The Great Apostacy - Mormon History Part I

In order to have a discussion about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we need to lay down a bit of a foundation. The basic foundation is that God exists, He is our Father, and He loves us. Second, The Holy Bible is true.

Now, I don't really expect you to accept those at face value. I do want to talk about real reasons why I know God exists, and why I believe the Bible to be true. However, the purpose of this blog being to discuss the LDS church I want to start with its origins. 

Later on we will most definitely talk about God and the Bible and other things. For now, let's assume that God exists and the Bible is true, so that we don't have to debate that every time they come up.

In my first post I referred to the "modern-day origins" of the Church. The reason I used that phrase is because the Church is not new. It has existed since the time of Adam. 

God communicated with Adam, and gave him instructions. He told him what was right in the sight of God, and what was wrong. I'm not talking at all about the Garden of Eden, I'm talking about after the Garden; after Adam and Eve were kicked out and started having children. Our Father sent angels to Adam to teach him, and to give him Authority.

This Authority is called the Priesthood of God. It is the authority to act in the name of God. To compare it to something mundane: it's like the authority a police officer has. The Officer is not the Crown. But he can act in the name of the Crown. When a police officer arrests someone, he does so in the name of the Crown. The King doesn't come down into the streets and slap handcuffs on the criminal, but if the authority of the law is exercised correctly the arrest is as valid as if His Majesty Himself were to say "you have the right to remain silent, etc."

The Priesthood of God works this way. It is the power to act in God's name. Many prophets of the Old Testament (the first half of the Bible) performed miracles. The most famous, probably, being Moses. He commanded the Red Sea to move out of the way, and it did! Not because Moses was so powerful as to command the elements, but because God is. And Moses held God's authority.

That kind of power and authority is precious, and is not to be abused, nor can it be. 

So when God's children generally stopped listening to him, and obeying his instructions, he of course removed that authority from the Earth. He cannot have unrighteous individuals teaching false principles in His name.

This happened a few times. 

God would select someone to be His prophet, restore the Priesthood to the earth, and teach His children. After some time (years, decades, centuries) men and women would start to disregard, and even kill, God's prophets. At which time he would again remove his authority. If you read the Old Testament you will see this pattern occur.

At the meridian of time God sent his Only Begotten Son to the earth: Jesus Christ. When The Saviour came to the earth we were in a state of "no priesthood". In addition to being the Son of God, he was also God's Prophet, and restored the Holy Priesthood. He gave this authority to several people, namely The Twelve Apostles (Peter, James, John, etc.)

Now, Christ's mission on earth was much (MUCH) greater than to reorganize God's church. He came down to perform The Atonement, and pay the price for all of our shortcomings. We will definitely discuss The Atonement, as it is the single most important part of God's plan and of our beliefs. But it deserves a post all to itself.

Jesus Christ, upon fulfilling his mission on earth, returned to our Heavenly Father, leaving his Priesthood Authority with his Apostles, who then led the church for many years.

The true doctrine of Christ's teachings very quickly began to change. In fact, the majority of the New Testament consists of letters written by the Apostle Paul to different cities correcting them, and the things that they had begun to change and teach incorrectly.

The Apostles were constantly persecuted, and eventually all were killed.

Once again the Authority of God was removed from the earth.

But this time was different than all other times. The following period with no Priesthood is known as The Great Apostacy.

God would not return to restore his Priesthood Power and Authority for roughly 1800 years!

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In my next post I will talk about The Restoration of the Church, and the Priesthood.

I do want to pursue a more casual conversation about the things we teach and believe in the church. But it's important that you understand the "modern-day origins" of the LDS church, so that we can have a more meaningful discussion of these things.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.