Below is a paper I wrote about the Mormon claim that just after the Apostles died, the Church apostatized and disappeared from the earth. Therefore God would need to restore it. The Mormon claim is that this is exactly what God did through Joseph Smith. This belief is essential to the very existence of the Mormon church. If the church did not disappear then there was nothing for Joseph to restore. Please leave a comment or question (or correction). Thanks.
The Great Apostasy?
Intro
During the
spring of 1820 the religious climate of upstate New York was exiting. There were many
different churches with differing beliefs. These differences contributed to the
confusion of one 15-year-old boy named Joseph Smith Jr. He saw all of the
differing denomination of his time bickering and fighting over who was right.
He said to himself “What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or,
are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how
shall I know?”[1] After
much emotional struggle, one day while reading his bible, Smith came across a
passage in the book of James that gave him hope. It read, “If any of you lacks
wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it
will be given him.” (James 1:5) This passage encouraged Joseph. He understood
that if he were to ask God, He would give him the wisdom to make a correct
decision and thus be set free from his darkness and turmoil. Joseph retired to
a grove on the Smith farm to seek God for this wisdom. During his time of pray,
Joseph claims to have seen a vision of God. In this vision God informed Smith that
he had been chosen to restore the true church to the Earth. He had been right
about the different teaching of the sects, but it was worse than he had
thought. They were all wrong! So wrong, that the truth was nowhere to be found.
The church was in need of being completely restored to the Earth. The church
had apostatized 1700 years earlier and Joseph would be used by God to bring the
good news back to the people of the Earth.
Joseph wrote “they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me
said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those
professors were all corrupt; 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.”[2]
For hundreds of years, the so call Christian church had been without authority
and without the truth. It was now time for God, through Joseph Smith, to
restore the true Church to the earth.
Absolutely
essential to the Mormon faith is the idea that the Christian church, just after
the last apostle died, vanished from the face of the earth. So essential, that
James E Talmage could write “If the alleged apostasy of the primitive Church
was not a reality, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not the
divine institution its name proclaims.”[3] If
the church had not disappeared, as the LDS church teaches, then there is no
need to restore it. But, according to the LDS church this is not the case. Persecution
from without and heresy from within caused the church that Jesus Christ
established to apostatize from the truth. Gospel principles, an LDS study
manual, tells us “Through the persecution and martyrdom of Church leaders and
the general wickedness of the people, the Church of Jesus Christ was taken from
the earth.”[4] One
modern Mormon apologist Robert Millet, in his book A Different Jesus?
writes “With the death of the apostles, within approximately one hundred years
of the crucifixion of Jesus, this authority, the power to act in the name of
God, was lost from the earth…..Latter-day Saints teach that God’s divine
authority was not to be found in the Old World by the middle of the second
century A.D.[5] Kent P.
Jackson in his article in the LDS official magazine Ensign states,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has
proclaimed to the world consistently since its beginning that there was an
apostasy of the church founded by Jesus during his Palestinian ministry and led
by his Apostles following his ascension….Latter-day Saint theology asserts that
the church of the Savior and his Apostles in the Old World came to an end
within a century after its formation. The doctrines which its inspired leaders
taught were corrupted and changed by others not of similar inspiration, the
authority to act in God’s name was taken from the earth, and none of the
Christian systems that existed after those developments, though they did some
good things, enjoyed divine endorsement as the Lord’s own church.[6]
Going back even further to
1831, Joseph Smith (speaking for the Lord) writing in The Doctrine and Covenants said,
And also those to
whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of
this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the
only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the
Lord, am well pleased[7]
Again in Gospel
Principles we read,
Because of the
persecution, surviving Apostles could not meet to choose and ordain men to
replace those who were dead. Eventually, local priesthood leaders were the only
ones who had authority to direct the scattered branches of the church, the
perfect organization of the Church no longer existed, and confusion resulted.
More and more error crept into Church doctrine, and soon the destruction of the
Church was complete. The period of time when the true Church no longer existed
on earth is called the Great Apostasy.[8]
Though the
actions of men in their heresy and persecution were some of the causes of this
apostasy, this event did not come by surprise. God, knowing what his people
would do, prophesied in his word this very event.
