Dallin H. Oaks, “Apostasy and Restoration,” Ensign, May 1995, 84
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has many beliefs in common with other Christian churches. But we have differences, and those differences explain why we send missionaries to other Christians, why we build temples in addition to churches, and why our beliefs bring us such happiness and strength to deal with the challenges of life and death. I wish to speak about some of the important additions our doctrines make to the Christian faith. My subject is apostasy and restoration.
Last year searchers discovered a Roman fort and city in the Sinai close to the Suez Canal. Though once a major city, its location had been covered by desert sands and its existence had been forgotten for hundreds of years (see “Remains of Roman Fortress Emerge from Sinai Desert,” Deseret News, 6 Oct. 1994, p. A20). Discoveries like this contradict the common assumption that knowledge increases with the passage of time. In fact, on some matters the general knowledge of mankind regresses as some important truths are distorted or ignored and eventually forgotten. For example, the American Indians were in many respects more successful at living in harmony with nature than our modern society. Similarly, modern artists and craftsmen have been unable to recapture some of the superior techniques and materials of the past, like the varnish on a Stradivarius violin.
We would be wiser if we could restore the knowledge of some important things that have been distorted, ignored, or forgotten. This also applies to religious knowledge. It explains the need for the gospel restoration we proclaim.
When Joseph Smith was asked to explain the major tenets of our faith, he wrote what we now call the Articles of Faith. The first article states, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” The Prophet later declared that “the simple and first principles of the gospel” include knowing “for a certainty the character of God” (“Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 15 Aug. 1844, p. 614). We must begin with the truth about God and our relationship to him. Everything else follows from that.
In common with the rest of Christianity, we believe in a Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. However, we testify that these three members of the Godhead are three separate and distinct beings. We also testify that God the Father is not just a spirit but is a glorified person with a tangible body, as is his resurrected Son, Jesus Christ.
When first communicated to mankind by prophets, the teachings we now have in the Bible were “plain and pure, and most precious and easy” to understand (1 Ne. 14:23). Even in the transmitted and translated version we have today, the Bible language confirms that God the Father and his resurrected Son, Jesus Christ, are tangible, separate beings. To cite only two of many such teachings, the Bible declares that man was created in the image of God, and it describes three separate members of the Godhead manifested at the baptism of Jesus (see Gen. 1:27; Matt. 3:13–17).
In contrast, many Christians reject the idea of a tangible, personal God and a Godhead of three separate beings. They believe that God is a spirit and that the Godhead is only one God. In our view, these concepts are evidence of the falling away we call the Great Apostasy.
We maintain that the concepts identified by such nonscriptural terms as “the incomprehensible mystery of God” and “the mystery of the Holy Trinity” are attributable to the ideas of Greek philosophy. These philosophical concepts transformed Christianity in the first few centuries following the deaths of the Apostles. For example, philosophers then maintained that physical matter was evil and that God was a spirit without feelings or passions. Persons of this persuasion, including learned men who became influential converts to Christianity, had a hard time accepting the simple teachings of early Christianity: an Only Begotten Son who said he was in the express image of his Father in Heaven and who taught his followers to be one as he and his Father were one, and a Messiah who died on a cross and later appeared to his followers as a resurrected being with flesh and bones.
The collision between the speculative world of Greek philosophy and the simple, literal faith and practice of the earliest Christians produced sharp contentions that threatened to widen political divisions in the fragmenting Roman empire. This led Emperor Constantine to convene the first churchwide council in a.d. 325. The action of this council of Nicaea remains the most important single event after the death of the Apostles in formulating the modern Christian concept of deity. The Nicene Creed erased the idea of the separate being of Father and Son by defining God the Son as being of “one substance with the Father.”
Other councils followed, and from their decisions and the writings of churchmen and philosophers there came a synthesis of Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine in which the orthodox Christians of that day lost the fulness of truth about the nature of God and the Godhead. The consequences persist in the various creeds of Christianity, which declare a Godhead of only one being and which describe that single being or God as “incomprehensible” and “without body, parts, or passions.” One of the distinguishing features of the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is its rejection of all of these postbiblical creeds (see Stephen E. Robinson, Are Mormons Christians? Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1991; Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 4 vols., New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992, s.v. “Apostasy,” “doctrine,” “God the Father,” and “Godhead”).
In the process of what we call the Apostasy, the tangible, personal God described in the Old and New Testaments was replaced by the abstract, incomprehensible deity defined by compromise with the speculative principles of Greek philosophy. The received language of the Bible remained, but the so-called “hidden meanings” of scriptural words were now explained in the vocabulary of a philosophy alien to their origins. In the language of that philosophy, God the Father ceased to be a Father in any but an allegorical sense. He ceased to exist as a comprehensible and compassionate being. And the separate identity of his Only Begotten Son was swallowed up in a philosophical abstraction that attempted to define a common substance and an incomprehensible relationship.
These descriptions of a religious philosophy are surely undiplomatic, but I hasten to add that Latter-day Saints do not apply such criticism to the men and women who profess these beliefs. We believe that most religious leaders and followers are sincere believers who love God and understand and serve him to the best of their abilities. We are indebted to the men and women who kept the light of faith and learning alive through the centuries to the present day. We have only to contrast the lesser light that exists among peoples unfamiliar with the names of God and Jesus Christ to realize the great contribution made by Christian teachers through the ages. We honor them as servants of God.
Then came the First Vision. An unschooled boy, seeking knowledge from the ultimate source, saw two personages of indescribable brightness and glory and heard one of them say, while pointing to the other, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JS—H 1:17.) The divine teaching in that vision began the restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God the Son told the boy prophet that all the “creeds” of the churches of that day “were an abomination in his sight” (JS—H 1:19). We affirm that this divine declaration was a condemnation of the creeds, not of the faithful seekers who believed in them. Joseph Smith’s first vision showed that the prevailing concepts of the nature of God and the Godhead were untrue and could not lead their adherents to the destiny God desired for them.
After a subsequent outpouring of modern scripture and revelation, this modern prophet declared, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit” (D&C 130:22).
This belief does not mean that we claim sufficient spiritual maturity to comprehend God. Nor do we equate our imperfect mortal bodies to his immortal, glorified being. But we can comprehend the fundamentals he has revealed about himself and the other members of the Godhead. And that knowledge is essential to our understanding of the purpose of mortal life and of our eternal destiny as resurrected beings after mortal life.
In the theology of the restored church of Jesus Christ, the purpose of mortal life is to prepare us to realize our destiny as sons and daughters of God—to become like Him. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young both taught that “no man … can know himself unless he knows God, and he can not know God unless he knows himself” (in Journal of Discourses, 16:75; see also The Words of Joseph Smith, ed. Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1980, p. 340). The Bible describes mortals as “the children of God” and as “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16–17). It also declares that “we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:17) and that “when he shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 Jn. 3:2). We take these Bible teachings literally. We believe that the purpose of mortal life is to acquire a physical body and, through the atonement of Jesus Christ and by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, to qualify for the glorified, resurrected celestial state that is called exaltation or eternal life.
Like other Christians, we believe in a heaven or paradise and a hell following mortal life, but to us that two-part division of the righteous and the wicked is merely temporary, while the spirits of the dead await their resurrections and final judgments. The destinations that follow the final judgments are much more diverse. Our restored knowledge of the separateness of the three members of the Godhead provides a key to help us understand the diversities of resurrected glory.
In their final judgment, the children of God will be assigned to a kingdom of glory for which their obedience has qualified them. In his letters to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul described these places. He told of a vision in which he was “caught up to the third heaven” and “heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:2, 4). Speaking of the resurrection of the dead, he described “celestial bodies,” “bodies terrestrial” (1 Cor. 15:40), and “bodies telestial” (JST, 1 Cor. 15:40), each pertaining to a different degree of glory. He likened these different glories to the sun, to the moon, and to different stars (see 1 Cor. 15:41).
We learn from modern revelation that these three different degrees of glory have a special relationship to the three different members of the Godhead.
The lowest degree is the telestial domain of those who “received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets” (D&C 76:101) and who have had to suffer for their wickedness. But even this degree has a glory that “surpasses all understanding” (D&C 76:89). Its occupants receive the Holy Spirit and the administering of angels, for even those who have been wicked will ultimately be “heirs of [this degree of] salvation” (D&C 76:88).
The next higher degree of glory, the terrestrial, “excels in all things the glory of the telestial, even in glory, and in power, and in might, and in dominion” (D&C 76:91). The terrestrial is the abode of those who were the “honorable men of the earth” (D&C 76:75). Its most distinguishing feature is that those who qualify for terrestrial glory “receive of the presence of the Son” (D&C 76:77). Concepts familiar to all Christians might liken this higher kingdom to heaven because it has the presence of the Son.
In contrast to traditional Christianity, we join with Paul in affirming the existence of a third or higher heaven. Modern revelation describes it as the celestial kingdom—the abode of those “whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God” (D&C 76:70). Those who qualify for this kingdom of glory “shall dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever” (D&C 76:62). Those who have met the highest requirements for this kingdom, including faithfulness to covenants made in a temple of God and marriage for eternity, will be exalted to the godlike state referred to as the “fulness” of the Father or eternal life (D&C 76:56, 94; see also D&C 131; D&C 132:19–20). (This destiny of eternal life or God’s life should be familiar to all who have studied the ancient Christian doctrine of and belief in deification or apotheosis.) For us, eternal life is not a mystical union with an incomprehensible spirit-god. Eternal life is family life with a loving Father in Heaven and with our progenitors and our posterity.
The theology of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is comprehensive, universal, merciful, and true. Following the necessary experience of mortal life, all sons and daughters of God will ultimately be resurrected and go to a kingdom of glory. The righteous—regardless of current religious denomination or belief—will ultimately go to a kingdom of glory more wonderful than any of us can comprehend. Even the wicked, or almost all of them, will ultimately go to a marvelous—though lesser—kingdom of glory. All of that will occur because of God’s love for his children and because of the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ, “who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands” (D&C 76:43).
The purpose of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to help all of the children of God understand their potential and achieve their highest destiny. This church exists to provide the sons and daughters of God with the means of entrance into and exaltation in the celestial kingdom. This is a family-centered church in doctrine and practices. Our understanding of the nature and purpose of God the Eternal Father explains our destiny and our relationship in his eternal family. Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them. Under the merciful plan of the Father, all of this is possible through the atonement of the Only Begotten of the Father, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As earthly parents we participate in the gospel plan by providing mortal bodies for the spirit children of God. The fulness of eternal salvation is a family matter.
It is the reality of these glorious possibilities that causes us to proclaim our message of restored Christianity to all people, even to good practicing Christians with other beliefs. This is why we build temples. This is the faith that gives us strength and joy to confront the challenges of mortal life. We offer these truths and opportunities to all people and testify to their truthfulness in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Showing posts with label Apostasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apostasy. Show all posts
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Seventeen Centuries of Christianity
De Lamar Jensen, “Seventeen Centuries of Christianity,” Ensign, Sep 1978, 51
The story of Christianity is not simple to tell or easy to comprehend.
It contains cruelty as well as kindness, tragedy as well as triumph. It is the story of human endeavor to pursue a divine purpose without fully understanding what that purpose is: having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. (JS—H 1:19.) Many church leaders over the centuries were miscreants of the worst kind, sowing seeds of confusion and corruption in the church.
But many others were worthy people who paid attention to the “still small voice,” who understood at least in part the teachings of the Savior, and who promoted love, goodness, and obedience to God’s commandments. These are the ones who responded to the light they had received and helped prepare for the day when God would restore the priesthood and gospel in its fulness.
The Primitive Church
The primitive church of Christ, composed both of loyal Jews who had heard the message of the Savior and many gentiles converted to Christianity through the missionary labors of Paul and others, spread quickly around the perimeter of the eastern Mediterranean.
By the time of John’s exile to the Isle of Patmos, Christian communities existed in Syria and Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, North Africa, Greece, Macedonia, and Italy. The instructions of Jesus to his apostles to go forth and teach all nations were followed faithfully. The people of God no longer belonged to a single nation but to a universal church.
Expansion continued during the next century, and congregations of Christians were dispersed as far eastward as Arbela in Persia, and westward to Vienne and Lyon in Gaul (modern France). Obviously, the political, linguistic, and cultural diversity of these communities was enormous, and the problem of communication overwhelming. Yet they all had two things in common: a testimony of the resurrected Christ, and the perennial threat of persecution.
For three hundred years Christians were scorned and persecuted, first in Jerusalem by their Jewish countrymen and later by official proscription throughout the Roman Empire. Free exercise of the Jewish religion was permitted under Roman rule, and as long as Christians were considered as part of Judaism they were unmolested by Roman authorities. But it soon became evident, from their rejection by the Jews and the rapid influx of gentiles into their fold, that the followers of Christ were not included among the followers of the Mosaic law.
Christians’ refusal to worship and sacrifice to the Roman emperor condemned their faith to the status of an illicit religion under Roman law. Official state persecution began with Nero in the first century a.d. and was sporadically renewed and intensified under subsequent emperors. Besides physical persecution, Christians were also subjected to extreme social discrimination and continuous suspicion and hatred.
Despite all of these oppressions, Christianity continued to grow in strength and number. As it did, it encountered more pernicious threats from the infiltration of Eastern mystery cults and religious philosophies that seeped into Christianity during the second and third centuries a.d. Christians fought these influences, but similarities between them and Christian beliefs made it difficult at times to distinguish between the philosophies.
Had the people been able to seek the counsel and inspiration of prophetic leaders they might yet have maintained a constant course. But with the death of the apostles, general priesthood leadership was lost, and with it the vision of divine direction and purpose. Members and local leaders were left to their own resources to solve their mounting problems, although the channel of communication with God remained open for anyone who was worthy and willing to use it.
