The Apostasy

"Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." (Matt 26:34)

By: Kevin W. Graham

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims to be a restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many Evangelicals protest at this supposition simply because this notion that the gospel needs to be restored, submits that the gospel has at one point, been taken away from the earth. I will go further in demonstrating this biblical truth in a moment, but let us first ask, "what do Mormons mean when they say that there was an apostasy?" Do Mormons believe they are the only Christians? NO! Do Mormons expect us to believe that there were no Christians during the dark ages? Of course not! So what does the "Apostasy" insinuate then?

Quite simply, the apostasy involved the loss of authority given to the apostles of the early Church. Mormons do not doubt that there were and are thousands if not millions of sincere believers in Jesus. This is not the issue raised, nor was it the issue that the apostles were referring to when they warned of this apostasy. Indeed, the apostasy according to the LDS Church is completely biblical. Before we get into the necessity of divine authority and why the restoration was needed, let us go to the Word of God and examine some key passages that refer us to this catastrophic event.

In Acts 20:29-30, the Apostle Paul prophesied:

"I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

Paul made it quite clear that evil men will rise up and preach apostasy so that the flock (the Church) will not be spared. If something is not spared, it will no longer exist. In other words, Paul was predicting an apostasy from the true religion shortly after the death of the apostles, when the gospel would be taken from the earth. He was predicting what most historians refer to as " the Dark Ages."

In Galatians 1:6, Paul marveled, "Ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel." He was amazed that the people of his day were beginning to fall away from the truth so shortly after the death of the Savior. In an even more explicit passage, Paul talked about the "falling away" or apostasy in stark terms.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3:

Paul made it abundantly clear that there will be an apostasy and that Satan will take over for a time before the second coming of the savior. The pervasive influence of Satan during the Dark Ages is confirmed in John's prophecy in Revelation 13:7 :

"It was given unto him (Satan) to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations."

So as we can see by Johns comments here many years after Paul's, that he was referring to what had already been prophesied to occurr. Satan was given power to "overcome" the saints, hence we had the deaths of the Apostles and the martyrdom of literally hundreds of Christians with the given authority. I submit that if the power of the priesthood (Gods power) was on the earth at the time, the Church would have been spared (Acts 20:29) and the Saints would not have been "overcome."

Now many Evangelicals protest to this idea, suggesting that Paul was only referring to a "partial" and not a "total" apostasy. One passage that is used to reference this is found in 1 Timothy 4:1 where Paul warns that "some" will leave the faith. Of course this was a year or two before his second epistle where he mentions the falling away (2 Thes 2:1-3). It is obvious that through time, the situation and threat of a complete apostasy had become more evident as the Apostles were continuously preaching against false teachers who were infiltrating their churches. What is even more interesting in the second epistle, is verse 7 which states:

"For already the secret power of wickedness is at work, secret only for the present time until the Restrainer dissapears from the scene."

"I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

"This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia (Minor) be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes"

Asia Minor was exactly where most of the Christian converts lived (The Early Christian Church, John G. Davies). In the later epistles of Paul, the implication of "some" seemingly dissapears. And Paul continued:

2 Tim 4:2-5: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 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. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."

Paul was speaking to a people almost 2000 years ago about the crisis situation that was happening then. Yes it is clear when reading the post resurrection scriptures, that the serious concern among the Apostles was concerning the falling away that had already began. At this rate, with the Apostles (restrainers- 2 Thes 2:7) on the earth, how long would it be before Satan overcame the saints, after they were gone (Rev 13:7)? Paul also wrote about "false Apostles" (2 Corn 11:13) who preached "another Jesus, whom we have not preached." (2 Corin 11:4) Remember also that Paul told the elders at Ephesus that as soon as he was gone, false teachers would arise out of their ranks and decieve many.

Paul and Peter (2 Pet 2:1-2) wrote in the 50's and 60's, and evidently they were witness to serious troubles within the Church. However, when we turn tolater writings, such as Jude (80.A.D.) and John (late 90's), clearly the situation had become critical. Jude, the brother of Jesus, wrote a general epistle to combat the many false teachers who had crept into the Church:

Jude 1:3-4: "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ"

Jude goes on to explain that this warning came from the Apostles, so it stands to reason that this was the Apostasy foretold in the earlier New Testament writings.

Jude 1:17-18: "But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts."

Many mainstream Christians will admit that the predicted rebellion did occur at this time. However, they reason that the rebellion did not completely overrun Christ's Church, and eventually true Christinaity prevailed. The passage above from Jude's epistle brings up an important question with respect to this reasoning. That is, why did Jude refer to his day as "the last time?" John wrote, 1 John 2:18:

"Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."

Did Jude and John believe it was the "last time" because Christ was about to come back, or because the Church was filled with antichrists, and would not long survive? The Apostles were apparently indifferent to the specific time of Christ's return, as we saw with Paul's comment to the Thessalonians. Peter even told the Church notto worry about the Lord fulfilling his promise to return because, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousands years as one day." (2 Peter 3:8) Therefore, it was not the "last time" because the Lord was about to return ( A fact that should be obvious by now). but because the Antichrist had come and the Church was about tobe taken from the earth.