Many
books of the Bible warn its readers of false teaching, apostasy, and rebellion.
But the question we must ask is do these warnings necessitate a complete
apostasy of the church? Or do these verses rather describe the ups and downs of
God’s people. Do they describe the battle the church would fight right up to
the day of the Lord’s return? We will look at some of the passages the LDS
church uses to show that the Bible predicts a complete apostasy of the church.
Prophecies of the Apostasy?
Mormon
Apologists argue for an apostasy from a few different angles. First, they
believe the Bible prophesies a complete apostasy. Second, they see the
beginnings of the apostasy in the letters of the NT. Third, they see the
apostasy in church history, And lastly, they see the Bible predicting a
restoration of the Gospel. This paper will only attempt to discuss some of the
passages the LDS church points to to show that the Bible prophecies the total
Apostasy of the Christian Church.
Amos 8:11-12
In this passage we read, “Behold,
the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the
land---not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words
of the LORD.” According to the LDS church this passage predicts a time when
there would be a complete apostasy of God’s people. The theme of God’s silence
is not only found here but in other passages as well. For example, at the time
the Lord called Samuel he writes, “…And word from the LORD was rare in those
days, visions were infrequent” (1 Samuel 3:1).
The Lord, in Micah 3:6, pronounces a judgment of silence because the
prophets were leading the people astray,
“Therefore it shall
be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The
sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; the
seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover
their lips, for there is no answer from God.”
Psalm 74:9 also
speaks of God’s silence when Asaph writes “We are given no miraculous signs; no
prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be.” God’s
withholding of His word was a sign of His displeasure and many times the result
of Israel ’s
rebellion. In the case of Amos the punishment fitted the crime. They had
rejected God’s prophetic word so God would withhold that word and leave his
people in silence.[9]
But what event do these passages
describe? As the context is considered and we allow Scripture to interpret
Scripture we find the answer. Amos does not end his book leaving his readers in
despair. Rather chapter 9:11-15 speaks of a restoration. Though God will judge
His people He will not stay silent forever. He will restore David’s Kingdom and
even the Gentiles will participate.
As we look forward to the book of
Acts we find the fulfillment of these passages. First, in Acts 2:30ff we find
that Jesus’ resurrection fulfills God’s promise to David to seat one on his
throne forever. God promised David that He would place one of his descendants
on his throne and that His kingdom would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:12 -13.) Peter in his sermon in
Acts chapter 2 tells us that Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to the right
hand of the Father was the fulfillment of this promise. So also Amos’ prophecy
of the restoration of “the booth of David” was fulfilled in the Resurrection of
Jesus. Second, in Acts 15:16ff James quotes from Amos 9 telling the council
that God was fulfilling this prophecy as He was taking from among the Gentiles
a people to fill his kingdom. If Amos chapter 9 was fulfilled by Jesus Christ then
we can assign chapter 8 and the judgment of silence to sometime between the
writing of Amos and the life and death of Jesus. As one can see this passage in
Amos in no way predicts a total apostasy of the Christian church.
Acts 20:29-30
In
this passage we read,
I know that after my
departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from
among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the
disciples after them.
The LDS church
sees this as another passage that warns the church of its impending total
departure from the truth. Here Paul calls to himself the elders of the Churches
in Ephesus He wants to meet with them one last time for he knows that he will
not see them again. In his address he warns theses shepherds to be on guard
against false teachings from both outside the church and from within. But does
this passage teach that the church will apostatize? Of course not! A few things
can be said.
First, Paul says this in passing. It
is of great concern but there are other things in this passage that are spoken
of as well. If the total apostasy of the church were coming you would expect
Paul to spend much more time warning and equipping them to protect the flock.