Alteration and Dissent
The original organization of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, bishops, and deacons underwent gradual change as situations and personnel altered and as people’s views and customs varied. Likewise, doctrines grew more diverse as conflicting opinions arose over the content and meaning of Christ’s teachings.
To arrest such tendencies, Christians tried to establish norms of belief and behavior. They began the search for authentic documents from the time of Jesus and the apostles to serve as guides. Even then disagreements arose as to the authenticity and propriety of many of the sources uncovered, and some were never found at all.
By the close of the second century, however, agreement was fairly widespread that the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, along with a number of Paul’s epistles and some from James, Peter, and John, should be recognized as the New Testament. In 367 a.d. the present collection of twenty-seven books was accepted.
Another attempt to conserve the faith appeared in the so-called Apostles’ Creed, a concise statement of doctrinal belief in God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, intended specifically to repudiate some of the tenets of Marcionism, another Eastern religion with similarities to Christianity.
In the meantime, several individuals rose to defend the faith against heretical influences. In so doing they introduced such philosophical subtleties and hair-splitting definitions that it became difficult for ordinary Christians to comprehend even basic beliefs. Among these well-meaning but misleading early church fathers was Tertullian of Carthage (Circa 150–220 a.d.), a learned lawyer whose definition of the Trinity as three in person but one in substance initiated the Christian confusion over the Godhead. Others included Clement of Alexandria (Circa 150–215 a.d.), who employed Greek philosophy to describe the nature of Christ (the Logos, or Word, always existed as the “face” of God); and Clement’s prize pupil, Origen (Circa 185–254 a.d.), a pious and brilliant teacher who held that Christ is the Logos in flesh, coeternal with but subordinate to the Father and associated in dignity with the uncreated Holy Ghost.
Dissension continued, particularly concerning Christ’s nature and his relationship to the Father, until these controversies led to a major schism among Christians. Arius (Circa 250–336), a priest in the church of Alexandria, believed and taught that although God is without beginning or end, the Son had a beginning and is therefore neither God nor man, being a creation of God. Arius’s views spread rapidly into the eastern part of the empire where violent controversy quickly followed.
Emperor Constantine, who had converted to Christianity in 312 a.d. and lifted the imperial ban against Christians, feared that the Arian controversy might divide the empire he had so recently united. He convened the first general council of the church in Nicaea, near Constantinople, in 325 a.d. The council did not end doctrinal strife, but it did condemn Arianism and issued the Nicene Creed, which declared universal belief in “one God, the Father Almighty, … and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father, … begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father.” Despite this pronouncement, the controversy continued to plague the church as the Nicene Creed was alternately accepted and rejected by subsequent emperors.
These myopic gropings emphasize the futility of comprehending spiritual matters without the gift of the Spirit. They also underline the doctrinal and regional fragmentation of the church during the decay and breakup of the Western Roman Empire between 300 and 600 a.d. By 787 a.d., no fewer than seven councils had convened to try to solve the theological arguments.
The Latin Fathers
The theology of the Western portion of Christendom was strongly influenced by four men of the fourth and early fifth centuries: Ambrose, Jerome, John Chrysostom, and Augustine, known collectively as the Latin Fathers.
As bishop of Milan, Ambrose (Circa 340–397) struggled to proclaim and maintain the independence of the church from the encroachments of the state.
Jerome (Circa 345–420) is remembered as the scholarly ascetic who translated the Bible into the Latin version (the Vulgate) that is still used by the Roman Catholic Church.
After years as a monk, John Chrysostom (347–Circa 407) became the most eloquent preacher in the early church (Chrysostom meaning “golden mouth”).
Augustine (354–430), bishop of Hippo in North Africa, wrote several works: The Confessions, revealing his own life in the light of God’s grace; The City of God, setting forth his philosophy of history as the dichotomy between the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God; and On the Trinity, giving final form to the Western church’s teaching of the divine Trinity. Heavily influenced by paganism, Augustine expounded a view of man and God that was hardly complimentary to either.
Conquest and Conversion
For five hundred years after the death of Augustine the Western church was ravaged and desolated by the decay of the protective Roman Empire, by the ensuing invasions from the north (Goths, Vandals, Saxons, Franks, and Vikings), and by the conquests of a vigorous new religion from the Middle East—Islam. Carried throughout Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Syria, Palestine, North Africa, and into Europe through the Iberian peninsula, Islam spread until, by the middle of the eighth century, half of Christendom had come under Islamic rule. Christianity survived, however, though weakened and reduced, and began the slow process of recovering its losses and conquering the conquerors. Step by step, the barbarian invaders were converted to Christianity: the Franks first, then the Anglo-Saxons, the Frisians, and the other Germans. Goths, Lombards, and Burgundians were assimilated into Latin Christendom, as were the vagrant Norsemen. By the end of the eleventh century, Christian crusaders were returning to the East to “redeem” the Holy Land.
A Professional Clergy
Perhaps the most significant change during those “dark ages” was the complete split between the Eastern and Western churches, and the rise of a professional, hierarchical clergy in the West, culminating in the powerful papacy.
The growth of papal power was slow but inexorable. In Constantine’s time, the bishop of Rome was only one of many bishops, with no more authority in the church as a whole than the bishops of Alexandria, Antioch, or Constantinople. But by the thirteenth century, as pope, he boldly proclaimed his supremacy over all the world and its kingdoms.
Constantine and each of his immediate successors had been head of the church—making it an imperial theocracy that continued in the East until 1453. The bishops of Rome, however, contested the imperial supremacy and pronounced their own “primacy” on the ground that Rome was the “Apostolic See,” the center established by the apostle Peter.
In the fifth century Roman bishops began using the title pope (father) to emphasize their superiority to other bishops, a position strongly asserted by Leo I “The Great” (440–61) and expanded by several strong-willed successors. By the middle of the eighth century, when Pope Stephen II sought and received the protection of the Frankish king, the papacy had fully freed itself from imperial authority and resumed its climb to Europeanwide power.
The medieval church was governed by an intricate hierarchical system consisting of the pope at the top, archbishops and bishops in the middle, and parish priests at the bottom. In addition to their jurisdictional functions, priests administered seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, penance, eucharist, and extreme unction). These sacraments were believed to be the channels by which divine grace was imparted to man.
Religious Orders
Separate from these ecclesiastical officers was another group who provided educational and social services and encouraged certain ascetic and personal expressions of Christian piety. These were the orders of monks and nuns, whose lives were regulated by their respective orders, and who took upon themselves formal vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Medieval monasticism had evolved through a long history, beginning in the third century with early hermits like St. Anthony, who took literally Christ’s injunction to the rich young man to “go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.” (Matt. 19:21.) Later monks lived communally in monasteries under strict rules, attempting to live in the world but not be of it.
Another kind of religious order, the mendicant friars, came into being in the thirteenth century. Rather than secluding themselves in monasteries, they sought to carry the Christian message by teaching and good deeds.
The first of these orders was the Franciscan, or Friars Minor, founded in Italy by St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226). Francis’s own life was one of simple and sensitive devotion to God and unselfish service to mankind. A kind-hearted and gentle man, he urged others to love God and neighbors, to forgive freely, and to abstain from all vices of the flesh.
The Dominican Order, or Friars Preachers, was founded by a Spanish priest and student, St. Dominic (Dominic de Guzman, 1170–1221). The mission of this order was to preach to the weak in spirit, to convert the non-Christians, and to teach repentance to the wayward.
Reaction against the Clergy
Many wayward souls did respond to Dominic’s efforts, but others believed the church possessed neither the true gospel nor the authority of God. Such a religious group was the Cathari (“pure ones”) of southern France (known also as Albigenses, after the city of Albi which was their center).
The Cathari, like the earlier Manichaeans, believed the material world was evil and only the spiritual realm was good. They accepted the New Testament (being from God), but they rejected the Old Testament (inspired by Jehovah, creator of the wicked world) along with many teachings and interpretations of the Roman church, including the sacraments. They sharply criticized the growing wealth and power of the clergy. Politics and economic jealousies soon entered the picture until a full-scale crusade was launched against them in 1209.
Another movement branded as heretical was the Waldenses, followers of Peter Waldo (Valdez) of Lyon. The Waldenses, like the Cathari, also spread across southeastern France, northern Spain, northern Italy, and southern Germany. They went in simple garb, two by two without purse or script, teaching their version or the gospel to all who would listen. Forbidding oaths and rejecting masses and prayers for the dead, they soon came under condemnation, and like the Cathari (with whom they disagreed), they suffered persecution and death.
The presence of these and other heresies in the medieval church gave added incentive to the development of “scholastic” arguments for refuting doctrinal error and unbelief. Scholasticism developed in conjunction with the rise of the universities and provided a broad philosophical base for the verification of church dogmas.
This introduction of reason and logic into Christian theology, to serve as an adjunct rather than an enemy to faith, was one of the triumphs of medieval thought. The greatest of the schoolmen was Thomas Aquinas (1225–74), a Dominican teacher whose Summa Theologica, a masterpiece of scholastic reasoning making great use of Aristotelian logic, overcame the apparent conflicts between natural and revealed thought and provided logical proofs of Christian doctrines for the people of the time.
Corruption and Disillusionment
But logic was no more effective than the sword in maintaining religious unity when the leadership of the church itself was steeped in error and engrossed in sin. Of course, not all of the clergy were unworthy. Many priests and monks were sincere, hard-working, and honest; but too many of them were not. By the fourteenth century clerical corruption and abuse were widespread. Absenteeism, venality, concubinage, and slothfulness were common among prelates at every level.
Unfortunately, involved as it was with “high politics,” competing with the secular rulers, the papacy did little to retard this process of deterioration. When Pope Boniface VIII issued the bull (or edict) Unam Sanctum in 1302, which reiterated the papal claim to universal supremacy, he not only infuriated the French king but also alienated many others. Consequently, the Roman see was abolished and the papacy was transplanted to Avignon, in France, where the King could keep a close watch on it. Seventy years later the Great Schism began—a succession of rival popes at Avignon and Rome each denouncing and excommunicating the other, while corruption and confusion ran rampant.
Meanwhile, most honest believers were bewildered and disillusioned. The church was an integral part of their lives and promised the only recognizable path to their salvation. Yet in many ways it was a remote, even hostile, stranger to them.
In a very real sense there were three Catholic churches, and only one of these touched the lives of people in a meaningful way. There was the church of the upper clergy (especially the bishops and cardinals), vying for influence and prestige in a world of power and violence. There was the church of the scholastics and monks, where doctrines were more highly esteemed than morals. And there was the devotional church of the fifty million lay members whose contact with religion came through the mass and other sacraments, and through pilgrimages, prayers, rosaries, relics, and intercessional appeals to the Virgin Mary and to early saints.
Reforms
During the Renaissance (from about 1350–1550), pressures mounted to reform the church and reduce its abuses. This was not the first genuine attempt at reformation. In the tenth century, a revitalization of the monastic system was triggered at the monastery of Cluny, north of Lyon. The cluniac reforms, stressing service, obedience, and piety, had a wide effect which was renewed two hundred years later by Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercians.
Even the papacy felt these fresh winds of reform under the indomitable Hildrebrand (Pope Gregory VII, 1073–85), but it did not last. Frequently during the next four centuries pious and well-meaning clergy tried to eliminate abuses within their own jurisdictions, but the problems were usually too interrelated to be successfully attacked piecemeal. Churchwide action was needed but was not forthcoming.
Many people turned to mysticism both for personal catharsis and for churchwide spiritualization. Some formed into societies, such as the Friends of God in the Rhineland and the Brethren of the Common Life in the Netherlands. From one of these groups came the most influential devotional book of the Renaissance, Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ.
Some of these mystics were sainted (St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Catherine of Siena, San Bernardino of Siena, and San Giovanni Capistrano), while others were charged with heresy. John Wyclif of Oxford and John Hus of Prague were among the latter.
During the final years of the Great Schism (1378–1415), as the divided papacy continued to degenerate, the cry was increasingly heard to convene a general council of the church. This movement gained momentum until it boldly asserted that the supreme governing body of the church was not the pope but a general council representing all Christendom.
The Council of Constance thus convened in 1414. During the next three years it deposed all three rival popes; chose a new one of its own (intended to be a figurehead); charged, heard, condemned, and then brutally killed John Hus; and hesitatingly approached the task of reforming the church “in head and members.”
Yet it did not accomplish its goals. A newly established Renaissance papacy quickly regained its position of primacy. The execution of Hus, instead of ending heresy, caused the Hussites to take up arms for the next half century, devastating much of central and eastern Europe. For the council, reform of the church soon became a dead issue.
It was not a dead issue, however, for all those who saw and were offended by the continuing corruption. Among the more outspoken of these were the Renaissance humanists, men whose devotion to the church was not compromised by their open criticism of its abuses.
Humanism was mainly a scholarly and literary movement whose admiration of classical languages and culture made it suspect in the eyes of many churchmen. The humanists were critical of scholasticism because of its irrelevance, and were vigorously opposed to the immoral lives of the clergy. “What point is there in your being showered with holy water if you do not wipe away the inward pollution from your heart?” chided Erasmus, the greatest of the humanists. “You venerate the saints and delight in touching their relics, but you despise the best one they left behind, the example of a holy life.”
Sir Thomas More echoed that sentiment in his Utopia and in other writings. The humanists held a more optimistic view of human nature and the dignity of man than did the theologians, and placed more trust in the words of scripture than in the subsequent commentaries of the scholastics. Yet they did not wish to harm the church nor divide it; they hoped to unite and strengthen it. To do that, they advocated study, prayer, and a thorough reformation of the lives of the clergy.
Protestantism
One of the clergy, an Augustinian monk and doctor of theology named Martin Luther, was less disturbed by the profusion of immoral conduct (although he condemned that too) than by what he called “the deliberate silence regarding the world of Truth, or else its adulteration.”
