If one nation and people are entitled to an apostolic witness of the verities of salvation, so are all nations and peoples. An Apostle, literally “one who is sent,” speaks with divine authorization. He is a personal representative of the one sending him. Christ, the “Apostle and High Priest of our profession” (Hebrews 3:1), speaking of the Father, said, “I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me ” (John 7:29; cf. John 5:30, 36-38; John 6:38-39, 44, 57; John 7:16, 18, 28).
In so saying, Jesus conformed with the prophetic pattern-professing to have been “sent” with the message of the Father. Thus it was that such mighty prophets as Moses (Exodus 3:6), Isaiah (Isaiah 6:8), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:7), and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:4), having been “sent” of Jehovah, are properly spoken of as Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.
From the days of Moses (Deuteronomy 18:19; 3 Nephi 2:11) it has been declared that “they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants; neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles [”sent ones“], shall be cut off from among the people” of the covenant (D&C 1:14; cf. Acts 3:22-23; 1 Nephi 21:20; 3 Nephi 21:11, 20; Joseph Smith History 1:40).