prophets sent unto them, after the strongest pronouncement of the Savior:

 

Verily I say unto you,

No prophet is accepted in his own country.

 

(Luke 4:24,  See also Matt 13:57)

 

And again:

 

Woe unto you [ye lawyers]!

for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, 

and your fathers killed them.

Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers:

for they indeed killed them,

and ye build their sepulchres.

 

(Luke 11:47-48)

 

After the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen by which Jesus excoriated the Pharisees who rejected Him and His forerunner John the Baptist, modern Christianity stands with a condemnation fit for even the Pharisees themselves, in teaching the grandest heresy of all heresies of Christian Orthodoxy, that there can be no more true prophets:

 

Hear another parable:

There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard,

and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it,

and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen,

and went into a far country:

And when the time of the fruit drew near,

he sent his servants to the husbandmen,

that they might receive the fruits of it.

And the husbandmen took his servants,

and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.

Again, he sent other servants more than the first:

and they did unto them likewise.

But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying,

They will reverence my son.

But when the husbandmen saw the son,

they said among themselves, This is the heir;

come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh,

what will he do unto those husbandmen?

…He will miserably destroy those wicked men,

and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen,

which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

 

(Matt 21:33-41)

 

Why then are not modern Christians earnest and eager to examine an Apostle from our own time to determine if the fruits of that Apostle are the fruits spoken of by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:  “By their fruits ye shall know them?” Mt 7:15-20.

Even the ancient scriptures openly declare that where and when there is no prophet, a nation or the whole world is in a darkened state of apostasy:

 

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD,

that I will send a famine in the land,

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the LORD:

And they shall wander from sea to sea,

and from the north even to the east,

they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD,

and shall not find it.

 

(Amos 7:11-12)

 

Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry:

they are drunken, but not with wine;

they stagger, but not with strong drink.

For the LORD hath poured out upon you

the spirit of deep sleep,

and hath closed your eyes:

the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

 

(Isa 29:9-10)

 

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

 

(Prov 29:18)

 

What would an ancient King of Judah like Jehoshaphat do in such times?

If King Jehoshaphat sought diligently for a true prophet in his day, should not then modern Christians have so much more reason to renounce the false evil orthodox doctrine that there shall be no more true Apostles or Prophets?

Many say—when we get to the other side, then we will know who has spoken the truth about religion.

Such people have no idea of the greatness of the truth of the principle they themselves so enunciate!  After all, it is only by revelation—not received from man, but received only by revelation, as Paul pronounced to the Galatians with such forcefulness!

The same revelation which many anticipate we all will receive in the next world—is the same revelation which is received by true Apostles and Prophets, just as Paul taught the Galatians:

 

But I certify you, brethren,

that the gospel which was preached of me

is not after man.

For I neither received it of man,

neither was I taught it,

but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

(Gal 1:11–12)

 

And that great Apostle of old did indeed excoriate those same Galatians:

 

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him

that called you into the grace of Christ

unto another gospel:

Which is not another;

but there be some that trouble you,

and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

But though we, or an angel from heaven,

preach any other gospel unto you

than that which we have preached unto you,

let him be accursed.

As we said before, so say I now again,

If any man preach any other gospel unto you

than that ye have received,

let him be accursed.

 

(Gal 1:6–9)

 

The most foundational plank of modern Christian orthodoxy is to nip in the bud any notion of there existing the possibility of a true prophet on earth today.  Christians will cite a passage from the book of Revelation:

 

For I testify unto every man

that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book,

If any man shall add unto these things,

God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

And if any man shall take away

from the words of the book of this prophecy,

God shall take away his part out of the book of life,

and out of the holy city,

and from the things which are written in this book.

 

(Rev 22:18-19)

 

Perhaps the grandest irony of all irony is that modern Christians will hark back to the voice of a true Apostle—John himself—to “prove” that there can be no more true Apostles.

Just how much a part of wicked husbandmen have modern orthodox Christians become?

Or how false and—yes—how evil–is such a doctrine of the wicked husbandmen of orthodoxy?  When will the Lord let out His vineyard to husbandmen that will not reject true Apostles and Prophets?  The Grand Heresy that there can be no more apostles in our time, is evil enough to make wicked husbandmen wicked!

Is not the whole Bible itself esteemed by Christians as the very standard of the Word of the Lord—because it contains the words of true Apostles and Prophets?

Or why else would the Bible itself be what it is to Christianity today?

Just when in the Grand Panorama of the history of all humanity on the earth would there be a more opportune time for a true Apostle or Prophet of the Lord to come forth than in the Land of America—where the very first right set forth in the Bill of Rights was that of the free exercise of religion?

The Founding Fathers did well to place that freedom–of all other inalienable rights—first–in the Bill of Rights—the very sacred right to worship in the way any individual seeks to worship the true and living God!  –the inalienable right that has been most trampled on of all other human rights throughout all of human history.

If it were possible to look at the grand panorama of world history with utterly complete total objectivity—without any consideration of having been placed in any part of it, just what period and place in such history would one expect the Living God to place His own true Apostles and Prophets?

May the day come when modern Christianity joins King Jehoshaphat in asking the paramount question of our time:

 

Is there not a Prophet of the LORD

that we may enquire of the LORD by him?

Pres. Thomas S. Monson

Our Modern Living Prophet

 

                  

Pres. Henry B. Eyring      Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

First Counselor             Second Counselor

 

The Present Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

I will send you at your asking, a pamphlet containing the Joseph Smith story,

or a copy of the Book of Mormon, a volume of scripture which was translated

by the very gift and power of God which was manifest on the Day of Pentecost

and which contains the words of Christ..

Spencer Ball     [email protected]