The Restoration of the Gospel

The word "gospel" as defined in dictionaries, refers to the teachings of Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation and the Kingdom of God. The word gospel is in the phrase "good news" and "word of God", which is what the plan of salvation is about.

Jesus Christ, since the beginning of this world, has given the gospel or word of God. Man received the word or gospel by way of revelation, which is God speaking to man, and the man then transcribes it to written form. When God speaks to a man for purposes of preaching or transcribing the word of God, that is a chosen man called a prophet. God gives the gospel in parts, and each part is a "dispensation". The word, dispensation means to distribute a spiritual system called, doctrine and this doctrine pertains to the plan of salvation. In each dispensation, the dispensing of the gospel is through at least one chosen prophet. When this occurs, God is revealing the gospel "anew". The reason for this renewing is to increase the knowledge of the people to encourage progress. The renewing incorporates the knowledge from past dispensations and in some cases, removes past requirements or commandments that have become unnecessary.¹ At no time was there a "reformation" of any kind of God's word, gospel or doctrine. IN all cases, in each dispensation, the same basic thing preached was and still is the doctrine of salvation and repentance.

Now there have been many dispensations. The first was with Adam and the other dispensations were with Enoch, Noah, Abraham, etc, all of the Old Testament. The time Jesus Christ was on the earth was another dispensation (New Testament) that surpassed the ones previous. All previous dispensations to Jesus Christ pointed to his first coming and many of the ordinances (a law, statute and practice) symbolized the crucifixion of Jesus Christ for our sins. All dispensations had a prophet, a man that leads the people in the plan of salvation. In all dispensations, God speaks to his prophet and gives directions, instruction, and further doctrine to lead his people. The pattern as shown in the Bible as to these dispensations is that God is never absent and his word, and he never leaves the interpretation up to men. Revelation has always been present in each dispensation by the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost, and God never makes or calls any of his prophets as "infallible".

Each dispensation taught the plan of Salvation and the role of Jesus Christ as our saviour and redeemer from eternal spiritual darkness. Each dispensation holds with it, required actions we each must take in order to benefit from this plan. Any corruption of this gospel and all whom choose to follow that corruption, when the true gospel is available, will result in their exclusion from the kingdom of God. In some cases a few will see a sure spiritual death, which means to reside with Satan for all eternity.

IN this alone when apostasy (committing sin, spiritual error and abandoning the principles of God), took effect in each dispensation, the information and ordinances of the gospel were lost or sorely corrupted. This is where you see proper worship becomes corrupted and ordinances removed or replaced with idle ones. Thus, the need for restoring the gospel in any subsequent dispensation became paramount.

When Jesus Christ was on the earth, his dispensation became the center point of all other dispensations of the past and future. This is because it was with, from, and through Jesus Christ that we can obtain the benefit of the atonement and resurrection. As with all dispensations, Jesus Christ commanded that we are to repent, exercise baptism by full immersion in water to gain the remission of sins, and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, there is no other way. It is this way to enter the fold of Jesus Christ and gain the full benefit of the atonement and resurrection in order to enter the kingdom of God (2 Nephi 2:21 / John 3:5) , we must abide in that process. IF a person rejects or refuses this process, he is not of or under Jesus Christ and has not taken on the name of Jesus unto him (3 Nephi 11:34 / Luke 7:30) .

All people have the gift of agency, which is the freedom to choose. This is why we are to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to convince, not force or impose. Yet those who ignore, reject, distort or deny the gospel will not receive any of God's promised blessings and will find they cannot enter the kingdom of God. A person cannot receive and enjoy a gift when he or she rejects it.

One of the characteristics of rejecting, denying, distorting the gospel, is that people cause a distance to occur between them and God. This is saying they move further away from the light, and that means their lives will enter into spiritual darkness. This is not noticeable to those already in spiritual darkness, but to those who entered some light will notice the lowering of their lives.

This is a simple concept to understand. Anything that is moves further and further away from a central light source will have more darkness around it than that place at the source. In spiritual terms, this darkness is the "apostasy". The darker it is, the more apostate it is. The word apostasy means to defect or abandon the principles of God. Since God is the only source of true light, the defecting can only mean into darkness. If you read the Bible, you will find many times of apostasy. For example, one is about Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other is when the King of Babylon overcame Israel (God's people). In both cases, people have ignored or corrupted the gospel of God and by that corruption, fell into apostate practices which led them to "loose God" and all the benefits (blessings) and protection from God. The physical deaths shown in any of the apostasies depict the spiritual deaths of those people. As you may see, that apostasy is one of the main reasons for any renewal in subsequent dispensations.

