I suggest there can be No Last Prophet without the world ending. Many major world religions focus on the words and deeds of one they consider to the be the Last Prophet who carry's God's final and authoritative message to man.
For most of our major world religions their prophet of note lived over a thousand years ago. The world does not appear to have ended.
Since that time a large variety of wars have been fought regarding details of these major world religions. There have been debates. I would say that parts of the message left by these prophets have been equivocal.
During the time they lived, spoke and did works their message have been sufficient. Perhaps they were so for several hundred years. But history has shown us that there was enough ambiguity left to fight colossal wars about.
I also suggest that it is very difficult to deliver one message to all cultures. Some cultures may have already internalized much of the message from a given prophet. Given a chance to speak to that culture, I would expect a prophet to focus on the aspects of his message most appropriate to the culture he was addressing.
I think this is a proper course of action for a prophet, and I believe that is what each has done.
However cultures change. Perhaps every culture the prophet directly addressed, over a thousand years, actually adopts a great deal of the prophets message. At that point would the culture be in no need of moral guidance? More likely new moral issues will have come to the forefront. The prophets message would still be relevant, but not controversial.
At that point history has shown us that individuals will come forward. They will be declared prophets, or they may declare themselves prophets. They will bring with them a new message, instructing the current culture.
If you believe the Last Prophet has already come, then you may have blinded yourself to the truth of the words of these new speakers, who some declare to be prophets.
As long as history continues to move forward new prophets will be announced. Perhaps they will be false prophets.
What is a false prophet? If they bring a message that could make the world a better place, can they be false? How important are the liturgical details, if the moral lessons are all instructive?
So I propose, there can be no Last Prophet, until the world ends. I like the world, I encourage it's continued existence, I want there to be a future. I say that promoting the idea that there is, or even can be, a Last Prophet is encouraging Apocalypticism, End Times thinking and a lot of really scary behavior.
-Brother Rail Gun of The Short Path
This e2 author added his writeup to the public domain. Please consider doing likewise :)
Edit, discussion for this node is continuing at Convert_me on liverjournal.