Close your eyes, and imagine what a prophet of God would look like. Is he old, young, Middle Eastern, Western, Asian or African? What's he wearing? Is it a Western suit or, perhaps, a robe? Do you see him with some type of headgear—a turban perchance?

Now, picture your imaginary prophet giving a message to a crowd. What does he sound like? Is he announcing some plague's imminent arrival in a very loud voice? Or is he just speaking conversationally with the people? Why did you picture what you did? Your imagination undoubtedly reflects your personal expectations and your religious training—or lack thereof.

Now, imagine a prophet that the world would recognize and accept. I mean everyone in the world from every nation, Western, Eastern and in between. I mean every person from every religious or philosophical persuasion, including those who do not believe in any God. I mean rich people, poor people, famous people and average folk. And I mean young and old.

Can you imagine such a prophet? It's difficult, isn't it?

Now, call to mind the name of a biblical prophet. Who did you think of? We'll come back to that later.What is a prophet of God? The word means "someone who speaks beforehand." A prophet of God speaks God's words before they happen. You might have said, "It's someone who foretells the future." That's true to a degree.

Do prophets even exist today? Many of you likely pictured a robed, bearded older man—likely white-haired, perhaps holding a walking stick. We place prophets in another time, another culture and another age—not in the computer/electronic age.

The world needs a prophet to visit it now

But we need a messenger for all nations—now.

Why Does God Allow Suffering? is one of the booklets our readers request most out of all the ones we publish. It would be good if God sent us a man to tell us how to reverse the pandemic of AIDS, which is now in the process of engulfing China, Russia, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea more devastatingly than it now ravages parts of Africa.

We need a messenger from God to explain how the nations of Latin America can avoid what appears to be an inevitable economic meltdown. The Middle Eastern nations need such a prophet to reveal the peace plan that will genuinely resolve their seemingly permanent international embitterment. The poverty-stricken nations of the world need that divine envoy to reveal how they can rise to the level of providing good food and water, comfortable shelter and profitable, honest work for all their citizens.

Paradoxically, the rich nations of the world need God's messenger to explain how to enjoy riches without that wealth destroying its owners. How strange this world is with the poor sick for lack of essentials and the rich sick for over-indulging in the nonessentials.

With rogue nations and transnational terrorist groups like al Qaeda willing and able to use nuclear weapons in their distorted sense of correcting real and imagined wrongs, we need a prophet to stop them or to tell the rest of the world how to do it.

Prophets address personal problems

On a personal level, people need a prophet to reveal what to do to break free of addictions to alcohol, other drugs, pornography and nicotine. We need a prophet to show the way to stop the domino effect of abuse, violence and depression. We need a man with God's words to direct people to the way off the merry-go-round of divorce, cohabitation and broken homes. We need a prophet to tell the person who has reached the bottom in his personal life how to return to health, the love of family and financial security.

Do prophets deliver these kinds of messages? Yes, they do.

Some people expect a prophet to be a revolutionary, a man to lead the oppressed against the oppressors.

Muhammad was that type of leader. While at first Jesus' disciples, along with other Jews of the day, expected Him to fill that role, He did not.

Most expect a prophet to tell them what's going to happen next, like previews of upcoming attractions that splash across the TV. Good news, bad news, disaster or miracle—wouldn't people by the multiple millions tune their TVs to watch a prophet who would tell them what's going to happen tomorrow? Such a forecaster would entertain a world that gorges on amusement. It would be the ultimate reality show.

But a prophet of God is neither a revolutionary nor an entertainer.

In spite of their need for him, people do not know today what a prophet of God is. The world would neither recognize nor accept him today, regardless of his age, accent, background or dress. They would not recognize him for what he is, whether he spoke sharply or softly, healed their sick or accurately predicted the next earthquake.

What a shame, because the world needs a prophet of God so desperately.

Let's look at a real prophet

Now, let's go back to what name you came up with for a biblical prophet. I'm guessing that many of you thought of Jeremiah, for he is one of the best known. Yet Jeremiah defies the stereotypical older man image. He was young when God drafted him; commentaries estimate his age to have been around 20. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says the book he wrote shows "he was, by nature, gentle and tender in his feelings, and sympathetic" (1996, article "Jeremiah").

Messages from prophets aren't like television shows or movies that play out in a relatively short time.

Jeremiah's task spanned 40 years. People had a long time to consider what he told them.

You likely associate his name with "bad news." Even his name is a cliché for "one who is pessimistic about the present and foresees a calamitous future" (2002, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary). That's an unfair and unjust characterization.

