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| Temple Mount and the Western Wall - Ludwig Blum |
An abridged version of a talk (like a sermon) I gave in Sacrament meeting in early 2008:
Having finished what He had to do on Earth, Jesus ascended to heaven, leaving His church to be presided over by the apostles. At first, the apostles carried on the work , as they had while He was among them. For instance, not long after Christ's ascension, Matthias filled the vacancy in the quorum of the twelve apostles left by Judah, just as Elder Christofferson recently filled in our time period.
However, as time passed, it became increasingly difficult for the apostles to keep people from distorting Jesus' teachings, to stop followers from dividing into different ideological groups that would divide the once unified church, and to stop Christ's doctrine from fusing with former spiritual and philosophical beliefs of converts.
For instance, Paul rebuked the Galatians for turning to a distorted form of the Gospel. He said:
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 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.”
For the first thirty-six years of the apostolic age, the ruling Roman regime protected the Christian church. For example, after Paul's conversion, he was able call on his rights as a Roman citizen for protection. Officials protected him from angry mobs, and dismissed charges made against him. However, the protection did not last.
In 64 A.D the great fire of Rome ravaged large parts of the city. Unfortunately, as it happens all too often after tragedy, the populace called for someone to blame for the disaster. Rumors were circulating that the Roman Emperor himself, Nero, had purposefully set fire to the city. To repress the accusations, Nero laid blame upon the Christians. It was ordered that Christians should be tortured, and crucified. It was in the fallout of this event that the apostles Peter and Paul were martyred, probably within a year of each other.
There were also other things that also contributed to the persecution of early Christians. In Roman culture, the worship of pagan gods and the emperor was a part of life. However, because Christians didn’t participate in pagan rituals and tended to keep to themselves, they were considered anti-social. When the imperial police took an interest in them, they became more secretive, which made officials even more suspicious. In addition, because Christians wouldn’t join in with the religious activities which were believed to placate the gods, they were perceived as a threat to the very well-being of the community. Writing in about A.D. 196, Tertullian, an early Christian author, wrote:
"The Christians are to blame for every public disaster and every misfortune that befalls the people. If the Tiber rises to the walls, if the Nile fails to rise and flood the fields, if the sky withholds its rain, if there is earthquake or famine or plague, straightway the cry arises: ‘The Christians to the lions!’
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| Paul Meyerheim - Lion and Lioness (1915) |
Because of fears and misunderstandings, apostles, bishops, disciples and followers of Jesus who would not compromise their faith were persecuted and martyred. Eventually, all of the apostles but John, were killed.
Although John was still alive to teach church members, there are indications that some were rejecting his message. In 3 John 1:9-10, John laments that a certain local leader in the Church, Diotrephes, would not receive John's letters and turned away the brethren from the Church as well as those who would receive them:
John states:
“I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth [them] out of the church.”
With most of the apostles gone, and some Christians rejecting their message, the church began to deteriorate.
During the following centuries, Christianity continued, but not in its original form. As all are God’s children, the people had the light of Christ, could pray, and could feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. However, almost everyone was denied access to the scriptures, and most people were illiterate. And without revelation from God, the people of that time—many who were well-intentioned—were left to try to preserve Christ's original teachings on their own. Many individuals strove to keep the Christian tradition alive in the face of great challenges, and happily, many of the truths that Christ had introduced during His mortal ministry were preserved. But not all of them.
Possibly in consequence to years of persecution and suffering, some of the surviving Christians tried to reconcile Christ's teaching with popular philosophies and the culture that was prevalent at the time, so as to foster commonality and understanding between Christians and those they co-existed with. However, without correction from inspired leaders, and continuing revelation, some Christian teachings lost their original meanings as they merged with pagan teachings, and other beliefs.
Essential knowledge about the nature of God was changed. For instance, starting around 170 AD, it was taught that God, created the universe out of absolutely nothing, as opposed to creating it from preexisting matter.