Second, verse 38 tells us that the elders were greatly grieved at what Paul had
told them. Were they grieved over an impending apostasy? No, but over the fact
that they would not see Paul again. In verse 32 Paul commends them to God and
His Word which he says, “is able to build you up and to give you the
inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” If the church was going to be
removed from the earth why would Paul tell them that His word would build them
up and give them and inheritance among the people if there was not going to be
any inheritance? God and His Word would build up the believers and make them
strong even to the final consummation and final inheritance given by God to His
people. Wolves may attack the church from without and false teachers may arise from
within but God’s word is able to build the church and bring it to its final
inheritance because this is what God has promised to do. This passage was a
warning then for the believers to be on guard as well as for us today, but it
in no way predicts the total falling away of the Christian Church.
Harold B. Lee wrote
There are some as
wolves among us. By that, I mean some who profess membership in this church who
are not sparing the flock. And among our own membership, men are arising
speaking perverse things. Now perverse means diverting from the right or
correct, and being obstinate in the wrong, willfully, in order to draw the weak
and unwary members of the Church away after them.[10]
This sounds very
much like Paul’s warning in Acts 20 which Mormons believe is a prediction of
the apostasy. Shall we thus conclude that Lee too was predicting another Great
Apostasy? Of course not! A common sense reading tells us that he was only
making mention of some within the Mormon Church that were teaching false doctrine.
There is no reason to conclude that a little false teaching or falling away
necessitates a total apostasy.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
Here
we read,
Now concerning the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers,
not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken
word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord
has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless
the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of
destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or
object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming
himself to be God. (2Th 2:1-4)
Barry Bickmore,
in his book Restoring the Ancient Church, calls this “the most specific reference to the totality of the
apostasy.”[11]
Let’s look at the passage to determine if it is what he claims.
In
considering this passage we must also look at the context. What other things
did Paul have to say to his beloved friends in Thessalonica? Earlier in chapter
one Paul encourages his readers and praises them because their “faith is
growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is
increasing.” He also “boast about you in the church of God
In
chapter two Paul wants to correct a misconception that the return of the Lord
has already happened. Though he has praised them for their steadfast faith he
wants to correct one aspect of their theology. His readers have either
misunderstood something in his first letter, received another letter that is
contrary to what he had taught them or they had heard a rumor that the Lord had
already returned.
For that day will not come, unless the
rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of
destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or
object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming
himself to be God.
According to the
LDS church this “rebellion” or “apostasy” (NASB) speaks of a “total” apostasy
of the Christians church. Is this necessary or even the correct interpretation?
Not at all! First, there is no indication that this “apostasy” would be total.
Paul is warning a church who would itself be an exception to this falling away.
Second, the Mormon position is that the “son of perdition” is the same person
as the antichrist. And “he who now restrains” this antichrist is the Apostles.
Once the Apostles all died, the “son of perdition” would be revealed and set
himself up as God in the church (temple) and thus completely destroy the
church. The problem with this interpretation is that if this is a person, and
it happened in the past then the thing that would destroy him is the second
coming of Christ not the restoration of the Church through Joseph Smith. Even
if one interprets this as a false church system it is the second coming of
Christ that destroys this system not the restoration of the Church.
Paul goes on in chapter 2 by making
a distinction between his readers, the church, and those he has just described
as falling away. In verse thirteen he calls his readers “chosen” from the
beginning for salvation and chapter three verse three says, “But the Lord is
faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” This
passage was not just for the Thessalonians but for the whole church throughout
the ages. He contrasts those who would fall away and those who would be
protected by God Himself. Again, the Church would face persecution and false
teaching until the Lord’s return but would never suffer complete extinction.
Sometimes it would even seem like the wolves outnumbered the sheep but the
flame of the Church would never be extinguished.
These are only a few of the passages
Mormons use in their apologetic to defend their belief in the total apostasy of
the Christian church and the need for Joseph Smith to restore the true church
to the Earth. There are other passages but the result it the same: Scripture
does not predict a complete apostasy of the Christian church. In fact God has
promised to preserve His church until the second coming of Jesus Christ our
Lord.
