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“For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant; they seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.” Doctrine and Covenants 1:15–16
The Know
In the spring of 1820, Joseph Smith prayed to the Lord for forgiveness of his sins as well as for knowledge in determining which of the existing churches he should join. In response to this prayer, Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, who commanded him that “I must join none of them, for they were all wrong” (Joseph Smith—History 1:19). The Lord then promised Joseph that “the fulness of the gospel should at some future time be made known unto me.”1
From the outset of his experiences, Joseph Smith would learn that there had been an apostasy or falling away of the early Christian church and that he would be called to restore the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth. This restoration would occur in subsequent years as Joseph Smith translated or revealed new scriptures, received priesthood authority from resurrected prophets and apostles, and formally organized the Church as instructed and authorized by the exalted Savior Jesus Christ.
From the earliest days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the need for this restoration was clearly taught.2 That teaching sets Latter-day Saints apart from other Christians. For over two hundred years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has maintained that “ [1] the gospel was changed, [2] the covenants were broken, [3] and the authority was lost, and thus it was necessary to restore them to the earth.”3 Further, as Richard E. Bennet has noted, “To minimize this fact is to misunderstand our history.”4 Together, these three things succinctly summarize why a restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith was needed.
The Gospel Was Changed in Significant Ways
First, during the Apostasy many points of the gospel were deliberately altered, removed, or lost. This was made clear in the Book of Mormon by the angel who told the prophet Nephi, “They have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious” (1 Nephi 13:26). According to John W. Welch, this “could have occurred more by altering the meaning or understanding of the concepts taught by the Lord than by changing the words themselves.”5 For example, while the words grace and faith would have originally evoked covenant concepts and obligations for first-century Christians, these words were reinterpreted in later centuries to remove any covenantal associations.6 This dramatically shifted how Christians understood essential elements in the gospel of Jesus Christ.7
In addition, the angel showed Nephi that “there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God,” or the Bible (1 Nephi 13:28). As John Gee has observed, many of these problematic changes to the Bible are recognizable even as early as the second century AD, a time in which “Christianity had fragmented into dozens of splinter groups with each group charging that the other possessed both forged and corrupted texts.”8
One early Christian bishop named Irenaeus, for example, claimed that the followers of a Christian named Valentinus corrupted the scriptures “by transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another . . . adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions.”9 Tertullian similarly observed how Marcion, a Christian leader, “accepted Paul and a modified form of Luke, but rejected all other Christian scriptures.” Tertullian also openly condemned Marcion for having “made such an excision of the Scriptures as suited his own subject-matter.”10 Others added passages to the scriptures to fit their beliefs and to serve their own situations.11
The Covenants of Jesus Christ Were Modified or Discarded
Another cause of the Apostasy identified by the angel in Nephi’s vision was the loss of covenants. The angel explained, “Many covenants of the Lord have they taken away. And all this have they done that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men” (1 Nephi 13:26–27). This same problem was mentioned in 1831 when the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith, “They have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant; they seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:15–16).
Forsaking covenants was a key aspect of understanding apostasy in biblical times. James E. Faulconer has observed that both “faithfulness to God and apostasy from him are often spoken of in terms of covenant [throughout the Old Testament]. To be faithful is to keep covenant; to apostatize is to break covenant.”12 Noel B. Reynolds has similarly noted that this tragic forsaking of covenants is evident in early Christian texts in the first four centuries as ordinances were changed to fit theological innovations and deemphasize the need of individuals to live a transformed life.13 As Welch observed, “Without the covenants, the teachings of early Christianity are removed from their settings in a covenant-based religion and are given more general, diluted roles.”14
Essential Priesthood Keys and Authority Were Lost
Third, in order to make covenants and perform ordinances, priesthood keys and authority are required. Operating under the keys, which were entrusted first to Peter, was essential to the order of the Church of Jesus Christ (see Matthew 16:18–19). That authorization allows an individual to represent the Lord and help others become more like Him. Gee observed, “In order for someone to represent God, God has to designate them as his representative and grant them that authority. It is not something that we choose for ourselves.”15
That priesthood authority also allows individuals to receive revelation for others under their stewardship. Thus, prophets and apostles have the authority to receive revelation for the whole Church because they have been given the needed authority to do so. Loss of this authority (and therefore the loss of this revelation), Gee notes, “will cause the Church to lose its legitimacy in God’s eyes.”16 Joseph Smith noted the loss of the priesthood as a root cause of the general apostasy as early as 1832.17 When Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery recognized that no one had the authority to baptize in 1829, John the Baptist bestowed this authority upon them, which authority “shall never be taken again from the earth” (Doctrine and Covenants 13:1).