Empedocles, a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, stated that God
"does not possess a head and limbs similar to those of humans.... [He is] a spirit, a holy and inexpressible one....".
Compare this assertion to one made by the Vatican Council of 1871. That God is
"eternal, immense, incomprehensible,... who, being a unique spiritual substance by nature, absolutely simple and unchangeable, must be declared distinct from the world in fact and by essence....” It was also taught that the Godhead consisted of three distinct persons who are
"of one substance or essence."
The original apostles had warned of a falling away, as we can read in several passages.
Acts 20:28-30:
28 ¶ Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 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.
3 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;
2 Timothy 4:3–4:
3 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;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
In addition to an apostasy, the Bible also talks of a restoration.
Acts 3:19-21:
19 ¶ 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;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 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.
According to Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve, preparation for restoring the gospel began centuries before the First Vision. He said:
”Beginning in the 14th century, the Lord began to prepare those social, educational, religious, economic, and governmental conditions under which he could more easily restore the gospel for the last time." (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 717).
John Wycliffe, was an English theologian and an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. He founded the Lollard movement, a precursor to the Protestant Reformation. He criticized the papal encroachments on secular power. Wycliffe thought that all should have access to the Bible in their own native language. And is credited as the force behind the first complete translation of the Bible into English.
In 1517, Pope Leo X offered indulgences for those who gave alms to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The aggressive marketing practices of Johann Tetzel in promoting this cause provoked Martin Luther, a German monk and university professor, to write his 95 theses, protesting against what he saw as the purchase and sale of salvation. In thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel:
"As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs”.
The 95 Theses not only denounced such transactions as worldly but denied the Pope's right to grant pardons on God's behalf in the first place. The only thing indulgences guaranteed, Luther said, was an increase in profit and greed.
Parallel to events in Germany, a movement began in Switzerland under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli during the same time.
Meanwhile, William Tyndale taught that a direct translation from Greek and Hebrew into English would be more accurate and readable than Wycliffe's translation from Latin. So Tyndale, translated the New Testament and a portion of the Old Testament. His friends warned him that he would be killed for doing so, but he was undaunted. He once told a colleague during a theological argument :
"If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scripture than thou dost." 4
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| Anton Mauve |
Eventually Tyndale, like others, was killed because of his work. However, his work was not done in vain; millions have come to experience for themselves what Tyndale taught throughout his life:
"The nature of God's word is, that whosoever read it . . . it will begin immediately to make him every day better and better, till he be grown into a perfect man in the knowledge of Christ and love of the law of God."5
The recently introduced printing press played an important role, too. It made it possible to spread ideas rapidly from place to place, so these reformative movements grew very quickly.
Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve said that Martin Luther and other reformers "were inspired to create a religious climate in which God could restore lost truths and priesthood authority".
(in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 85; or Ensign, Nov. 1994, 66).
Not long after this time of religious reformation, the United States was colonized and became an independent nation. Because of the events that played out during the history of Christianity, the original framers of the Constitution of the United States pushed for guaranteeing religious freedom. Conditions had become ripe for the restoration.
Joseph Smith, was born in 1805 in Vermont. When Joseph was about 10 years old, three years of crop failures in Vermont left the Smith family in serious financial difficulty. The family moved to western New York, where there was a prospect of better farming conditions. At this time there was a renewed interest in religion and wave of social activism in New England known as the "second great awakening". Because of this renewed excitement about religion, many churches were contending for converts. This included vying for the membership of the Smith family.
In Joseph Smith History, Joseph articulates how the religious scene at the time affected him:
10 In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: 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 it?
Thankfully, because of the efforts of many Christians before him, Joseph had access to a copy of the bible, in his own language. He regularly read it, searched it and applied what he learned from it in his life. It was during one of the many times that Joseph was pouring over his Bible that he found the answer to his question of how he could know which church was the right one to join.