In a desperate endeavor to attain salvation through the conscientious performance of meritorious works prescribed by the church, Luther concluded that no man can merit salvation, that it is a gift of God given freely to whom he wills, not as a reward for good deeds but according to divine pleasure. By this simple pronouncement, Luther launched the Protestant Reformation and began the process that would lead first to a split and then a complete fragmentation of Christianity.
If mankind does not need works, indulgences, or sacraments for salvation, he reasoned, then the entire hierarchical system of the Roman church is superfluous and perverse. Indeed, he declared, the pope is not only a hoax, he is the very anti-Christ! Leaning heavily on Augustine’s definition of “original sin,” which declared all mankind to be wicked, depraved, lustful, and an enemy to God, Luther expounded the idea of salvation by grace alone (sola gratia), whereby God chooses some, regardless of their works, to repentance, faith, and salvation through Jesus Christ. Thus redeemed from their own wickedness, the “true believers”—the invisible church of Christ—become righteous doers of good for the right reasons.
Lutheranism spread into many states of Germany and beyond into Scandinavia and eastern Europe. Others quickly took up the Bible to proclaim similar views. Luther believed that no matter how many people read the scriptures, they would all reach the same conclusion if they used good reason and followed their conscience.
But, alas, it was not so. Some groups refuted clerical and monastic vows, others destroyed images, while still others, such as the “Zwichau prophets,” declared the immediate advent of the Lord.
In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli renounced the tithe, repudiated clerical celibacy, and abolished the mass. In England Henry VIII rejected the pope and declared himself “the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England.”
John Calvin, a lawyer-theologian from France, carried Protestant doctrines to their logical extreme in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, unabashedly pronouncing the predestination of the elect to salvation and the rest to damnation. At Geneva he established a tightly organized theocracy from which ardent pastors and teachers carried Calvinism into France, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Germany, Bohemia, and Poland, thus providing the principal theological base of Puritanism, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, and Dutch, French, and German Reformed faiths.
From the eddies of this Protestant upheaval other groups of reformers emerged. Some of these were called Anabaptists (rebaptizers) because they rejected the practice of infant baptism practiced by both Catholics and Protestants and proclaimed instead baptism by immersion, following conversion and repentance, as a sign of entrance into God’s kingdom.
They usually referred to themselves as “brethren,” or “saints.” Because they came largely from the lower classes, believed in a complete separation of church and state (including refusal to take civil oaths, bear arms, or pay taxes), and had extreme beliefs about the end of the world, they are frequently spoken of as the Radical Reformers. But for the most part they were peaceful and devout followers of Christ.
They believed in a restitution of the primitive church with its organization and communal life. They had no paid ministry, believed that every believer received divine help in understanding the word of God, and rejected the Protestant doctrine of salvation by grace alone, teaching instead salvation by faith and works.
Because they were so different, and their theory of church and state considered dangerous to society, they were feared and ruthlessly persecuted by Catholic and Protestant alike. Most of those who survived did so by fleeing to the east where, under the looser jurisdiction of the rulers of Moravia and Poland, they retained their unique identity and devotion.
Obviously, the Protestant Reformation did not reform the church; it fractured and divided it. Christendom was hopelessly fragmented by the middle of the sixteenth century. Recrimination, persecution, and bloodshed followed. Sincere Catholic reformers—men like Bishop Matteo Giberti and Cardinal Gasparo Contarini—could not prevent the Counter Reformation from over-reacting to the Protestant threat. The Inquisition was revived in a vain effort to wipe out heresy.
Even Ignatius Loyola’s new religious order, the Jesuits, founded in 1540 to teach the young and convert the heathen, was soon turned into an instrument for fighting Protestantism. The council of Trent (which ended in 1563) hardened the lines of religious division, and the Papal Index of Prohibited Books further constricted Christian thought. In a few years the spread of Protestantism was checked, but at an enormous cost.
Still the proliferation of new faiths within Protestantism continued. The rigors of Calvinism in the Netherlands soon generated a reaction there in the form of Arminianism, which tried to moderate the harshness of absolute predestination and “irresistible grace” with a more liberal interpretation of God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will.
In Germany, after the Thirty Years War (1618–48) had taken its gruesome toll, a movement known as Pietism deepened the spiritual life of many Lutherans by cultivating high moral standards and promoting organized works of charity and service.
And in England, George Fox (1624–91) founded the remarkable Society of Friends, known popularly as the Quakers, resembling the earlier Anabaptists in many ways: spiritual revelation, non-professional ministry, rejection of oaths, titles, and war. True Christians, they felt, will be known by their fruits—a consecrated, simple, spiritual life.
While all of these movements met with immediate distrust, anger, and violence, eventually even the fanaticism of religious war subsided and in the pluralism of post-Reformation Europe religious toleration began slowly to appear.
The Enlightenment
That progress toward toleration was aided in the eighteenth century by the spirit of the Enlightenment, particularly the rise of rationalism and “natural religion” (or Deism). According to Deist views, God exists; he created the world, which is then governed by its own natural laws. God should be respected and praised, and men should repent of their sins and do good to one another. The emphasis throughout was on virtue and conduct instead of theology. How foolish it is, noted Voltaire, the most famous of the French Deists, for men to torture and kill one another over the definition of a word or the phrasing of a creed,
Reason and morality were the watchwords of “Enlightened” society. Yet something essential to Christianity was missing in this rational religion: the intimacy of God and the divinity of Christ. Christianity without the miracles of the birth, Resurrection, and Atonement is not Christianity at all. The new humanitarianism can only be praised—for too long it had been ignored by partisan theologians—but the Deist rejection of theology, although making room for greater toleration of different Christian sects, was a criticism of Christianity itself.
Partly in response to the Deist influence came a wide-ranging evangelical awakening, especially in England. It stressed the fundamentals of Christian devotion and particularly the renewal and revitalization of life which results from a full commitment to Christ.
A notable product of this evangelicalism was a new society called Methodism, whose chief architects were John (1703–91) and Charles (1707–77) Wesley. Methodist emphasis upon “conversion” and cultivation of the Christian life, including service to others, contributed materially to a revival of Christianity and to the active promotion of social reforms, such as the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807.
And thus for seventeen centuries Christianity struggled through trials of every kind, from persecution to prosperity, from harmony to discord and disintegration, groping for answers to questions asked and unasked. As its proponents ignored or misunderstood the teachings of Christ and his apostles, Christianity foundered. As they responded to glimmers of that original light, Christianity during these centuries helped prepare men and nations for the fulness of the restored gospel.
The story of Christianity is not simple to tell or easy to comprehend.
It contains cruelty as well as kindness, tragedy as well as triumph. It is the story of human endeavor to pursue a divine purpose without fully understanding what that purpose is: having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. (JS—H 1:19.) Many church leaders over the centuries were miscreants of the worst kind, sowing seeds of confusion and corruption in the church.
But many others were worthy people who paid attention to the “still small voice,” who understood at least in part the teachings of the Savior, and who promoted love, goodness, and obedience to God’s commandments. These are the ones who responded to the light they had received and helped prepare for the day when God would restore the priesthood and gospel in its fulness.
The Primitive Church
The primitive church of Christ, composed both of loyal Jews who had heard the message of the Savior and many gentiles converted to Christianity through the missionary labors of Paul and others, spread quickly around the perimeter of the eastern Mediterranean.
By the time of John’s exile to the Isle of Patmos, Christian communities existed in Syria and Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, North Africa, Greece, Macedonia, and Italy. The instructions of Jesus to his apostles to go forth and teach all nations were followed faithfully. The people of God no longer belonged to a single nation but to a universal church.
Expansion continued during the next century, and congregations of Christians were dispersed as far eastward as Arbela in Persia, and westward to Vienne and Lyon in Gaul (modern France). Obviously, the political, linguistic, and cultural diversity of these communities was enormous, and the problem of communication overwhelming. Yet they all had two things in common: a testimony of the resurrected Christ, and the perennial threat of persecution.
For three hundred years Christians were scorned and persecuted, first in Jerusalem by their Jewish countrymen and later by official proscription throughout the Roman Empire. Free exercise of the Jewish religion was permitted under Roman rule, and as long as Christians were considered as part of Judaism they were unmolested by Roman authorities. But it soon became evident, from their rejection by the Jews and the rapid influx of gentiles into their fold, that the followers of Christ were not included among the followers of the Mosaic law.
Christians’ refusal to worship and sacrifice to the Roman emperor condemned their faith to the status of an illicit religion under Roman law. Official state persecution began with Nero in the first century a.d. and was sporadically renewed and intensified under subsequent emperors. Besides physical persecution, Christians were also subjected to extreme social discrimination and continuous suspicion and hatred.
Despite all of these oppressions, Christianity continued to grow in strength and number. As it did, it encountered more pernicious threats from the infiltration of Eastern mystery cults and religious philosophies that seeped into Christianity during the second and third centuries a.d. Christians fought these influences, but similarities between them and Christian beliefs made it difficult at times to distinguish between the philosophies.
Had the people been able to seek the counsel and inspiration of prophetic leaders they might yet have maintained a constant course. But with the death of the apostles, general priesthood leadership was lost, and with it the vision of divine direction and purpose. Members and local leaders were left to their own resources to solve their mounting problems, although the channel of communication with God remained open for anyone who was worthy and willing to use it.
Alteration and Dissent
The original organization of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, bishops, and deacons underwent gradual change as situations and personnel altered and as people’s views and customs varied. Likewise, doctrines grew more diverse as conflicting opinions arose over the content and meaning of Christ’s teachings.
To arrest such tendencies, Christians tried to establish norms of belief and behavior. They began the search for authentic documents from the time of Jesus and the apostles to serve as guides. Even then disagreements arose as to the authenticity and propriety of many of the sources uncovered, and some were never found at all.
By the close of the second century, however, agreement was fairly widespread that the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, along with a number of Paul’s epistles and some from James, Peter, and John, should be recognized as the New Testament. In 367 a.d. the present collection of twenty-seven books was accepted.
Another attempt to conserve the faith appeared in the so-called Apostles’ Creed, a concise statement of doctrinal belief in God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, intended specifically to repudiate some of the tenets of Marcionism, another Eastern religion with similarities to Christianity.
In the meantime, several individuals rose to defend the faith against heretical influences. In so doing they introduced such philosophical subtleties and hair-splitting definitions that it became difficult for ordinary Christians to comprehend even basic beliefs. Among these well-meaning but misleading early church fathers was Tertullian of Carthage (Circa 150–220 a.d.), a learned lawyer whose definition of the Trinity as three in person but one in substance initiated the Christian confusion over the Godhead. Others included Clement of Alexandria (Circa 150–215 a.d.), who employed Greek philosophy to describe the nature of Christ (the Logos, or Word, always existed as the “face” of God); and Clement’s prize pupil, Origen (Circa 185–254 a.d.), a pious and brilliant teacher who held that Christ is the Logos in flesh, coeternal with but subordinate to the Father and associated in dignity with the uncreated Holy Ghost.
Dissension continued, particularly concerning Christ’s nature and his relationship to the Father, until these controversies led to a major schism among Christians. Arius (Circa 250–336), a priest in the church of Alexandria, believed and taught that although God is without beginning or end, the Son had a beginning and is therefore neither God nor man, being a creation of God. Arius’s views spread rapidly into the eastern part of the empire where violent controversy quickly followed.
Emperor Constantine, who had converted to Christianity in 312 a.d. and lifted the imperial ban against Christians, feared that the Arian controversy might divide the empire he had so recently united. He convened the first general council of the church in Nicaea, near Constantinople, in 325 a.d. The council did not end doctrinal strife, but it did condemn Arianism and issued the Nicene Creed, which declared universal belief in “one God, the Father Almighty, … and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father, … begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father.” Despite this pronouncement, the controversy continued to plague the church as the Nicene Creed was alternately accepted and rejected by subsequent emperors.
These myopic gropings emphasize the futility of comprehending spiritual matters without the gift of the Spirit. They also underline the doctrinal and regional fragmentation of the church during the decay and breakup of the Western Roman Empire between 300 and 600 a.d. By 787 a.d., no fewer than seven councils had convened to try to solve the theological arguments.
The Latin Fathers
The theology of the Western portion of Christendom was strongly influenced by four men of the fourth and early fifth centuries: Ambrose, Jerome, John Chrysostom, and Augustine, known collectively as the Latin Fathers.
As bishop of Milan, Ambrose (Circa 340–397) struggled to proclaim and maintain the independence of the church from the encroachments of the state.
Jerome (Circa 345–420) is remembered as the scholarly ascetic who translated the Bible into the Latin version (the Vulgate) that is still used by the Roman Catholic Church.
After years as a monk, John Chrysostom (347–Circa 407) became the most eloquent preacher in the early church (Chrysostom meaning “golden mouth”).
Augustine (354–430), bishop of Hippo in North Africa, wrote several works: The Confessions, revealing his own life in the light of God’s grace; The City of God, setting forth his philosophy of history as the dichotomy between the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God; and On the Trinity, giving final form to the Western church’s teaching of the divine Trinity. Heavily influenced by paganism, Augustine expounded a view of man and God that was hardly complimentary to either.
Conquest and Conversion
For five hundred years after the death of Augustine the Western church was ravaged and desolated by the decay of the protective Roman Empire, by the ensuing invasions from the north (Goths, Vandals, Saxons, Franks, and Vikings), and by the conquests of a vigorous new religion from the Middle East—Islam. Carried throughout Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Syria, Palestine, North Africa, and into Europe through the Iberian peninsula, Islam spread until, by the middle of the eighth century, half of Christendom had come under Islamic rule. Christianity survived, however, though weakened and reduced, and began the slow process of recovering its losses and conquering the conquerors. Step by step, the barbarian invaders were converted to Christianity: the Franks first, then the Anglo-Saxons, the Frisians, and the other Germans. Goths, Lombards, and Burgundians were assimilated into Latin Christendom, as were the vagrant Norsemen. By the end of the eleventh century, Christian crusaders were returning to the East to “redeem” the Holy Land.
