Prophets

A prophet is a witness of Christ with authority to speak for God, not an infallible oracle. Scripture is unusually candid about prophets making mistakes, and the Church has become more candid about it too.

20 min2 sections

The office

King James renders it “prophet”
Exodus 7:1 defines the office by analogy: Aaron shall be Moses' nāvîʾ — his spokesman. A prophet is not primarily a predictor but a mouth. Prediction happens, but it is a subset of the work rather than its definition.
Full lexicon entry →

Cross-references

Amos 3:7'The Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets' — stated as a rule about God's habits.
Revelation 19:10'The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' The definition is christological before it is predictive.
Mosiah 8:15–17Ammon on seers: a seer is greater than a prophet, and can know things past and things to come.
Numbers 11:29Moses: 'would God that all the Lord's people were prophets.' The office is not meant to be a monopoly on revelation.
D&C 1:38'Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same' — the delegation principle.

Fallible men in an infallible office

Moses is kept out of the promised land for striking the rock (Numbers 20:12).
Jonah runs from his assignment and then sulks when it succeeds.
Peter is rebuked by Paul to his face for dissembling about table fellowship (Galatians 2:11–14).
Joseph Smith is rebuked by revelation for fearing man more than God — and it is canonised (D&C 3:6–7).
The Gospel Topics essay on race states that past leaders' explanations of the priesthood restriction are disavowed.

Holding both halves

Two errors are available. One is to treat every statement by a Church leader as binding, which the Church itself does not teach and which the historical record will not sustain. The other is to conclude that because a prophet erred once, the office carries no authority — which does not follow, and which the same scriptures rule out.

The scriptural middle is D&C 1:38 read alongside D&C 3:6–7 and Moroni 9:31. Authority is real, and the men holding it are men. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's April 2013 address 'Come, Join with Us' said it plainly: leaders have made mistakes, and there is no claim of perfection.

Common consent is the structural safeguard. D&C 26:2 and D&C 28:13 require that things be done by common consent — which is why sustaining is a vote rather than a formality.

Principle

A prophet's authority rests on the office and its keys, not on the personal perfection of the man holding it.

D&C 1:38 · D&C 3:6–7 · D&C 21:4–6 · Moroni 9:31

What this topic holds

01
A prophet is a spokesman and a witness of Christ, not chiefly a predictor.
Exodus 7:1 · Revelation 19:10 · Amos 3:7
02
Prophets err, scripture records it, and the office survives it.
D&C 3:6–7 · Galatians 2:11–14 · Numbers 20:12

Check your reading

3 questions

01How does Exodus 7:1 define the prophetic office?
02What does Revelation 19:10 say the spirit of prophecy is?
03What is the structural safeguard on prophetic authority in the Church?

Where to go next

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