A prophet is God’s spokesman (Exodus 4:16; 7:1). Just as the President of a nation has an official spokesman or press secretary, Jehovah—the great King (Malachi 1:14)—has employed various men and women to proclaim His statutes, edicts, commandments, and predictions. At various times, using different modes of revelation (i.e., dreams, visions, analogies), the God of heaven has communicated His will to humanity.
The revelation of God’s will in written form culminated in the coming of His final prophet with His cadre of first century apostles and prophets. With Jesus, God’s revelation was the incarnate Immanuel, just as Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 7:14).
Because Jesus/Immanuel was given the dual role of prophet and lawgiver like Moses, He is the fulfillment of the predictive prophecy made in Deuteronomy 18:15-19: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, Him you shall hear…I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.”
As clearly seen in this precise fulfillment of God’s promise via the mouth of Moses and echoed on the mount of transfiguration in the presence of Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John (Matthew 17:1-5), Jesus is God’s final prophet. Therefore, “God…has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2), not by Muhammad, Mary Baker Eddy, Joseph Smith, the pope, or any other spiritual charlatan.