Yet, when apostasy begins to take over, God sends a prophet to warn his people of their pending doom. In all cases, people ignored the prophets, which is another sign of a failing faith in God. When apostasy becomes widespread, God withdraws his priesthood authority, which includes the help of the Holy Ghost and people are without any means to learn the gospel, other than their own personal methods. So many other churches have failed to realize or acknowledge that they are born of an apostate history with no "restoration" of the gospel. Their existence does not follow the pattern of restoration in the Bible, which is God's pattern. History has shown that they have chosen to "rewrite" and "remove" ( or in other words - reform) precious doctrines and truths in order to give their beliefs the appearance of "godly authority, right and power" (Matthew 23:25)

When a church claims authority of God, but has no true priesthood authority, they are not of God, not God's Church and are not rightful tenants of the doctrines of salvation and repentance. They are merely priests unto themselves and not unto God, because God does not recognize their self-proclaimed priesthood authority.

One of the major rules of restoration is the presence of a prophet. To end each period of apostasy, God shows his love and sends a prophet with proper priesthood authority to restore and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ anew. Each prophet that ended each period of apostasy had the ability and authority to receive eternal truths so they can teach the gospel and administer God's Church. They are proper tenants of God's gospel of salvation and repentance. For each time a prophet ended an apostate period, God's Church also returned to the earth, anew.

This is the pattern practiced by God from the beginning of time and the beginning of this world. He performs this practice to let us know it is from him. The key in this is that only God knows when apostasy is near an end and when to send a prophet.

Just before the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ (New Testament), people did fall into apostasy. All who had held the true authority of the priesthood had practically disappeared. Left were only John the Baptist and Jesus himself, who held the true authority of the priesthood. Spiritually speaking, it was a sad state of affairs, with corruption abound.²

During the ministry of Jesus Christ, he preached the gospel "anew" and he was "restoring" (not reforming) the gospel of salvation and repentance. The Pharisees whose only interest was power and control sorely corrupted that gospel, by way of selfishness and greed. Their denial of Jesus and attempts to trick him are sure signs of evil in them and in their ways.

If you read the New Testament, you will see that people did not easily accept the restoration from Jesus Christ. Despite the resistance, Jesus organized his Church and chose twelve good and faithful men to be apostles, who were also prophets. Jesus assigned each of them priesthood authority called keys, which gave them the power and right to preach, administer gospel ordinances of salvation and administer his Church, all in God's name. Once this was established, Jesus performed his final act of his earthly ministry, and that was his atonement and resurrection by way of crucifixion.

The Great Apostasy

After the death of Jesus Christ, the apostles and the Lords true Church faced much persecution. So harsh was the persecution that the wicked and apostate people killed many of the apostles. During this time, wicked (apostate) beliefs filtered into the early Church of Christ from the world. The apostles had a hard time dealing with these corruptions. The New Testament, after the book of John, revealed many doctrinal struggles between apostate beliefs of people and the doctrines taught by the apostles. When the last apostles was gone, the keys they carried (power and authority of the priesthood) was lost again. No person under the position of apostle carried the keys and no apostle could pass on the keys to others below them. The authority of the ones below them, as the position of Bishop, depended on the presence of the apostles and the keys. Once the keys were gone, their authority under God was also gone. Consequently, these lower positions as Bishop etc were without power and authority to act in the Lord's Church.

In order for the Church of Christ to continue sanctified in the eyes of God, worthy men of God must be present and hold these special keys. Jesus set the pattern, which the Church must follow. He created apostles to lead the Church and the people; he did not give this leadership to Bishops, lower priests, pastors or deacons.

These special keys carried the power and authority to baptize and confer the gift of the Holy Ghost. Without this authority, baptism and conferring the Holy Ghost was impossible. In order for the Holy Ghost to enter and impart the divine guidance and truths of God, the Church must have men of God holding those special keys. The Holy Ghost follows God's will and laws. This meant that he would not enter any church that is not properly ordained of God with those keys.

Apostasy soon overwhelmed the people and the Church itself because the priesthood and the apostles were gone. Without the help of the Holy Ghost to interpret the scriptures, overcome human error in interpretations, and impart God's direction and wisdom, men easily fell to false and foolish doctrines and beliefs. Without these special keys, no one could perform the needed ordinances of salvation. Instead men distorted or forgot the true doctrines of God. This says that no man has power in and of himself to direct the Church of God. Without the needed and continued guidance from God and his chosen leaders, with continued revelations from God to understand his gospel, men fell into darkness and foolish paths.

A sure sign of this darkness, was the emergence of many churches or Christian denominations, all creating a church in their own image and made their own doctrines. All this was without the priesthood or the guidance of the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost or the approval of God. As a result, many "creeds" and (false) beliefs were born.

It is interesting to note that before the apostles left, they foretold of this universal apostasy, and foretold that God would restore the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Church to this earth. If there was no apostasy, then there would not have been any need for a restoration, the apostles would have continued and God would not have removed his Church from the earth. If no one killed the apostles, they would have transferred the keys to their replacements, and the Church of Jesus Christ would have continued unabated. Yet this ideal situation did not happen, and in place of it came the great Apostasy.