In the last few years before John, the last Apostle, was taken from the Church, he recorded more indications of the rebellion that was about to find its fulfillment. John complained that a certain local leader in the Church, Diotrphes, would not recieve John's letters and turned out "the brethren" from the Church as well as those who would recieve them:

"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. " ( 3 John 9-10)

Finally John recorded "letters" from the Lord to seven Churches in Asia in Rev 2-3. These Churches were obviously meant to represent the Church as a whole. The messages in the latters ranged from praise to rebuke, but it is instructive to look at the consequences the Lord promised for the actions of the Church members. In the cases where praise was given, the Lord said, "be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." (Rev 2:10) Therefore, the faitful were promised a crown of life after their martyrdom, and the unfaithful were threatened with the expulsion of their entire Churches. Certainly this was a time of crisis for the Church, and it is clear why the Apostles called it the "last time."

Would God ever deny the World of hearing His words?

The answer to this question can be found in the Old Testament book of Amos. It is abundantly clear that these words were referring to a catastrophic event that would involve not only the loss of authority, but the absence of Gods complete Word.

¶ "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 they shall not find it."

It has never been a doubt among Mormons that sincere Christians did indeed exist during the dark ages. However, the simpe fact that the wide variety of Churches that have spawned from Catholicism during the reformation is evidence enough that something was missing. What was that something? Simply put, the full truths of the Gospel. The reformationists were indeed convinced that the True Church of Jesus Christ was not found in Catholicism. In fact, reputable people during this period made more flamboyous comments concerningthe Apostasy, then any one Mormon prophet ever has. Take for example Roger Williams, the founder of the very first Baptist Church in America bore his testimony of the apostasy before his death:

"There is no regularly constituted church on earth, nor any person authorized to administer any church ordinance here; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking........" Picturesque America, pp.502

Of course Martin took the extreme position that the Church was completely destroyed and those that were to prserve it, simply failed. He suggests that Christianity had ceased to exist period! That is a far cry heavier language than the LDS position. And dont forget about the famous John Wesley who said:

"It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the Church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that FATAL period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian; From this time they almost totally ceased; The Christians had no more of the spirit of Christ than the other heathens This was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian Church; because the Christians were turned Heathens again, and HAD ONLY A DEAD FORM LEFT." Wesley's Works, vol. 7, Sermon 89, pp.26-27

Not only do all these protestant founders make evident their limitations in reforming a "dead, heathen, and spiritless," Church. Thomas Jefferson also sought a Restoration of Christianity:

"The religious builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods, have caricatured them into forms so inconceivable, as to shock resonable thinkers......Happy in the prospect of a RESTORATION of primitive Christianity, I must leave to younger persons to encounter and lop off the false branches which have been engraffed into it by the mythologists of the middle and modern ages." Jeffersin's Complete Works, vol. 7, pp. 210 and 257. Here we see that even Thomas Jefferson believed in the necessity of a "restoration" of the gospel. When Mormon critics attempt to quote LDS prophets of old, who suggested that the 19th century Christians were apostates from the true gospel, little do they know that this was common belief among many reputable and knowledgable people during that period, as demonstrated. Do they equally criticize Lutherans for what Martin luther said?

Who held the priesthood? The Catholics believe that their Church recieved the "Apostolic lineage" or the priesthood from Peter. There has been much speculation on this since Peter was killed many years before John and supposively, according to Catholic history, John would have been subject to the first Pope who succeeded Peter. We know however that the man who was in charge during the days of Nicea however, was the pagan Constantine. The Emperor Constantine brought Christinianity back as a political tool. He remained a sunworshipper until his death, although some historians believe that his baptism, which occurred on his death bed was sincere. Constantine was involved in changing many doctrines of the Church. He headed bishops who would agree with him and those who disagreed were either exiled or beheaded, depending on what extent the rejected his heretical beliefs.

Whatever this Church was at the time, it was hardly a Christlike organization and the apostasy seemed extremely evident. Although there were some believers that were true, there was no organized church that was actually of Christ that had his priesthood. The idea from Protestants, that the Church lived on and on without apostasy, makes one wonder why they are Protestants and not Catholic then. For if the Church was "spared", despite what the scriptures say, then the Catholic Church would have to be considered by all, the Biblical authority of God as it claims. The Protestants mutated Gods doctrine on recieving priesthood as well, but what choice did they have? Because they do not have the lineage given through the priests throughoutthe centuries, from the time of Peter, they have to work around this. So they suggest that if you believe in Christ and feel you are called by his spirit according to oneself, then all the powers of the priesthood that existed before are yours to claim in faith. Yet Hebrews 5:4 tells us that nobody can recieve the priesthood unless he is ordained by one having it, "no man taketh this honor upon himself, except he that is ordained, as was Aaron." Aaron was of course, ordained by the Laying on of hands, and the Catholics rightly passed on their ordinations in this exact same way, as according to historical Christianity and tradition. The real question is, Did the Catholics really get the Apostolic lineage from Peter as they claim? If so, then is it possible that the Catholic Church lost the priesthood during the first century, hence the apostasy, as a result of its heretical teachings and beginings that are as unchristian and blasphemous as Constantine was? The reformationists speak their opinion on this, and determining whether the Ancient Catholic Church runs in line with the Bible, is an entirely different subject.

Chronology of the Apostasy
Apostasy by FAIR
Did Peter Salvage the Church?
The Falling Away
Upon This Rock..
Apostasy
Seven Proofs of the Great Apostasy
A Debate Between an Catholic and a Mormon