The message God gave Jeremiah was, "Return to the law of God. You ignored, disregarded and trampled it underfoot at every level of the nation—from king to commoner. Breaking the law brings its own disasters, but God promises to intensify those automatic penalties. He will do so in order to help you realize the seriousness of your wrong in time for you to turn around."

So, within the bad news was good news or grace—the people could turn their lives around, seek and receive God's forgiveness.

Jeremiah also confronted those religious teachers of his day who tried to soft-soap the facts about personal responsibility to keep God's law and the consequences for breaking it.

Prophets speak of the law

Prophets of God are strong on the law of God. That turns off many unperceiving Christians today who accept the antinomian (anti-law) messages of their churches, which is unfortunate. By allowing a prejudice against the law of God, they cannot understand what a prophet of God does.

The typical false charge is that speaking of keeping the law is "legalistic." In brief, that means trying to ingratiate yourself with God by what you do, earning your spiritual salvation. But these opponents of God fail to perceive the enormous difference between being legalistic and being law-abiding.

Comparing God's family to a human family illustrates the hollowness of their reasoning. A healthy family has parents who establish and enforce boundaries or parameters for their children. Such boundaries are part of a good parent's unconditional love for the child. For their part, children respond in loving obedience. Obedience earns nothing, but it facilitates a good relationship between child and parent, enabling parents to give all of the benefits they would like the child to have. On the other hand, disobedience makes it impossible for parents to give all those benefits.

God's way of dealing with us is similar. He has reasonable "household rules" for us to obey, expressed in terms of His law. Being law-abiding in His household is a normal, healthy way to respond to His love. Further, it establishes a relationship that enables Him to give us all the benefits He would like us to have.

In society, people who disregard the law are criminals! By contrast, those who are law-abiding are good citizens. How sad that men who claim to represent God teach that it is wrong to be a law-abiding citizen of His Kingdom.(For a full explanation on how the law of God guides the everyday life of a Christian, see our booklet The Ten Commandments. It provides you with God's perspective of the subject, from both the Old and the New Testament.)

A prophet for today

The famous Moses of antiquity told Israel, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet" (Deuteronomy 18:15). Nearly 1,500 years later, in the formative days of the early New Testament Church of God, the apostle Peter identified that prophet as Jesus (Acts 3:22).

One subscriber to The Good News canceled his subscription because we mentioned in an article that Jesus was a prophet. The person assumed we meant that Jesus was only a prophet, not the divine Son of God. We clarified the misunderstanding. Jesus was both man and God, and as a man, He was a prophet.

Interestingly, the world needed a prophet when Jesus trod the earth just as much as today's world needs one. Biblical history tells us that sick people lined up by the thousands to see Him. History says up to half of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves, which gives us an idea of the extent of poverty and the lack of personal freedom. The Roman Empire was in its infancy, because it began only a few decades before Christ appeared as the Son of Man. So there were wars and talk of wars, as it expanded.

People struggled in their own lives, to the extent that they were willing to travel many miles and congregate by the thousands—going without food on occasion—just to be able to hear Jesus lecture on how to live.

The world needs but will not accept the prophet

There were corrupt leaders in business, politics and religion, so the world of A.D. 27 was ready for a prophet of God. By responding to His message, the world at that time could have spared itself so much grief and suffering. But it didn't recognize or accept Jesus or the message He brought.

It might be difficult for you to think of Jesus as a prophet. But remember that it takes nothing away from His divinity; it serves to explain His work and His message. A prophet doesn't create his message; he delivers God's. That's what Jesus did (John 5:30). Like Jeremiah and other prophets that Jesus sent, His prophetic message was, "Return to the law of God, because the time of reckoning is coming. The consequences of failing to do so will be disastrous personally and nationally" (see Mark 1:15).

Like that of other prophets, this Prophet's message was for the long term. We yet await the fulfillment of the final consequences for disobedience.

Of course, Jesus fills another role, that of our Savior. But, as in Jeremiah's time, forgiveness comes after one heeds and responds to the message of the prophet. That message reveals to individuals and nations alike how they can get themselves back in line with the way that brings peace and prosperity—the law of God. The prophet's message places responsibility on the individual. "Here are the facts. Now, you must decide what you will do about them. No one is going to force you to do what you should do, but you will suffer the consequences of a wrong decision."

The world is in need of a true prophet and the words God gives him. True ministers of God still declare Jesus' prophetic message—it's available. But this world is no more ready to recognize and accept it than it was when Jesus delivered it in person. The people of the world will yet go through stunning and devastating events on a massive scale, before they will be willing to hear and respond to that message. WNP