A Professional Clergy
Perhaps the most significant change during those “dark ages” was the complete split between the Eastern and Western churches, and the rise of a professional, hierarchical clergy in the West, culminating in the powerful papacy.
The growth of papal power was slow but inexorable. In Constantine’s time, the bishop of Rome was only one of many bishops, with no more authority in the church as a whole than the bishops of Alexandria, Antioch, or Constantinople. But by the thirteenth century, as pope, he boldly proclaimed his supremacy over all the world and its kingdoms.
Constantine and each of his immediate successors had been head of the church—making it an imperial theocracy that continued in the East until 1453. The bishops of Rome, however, contested the imperial supremacy and pronounced their own “primacy” on the ground that Rome was the “Apostolic See,” the center established by the apostle Peter.
In the fifth century Roman bishops began using the title pope (father) to emphasize their superiority to other bishops, a position strongly asserted by Leo I “The Great” (440–61) and expanded by several strong-willed successors. By the middle of the eighth century, when Pope Stephen II sought and received the protection of the Frankish king, the papacy had fully freed itself from imperial authority and resumed its climb to Europeanwide power.
The medieval church was governed by an intricate hierarchical system consisting of the pope at the top, archbishops and bishops in the middle, and parish priests at the bottom. In addition to their jurisdictional functions, priests administered seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, penance, eucharist, and extreme unction). These sacraments were believed to be the channels by which divine grace was imparted to man.
Religious Orders
Separate from these ecclesiastical officers was another group who provided educational and social services and encouraged certain ascetic and personal expressions of Christian piety. These were the orders of monks and nuns, whose lives were regulated by their respective orders, and who took upon themselves formal vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Medieval monasticism had evolved through a long history, beginning in the third century with early hermits like St. Anthony, who took literally Christ’s injunction to the rich young man to “go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.” (Matt. 19:21.) Later monks lived communally in monasteries under strict rules, attempting to live in the world but not be of it.
Another kind of religious order, the mendicant friars, came into being in the thirteenth century. Rather than secluding themselves in monasteries, they sought to carry the Christian message by teaching and good deeds.
The first of these orders was the Franciscan, or Friars Minor, founded in Italy by St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226). Francis’s own life was one of simple and sensitive devotion to God and unselfish service to mankind. A kind-hearted and gentle man, he urged others to love God and neighbors, to forgive freely, and to abstain from all vices of the flesh.
The Dominican Order, or Friars Preachers, was founded by a Spanish priest and student, St. Dominic (Dominic de Guzman, 1170–1221). The mission of this order was to preach to the weak in spirit, to convert the non-Christians, and to teach repentance to the wayward.
Reaction against the Clergy
Many wayward souls did respond to Dominic’s efforts, but others believed the church possessed neither the true gospel nor the authority of God. Such a religious group was the Cathari (“pure ones”) of southern France (known also as Albigenses, after the city of Albi which was their center).
The Cathari, like the earlier Manichaeans, believed the material world was evil and only the spiritual realm was good. They accepted the New Testament (being from God), but they rejected the Old Testament (inspired by Jehovah, creator of the wicked world) along with many teachings and interpretations of the Roman church, including the sacraments. They sharply criticized the growing wealth and power of the clergy. Politics and economic jealousies soon entered the picture until a full-scale crusade was launched against them in 1209.
Another movement branded as heretical was the Waldenses, followers of Peter Waldo (Valdez) of Lyon. The Waldenses, like the Cathari, also spread across southeastern France, northern Spain, northern Italy, and southern Germany. They went in simple garb, two by two without purse or script, teaching their version or the gospel to all who would listen. Forbidding oaths and rejecting masses and prayers for the dead, they soon came under condemnation, and like the Cathari (with whom they disagreed), they suffered persecution and death.
The presence of these and other heresies in the medieval church gave added incentive to the development of “scholastic” arguments for refuting doctrinal error and unbelief. Scholasticism developed in conjunction with the rise of the universities and provided a broad philosophical base for the verification of church dogmas.
This introduction of reason and logic into Christian theology, to serve as an adjunct rather than an enemy to faith, was one of the triumphs of medieval thought. The greatest of the schoolmen was Thomas Aquinas (1225–74), a Dominican teacher whose Summa Theologica, a masterpiece of scholastic reasoning making great use of Aristotelian logic, overcame the apparent conflicts between natural and revealed thought and provided logical proofs of Christian doctrines for the people of the time.
Corruption and Disillusionment
But logic was no more effective than the sword in maintaining religious unity when the leadership of the church itself was steeped in error and engrossed in sin. Of course, not all of the clergy were unworthy. Many priests and monks were sincere, hard-working, and honest; but too many of them were not. By the fourteenth century clerical corruption and abuse were widespread. Absenteeism, venality, concubinage, and slothfulness were common among prelates at every level.
Unfortunately, involved as it was with “high politics,” competing with the secular rulers, the papacy did little to retard this process of deterioration. When Pope Boniface VIII issued the bull (or edict) Unam Sanctum in 1302, which reiterated the papal claim to universal supremacy, he not only infuriated the French king but also alienated many others. Consequently, the Roman see was abolished and the papacy was transplanted to Avignon, in France, where the King could keep a close watch on it. Seventy years later the Great Schism began—a succession of rival popes at Avignon and Rome each denouncing and excommunicating the other, while corruption and confusion ran rampant.
Meanwhile, most honest believers were bewildered and disillusioned. The church was an integral part of their lives and promised the only recognizable path to their salvation. Yet in many ways it was a remote, even hostile, stranger to them.
In a very real sense there were three Catholic churches, and only one of these touched the lives of people in a meaningful way. There was the church of the upper clergy (especially the bishops and cardinals), vying for influence and prestige in a world of power and violence. There was the church of the scholastics and monks, where doctrines were more highly esteemed than morals. And there was the devotional church of the fifty million lay members whose contact with religion came through the mass and other sacraments, and through pilgrimages, prayers, rosaries, relics, and intercessional appeals to the Virgin Mary and to early saints.
Reforms
During the Renaissance (from about 1350–1550), pressures mounted to reform the church and reduce its abuses. This was not the first genuine attempt at reformation. In the tenth century, a revitalization of the monastic system was triggered at the monastery of Cluny, north of Lyon. The cluniac reforms, stressing service, obedience, and piety, had a wide effect which was renewed two hundred years later by Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercians.
Even the papacy felt these fresh winds of reform under the indomitable Hildrebrand (Pope Gregory VII, 1073–85), but it did not last. Frequently during the next four centuries pious and well-meaning clergy tried to eliminate abuses within their own jurisdictions, but the problems were usually too interrelated to be successfully attacked piecemeal. Churchwide action was needed but was not forthcoming.
Many people turned to mysticism both for personal catharsis and for churchwide spiritualization. Some formed into societies, such as the Friends of God in the Rhineland and the Brethren of the Common Life in the Netherlands. From one of these groups came the most influential devotional book of the Renaissance, Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ.
Some of these mystics were sainted (St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Catherine of Siena, San Bernardino of Siena, and San Giovanni Capistrano), while others were charged with heresy. John Wyclif of Oxford and John Hus of Prague were among the latter.
During the final years of the Great Schism (1378–1415), as the divided papacy continued to degenerate, the cry was increasingly heard to convene a general council of the church. This movement gained momentum until it boldly asserted that the supreme governing body of the church was not the pope but a general council representing all Christendom.
The Council of Constance thus convened in 1414. During the next three years it deposed all three rival popes; chose a new one of its own (intended to be a figurehead); charged, heard, condemned, and then brutally killed John Hus; and hesitatingly approached the task of reforming the church “in head and members.”
Yet it did not accomplish its goals. A newly established Renaissance papacy quickly regained its position of primacy. The execution of Hus, instead of ending heresy, caused the Hussites to take up arms for the next half century, devastating much of central and eastern Europe. For the council, reform of the church soon became a dead issue.
It was not a dead issue, however, for all those who saw and were offended by the continuing corruption. Among the more outspoken of these were the Renaissance humanists, men whose devotion to the church was not compromised by their open criticism of its abuses.
Humanism was mainly a scholarly and literary movement whose admiration of classical languages and culture made it suspect in the eyes of many churchmen. The humanists were critical of scholasticism because of its irrelevance, and were vigorously opposed to the immoral lives of the clergy. “What point is there in your being showered with holy water if you do not wipe away the inward pollution from your heart?” chided Erasmus, the greatest of the humanists. “You venerate the saints and delight in touching their relics, but you despise the best one they left behind, the example of a holy life.”
Sir Thomas More echoed that sentiment in his Utopia and in other writings. The humanists held a more optimistic view of human nature and the dignity of man than did the theologians, and placed more trust in the words of scripture than in the subsequent commentaries of the scholastics. Yet they did not wish to harm the church nor divide it; they hoped to unite and strengthen it. To do that, they advocated study, prayer, and a thorough reformation of the lives of the clergy.
Protestantism
One of the clergy, an Augustinian monk and doctor of theology named Martin Luther, was less disturbed by the profusion of immoral conduct (although he condemned that too) than by what he called “the deliberate silence regarding the world of Truth, or else its adulteration.”
In a desperate endeavor to attain salvation through the conscientious performance of meritorious works prescribed by the church, Luther concluded that no man can merit salvation, that it is a gift of God given freely to whom he wills, not as a reward for good deeds but according to divine pleasure. By this simple pronouncement, Luther launched the Protestant Reformation and began the process that would lead first to a split and then a complete fragmentation of Christianity.
If mankind does not need works, indulgences, or sacraments for salvation, he reasoned, then the entire hierarchical system of the Roman church is superfluous and perverse. Indeed, he declared, the pope is not only a hoax, he is the very anti-Christ! Leaning heavily on Augustine’s definition of “original sin,” which declared all mankind to be wicked, depraved, lustful, and an enemy to God, Luther expounded the idea of salvation by grace alone (sola gratia), whereby God chooses some, regardless of their works, to repentance, faith, and salvation through Jesus Christ. Thus redeemed from their own wickedness, the “true believers”—the invisible church of Christ—become righteous doers of good for the right reasons.
Lutheranism spread into many states of Germany and beyond into Scandinavia and eastern Europe. Others quickly took up the Bible to proclaim similar views. Luther believed that no matter how many people read the scriptures, they would all reach the same conclusion if they used good reason and followed their conscience.
But, alas, it was not so. Some groups refuted clerical and monastic vows, others destroyed images, while still others, such as the “Zwichau prophets,” declared the immediate advent of the Lord.
In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli renounced the tithe, repudiated clerical celibacy, and abolished the mass. In England Henry VIII rejected the pope and declared himself “the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England.”
John Calvin, a lawyer-theologian from France, carried Protestant doctrines to their logical extreme in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, unabashedly pronouncing the predestination of the elect to salvation and the rest to damnation. At Geneva he established a tightly organized theocracy from which ardent pastors and teachers carried Calvinism into France, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Germany, Bohemia, and Poland, thus providing the principal theological base of Puritanism, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, and Dutch, French, and German Reformed faiths.
From the eddies of this Protestant upheaval other groups of reformers emerged. Some of these were called Anabaptists (rebaptizers) because they rejected the practice of infant baptism practiced by both Catholics and Protestants and proclaimed instead baptism by immersion, following conversion and repentance, as a sign of entrance into God’s kingdom.
They usually referred to themselves as “brethren,” or “saints.” Because they came largely from the lower classes, believed in a complete separation of church and state (including refusal to take civil oaths, bear arms, or pay taxes), and had extreme beliefs about the end of the world, they are frequently spoken of as the Radical Reformers. But for the most part they were peaceful and devout followers of Christ.
They believed in a restitution of the primitive church with its organization and communal life. They had no paid ministry, believed that every believer received divine help in understanding the word of God, and rejected the Protestant doctrine of salvation by grace alone, teaching instead salvation by faith and works.
Because they were so different, and their theory of church and state considered dangerous to society, they were feared and ruthlessly persecuted by Catholic and Protestant alike. Most of those who survived did so by fleeing to the east where, under the looser jurisdiction of the rulers of Moravia and Poland, they retained their unique identity and devotion.
Obviously, the Protestant Reformation did not reform the church; it fractured and divided it. Christendom was hopelessly fragmented by the middle of the sixteenth century. Recrimination, persecution, and bloodshed followed. Sincere Catholic reformers—men like Bishop Matteo Giberti and Cardinal Gasparo Contarini—could not prevent the Counter Reformation from over-reacting to the Protestant threat. The Inquisition was revived in a vain effort to wipe out heresy.
Even Ignatius Loyola’s new religious order, the Jesuits, founded in 1540 to teach the young and convert the heathen, was soon turned into an instrument for fighting Protestantism. The council of Trent (which ended in 1563) hardened the lines of religious division, and the Papal Index of Prohibited Books further constricted Christian thought. In a few years the spread of Protestantism was checked, but at an enormous cost.
Still the proliferation of new faiths within Protestantism continued. The rigors of Calvinism in the Netherlands soon generated a reaction there in the form of Arminianism, which tried to moderate the harshness of absolute predestination and “irresistible grace” with a more liberal interpretation of God’s foreknowledge and man’s free will.
In Germany, after the Thirty Years War (1618–48) had taken its gruesome toll, a movement known as Pietism deepened the spiritual life of many Lutherans by cultivating high moral standards and promoting organized works of charity and service.
And in England, George Fox (1624–91) founded the remarkable Society of Friends, known popularly as the Quakers, resembling the earlier Anabaptists in many ways: spiritual revelation, non-professional ministry, rejection of oaths, titles, and war. True Christians, they felt, will be known by their fruits—a consecrated, simple, spiritual life.