The Preservation of the Church
Unlike the Mormons, we do not need
to read Bible with the presupposition of a total apostasy; we can let it speak
for itself. The whole of God’s Word must be taken into consideration. We must
let Scripture interpret Scripture. Passages such as Matthew 16:17-18, Matthew
28:20, Romans 11:5, Ephesians 2:20 and Jude 1:3 are but a few that give us
complete confidence that, contrary to Mormon claims “The Christian church in
its entirety will never perish.[13]
Matthew 16:17-18
Jesus speaking to Peter says,
Blessed are you
Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The identity of
the “rock” in this passage will not be discussed here but assumed to be the
confession of Peter that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” What
Jesus says about the “church” is important here in our discussion of the
preservation of the church.
First, Jesus says that “He” will be
the one who build his church not Peter, not the Apostles, not man. He is the
architect and would bring to completion his church. It is not man, by his
choices, who builds or destroys the church. Jesus will always have a people for
himself.
Second,
Jesus says He “will” build His church. There is no hint here of Jesus’ plan to
build the church being thwarted. What He seeks to do will be accomplished.
Third, it is not just the kingdoms
of this world that the church will penetrate but the very stronghold of evil,
hell. Barry Bickmore, an LDS apologist, believes that this passage speaks of
Jesus’ releasing of Spirits form the Spirit World (Hades) rather than the
survival of the earthly church.[14]
While it may apply to this as well, it does not nullify the fact that the
church will be built on earth. Hades, here translated hell, means the place of
the dead. Jesus would conquer death and the Church would be the instrument that
God uses to bring people on earth from death to life in Jesus Christ. What can stop the Lord drawing His people to
Himself? R.B. Kuiper makes an excellent point on this passage when he quotes
Geerhardus Vos as saying, “Probably…the correct rendering is ‘the gates of
Hades shall not surpass it.’ The gates of Hades seem to have been a figure for
the highest conceivable strength, because no one can break through them.” The
church will be completely unstoppable![15]
Matthew 28:20
In this passage we have recorded
some of Jesus’ very last words to His disciples. Jesus says, after given his
disciples the great commission to go into the world, spreading the Gospel and
building the church, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Though Jesus here is speaking to His disciples at the time, he is also speaking
to every disciple of His throughout history. Even though Jesus was leaving them
physically he would continue to be with them spiritually for He would send the
Holy Spirit, called in Philippians 1:19
the “Spirit of Jesus Christ.” How could Jesus be with His people if there was
not one to be found on Earth? The fact is that Jesus would direct and guide the
church from the time of His ascension until His Second Coming.
Romans
11:5
In 1 Kings 19:18 Elijah thought he
was the only believer left in all of Israel . God shares with him
something he could not see with his eyes when He says, “Yet I will leave 7,000
in Israel ,
all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed
him.” Though it seemed to Elijah that he was all alone, God had preserved a
remnant for Himself. Here in Romans 11 Paul quotes this passage as an example
of how God continues to preserve a remnant. Immediately after quoting 1 Kings,
speaking of his present day says, “So too at the present time there is a
remnant, chosen by grace.” Though this passage speaks specifically of Israel they are
kept as a remnant of the Church. Paul is using it as an example of how God
works. God always has a people, the church, even when it seems like there is
none left. God is sovereign and will preserve His church throughout time until
the consummation of His kingdom.
Barnes says,
As in the time of
Elijah, when all appeared to be dark, and all the nation, except one, seemed to
have become apostate, yet there was a considerable number of the true friends
of God; so in the time of Paul, though the nation had rejected their Messiah,
though, as a consequence, they were to be rejected as a people: and though they
were eminently wicked and corrupt, yet it did not follow that all were cast
off, or that any were excluded on whom God had purposed to bestow salvation.[16]
Ephesians 2:19-20
Paul writes to the church in Ephesus and says,
So then you are no
longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole
structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
The Church of
Jesus Christ is built upon the doctrines taught by both the prophets of the Old
Testament and the apostles of the New Testament. It is built upon the truth
that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus Christ is the
cornerstone that holds it all together. That foundation is unshakable,
impenetrable and immoveable. Though earthly foundations crumble this foundation
can not. The church is built on this foundation. Paul says that the church,
being in Christ, “grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” This speaks of
progress, and that progress happens because they are on the immovable
foundation of Christ. Paul tells us that the church will continually increase
as history progresses towards Christ’s second coming. If the church completely
apostatized it would have ceased to grow.