The Why
The Great Apostasy that preceded the Restoration was caused by various circumstances working in tandem after the deaths of all twelve of the Apostles ordained by Jesus Christ.18 Any one of these reasons, whether intentional or not, would have been enough to merit a restoration of the gospel, especially as time passed with no apostolic authority and only local Church leaders left to lead the church.19 That there would be a general apostasy was recognized by the New Testament writers and even early Christians.20 However, they also recognized that there would be a restoration, righting the wrongs perpetuated by the apostasy and restoring the gospel in its fulness to the earth to complete the truths that had survived through the centuries.
The “times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began,” Peter mentioned were fulfilled in the Restoration (Acts 3:21). Speaking in modern times, the Lord has said He “called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments . . . that mine everlasting covenant might be established; that the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:17, 22–23). With the covenants of God once again established and with prophets authorized to act in God’s name again on the earth, the gospel could be fully restored.
None of this is to say, of course, that other religions, churches, denominations, or individuals are without truth.21 Such has never been the teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; prophets have repeatedly recognized how individuals faithfully held firm to the truth they had received throughout the centuries leading up to the Restoration. Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught, “When the gospel was first restored, the pulpits of this land were aflame with the testimony of Jesus, the divine Son of God and Savior of the world . . . , [and] there were many good and honorable men and women who were valiant in their own testimonies of Jesus.”22 As the prophet Joseph Smith affirmed, “Have the Presbyterians any truth? Yes. Have the Baptists, Methodists &c. any truth? Yes, they all have a little truth mixed with error.”23 President Gordon B. Hinckley similarly invited the world, “Bring with you all that you have of good and truth which you have received from whatever source, and come and let us see if we may add to it.”24
Thus, the Restoration of the gospel serves as an invitation to the world to come, receive more truth, make eternal covenants with God, receive ordinances from those with the authority to do so in the name of Jesus Christ, and be blessed in this life and in the next. It is a message and invitation extended by God to all people throughout the world.
Further Reading
John Gee, “Ten Views on the Falling Away,” BYU Studies 63, no. 2 (2024): 139–176.
Noel B. Reynolds, ed., Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies [FARMS], 2005).
Tad R. Callister, The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration (Deseret Book, 2006).
Matthew B. Brown, All Things Restored: Confirming the Authenticity of LDS Beliefs (Covenant Communications, 2000).
Footnotes
1. “‘Church History,’ 1 March 1842,” p. 707, The Joseph Smith Papers. For an analysis of the four firsthand accounts of Joseph Smith’s vision, see Scripture Central, “Joseph Smith’s Firsthand Accounts of the First Vision: Joseph Smith—History Insight #1,” Pearl of Great Price Central, February 4, 2020.
2. See, generally, Richard E. Bennett, “‘A World in Darkness’: Early Latter-day Saint Understanding of the Apostasy, 1830–1834,” in Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies [FARMS], 2005), 67–99; John Gee, “Ten Views on the Falling Away,” BYU Studies 63, no. 2 (2024): 141–150.
3. Gee, “Ten Views on the Falling Away,” 147.
4. Regarding how missionaries in the years 1830–1834 taught about the Apostasy, Richard E. Bennet observed: “The early missionary force of the church spoke of the apostasy in very strident tones. They taught that it was a reality, long prophesied and now fulfilled, that the Christian world had lost its way, the results of which were spiritually and morally devastating. To minimize this fact is to misunderstand our history.” Bennett, “‘World in Darkness,’” 85.
