Was Jesus God’s Final Prophet?

by Micky Galloway

The key pillar of the Muslim religion is the confession, “There is no God but Allah; Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah.” Muhammad (AD 570-632) was the founder of the religion of Islam and accepted by Muslims throughout the world as the last prophet of God. In a previous article (January 31, 2016), we emphatically denied that Muhammad was a prophet of God. In this article we will establish that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s final prophet to man.

The book of Deuteronomy contains many warnings and admonitions for the people of God as they are about to enter the land of Canaan. In the eighteenth chapter of the book we learn that God was going to establish a body of men called prophets, and put His word in their mouths (Deuteronomy 18:9-22). Specifically Moses said, “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19).

It was understood that Moses spoke of ONE prophet, who alone could compare to him. As John the apostle opens his account of the life of Christ he tells of the work of John the Baptist. On one occasion priests and Levites from Jerusalem went to John and inquired as to whether or not he was the Christ. “And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No” (John 1:20-21). A specific prophet was expected by these leaders of the Jews.

John the Baptist affirmed that Jesus was “the prophet” of whom Moses spoke. These Jewish leaders asked John, “Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize in water: in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not, (even) he that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose … On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is become before me: for he was before me” (John 1:25-30).

Jesus claimed that He was “the prophet” of whom Moses spoke. When Jesus healed a lame man at the Pool of Bethesda, “the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). Jesus told these Jews in the verses following, “Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life” (John 5:39-40). Jesus continued, “Think not that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, (even) Moses, on whom ye have set your hope. For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:45-47).

In the parable of Matthew 21:33-46 Jesus told of a land owner who put out a vineyard and then let it out to husbandmen and went into another country. “And when the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, to receive his fruits. 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 in like manner. But afterward (last of all, KJV) he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.” God had sent His servants the prophets to Israel. Instead of obeying the prophets, Israel despised them and persecuted them and killed them. “Last of all,” God sent His Son. When Jesus came these wicked men crucified Him! The parable teaches that no other messengers will be sent! Those who rejected God’s final messenger had rejected God Himself. The chief priests and Pharisees clearly understood that He was speaking of them.

Peter affirmed that Jesus was “the prophet” of whom Moses spoke. The apostle Peter quoted from Deuteronomy 18 in Acts chapter 3, “Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me. To him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever he shall speak unto you. And it shall be, that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Yea and all the prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days. Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Take note of Peter’s application of this prophecy. “Unto you first God, having raised up his Servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities” (Acts 3:22-26). Jesus who lived and died for us, is “the prophet.”

Stephen affirmed that Jesus was “the prophet” of whom Moses spoke. Stephen quoted this same passage from Deuteronomy 18 and then made the same application. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers; ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not” (Acts 7:37, 51-53). Stephen said the Righteous One who was murdered is “the prophet.”

After Jesus was raised from the dead, He said to those who came to the tomb, “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27). Jesus explained to the apostles, “These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44).

Jesus is clearly identified as God’s final prophet, “God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in (his) Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). Beloved, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, Charles Russell, etc. are all dead; but Jesus is alive. “I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades” (Revelation 1:17-18). Could anything be more final than that? Who has “all authority” to make known the mind of God and save us from sin; dead prophets, or a Savior who died and rose from the dead and lives forever?