Though small at is beginning, the church that the Lord established would
grow, sometimes slow, until the Lord returned. Adam Clark commenting on this
passage says that the church “is continually increasing, as new converts from
Judaism or heathenism flock into it. It is not a finished building, but will
continue to increase, and be more and more perfect, till the day of judgment”.[17]
God is the builder of both the foundation and the building making it an
unstoppable fortress.
Jude 1:3
Beloved, although I
was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary
to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all
delivered to the saints.”
Jude
here wants his readers to defend their faith against the heresy of their day.
God has delivered His word to the church by revelation and we are to defend it.
This truth is not negotiable. It can not be changed. As Matthew Henry says of
the faith, “to which nothing can be added, from which nothing may be detracted,
in which nothing more nor less should be altered.” [18]
The truth of the Gospel had been given and that was all they needed. They were
to accept it as the final word and defend it against any contrary teaching.
Albert Barnes in his Notes on the Bible
says the delivery of God’s revelation “was done once in the sense that it is
not to be done again, and, therefore, in the sense that it was then complete,
and that nothing was to be added to it.”[19]
If God’s revelation was delivered once and fully in Jesus Christ Himself, there
is no reason to believe that Joseph Smith restored something that was in no
need of being restored.
Conclusion
The
idea of a total apostasy is found nowhere in Scripture. The Mormon must come to
the Bible looking for proof texts to demonstrate a doctrine they already
believe. These presuppositions blur their reading of Scripture. Granted, there
are passages that warn of a falling away but, as was shown, there is no reason
to believe they spoke of a total apostasy of the church. Rather, God tells us
in His word that the church will grow, persevere and flourish, sometimes even because
of the persecution and false teaching the LDS church believes caused the
apostasy.
The LDS doctrine of “The Great
Apostasy” is absolutely essential to the very existence of their church. If the
Christian church did not fall away then there was nothing for Joseph Smith nor
anyone else to restore. If that is the case we need go no further. We do not even
need to discuss Mormon doctrine, for the LDS church has already crumbled at its
foundation. Joseph Smith was either deceived, a deceiver, or both. It is
because of that fact that my heart breaks for the Mormon people. They are in
need of being love by the Christian church and to be told the glorious truth
that God has preserved His church and that he calls them to repent and believe
that they might be apart of the body of Christ.
[1] Joseph Smith History (Utah: The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981), 1:10.
[2] Joseph
Smith History, History of the Church, volume 1 Chapter 1:19 page 49.
[3] James E.
Talmage, The Great Apostasy
[Electronic Edition] (Utah: The Deseret News, 1909), n.p.
[4] Gospel Principles (Utah: The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1978), 101.
[6] Kent P.
Jackson, “Early Signs of the Apostasy,” Ensign, Dec. 1984, 8.
[8] Gospel Principles pg. 105.
[9] David
Allan Hubbard, Joel and Amos,
(Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1989), 224.
[10] The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His
Apostles (Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1978),
308.
[11] Barry
R. Bickmore, “Restoring the Ancient
Church 29 November 2006 )
Available from http://www.fairlds.org/Restoring_the_Ancient_Church/
[12] Adam
Clark, Commentary on the Bible,
[Electronic Edition], Available at http://www.e-sword.net/
[14]
Bickmore, Ancient Church
[15] R. B.
Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ,
87
[16] Albert
Barnes, Notes on the Bible
[Electronic Edition] , Available at http://www.e-sword.net/
[17] Adam
Clark, Commentary on the Bible,
[Electronic Edition], Available at http://www.e-sword.net/
[18] Matthew
Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible,
[Electronic Edition], Available at http://www.e-sword.net/
[19] Albert
Barnes, Notes on the Bible
[Electronic Edition] , Available at http://www.e-sword.net/
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