5. John W. Welch, “Modern Revelation: A Guide to Research About the Apostasy,” in Reynolds, Early Christians in Disarray, 108.
6. For excellent discussions on this, see Brent J. Schmidt, Relational Grace: The Reciprocal and Binding Covenant of Charis (BYU Studies, 2015); Brent J. Schmidt, Relational Faith: The Transformation and Restoration of Pistis as Knowledge, Trust, Confidence, and Covenantal Faithfulness (BYU Studies, 2022); Scripture Central, “What Did Grace Mean to Paul? (Romans 3:23–24),” KnoWhy 683 (August 8, 2023); Scripture Central, “How Did Paul Understand Faith? (Romans 9:30),” KnoWhy 684 (August 15, 2023).
7. For additional examples of how words may have been reinterpreted to remove some doctrines of the gospel, see Welch, “Modern Revelation,” 108.
8. John Gee, “The Corruption of Scripture in Early Christianity,” in Reynolds, Early Christians in Disarray, 163–164.
9. Irenaeus, Contra Haereses 1.8.1.
10. Gee, “Corruption of Scripture in Early Christianity,” 171; Tertullian, De Praescriptione Haereticorum 38.
11. One of the clearest examples of an addition to the scriptures is the Johannine Comma found in 1 John 5:7–8, which added a Trinitarian formula not otherwise attested before the ninth century AD. Even then, the formula was attested only in Latin manuscripts until the compilation of the third edition of Erasmus’s Textus Receptus (from which the King James Version was translated). For a more complete discussion of this point, see Lincoln H. Blumell and Spencer Kraus, The Johannine Epistles (Scripture Central, 2023), 12–13.
12. James E. Faulconer, “The Concept of the Apostasy in the New Testament,” in Reynolds, Early Christians in Disarray, 137.
13. See Noel B. Reynolds, “The Decline of Covenant in Early Christian Thought,” in Reynolds, Early Christians in Disarray, 295–324.
14. Welch, “Modern Revelation,” 109. Doctrine and Covenants 64:8 teaches that one of the causes of the Apostasy was the unwillingness of early Christians to forgive one another. For an analysis on this, see Welch, “Modern Revelation,” 102–105.
15. Gee, “Ten Views on the Falling Away,” 148–149.
16. Gee, “Ten Views on the Falling Away,” 149.
17. See “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. 1, The Joseph Smith Papers.
18. For additional discussions on the Apostasy and Restoration, see Tad R. Callister, The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration (Deseret Book, 2006); Matthew B. Brown, All Things Restored: Confirming the Authenticity of LDS Beliefs (Covenant Communications, 2000).
19. The Greek words apostasia and parabates can refer to various kinds of rebellion, disobedience, stepping away, abandonment, transgression, or sinfulness. When New Testament Apostles used these words to describe the Apostasy, they underscored many of the issues the Church faced in its early years as people abandoned or turned away from God and their covenants.
20. For a discussion on this point, see Scripture Central, “What Does the New Testament Teach About the Great Apostasy? (2 Thessalonians 2:3),” KnoWhy 695 (October 17, 2023); Gee, “Ten Views on the Falling Away,” 153–157, 166–175.
21. While some might point to the Lord’s statement in the First Vision that the various Christian creeds were an abomination and certain teachers corrupt, this statement makes sense when viewed in the context of what many of these creeds said that drove division amongst the people. It is not, moreover, a condemnation against all Christian teachers or members, nor should it be understood to mean such. For a discussion on this, see Scripture Central, “Are the Christian Creeds Really an Abomination?,” Pearl of Great Price Central, March 31, 2020; John W. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination’: A Brief Look at Creeds as Part of the Apostasy,” in Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church, ed. Steven C. Harper, Andrew H. Hedges, Patty Smith, Thomas R. Valletta, and Fred E. Woods (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2004), 228–249.
22. Dallin H. Oaks, “Witnesses of Christ,” October 1990 general conference.
23. “History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844],” p. 1681, The Joseph Smith Papers.
24. Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Marvelous Foundation of Our Faith,” October 2002 general conference.