Joseph Smith describes what took place:
11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
12 Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.
13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.
14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.
15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
16 But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the dsun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.
17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.
19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for 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.”
This event, what we call “The First Vision”, ushered in the restoration of the gospel. The visit of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith is rich in doctrinal significance. Joseph now knew that:
- God the Father and Jesus Christ live.
- The Father and the Son are real, separate beings with glorified bodies of flesh and bones.
- That we are created in the image of God.
- Satan and his power are real, but God's power is infinitely greater.
- God hears and answers prayers and cares for us.
- None of the churches on earth had the fulness of Christ's gospel.
- Revelation has not ceased. 6
“After centuries of darkness and pain and struggle, the time was ripe for the restoration of the gospel. … That glorious day dawned in the year 1820, when a boy, earnest and with faith, walked into a grove of trees and lifted his voice in prayer. …
“There came in response a glorious manifestation. God the Eternal Father and the risen Lord Jesus Christ appeared and spoke with him. The curtains which had been closed for much of two millennia were parted to usher in the dispensation of the fullness of times.” - President Gordon B. Hinckley
In closing, the history of the apostasy and the restoration can be used as a rough simile for my own spiritual journey. I was born into a family who were members of our church. My childhood home was loving, but also strict. There was a large emphasis placed on the value of obedience in my home. Though much of the gospel was taught to me in my childhood by my parents and other mentors in the church, I found myself in spiritual confusion as I approached adulthood.
I was unsure about some gospel principles. Also, like some early Christians who had twisted Christian theology with pagan theologies, I too had some ideologies that were not of divine origin, fused in my mind with actual church doctrine, which brought further uncertainty to my mind.
At the time, I didn’t seek for answers to my questions through study and prayer, as I felt guilty for having doubts at all. I thought that questioning what I had been taught was the antithesis of being obedient and faithful. Eventually, I found it easier to completely ignore my doubts and simply follow the religious traditions I was raised with. Because of this, the gospel was reduced to acting out hollow habitual acts. I attended Church, fulfilled what was asked of me while there. Church became a social gathering, a culture that I was familiar with, nothing more.
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| Nocturne in Black and Gold - Whistler |
Later, when dark times clouded my life, the anchor and hope of a testimony was not there. During one very difficult time, I was so emotionally drained and that the guilt and fear that was associated with facing my doubts had been exhausted. Without those barriers, I then openly wondered whether God even existed. The thought that perhaps the precepts that I had been taught since childhood might be a fable, was a very depressing thought. But, I had come to the point, where the thought of not knowing the truth was even more depressing.
I wanted nothing more than to find the truth, whatever it was. It was time that I followed Joseph Smith’s example, and find out for myself. With a strong motivation that I had never had before in my life, I tested this religion. I researched it. I read books about theology. I read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine of Covenants, pearl of Great Price and started the New Testament. I underlined verses I thought to be important, and wrote questions I had in the margins. I discovered that some ideas that I had previously thought represented doctrine, did not. I went to action. In a renewed effort, I tried to live the commandments. I remember one particular afternoon when I had put my tithing in an envelope and was taking it to my mail box to send it to the bishop’s office. Before, tithing had been something that I did simply because I was supposed to. This time, I paused for awhile before dropping it in, wondering if I was doing it in vain. Surely, I was being conned!
And last, I prayed. I prayed with sincerity. I truly wanted to know if Heavenly Father was there.
And one night, I received my answer. Heavenly Father was really there, and he had communicated with me. He loved me.
Through good times and trials I now had hope, motivation and a bright perspective. My life had purpose.
“Follow the example of Joseph Smith and the pattern of the Restoration. Turn to the scriptures. Kneel in prayer. Ask in faith. Listen to the Holy Ghost. Learn that your name and needs are known by our Heavenly Father, just as Joseph’s were. Live the gospel with patience and persistence”.
-Elder Robert D. Hales