While all of these movements met with immediate distrust, anger, and violence, eventually even the fanaticism of religious war subsided and in the pluralism of post-Reformation Europe religious toleration began slowly to appear.
The Enlightenment
That progress toward toleration was aided in the eighteenth century by the spirit of the Enlightenment, particularly the rise of rationalism and “natural religion” (or Deism). According to Deist views, God exists; he created the world, which is then governed by its own natural laws. God should be respected and praised, and men should repent of their sins and do good to one another. The emphasis throughout was on virtue and conduct instead of theology. How foolish it is, noted Voltaire, the most famous of the French Deists, for men to torture and kill one another over the definition of a word or the phrasing of a creed,
Reason and morality were the watchwords of “Enlightened” society. Yet something essential to Christianity was missing in this rational religion: the intimacy of God and the divinity of Christ. Christianity without the miracles of the birth, Resurrection, and Atonement is not Christianity at all. The new humanitarianism can only be praised—for too long it had been ignored by partisan theologians—but the Deist rejection of theology, although making room for greater toleration of different Christian sects, was a criticism of Christianity itself.
Partly in response to the Deist influence came a wide-ranging evangelical awakening, especially in England. It stressed the fundamentals of Christian devotion and particularly the renewal and revitalization of life which results from a full commitment to Christ.
A notable product of this evangelicalism was a new society called Methodism, whose chief architects were John (1703–91) and Charles (1707–77) Wesley. Methodist emphasis upon “conversion” and cultivation of the Christian life, including service to others, contributed materially to a revival of Christianity and to the active promotion of social reforms, such as the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807.
And thus for seventeen centuries Christianity struggled through trials of every kind, from persecution to prosperity, from harmony to discord and disintegration, groping for answers to questions asked and unasked. As its proponents ignored or misunderstood the teachings of Christ and his apostles, Christianity foundered. As they responded to glimmers of that original light, Christianity during these centuries helped prepare men and nations for the fulness of the restored gospel.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
A Marvelous Work and a Wonder to Come Forth
We have already pointed out that the prophets foresaw a universal departure from the truth, and that such a condition obtained in the world at the time Joseph Smith went into the woods to pray. This being true, a restoration of the gospel must necessarily follow if the world were not to be left in spiritual darkness. Peter declared: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." (2 Peter 1:19.)
It now seems proper that we should consider the words of the prophets. We refer first to the words of Isaiah already quoted in the last chapter, since the visit of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith marked the first step in the "marvelous work and a wonder" the Lord promised to bring forth.
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:13-14.)
What would really constitute a marvelous work and a wonder? Why should not honest lovers of truth welcome the pronouncement of such a work? Ought any generation to reject revealed truth when it is sent from heaven? Why does it seem so much easier to accept and believe in dead prophets than in living prophets?
The Restitution of All Things
In the accomplishment of this promised marvelous work and a wonder, the Lord had in mind a "restitution of all things" and moved upon Peter to so prophesy to those who had crucified him:
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath Spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21.)
Let us analyze this promise: (1) that their great sin might be forgiven; (2) that the Lord would send to them again that same Jesus which had been before preached unto them; (3) that there would be a "restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."
When looking for the second coming of the Christ as herein promised, we must realize that he will not come before there is a restitution of all things. It is obvious that there cannot be a restitution of that which has not been taken away. Therefore, this scripture is another plain prediction of apostasy—the taking of the gospel from the earth—with a promise of a complete restoration of all things spoken by all the holy prophets since the world began.
It was the time of such a complete restitution that Paul must have had in mind when he wrote to the Ephesians:
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him. (Ephesians 1:9-10.)
It is the pronouncement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that this is the dispensation of the fulness of times, and that through the restitution of all things, the Lord has made provision to "gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." This restitution of all things will, however, not be complete until the end of the thousand years of the personal reign of Christ upon the earth when death will be destroyed. (See 1 Corinthians 15:24-26.) There is no other such plan in the world today.
God's Kingdom in the Latter Days
When the Lord gave the prophet Daniel the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Daniel saw the rise and fall of the kingdoms of the world, which makes an interesting study for its accuracy. The important thing, however, was his observation that in the latter days the God of heaven would set up a kingdom that ultimately would subdue all other kingdoms and would become as a great mountain and fill the whole earth.
Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;
But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these.
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
. . . and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:27-28, 34-35, 44.)
The establishment of his kingdom by the God of heaven was to be the greatest event in the latter days. Though small and insignificant as its beginning would be, its ultimate destiny is to fill the whole earth, with Christ our Lord at its head. The kingdom was to be given to the saints of the Most High that they might possess it forever.
With all our present latter-day developments and progress, scientific and otherwise, why should we not be concerned with the promised spiritual development? Daniel gave us the sure word of prophecy:
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. (Daniel 7:13-14, 18.)
In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith February 24, 1834, the Lord said:
But verily I say unto you, that I have decreed a decree which my people shall realize, inasmuch as they hearken from this very hour unto the counsel which I, the Lord their God, shall give unto them.
Behold they shall, for I have decreed it, begin to prevail against mine enemies from this very hour.
And by hearkening to observe all the words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall never cease to prevail until the kingdoms of the world are subdued under my feet, and the earth is given unto the saints, to possess it forever and ever. (D&C 103:5-7.)
In our consideration of the apostasy, we referred to what the Lord showed to John while he was on the Isle of Patmos. He saw that power would be given to Satan "to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." (Revelation 13:7.)
John experienced these further prophetic visions:
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (Revelation 4:1.)
Restoration of the Gospel Foretold
John not only saw that Satan's power would be universal for a season, but he also saw a recommitment to the earth of the everlasting gospel which was to be preached to all people:
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:6-7.)
If there had been any nation, kindred, tongue, or people upon the earth still in possession of the everlasting gospel, it would not have been necessary that an angel bring it back to the earth. This angel was also to call the inhabitants of the earth back to a worship of the God that "made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." We have already pointed out that the everlasting gospel was to be taken from the earth, and it is now our witness that it has been returned to the earth by an angel, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that it came from the God of heaven.
The prophet Malachi also saw this promised day of restoration through messengers sent from God, which he described in these words:
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1.)
A full consideration of this verse and those following indicates that this promise had reference to the second coming of Jesus Christ and not to his first coming, since he is to come suddenly to his temple, which he did not do at his first coming.
The Calling of Joseph Smith
The promises herein referred to concerning the establishment of a latter-day kingdom through the sending of heavenly messengers, and the restoration of the "everlasting gospel" to be preached in all the world, could not be fulfilled without someone upon the earth to whom such restoration and commitments could be made.
This brings us to another great truth we learn from the visit of the Father and the Son to the boy Joseph Smith, i.e., that prophets are never self-sent—they must be called and sent of God: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7.)
Thus, with Joseph Smith selected by the Lord, we are now prepared to consider what he revealed to his chosen prophet.
Criticism has been expressed because Joseph Smith was only in his fifteenth year when the Father and the Son appeared unto him. Let us consider the words of Jesus:
No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. (Mark 2:21-22.)
We would not expect the Lord to select a man who had been steeped in the traditions and doctrines of men, for such an individual would be too difficult to teach. As Jesus said, the new wine would burst the bottles and the wine would be spilled. However, by selecting the lad Joseph Smith, the Lord could teach him as he would, and it would truly be new wine in a new bottle without conflict with the old. Thus we see that the Lord has his own way of doing things. Surely this is his divine right and his privilege:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9.)
There is another reason why it does not seem inconsistent that the Lord selected a mere boy, for we all lived in the spirit before we were born in the flesh. The Lord knew us and knew the nature of our spirits and the measure of our integrity. That is why he selected Jesus Christ "before the world was" to be the Redeemer of the world:
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John 17:5.)
This is the reason why Jeremiah was called to be a prophet unto the nations: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5.)
Now, Jeremiah could not have been so called and ordained before he was born if he did not exist. We will speak more of this subject later, and we will learn that Joseph Smith was also selected before he was born, as was Jeremiah.
This makes it easy to understand why the everlasting gospel could not be discovered through reading the Bible alone—the old bottles full of old wine could not contain the new wine. So glorious was to be the day when the Lord would "proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder," that he had to select one free from all exposure to the unsound philosophies of men. That is why our original statement is consistent: that this is the only Christian church in the world that did not have to rely upon the Bible for its organization and government and that if all the Bibles in the world had been destroyed we would still be teaching the same principles and administering the same ordinances as introduced and taught by Jesus and the prophets. True, we take the Bible to prove that these principles and ordinances are in accord with divine truths of all ages, but if we had no Bible, we would still have all the needed direction and information through the revelations of the Lord to his servants the prophets in these latter days.
(Legrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1950], 40.)
It now seems proper that we should consider the words of the prophets. We refer first to the words of Isaiah already quoted in the last chapter, since the visit of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith marked the first step in the "marvelous work and a wonder" the Lord promised to bring forth.
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:13-14.)
What would really constitute a marvelous work and a wonder? Why should not honest lovers of truth welcome the pronouncement of such a work? Ought any generation to reject revealed truth when it is sent from heaven? Why does it seem so much easier to accept and believe in dead prophets than in living prophets?
The Restitution of All Things
In the accomplishment of this promised marvelous work and a wonder, the Lord had in mind a "restitution of all things" and moved upon Peter to so prophesy to those who had crucified him:
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath Spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21.)
Let us analyze this promise: (1) that their great sin might be forgiven; (2) that the Lord would send to them again that same Jesus which had been before preached unto them; (3) that there would be a "restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."
When looking for the second coming of the Christ as herein promised, we must realize that he will not come before there is a restitution of all things. It is obvious that there cannot be a restitution of that which has not been taken away. Therefore, this scripture is another plain prediction of apostasy—the taking of the gospel from the earth—with a promise of a complete restoration of all things spoken by all the holy prophets since the world began.
It was the time of such a complete restitution that Paul must have had in mind when he wrote to the Ephesians:
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him. (Ephesians 1:9-10.)
It is the pronouncement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that this is the dispensation of the fulness of times, and that through the restitution of all things, the Lord has made provision to "gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." This restitution of all things will, however, not be complete until the end of the thousand years of the personal reign of Christ upon the earth when death will be destroyed. (See 1 Corinthians 15:24-26.) There is no other such plan in the world today.
God's Kingdom in the Latter Days
When the Lord gave the prophet Daniel the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Daniel saw the rise and fall of the kingdoms of the world, which makes an interesting study for its accuracy. The important thing, however, was his observation that in the latter days the God of heaven would set up a kingdom that ultimately would subdue all other kingdoms and would become as a great mountain and fill the whole earth.
Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;
But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these.
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
. . . and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:27-28, 34-35, 44.)
The establishment of his kingdom by the God of heaven was to be the greatest event in the latter days. Though small and insignificant as its beginning would be, its ultimate destiny is to fill the whole earth, with Christ our Lord at its head. The kingdom was to be given to the saints of the Most High that they might possess it forever.
With all our present latter-day developments and progress, scientific and otherwise, why should we not be concerned with the promised spiritual development? Daniel gave us the sure word of prophecy:
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. (Daniel 7:13-14, 18.)
In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith February 24, 1834, the Lord said:
But verily I say unto you, that I have decreed a decree which my people shall realize, inasmuch as they hearken from this very hour unto the counsel which I, the Lord their God, shall give unto them.
Behold they shall, for I have decreed it, begin to prevail against mine enemies from this very hour.
And by hearkening to observe all the words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall never cease to prevail until the kingdoms of the world are subdued under my feet, and the earth is given unto the saints, to possess it forever and ever. (D&C 103:5-7.)
In our consideration of the apostasy, we referred to what the Lord showed to John while he was on the Isle of Patmos. He saw that power would be given to Satan "to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." (Revelation 13:7.)
John experienced these further prophetic visions:
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (Revelation 4:1.)
Restoration of the Gospel Foretold
John not only saw that Satan's power would be universal for a season, but he also saw a recommitment to the earth of the everlasting gospel which was to be preached to all people:
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:6-7.)
If there had been any nation, kindred, tongue, or people upon the earth still in possession of the everlasting gospel, it would not have been necessary that an angel bring it back to the earth. This angel was also to call the inhabitants of the earth back to a worship of the God that "made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." We have already pointed out that the everlasting gospel was to be taken from the earth, and it is now our witness that it has been returned to the earth by an angel, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that it came from the God of heaven.
The prophet Malachi also saw this promised day of restoration through messengers sent from God, which he described in these words:
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1.)
A full consideration of this verse and those following indicates that this promise had reference to the second coming of Jesus Christ and not to his first coming, since he is to come suddenly to his temple, which he did not do at his first coming.
The Calling of Joseph Smith
The promises herein referred to concerning the establishment of a latter-day kingdom through the sending of heavenly messengers, and the restoration of the "everlasting gospel" to be preached in all the world, could not be fulfilled without someone upon the earth to whom such restoration and commitments could be made.
This brings us to another great truth we learn from the visit of the Father and the Son to the boy Joseph Smith, i.e., that prophets are never self-sent—they must be called and sent of God: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7.)
Thus, with Joseph Smith selected by the Lord, we are now prepared to consider what he revealed to his chosen prophet.
Criticism has been expressed because Joseph Smith was only in his fifteenth year when the Father and the Son appeared unto him. Let us consider the words of Jesus:
No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. (Mark 2:21-22.)
We would not expect the Lord to select a man who had been steeped in the traditions and doctrines of men, for such an individual would be too difficult to teach. As Jesus said, the new wine would burst the bottles and the wine would be spilled. However, by selecting the lad Joseph Smith, the Lord could teach him as he would, and it would truly be new wine in a new bottle without conflict with the old. Thus we see that the Lord has his own way of doing things. Surely this is his divine right and his privilege:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9.)