Historically, there are many points that I could speak on about the apostasy. One point is the great influence of the corrupt Roman Empire on the doctrines of God creating the "creeds". Another point is the influence of the Greek culture and their many false gods as Zeus, Apollo etc. Suffice it to say the great apostasy sent the world into darkness, hence the period of the Dark Ages. Historically, the Romans and Greeks were great people, but God's gospel is not dependent on culture or on any apparent "greatness" that a particular society possessed. Looking at the gospel, all restorations began with one lonely prophet, and from that built God's people.

When God restores his gospel, he does not reform what was there. He does not encourage people to see any reformation process of any doctrines. God simply casts out the corrupted and used, to renew it. Another word for renewal, is "restoration". As with the principles stated by Jesus Christ in the wine and bottle parable, "...no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish." (Luke 5:37-38). From that principle, God does not put his word into the oldness and corruptness of falsehoods and doctrines of men. He makes a new vessel and puts into it new life. He restores it.

Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

As in the days of old, God (our Heavenly Father) began a restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Church. As in the days of Old, God chose a prophet to bring in the restoration. As in the days of Old, God gave his restored doctrines and gospel about the plan of salvation and repentance. God did not reform anything created by those in the world over the centuries since the beginning of the great apostasy.

Who was the single and sole prophet that brought in the current dispensation and "restored" gospel of Jesus Christ? - It was Joseph Smith Jr.

God planned this particular restoration by choosing Joseph Smith Jr. in premortal times to enter the world and become a prophet of God. This means God chose a faithful spirit child long before the world began as he has chosen many other prophets the same way (Jeremiah 1:5 / Ephesians 1:3-5 / Abraham 3:22-28)

The restoration for these latter-day times began with Joseph Smith Jr. and his First Vision. Joseph prayed to God asking which of the Christian denominations should he join. When the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph, he received an answer to his prayer. The saviour told Joseph that he (Joseph) was not to join any of them. That they were all wrong and all their creeds were an abomination. Joseph was told that they (other churches of his time) drew near to God with their lips, but their hearts are far away from God. They taught doctrines the commandments of men, having the form of godliness, but deny God's power thereof.

What this said to Joseph was that many may have the intent and sincere desire to learn God's word and follow God, but they did not have the fullness of truth, being the restored gospel. Neither did they have the priesthood authority by which they can perform baptisms and other saving ordinances. God told Joseph Smith JR. that those people inherited a state of apostasy.

What this shows is that for centuries, people passed false doctrines, corruption and false beliefs through countless generations breeding ignorance and misunderstanding. If some disbelieve this is possible, consider on a smaller scale the discord a family can breed through its children from one generation to the next. That the only time it is broken is when one person walks and follows truth. Therefore, within the context of God's gospel, the gospel of salvation and repentance, Joseph Smith Jr. was that one person to break that trend and culture of ignorance and apostasy. As with the past dispensations, and pattern of restoration, God restored the fullness of truth of the gospel through Joseph Smith Jr.

Importance of the Restoration

These are the last days as prophesied by the prophets in the Bible. These last days are the fullness of times. This is the prelude to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. God's purpose of this restoration, which God believes is in good timing, is to bring to an apostate world, a world without order and without peace the plan of salvation and repentance. The importance to all of us is that unless we heed his call, unless we learn his plan of salvation and repentance, to follow and live it each day, that many will not survive the second coming of Jesus Christ. ( Malachi 3:2 / 2 Peter 3:10 / DC 29:9). Why is this? IT is because only the faithful and obedient will remain, those who heed the call of Jesus Christ.

This plan of salvation and repentance is a saving plan. It will save you and anyone else who heeds it and obeys it. It will allow you to live and continue with Jesus Christ.

The Golden Plates

God knows the future; he knows what is to come for us. He knew that Israel, another name for his chosen people, would fall to apostate beliefs. God's plan was to provide to the world a restored gospel, a means by which we can recover the lost word and fullness of truth. Centuries ago, when Israel fell into apostasy, God directed one of his prophets named "Lehi", to travel to a far land. For those who feel that the great flood of Noah was real, should have no difficulty in believing the account of Lehi. It is where God guided Lehi over sea to the land we now call the Americas (North and South America).

Once in the Americas, Lehi and his family began to build a place for God's people. During that time, prophets of God recorded their accounts as well as the fullness of God's gospel onto a set of golden plates. To make a long story short, after each prophet passed these plates to a succeeding prophet through generations, the prophet Moroni buried them in AD 421. This burial was in accordance to God's direction, which assured that those plates would remain hidden until the time He (God) chooses to reveal them.

Then in 1823, after the First Vision, under God's direction, the prophet Moroni appeared before Joseph and eventually led Joseph to where Moroni hid the plates. Joseph uncovered the plates and by the gift and power of God, he translated the ancient plates to give us the Book of Mormon, - Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It holds the fullness of God's word and plan for our salvation.

1. Bible Dictionary - Dispensations
2. Joseph Fielding Smith, "The Church In The Wilderness" Progress of Man, (1964): Chapter 13