Why do we need prophets and apostles today?

So, This is a question i get asked by people of lots of different faiths, This comes from several viewpoints. One is that the Bible is the whole word of God and that there is no need for anything more. Another is the belief which is correct but incomplete and that is that we are able to receive personal guidance from God. And also from the idea that because Jesus has come already we have no more need for prophets.

Lets begin with how God has lead his people in the past. Throughout the Bible God has spoken to his Children through Prophets, He spoke through people like Noah, Moses, Samuel Isaiah and many other prophets all throughout history. In paul's letter to the Ephesians(Ephesians 4:11-15) he teaches why we have prophets and apostles in the first place.

Im going to pick a few things out of that verse that teach me why we need them today. "till we all come in the unity of faith" as you can see from christianity as a whole, we are not united. There are people who attack the beliefs of other christians and that is not right. If the purpose of the prophets and apostles and pastors and teachers was supposed to bring us all together in unity of faith, Why is christianity so divided?

We are divided because the basic beliefs of each church is different, there are people who believe in the trinity, there are people who believe that they are 3 separate beings, even things as basic as if we need to be baptised and if so, how that baptism is done. the list of things go on. and in verse 14 it teaches "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive:" This teaches that they were teaching one doctrine and not hundreds of different opinions because they would have been united.

This does not mean that everyone who claims to be a prophet is a prophet, Jesus Christ himself warned against false prophets (Matthew 7:15-20) notice that he did not say there will be no more prophets, but instead he taught how to recognise them, he said "Ye shall know them by their fruits." some people even thought Jesus was a false prophet. in John 7:12-17 Some people believe that Christ is teaching false idea's and Christ says "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, weather it be of God or whether i speak of myself."

If we are to find out if someone is a prophet we need to listen and than we need to act, If they are a prophet the Holy Ghost will let them know if they are or not. And so i would invite you to listen to the prophet and apostles who have been chosen by God in our time, Pray about the things you teach and act on them, by doing this you will know if they are from God or if they are not.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/