There is another reason why it does not seem inconsistent that the Lord selected a mere boy, for we all lived in the spirit before we were born in the flesh. The Lord knew us and knew the nature of our spirits and the measure of our integrity. That is why he selected Jesus Christ "before the world was" to be the Redeemer of the world:
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John 17:5.)
This is the reason why Jeremiah was called to be a prophet unto the nations: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5.)
Now, Jeremiah could not have been so called and ordained before he was born if he did not exist. We will speak more of this subject later, and we will learn that Joseph Smith was also selected before he was born, as was Jeremiah.
This makes it easy to understand why the everlasting gospel could not be discovered through reading the Bible alone—the old bottles full of old wine could not contain the new wine. So glorious was to be the day when the Lord would "proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder," that he had to select one free from all exposure to the unsound philosophies of men. That is why our original statement is consistent: that this is the only Christian church in the world that did not have to rely upon the Bible for its organization and government and that if all the Bibles in the world had been destroyed we would still be teaching the same principles and administering the same ordinances as introduced and taught by Jesus and the prophets. True, we take the Bible to prove that these principles and ordinances are in accord with divine truths of all ages, but if we had no Bible, we would still have all the needed direction and information through the revelations of the Lord to his servants the prophets in these latter days.
(Legrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1950], 40.)
False Doctrines and Universal Apostasty
False Doctrines And Universal Apostasy
Apostasy from the Truth
A second great truth was revealed in the visitation of the Father and the Son to the Prophet Joseph Smith through the announcement made by the Savior of the world in answer to Joseph Smith's question as to which of the churches he should join. He was told he should
join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that . . . "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof." (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 2:19.)
This pronouncement brought to Joseph Smith the information he so much desired, for, more than anything else, he wanted to know which of all the churches he should join, and it was to obtain this information that he went to the Lord in prayer.
Erroneous Teachings of Christian Churches
One erroneous teaching of many Christian churches is: By faith alone we are saved. This false doctrine would relieve man from the responsibility of his acts other than to confess a belief in God, and would teach man that no matter how great the sin, a confession would bring him complete forgiveness and salvation. What the world needs is more preaching of the necessity of abstaining from sin and of living useful and righteous lives, and less preaching of forgiveness of sin. This would then be a different world. The truth is that men must repent of their sins and forsake them before they can expect forgiveness. Even when our sins are forgiven, God cannot reward us for the good we have not done.
The prophet Mormon, who lived upon the American continent about A.D. 400, foretold the coming of the plates from which the Book of Mormon should be translated and described the condition of the churches that should then be found among the people:
Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches become defiled and be lifted up in the pride of their hearts; yea, even in a day when the leaders of churches and teachers shall rise in the pride of their hearts, even to the envying of them who belong to their churches.
Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be churches built up that shall say: Come unto me, and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins. (Mormon 8:28, 32.)
Doctrine of Predestination
Again, there is the erroneous doctrine of predestination, which teaches that without any act on our part, some are predestined to eternal life and some to eternal damnation, and that no matter in which class we find ourselves, there is nothing we can do about it. A complete analysis of this doctrine forces one to the conclusion that if it is true that all our acts, whether good or evil, were predetermined before our birth, God would be responsible for all sin and iniquity in the world.
In his effort to destroy truth, Satan could hardly have hoped to deceive men more effectively and completely than to take from them, through the teaching of such doctrines, a consciousness of their responsibilities.
One Heaven and One Hell
There is also the false teaching of one heaven and one hell, with the thought that all who reach heaven will share alike, and the same will be true of those who are assigned to hell.
The truth, as restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, emphasizes the fact that every man will receive according to his works; that there is a glory like the glory of the sun, another like that of the moon, and still another like that of the stars, and that the glory to which one shall be assigned will be determined by the things he does and the kind of life he lives.
God Cannot Be a God of Confusion
Sane thinking leads one to the conclusion that God cannot be the author of confusion; that two contradictory organizations could not originate with him, for God cannot be divided against himself. According to Paul:
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists: and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
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. (Ephesians 4:11-14.)
When Joseph Smith commenced his search for truth, it soon became apparent that the Christian churches had not "come in the unity of the faith." Paul indicated they were "carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men." Hence the statement of the Savior to Joseph Smith that all their creeds were wrong.
In reading the scriptures, men would discover truths that were not to be found in the existing churches. They would gather a group together and then organize a church without any direct call or ordination from God. Hence, the Christian sects multiplied until they numbered hundreds. Such leaders would emphasize one certain principle and then organize a church around that principle: for instance, spiritual gifts, apostles, or worship on the seventh day.
The mission of the true church, under divine inspiration and leadership, should bring together into one church all the truths that are to be found in all other Christian churches, as well as those that have been overlooked or ignored, and to eliminate all error and man-made doctrines. This was what the Lord did in restoring his church to the earth through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Contemporary Opinions Affirming the Apostasy
The idea that the churches had gone astray and lost their vitality and authority is in agreement with the judgment of some of our greatest thinkers and with prophecies of the Holy Scriptures, as the following references will indicate.
In a work prepared by seventy-three noted theologians and Bible students, we read:
. . . we must not expect to see the Church of Holy Scripture actually existing in its perfection on the earth. It is not to be found, thus perfect, either in the collected fragments of Christendom, or still less in any one of these fragments. . . . (Dr. William Smith, Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1896.)
These seventy-three learned men, in effect, confirm the statement of Jesus to Joseph Smith—that all their creeds were wrong.
Roger Williams, pastor of the oldest Baptist Church in America at Providence, Rhode Island, refused to continue as pastor on the grounds that there was
no regularly-constituted church on earth, nor any person authorized to administer any Church ordinance; nor could there be until, new apostles are sent by the great Head of the Church, for whose coming, he is seeking. (Picturesque America, or the Land We Live In, ed. William Cullen Bryant, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1872, vol. 1, p. 502.)
Had he been privileged to live to know the Prophet Joseph Smith and hear his message, he would have found that which he was seeking.
Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, prominent American Baptist clergyman and author, described the decadent condition of the Christian churches of the first half of the twentieth century in these words:
A religious reformation is afoot, and at heart it is the endeavor to recover for our modern life the religion of Jesus as against the vast, intricate, largely inadequate and often positively false religion about Jesus. Christianity to-day has largely left the religion which he preached, taught and lived, and has substituted another kind of religion altogether.
If Jesus should come back to earth now, hear the mythologies built up around him, see the creedalism, denominationalism, sacramentalism, carried on in his name, he would certainly say, "If this is Christianity, I am not a Christian." (Liahona: The Elder's Journal, April 20, 1926, p. 424.)
These and similar statements of ministers from various nations would certainly seem to corroborate the statement of the Savior to Joseph Smith and should motivate thinking seekers after truth to want to hear the remainder of the Prophet's story.
Bible Predictions Foretelling the Great Apostasy
Now let us consider the scriptural predictions that the time and conditions we have considered would come.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1-5. Italics added.)
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him.
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4. Italics added.)
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3-4.)
From the above it is evident that the apostle Paul was privileged to see our time and describe in advance the very conditions the Savior referred to in his denunciation of the churches to Joseph Smith, and as admitted by prominent ministers of the day. He indicated that these conditions were to exist "in the last days," that men would have "itching ears," and thus gather to themselves teachers after their own hearts and "turn away their ears from the truth." He stated further that men cannot look for the second promised advent of the Christ unless there be a "falling away first," so that all we have said is but an announcement that the events predicted have come to pass.
When the apostle John was banished upon the Isle of Patmos, he saw the power that would be given to Satan: "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." (Revelation 13:7.)
From this, it is evident that all kindreds, tongues, and nations should succumb to this evil power, which we understand more fully when we read that John saw the bringing back of the gospel to the earth to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. (See Revelation 14:6-7.)
To understand this scripture properly, it should be remembered that the followers of Christ were called saints. (See Ephesians 2:19; 2 Corinthians 8:4; 1 Corinthians 14:33.)
Knowing how universal this departure from the truth should be enables one to understand some of the prophecies of the ancient prophets as recorded in the Old Testament:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12.)
In light of the words of Jesus, "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matthew 7:7), there can be but one explanation why men would not be able to find the word of the Lord, even though they would seek "from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east." The answer is, as Amos indicated, that the Lord would send a "famine in the land," a famine for hearing the word of the Lord.
The prophet Micah saw the day when there would be "no answer of God" and described the apostate condition of Israel:
Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us. (Micah 3:5-7, 11.)
Isaiah had a similar vision of what was to happen to Israel:
Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. (Isaiah 24:1-6.)
Isaiah understood the displeasure of the Lord that would rest upon the inhabitants of the earth for having "transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant"; and in the light of the destructive powers of the atom and other recent scientific developments of this nature, it is not difficult to understand that the predicted destruction could result in there being "few men left" upon the earth.
Paul also shared with the prophets a full understanding of the Lord's displeasure with those who should assume to change the truths of his gospel: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8.)
When Joseph Smith asked which church he should join, the Savior explained the condition of the Christian world, repeating the statement found in Isaiah 29:13, and then said that this condition was to be followed by "a marvellous work and a wonder" among the children of men:
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:13-14.)
Since the departure from the true gospel of Christ was to be universal, as the prophets foretold, and since such universal apostasy was confirmed in the statement of Jesus to Joseph Smith, it would follow that a restoration would be necessary. Such a restoration is the message of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
(Legrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1950], 32.)
Apostasy from the Truth
A second great truth was revealed in the visitation of the Father and the Son to the Prophet Joseph Smith through the announcement made by the Savior of the world in answer to Joseph Smith's question as to which of the churches he should join. He was told he should
join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that . . . "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof." (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 2:19.)
This pronouncement brought to Joseph Smith the information he so much desired, for, more than anything else, he wanted to know which of all the churches he should join, and it was to obtain this information that he went to the Lord in prayer.
Erroneous Teachings of Christian Churches
One erroneous teaching of many Christian churches is: By faith alone we are saved. This false doctrine would relieve man from the responsibility of his acts other than to confess a belief in God, and would teach man that no matter how great the sin, a confession would bring him complete forgiveness and salvation. What the world needs is more preaching of the necessity of abstaining from sin and of living useful and righteous lives, and less preaching of forgiveness of sin. This would then be a different world. The truth is that men must repent of their sins and forsake them before they can expect forgiveness. Even when our sins are forgiven, God cannot reward us for the good we have not done.
The prophet Mormon, who lived upon the American continent about A.D. 400, foretold the coming of the plates from which the Book of Mormon should be translated and described the condition of the churches that should then be found among the people:
Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches become defiled and be lifted up in the pride of their hearts; yea, even in a day when the leaders of churches and teachers shall rise in the pride of their hearts, even to the envying of them who belong to their churches.
Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be churches built up that shall say: Come unto me, and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins. (Mormon 8:28, 32.)
Doctrine of Predestination
Again, there is the erroneous doctrine of predestination, which teaches that without any act on our part, some are predestined to eternal life and some to eternal damnation, and that no matter in which class we find ourselves, there is nothing we can do about it. A complete analysis of this doctrine forces one to the conclusion that if it is true that all our acts, whether good or evil, were predetermined before our birth, God would be responsible for all sin and iniquity in the world.
In his effort to destroy truth, Satan could hardly have hoped to deceive men more effectively and completely than to take from them, through the teaching of such doctrines, a consciousness of their responsibilities.
One Heaven and One Hell
There is also the false teaching of one heaven and one hell, with the thought that all who reach heaven will share alike, and the same will be true of those who are assigned to hell.
The truth, as restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, emphasizes the fact that every man will receive according to his works; that there is a glory like the glory of the sun, another like that of the moon, and still another like that of the stars, and that the glory to which one shall be assigned will be determined by the things he does and the kind of life he lives.
God Cannot Be a God of Confusion
Sane thinking leads one to the conclusion that God cannot be the author of confusion; that two contradictory organizations could not originate with him, for God cannot be divided against himself. According to Paul:
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists: and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
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. (Ephesians 4:11-14.)
When Joseph Smith commenced his search for truth, it soon became apparent that the Christian churches had not "come in the unity of the faith." Paul indicated they were "carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men." Hence the statement of the Savior to Joseph Smith that all their creeds were wrong.
In reading the scriptures, men would discover truths that were not to be found in the existing churches. They would gather a group together and then organize a church without any direct call or ordination from God. Hence, the Christian sects multiplied until they numbered hundreds. Such leaders would emphasize one certain principle and then organize a church around that principle: for instance, spiritual gifts, apostles, or worship on the seventh day.
The mission of the true church, under divine inspiration and leadership, should bring together into one church all the truths that are to be found in all other Christian churches, as well as those that have been overlooked or ignored, and to eliminate all error and man-made doctrines. This was what the Lord did in restoring his church to the earth through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Contemporary Opinions Affirming the Apostasy
The idea that the churches had gone astray and lost their vitality and authority is in agreement with the judgment of some of our greatest thinkers and with prophecies of the Holy Scriptures, as the following references will indicate.
In a work prepared by seventy-three noted theologians and Bible students, we read:
. . . we must not expect to see the Church of Holy Scripture actually existing in its perfection on the earth. It is not to be found, thus perfect, either in the collected fragments of Christendom, or still less in any one of these fragments. . . . (Dr. William Smith, Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1896.)
These seventy-three learned men, in effect, confirm the statement of Jesus to Joseph Smith—that all their creeds were wrong.
Roger Williams, pastor of the oldest Baptist Church in America at Providence, Rhode Island, refused to continue as pastor on the grounds that there was
no regularly-constituted church on earth, nor any person authorized to administer any Church ordinance; nor could there be until, new apostles are sent by the great Head of the Church, for whose coming, he is seeking. (Picturesque America, or the Land We Live In, ed. William Cullen Bryant, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1872, vol. 1, p. 502.)
