Prelude to the Restoration (Chapter 1)

RELIGION 341MISSOULA INSTITUTE OF RELIGION

SPRING SEMESTER 2014

History of the Church

Objectives

Increase your understanding of and appreciation for key events in the history of the Church.

Increase your ability to distill principles and doctrines from those events.

Increase your ability to apply those principles in your life.

Increase your ability to explain and testify of those principles and doctrines to others.

Text for the Course

Church History in the Fullness of Times ($9.50)

Online (free) institute.lds.org HTML format PDF format

http://institute.lds.org/

Course Expectations

Read the assigned text prior to class.Identify and write down questions.Distill principles and doctrines and write

them down.Share your discoveries in class.

Prelude to the Restoration

The New Testament ChurchThe Great ApostasyThe Long, Dark NightRenaissance and ReformationDiscovery and Colonization of AmericaReligious Freedom in America

The New Testament Church

Christ restored the gospel and higher priesthood.

He organized a church with a “foundation of apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20).

The gospel went first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.

The ministry of the apostles spread the gospel throughout the Middle East, Mediteranian, and North Africa.

The New Testament Church

The Great Apostasy

Internal apostasy and rebellion weakened the Church: “men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:30).

Periods of severe persecution existed under Roman rule.

The Apostles were killed.Pagan philosophies crept

into the doctrines of the Church.

The Great Apostasy

President Joseph F. Smith taught:“Satan in his wrath drove the [Church] into the wilderness, or from the earth; the power of the Priesthood was taken from among men, and after the Church with its authority and gifts disappeared from the earth, then in his anger the serpent continued his war upon all who had faith and sought the testimony of Jesus, desiring to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. So successful did he become that his dominion extended over all the known world.”

The Long, Dark Night

With the loss of the twelve apostles leadership fell to local Bishops who began to define doctrine and policy.

A few Bishops claimed superior authority (i.e., Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch) and influenced larger regions.

Christians were a threat to political and religious leaders because of their stance on key issues that made them “un-Roman” and were persecuted.



Despite the persecution Christianity continued to spread.

Due to political expediency and the weakening of the Roman Empire previous edicts were rescinded.

Constantine comes to power and issues the Edict of Toleration in 313 AD which grants individuals the right to worship as they please.

Constantine’s acceptance and endorsement of Christianity placed Christianity in partnership with the aims of the empire.


In 325 AD Constantine was instrumental in calling the Council of Nicea, the first of the great ecumenical councils that established orthodox Christian doctrine throughout the empire.


The revelatory process experienced by the Church through the apostles is supplanted by argumentation and decree leading to further apostasy and distance from the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Various European tribes turned the unity of the west into shambles destroying the Roman Empire.

The Church was heavily influenced by the feudal lords of these emerging European states resulting in further discord.

Renaissance and Reformation

By the 14th Century a renewed interest in classical Greece and Rome results in a rebirth in literature, science, and art.

Interest in these earlier times turned attention to the writings of the early church fathers and to the scriptures themselves.

Seeking for an original faith, the stage was set for the Protestant Reformation.

One of the chief reformers was Martin Luther.


Martin Luther wrote:“Unless I be refuted by Scriptural testimonies, or by clear arguments—for I believe neither the Pope nor the councils alone, since it is clear that they have often erred and contradicted one another—I am convinced by the passages of Scripture, which I have cited, and my conscience is bound in the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything; since it is insecure and dangerous to act against conscience.”


Other well-known reformers include:John WycliffeUlrich ZwingliJohn CalvinWilliam TyndaleJohn Knox


President Joseph Fielding Smith has written:

“In preparation for this restoration the Lord raised up noble men, such as Luther, Calvin, Knox, and others whom we call reformers, and gave them power to break the shackles which bound the people and denied them the sacred right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. . . . Latter-day Saints pay all honor to these great and fearless reformers, who shattered the fetters which bound the religious world. The Lord was their Protector in this mission, which was fraught with many perils. In that day, however, the time had not come for the restoration of the fullness of the gospel. The work of the reformers was of great importance, but it was a preparatory work” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56), 1:174–75).


Discovery and Colonization of America

“Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written” (Ether 2:12).


“And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren [descendants of Lehi], by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land” (1 Nephi 13:12).


“And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren, by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land. “And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters” (1 Nephi 13:12-13).


President Joseph Fielding Smith said:“The discovery [of America] was one of the most important factors in bringing to pass the purpose of the Almighty in the restoration of his Gospel in its fullness for the salvation of men in the latter days.”

Religious Freedom in America

Additional religious groups such as Roman Catholics and Quakers colonized throughout America.

The Great Awakening began in about 1739 and lasted for about two decades sweeping throughout the colonies.

The religious zeal reflected in the Great Awakening led to participation of both layman and ministers in organized religion and in formation of democratic order.


Europeans came to America seeking economic, political, and religious freedom.

Many groups were intolerant of others beliefs such as the Puritans who established the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who believed they had the true faith.

Dissenters such as Roger Williams, who later established Rhode Island, rebelled against Puritan ideas and advocated, among other things, for a clear distinction between church and state.


The American Revolution provided a new sense of freedom.

After a few years as an unsuccessful confederation of states, the United States drafted a new constitution in 1787 that was ratified in 1789


The Prophet Joseph Smith stated:

“the Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it is to all those who are privileged with the sweets of liberty, like the cooling shades and refreshing waters of a great rock in a thirsty and weary land” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), p. 147).


Concurrent with the Revolution and the drafting of the Constitution was the Second Great Awakening.

New religious groups emerged such as the Unitarians, Universalists, Methodists, Baptists, and Disciples of Christ.

A desire to return to New Testament Christianity was shared by many.

The revivalism described by Joseph Smith in his youth was a significant aspect of these movements.


According to one historian, there was a special timing to when the Restoration took place:

“Its timing in 1830 was providential. It appeared at precisely the rightmoment in American history; much earlier or later and the Church mightnot have taken hold. The Book of Mormon would probably not have beenpublished in the eighteenth century, in that still largely oral world of folkbeliefs prior to the great democratic revolution that underlay the religioustumult of the early Republic. In the eighteenth century, Mormonism mighthave been too easily stifled and dismissed by the dominant enlightenedgentry culture as just another enthusiastic folk superstition. Yet ifMormonism had emerged later, after the consolidation of authority and thespread of science in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, it might have had problems of verifying its texts and revelations” (Gordon S. Wood, “Evangelical America and Early Mormonism,” New York History, Oct. 1980, p. 381).

Spiritual

Prelude to the Restoration (Chapter 1)