Had he been privileged to live to know the Prophet Joseph Smith and hear his message, he would have found that which he was seeking.
Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, prominent American Baptist clergyman and author, described the decadent condition of the Christian churches of the first half of the twentieth century in these words:
A religious reformation is afoot, and at heart it is the endeavor to recover for our modern life the religion of Jesus as against the vast, intricate, largely inadequate and often positively false religion about Jesus. Christianity to-day has largely left the religion which he preached, taught and lived, and has substituted another kind of religion altogether.
If Jesus should come back to earth now, hear the mythologies built up around him, see the creedalism, denominationalism, sacramentalism, carried on in his name, he would certainly say, "If this is Christianity, I am not a Christian." (Liahona: The Elder's Journal, April 20, 1926, p. 424.)
These and similar statements of ministers from various nations would certainly seem to corroborate the statement of the Savior to Joseph Smith and should motivate thinking seekers after truth to want to hear the remainder of the Prophet's story.
Bible Predictions Foretelling the Great Apostasy
Now let us consider the scriptural predictions that the time and conditions we have considered would come.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1-5. Italics added.)
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him.
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4. Italics added.)
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3-4.)
From the above it is evident that the apostle Paul was privileged to see our time and describe in advance the very conditions the Savior referred to in his denunciation of the churches to Joseph Smith, and as admitted by prominent ministers of the day. He indicated that these conditions were to exist "in the last days," that men would have "itching ears," and thus gather to themselves teachers after their own hearts and "turn away their ears from the truth." He stated further that men cannot look for the second promised advent of the Christ unless there be a "falling away first," so that all we have said is but an announcement that the events predicted have come to pass.
When the apostle John was banished upon the Isle of Patmos, he saw the power that would be given to Satan: "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." (Revelation 13:7.)
From this, it is evident that all kindreds, tongues, and nations should succumb to this evil power, which we understand more fully when we read that John saw the bringing back of the gospel to the earth to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. (See Revelation 14:6-7.)
To understand this scripture properly, it should be remembered that the followers of Christ were called saints. (See Ephesians 2:19; 2 Corinthians 8:4; 1 Corinthians 14:33.)
Knowing how universal this departure from the truth should be enables one to understand some of the prophecies of the ancient prophets as recorded in the Old Testament:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12.)
In light of the words of Jesus, "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matthew 7:7), there can be but one explanation why men would not be able to find the word of the Lord, even though they would seek "from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east." The answer is, as Amos indicated, that the Lord would send a "famine in the land," a famine for hearing the word of the Lord.
The prophet Micah saw the day when there would be "no answer of God" and described the apostate condition of Israel:
Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us. (Micah 3:5-7, 11.)
Isaiah had a similar vision of what was to happen to Israel:
Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. (Isaiah 24:1-6.)
Isaiah understood the displeasure of the Lord that would rest upon the inhabitants of the earth for having "transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant"; and in the light of the destructive powers of the atom and other recent scientific developments of this nature, it is not difficult to understand that the predicted destruction could result in there being "few men left" upon the earth.
Paul also shared with the prophets a full understanding of the Lord's displeasure with those who should assume to change the truths of his gospel: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8.)
When Joseph Smith asked which church he should join, the Savior explained the condition of the Christian world, repeating the statement found in Isaiah 29:13, and then said that this condition was to be followed by "a marvellous work and a wonder" among the children of men:
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:13-14.)
Since the departure from the true gospel of Christ was to be universal, as the prophets foretold, and since such universal apostasy was confirmed in the statement of Jesus to Joseph Smith, it would follow that a restoration would be necessary. Such a restoration is the message of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
(Legrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1950], 32.)
The Strange Gods of Christendom
The Worship of False Gods
The great sin of the ages has been the worship of false gods, hence the first of the ten commandments written by God himself upon the tablets of stone amid the thunder and lightning of Sinai: "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." (Exodus 20:3.)
When Moses led the children of Israel to the promised land, he told them that they should be, in coming generations, scattered among the heathen nations: "And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell." (Deuteronomy 4:28. Italics added.) Then Moses promised them that "in the latter days" when they were in tribulation, if they would seek after the Lord their God with all their hearts and with all their souls, they would find him. (See Deuteronomy 4:29-30.)
Could the gods made by the hands of man, taught and worshiped by the Christian churches of the world at the time Joseph Smith received his glorious vision, see or hear or eat or smell?
The Strange Gods of Christendom
A few quotations will indicate the general beliefs in Christendom during the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The God of the Catholic Church was described as follows:
Q. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, eternal, independent, infinite and immutable, who is present everywhere, who seeth all things and governs the universe.
Q. Why do you say that he is a Spirit?
A. Because he is a supreme intelligence, who has neither body, nor figure, nor color, and who cannot fall under the senses. (Rev. P. Collot, Doctrine and Scriptural Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in Montreal and quoted in Liahona: The Elder's Journal, December 29, 1925, p. 268.)
The Methodist Church worships this kind of God:
There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power and eternity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. (Methodist Discipline, published in Toronto, 1886; quoted in Liahona, op. cit., p. 269.)
Let us examine the description of the God of the Presbyterian Church:
There is but one living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his immutable and righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and with all most just and terrible in his judgments; hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. (Presbyterian Church Confession of Faith, chap. 2, art. 1, quoted from Liahona, op. cit., p. 269.)
These are but typical examples of the gods worshiped by Christian churches during the nineteenth century. Here are the gods that Moses told Israel they would encounter as they were scattered among the nations—gods "which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell." How could a God without body, parts, or passions be expected either to see, hear, eat, or smell? How could any child of God be expected to understand, much less to love and be loved by, such an incomprehensible God as the above tenets would lead him to worship?
(Legrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1950], 11.)
The great sin of the ages has been the worship of false gods, hence the first of the ten commandments written by God himself upon the tablets of stone amid the thunder and lightning of Sinai: "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." (Exodus 20:3.)
When Moses led the children of Israel to the promised land, he told them that they should be, in coming generations, scattered among the heathen nations: "And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell." (Deuteronomy 4:28. Italics added.) Then Moses promised them that "in the latter days" when they were in tribulation, if they would seek after the Lord their God with all their hearts and with all their souls, they would find him. (See Deuteronomy 4:29-30.)
Could the gods made by the hands of man, taught and worshiped by the Christian churches of the world at the time Joseph Smith received his glorious vision, see or hear or eat or smell?
The Strange Gods of Christendom
A few quotations will indicate the general beliefs in Christendom during the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The God of the Catholic Church was described as follows:
Q. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, eternal, independent, infinite and immutable, who is present everywhere, who seeth all things and governs the universe.
Q. Why do you say that he is a Spirit?
A. Because he is a supreme intelligence, who has neither body, nor figure, nor color, and who cannot fall under the senses. (Rev. P. Collot, Doctrine and Scriptural Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in Montreal and quoted in Liahona: The Elder's Journal, December 29, 1925, p. 268.)
The Methodist Church worships this kind of God:
There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power and eternity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. (Methodist Discipline, published in Toronto, 1886; quoted in Liahona, op. cit., p. 269.)
Let us examine the description of the God of the Presbyterian Church:
There is but one living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his immutable and righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and with all most just and terrible in his judgments; hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. (Presbyterian Church Confession of Faith, chap. 2, art. 1, quoted from Liahona, op. cit., p. 269.)
These are but typical examples of the gods worshiped by Christian churches during the nineteenth century. Here are the gods that Moses told Israel they would encounter as they were scattered among the nations—gods "which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell." How could a God without body, parts, or passions be expected either to see, hear, eat, or smell? How could any child of God be expected to understand, much less to love and be loved by, such an incomprehensible God as the above tenets would lead him to worship?
(Legrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1950], 11.)
Monday, June 11, 2007
Apostasy of the Primitive Church
The Gospel dispensation inaugurated by our Savior, while on his earthly mission, was not a gathering one. Israel had already been widely scattered. That scattering was soon to result in the complete desolation of the land of Palestine.
Wherever the people received the Gospel through the preaching of the apostles, they were organized into churches. They not only had their old traditions and customs to contend with, but there was no relief from the general pagan influences under which they had been educated. Add to these things, the persecutions the early Saints were exposed to, and it could not well be otherwise than that many of them should be weak in the faith.
The epistles of the apostles inform us that they had often contended with false teachers and doctrines in the primitive churches. "Even now," said the apostle John, "are there many anti-Christs." 1 John 2. 18. The apostle Paul, in his second epistle to Timothy, informs us, that "In the last days perilous times shall come;" 2 Tim. 3. 1.
In the following three verses he enumerates all manner of wickedness which shall be prevalent in the latter times. He evidently means in the Christian churches, or among those who profess godliness, for in the fifth verse of the same chapter, he speaks of their having "A form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."
The apostle Paul exhorted the Colossians to "be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;" Col. 1. 23.
About fifty-seven years after the Savior had closed his earthly mission, if we are correctly informed in the second and third chapters of the Revelations of St. John, there were but seven churches in Asia whom the Lord considered worthy of notice. This, coupled with the assertion of Paul, that the Gospel had, in his day, been preached to every creature, proves that its light only faintly glimmered, in the otherwise universal darkness, which existed at the time John had his vision on the isle of Patmos.
John the Revelator saw Rome in all her glory, in his day, reigning over the kings of the earth, full of riches and all manner of abominations, and drunken with the blood of the Saints and of the martyrs of Jesus; Rev. 17. This great power, drenched in the blood of the martyrs, about 325 A.D., in the reign of Constantine, adopted what was then known as Christianity, as the religion of the empire.
It was not possible that such a wicked, corrupt element and the Gospel of Jesus could have any affinity. Rather, is it not evident that the antagonism of Christianity and paganism had measurably ceased? that they had assimilated? that they had both so nearly found the same level, that with a slight pressure of governmental policy they readily amalgamated?
Not only prophecy but general history, and especially the history of Christianity by its learned professors, furnish abundant evidence of its early departure from the pure principles of the Gospel.
The prophetic history of the preparatory work, for the coming of Christ to reign on the earth in the latter days, is predicated on the apostacy of the primitive Christian church, the general wickedness of the nations, and the gathering of the house of Israel.
Since the calling of Abraham, the authenticated personal manifestations of the Lord to man have been through him and his family. Christ came to his own chosen people. His earthly mission was commenced and consummated in the midst of Israel. The Gospel was first preached to the Jews. His apostles were chosen from his brethren of the seed of Abraham. The first church of Christ was established at Jerusalem. The apostles were commanded to remain there until endowed with power from on high. All the blessings of salvation are promised to mankind through the seed of Abraham.
When the Lord comes in glory and power, the prophets inform us that he will come to Zion and Jerusalem, the chief cities of gathered Israel. The apostle Paul informs us that "God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues;" 1 Cor. 12. 28.
From the above it is evident that, had the church of Christ been on the earth in the past centuries, it would have been organized like the primitive church, with apostles and prophets of the house of Israel at the head of it. More than that, it would have enjoyed all the spiritual gifts and blessings mentioned in the above chapter.
John the Revelator, in his visions of the latter times, says, "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people;" Rev. 14. 6.
No one who has any faith in the Scriptures would assert that the Gospel preached by Jesus and his apostles was not the "Everlasting Gospel." If everlasting, it must of necessity be the same wherever found. If the same Gospel, it would always produce the same results. Its ordinances would be the same. Its followers would enjoy the same gifts and blessings. They would call themselves Saints. They would have an organization that would not vary from the church organized by Jesus and his apostles. They would have been led by apostles and prophets of the house of Israel.
Instead of this, the Christian churches and nations have for many centuries ground the House of Israel with the iron heel of oppression. They have robbed, driven and slain the covenant people of God, the chosen people of that same Jesus of Nazareth whose precepts and example they profess to follow.
The Shiloh came and the sceptre departed from Judah. A series of terrible oppressions commenced under Roman governors, which resulted in the des truction of Jerusalem, and of the Jews as a nation; that may be considered the beginning of the fulfilment of the prediction of our Savior, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;" Luke 21. 24.
The reasonable construction of this passage is, that "The times of the Gentiles" means the period in which they will bear rule, oppress Israel, and hold possession of the heritage of the seed of Abraham.
When "The times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled," when the angel, seen in vision by John the Revelator, shall have brought again to earth the "Everlasting Gospel," will also be "The times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began;" Acts 3. 21.
The first century of the Christian era was a very important one in the world's history. The covenant people of God ceased to exist as a nation. The civilized world, represented by the Roman empire, with Paganism as the prevailing religion, began to fill up the measure of its iniquity by shedding the blood of the apostles, and of the disciples of Jesus. Pagan philosophy counteracted Gospel influences. There was a constant tendency in Christianity and paganism to assimilate. This is evident from the writings of the apostles.
That, after Christianity became the leading element of the Roman empire, it ceased to be regenerative in its nature, is evidenced by the fact, that the empire was often scourged with destructive civil wars which prepared it for dissolution. It was finally crushed by barbarian hordes. They desolated whole provinces, leaving only remnants of corrupt peoples, to be measurably regenerated by an infusion of new blood from the plains of eastern Europe, and western Asia. Both sacred and profane history have failed to record an instance of a people who, living under the regenerating influences of the Gospel of Jesus, and enjoying the favor of God, were broken and destroyed by such terrible scourges as visited the Roman empire the first five centuries of the Christian era. Modern nations have risen from its ashes, have adopted its religion, its customs, its ethics, without inspiration from heaven, without any further Gospel dispensation, without apostles and prophets of the house of Israel, and without the guidance of the Holy Priesthood, after the order of the Son of God, which the Lord has decreed should only come through the seed of Abraham.
Bible.
Isa. 24. 2 as with the people, so with the priest.
5 the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof.
17 fear and the pit are upon thee, O inhabitants of the earth.
Dan. 7. 25 he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the Saints.
8. 10 it waxed great, even to the host of heaven.
11 by him the daily sacrifice was taken away.
12 it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practised and prospered.
23 the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full.
25 through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand. 26.
Matt. 24. 10 many shall be offended, and shall betray and hate one another.
Acts 20. 29 after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you. 30.
1 Tim. 1. 6 some have turned aside to vain jangling. 7.
19 concerning faith have made shipwreck.
4. 1 in the latter times some shall depart from the faith.
2, 3 speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding to marry.
2 Tim. 2. 18 who concerning the truth have erred.
3. 1 know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2-7 men shall be lovers of their own selves, without natural affection. Ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
12 all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
4. 16 at my first answer no man stood with me.
Titus 1. 10, 11 many unruly and vain talkers, deceivers, who subvert whole houses.
3. 9 avoid foolish questions, contentions, and strivings. 10.
2 Peter 2. 1 who, privily, shall bring in damnable heresies.
Rev. 16. 6 for they have shed the blood of the Saints and prophets.
17. 1, 2 the great whore that sitteth upon the waters. Chap. 18. 3, 9.
5 the mystery, Babylon, the mother of harlots.
6 the woman, drunken with the blood of the Saints, and the martyrs of Jesus.
15 the waters which thou sawest are peoples, multitudes and nations.
18 the woman is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
18. 2 Babylon is become the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit.
24 in her was found the blood of the prophets.
19. 2 he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth.
Book of Mormon.
1 Nephi 13. 5 the foundation of a church which is most abominable, which slayeth the Saints of God, Chap. 14. 3, 9, 10. Chap 22. 14. 2 Nephi 28. 18.
9 for the praise of the world they destroy the Saints.
24-34 the Jewish record went forth in purity to the Gentiles, but the Gentiles took away the most precious parts, for which reason many stumble.
14. 11 she had dominion over all the earth, and sat upon many waters.
12 the Saints of God were scattered over the earth, and their dominions were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore.
13 mother of abominations gathered together multitudes to fight against the Lamb of God.
15 the wrath of God poured out on that abominable church 16, 17.
15. 13 many generations after the Messiah shall be manifested in the body, the fulness of the Gospel shall come to the Gentiles.
22. 22, 23 the kingdom of the devil built up among the children of men.
2 Nephi 26. 19-22 refers to the time when the children of Lehi (the American Indians) shall be smitten and driven by the Gentiles, and gives an unmistakable description of the Christian world of the present day.
27. 1 in the latter days, all shall be drunken with iniquity.
28. 3 every one that hath built up churches, and not unto the Lord, shall say, I am the Lord's.
4 they and their priests shall contend one with another.
6 they shall say, in this day God is not a God of miracles.
29. 3 a Bible, we have got a Bible; there cannot be any more.
3 Nephi 16. 7 in the latter days shall the truth come unto the Gentiles. 1 Nephi 15. 13. Rev. 14. 6.
Doctrine and Cobenants.
Sec. 1. 15 they have strayed from mine ordinances and broken mine everlasting covenant.
16 every man walketh in his own way, after the image of his own God.
17, 18 Joseph Smith. Jun., and others commanded to proclaim these things, that the sayings of the prophets might be fulfilled.
30 to bring forth the only true and living church, out of obscurity and darkness.
5. 6 you shall be ordained to deliver my words to the children of men.
29. 21 that great and abominable church shall be cast down.
35. 11 shall not anything be shown forth except desolations on Babylon?
38. 11 for all flesh is corrupted before me.
86. 1-7 an explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares. Sec. 88. 94.
133. 14 go ye out from among the nations, even from Babylon.
Pearl of Great Price.
Page 3. in a day when men would take many of the words from the book which Moses should write, the Lord promised to raise up another like him, when they should be had again among men. 2 Nephi 3. 9.
21. so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance.
See O. Spencer's Letters to Rev. Wm. Crowel, No. 6.
"Universal Apostacy," a pamphlet by O. Pratt.
(Franklin D. Richards and James A. Little, Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1925], 170.)
Wherever the people received the Gospel through the preaching of the apostles, they were organized into churches. They not only had their old traditions and customs to contend with, but there was no relief from the general pagan influences under which they had been educated. Add to these things, the persecutions the early Saints were exposed to, and it could not well be otherwise than that many of them should be weak in the faith.
The epistles of the apostles inform us that they had often contended with false teachers and doctrines in the primitive churches. "Even now," said the apostle John, "are there many anti-Christs." 1 John 2. 18. The apostle Paul, in his second epistle to Timothy, informs us, that "In the last days perilous times shall come;" 2 Tim. 3. 1.
In the following three verses he enumerates all manner of wickedness which shall be prevalent in the latter times. He evidently means in the Christian churches, or among those who profess godliness, for in the fifth verse of the same chapter, he speaks of their having "A form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."
The apostle Paul exhorted the Colossians to "be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;" Col. 1. 23.
About fifty-seven years after the Savior had closed his earthly mission, if we are correctly informed in the second and third chapters of the Revelations of St. John, there were but seven churches in Asia whom the Lord considered worthy of notice. This, coupled with the assertion of Paul, that the Gospel had, in his day, been preached to every creature, proves that its light only faintly glimmered, in the otherwise universal darkness, which existed at the time John had his vision on the isle of Patmos.
John the Revelator saw Rome in all her glory, in his day, reigning over the kings of the earth, full of riches and all manner of abominations, and drunken with the blood of the Saints and of the martyrs of Jesus; Rev. 17. This great power, drenched in the blood of the martyrs, about 325 A.D., in the reign of Constantine, adopted what was then known as Christianity, as the religion of the empire.
It was not possible that such a wicked, corrupt element and the Gospel of Jesus could have any affinity. Rather, is it not evident that the antagonism of Christianity and paganism had measurably ceased? that they had assimilated? that they had both so nearly found the same level, that with a slight pressure of governmental policy they readily amalgamated?
Not only prophecy but general history, and especially the history of Christianity by its learned professors, furnish abundant evidence of its early departure from the pure principles of the Gospel.
The prophetic history of the preparatory work, for the coming of Christ to reign on the earth in the latter days, is predicated on the apostacy of the primitive Christian church, the general wickedness of the nations, and the gathering of the house of Israel.
Since the calling of Abraham, the authenticated personal manifestations of the Lord to man have been through him and his family. Christ came to his own chosen people. His earthly mission was commenced and consummated in the midst of Israel. The Gospel was first preached to the Jews. His apostles were chosen from his brethren of the seed of Abraham. The first church of Christ was established at Jerusalem. The apostles were commanded to remain there until endowed with power from on high. All the blessings of salvation are promised to mankind through the seed of Abraham.
When the Lord comes in glory and power, the prophets inform us that he will come to Zion and Jerusalem, the chief cities of gathered Israel. The apostle Paul informs us that "God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues;" 1 Cor. 12. 28.
From the above it is evident that, had the church of Christ been on the earth in the past centuries, it would have been organized like the primitive church, with apostles and prophets of the house of Israel at the head of it. More than that, it would have enjoyed all the spiritual gifts and blessings mentioned in the above chapter.
John the Revelator, in his visions of the latter times, says, "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people;" Rev. 14. 6.
No one who has any faith in the Scriptures would assert that the Gospel preached by Jesus and his apostles was not the "Everlasting Gospel." If everlasting, it must of necessity be the same wherever found. If the same Gospel, it would always produce the same results. Its ordinances would be the same. Its followers would enjoy the same gifts and blessings. They would call themselves Saints. They would have an organization that would not vary from the church organized by Jesus and his apostles. They would have been led by apostles and prophets of the house of Israel.
Instead of this, the Christian churches and nations have for many centuries ground the House of Israel with the iron heel of oppression. They have robbed, driven and slain the covenant people of God, the chosen people of that same Jesus of Nazareth whose precepts and example they profess to follow.
The Shiloh came and the sceptre departed from Judah. A series of terrible oppressions commenced under Roman governors, which resulted in the des truction of Jerusalem, and of the Jews as a nation; that may be considered the beginning of the fulfilment of the prediction of our Savior, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;" Luke 21. 24.
The reasonable construction of this passage is, that "The times of the Gentiles" means the period in which they will bear rule, oppress Israel, and hold possession of the heritage of the seed of Abraham.
When "The times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled," when the angel, seen in vision by John the Revelator, shall have brought again to earth the "Everlasting Gospel," will also be "The times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began;" Acts 3. 21.
The first century of the Christian era was a very important one in the world's history. The covenant people of God ceased to exist as a nation. The civilized world, represented by the Roman empire, with Paganism as the prevailing religion, began to fill up the measure of its iniquity by shedding the blood of the apostles, and of the disciples of Jesus. Pagan philosophy counteracted Gospel influences. There was a constant tendency in Christianity and paganism to assimilate. This is evident from the writings of the apostles.
That, after Christianity became the leading element of the Roman empire, it ceased to be regenerative in its nature, is evidenced by the fact, that the empire was often scourged with destructive civil wars which prepared it for dissolution. It was finally crushed by barbarian hordes. They desolated whole provinces, leaving only remnants of corrupt peoples, to be measurably regenerated by an infusion of new blood from the plains of eastern Europe, and western Asia. Both sacred and profane history have failed to record an instance of a people who, living under the regenerating influences of the Gospel of Jesus, and enjoying the favor of God, were broken and destroyed by such terrible scourges as visited the Roman empire the first five centuries of the Christian era. Modern nations have risen from its ashes, have adopted its religion, its customs, its ethics, without inspiration from heaven, without any further Gospel dispensation, without apostles and prophets of the house of Israel, and without the guidance of the Holy Priesthood, after the order of the Son of God, which the Lord has decreed should only come through the seed of Abraham.
Bible.
Isa. 24. 2 as with the people, so with the priest.
5 the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof.
17 fear and the pit are upon thee, O inhabitants of the earth.
Dan. 7. 25 he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the Saints.
8. 10 it waxed great, even to the host of heaven.
11 by him the daily sacrifice was taken away.
12 it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practised and prospered.
23 the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full.
25 through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand. 26.
Matt. 24. 10 many shall be offended, and shall betray and hate one another.
Acts 20. 29 after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you. 30.
1 Tim. 1. 6 some have turned aside to vain jangling. 7.
19 concerning faith have made shipwreck.
4. 1 in the latter times some shall depart from the faith.
2, 3 speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding to marry.
2 Tim. 2. 18 who concerning the truth have erred.
3. 1 know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2-7 men shall be lovers of their own selves, without natural affection. Ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
12 all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
4. 16 at my first answer no man stood with me.
Titus 1. 10, 11 many unruly and vain talkers, deceivers, who subvert whole houses.
3. 9 avoid foolish questions, contentions, and strivings. 10.
2 Peter 2. 1 who, privily, shall bring in damnable heresies.
Rev. 16. 6 for they have shed the blood of the Saints and prophets.
17. 1, 2 the great whore that sitteth upon the waters. Chap. 18. 3, 9.
5 the mystery, Babylon, the mother of harlots.
6 the woman, drunken with the blood of the Saints, and the martyrs of Jesus.
15 the waters which thou sawest are peoples, multitudes and nations.
18 the woman is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
18. 2 Babylon is become the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit.
24 in her was found the blood of the prophets.
19. 2 he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth.
Book of Mormon.
1 Nephi 13. 5 the foundation of a church which is most abominable, which slayeth the Saints of God, Chap. 14. 3, 9, 10. Chap 22. 14. 2 Nephi 28. 18.
9 for the praise of the world they destroy the Saints.
24-34 the Jewish record went forth in purity to the Gentiles, but the Gentiles took away the most precious parts, for which reason many stumble.
14. 11 she had dominion over all the earth, and sat upon many waters.
12 the Saints of God were scattered over the earth, and their dominions were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore.
13 mother of abominations gathered together multitudes to fight against the Lamb of God.
15 the wrath of God poured out on that abominable church 16, 17.
15. 13 many generations after the Messiah shall be manifested in the body, the fulness of the Gospel shall come to the Gentiles.
22. 22, 23 the kingdom of the devil built up among the children of men.
2 Nephi 26. 19-22 refers to the time when the children of Lehi (the American Indians) shall be smitten and driven by the Gentiles, and gives an unmistakable description of the Christian world of the present day.
27. 1 in the latter days, all shall be drunken with iniquity.
28. 3 every one that hath built up churches, and not unto the Lord, shall say, I am the Lord's.
4 they and their priests shall contend one with another.
6 they shall say, in this day God is not a God of miracles.
29. 3 a Bible, we have got a Bible; there cannot be any more.
3 Nephi 16. 7 in the latter days shall the truth come unto the Gentiles. 1 Nephi 15. 13. Rev. 14. 6.
Doctrine and Cobenants.
Sec. 1. 15 they have strayed from mine ordinances and broken mine everlasting covenant.
16 every man walketh in his own way, after the image of his own God.
17, 18 Joseph Smith. Jun., and others commanded to proclaim these things, that the sayings of the prophets might be fulfilled.
30 to bring forth the only true and living church, out of obscurity and darkness.
5. 6 you shall be ordained to deliver my words to the children of men.
29. 21 that great and abominable church shall be cast down.
35. 11 shall not anything be shown forth except desolations on Babylon?
38. 11 for all flesh is corrupted before me.
86. 1-7 an explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares. Sec. 88. 94.
133. 14 go ye out from among the nations, even from Babylon.
Pearl of Great Price.
Page 3. in a day when men would take many of the words from the book which Moses should write, the Lord promised to raise up another like him, when they should be had again among men. 2 Nephi 3. 9.
21. so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance.
See O. Spencer's Letters to Rev. Wm. Crowel, No. 6.
"Universal Apostacy," a pamphlet by O. Pratt.
(Franklin D. Richards and James A. Little, Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1925], 170.)
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