Tuesday, July 29, 2014

the great apostasy

After Christ's ministry among the people, His church was run by the twelve apostles, with Peter at the head. The second half of the New Testament is essentially made up of the direction these men gave to the saints (followers of Christ) during that time, as they tried to keep the church going.

Now, the way Christ organized His church is explained simply and beautifully in the following scripture, where Paul is talking about the church to some recent converts:

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;" (Ephesians 2:19-20)

Paul sets up this awesome analogy of a house that we're going to use for the rest of this post. Let's talk about it.

He talks about the church, and all the members of it, being the "household of God", so let's picture a house. It can be as grand as you want it, whatever. I'm guessing a household that belongs to God is both beautiful and functional.

Paul goes on to talk about the foundation of this house, so what exactly is a foundation? What is the purpose of one? I'm no expert on building structure, so I asked my cousin Daniel, who is studying Construction Management at Brigham Young University and has a freaky love of architecture, to enlighten us a bit. If you were like him and doodled floor designs during worship services, you can skip this next part:

At the base of every home is a concrete foundation to support loads. These loads, like the weight of walls and roofs, snow, and wind, put a lot of pressure on a house. These loads transfer down to the foundation. If a foundation is strong enough, the house will stay in place, despite all of these external forces. Not only do foundations need to be strong, but they also need to be precise and square. If there's an imperfection in the foundation, it will certainly be noticed in crooked walls and roofs.

So it's important, right? Essential to a strong house that can withstand outside forces. Paul told us the foundation was the apostles and prophets. Who? Oh wait, all those people that have authority from God to act in His name. At that time period, Peter (the head and prophet of the church), and the other 12 apostles (remember when Christ ordained them in Matthew 10, and gave Peter the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" in Matthew 16?). Their authority was what made that house stand strong no matter what came along to tear it down. Now, these men were just that - men - and so it's essential that Paul names Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. What is the purpose of a cornerstone, you may ask? Tell us, Daniel:

A cornerstone is the first stone that's laid for the base of a building, at the corner. All other stones are based off it and built on top it. If the cornerstone has any imperfections, all of the other stones will be affected and the building won't look good.

Jesus Christ was the most important thing in the whole house. He set things straight and everything else in the house was based off of Him, including the rest of the foundation, the apostles.

Now, after Christ died the apostles got together and selected a new apostle to replace Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:15-26). Or rather, God chose one from among the many disciples. The did this to fill the vacancy, to keep the foundation strong. Over the next few decades, with Peter serving as the prophet or president of the Church, the apostles traveled all over spreading the gospel news. They taught the people, corrected them, encouraged them, and kept this "household" looking just like it had when Christ was on the earth.

Persecution was immense, however, and slowly many of these apostles suffered a martyr's death. They were spread all over the Roman Empire, in a time when travel was long and laborious, and they were unable to reunite to fill the vacancies that began to appear. In the end, all but one (John the Beloved) died, and slowly the Church began to slip back into apostasy. Why? Because the Church may have had Bishops and Priests and many righteous leaders, but they did not have prophets or apostles, the foundation.

Let's pretend for a moment that somehow you were able to dig beneath a house and remove the foundation without disturbing the walls or roof or windows. Even if that were possible, what would happen after you removed the foundation? It would crumble. The house would not stay up.

This is what happened with the Church. Without leaders that held's God authority - given to them by Jesus Christ - things started to break, and the house would not stay the same. Now, no one wanted that. They loved Christ and the things He had taught, and they wanted to fix the damage that was happening. So well-meaning men and woman came around and looked at some of the rubble and one said, "This is the front window, I'm sure of it." But another looked at the same window and said, "You know, I'm pretty sure this window was on the side of the house." Maybe they got in an argument, maybe one of them gave up, maybe it never really got settled, but people started to put the house back together. Eventually they decided they should probably have a blueprint and they tried to find all the records people had from with Christ had built this house (Church) initially, so they put together a bunch of letters and journals that became the Bible. And the house had a lot of people living in it after a while, and some of them didn't like how small that one bathroom was, so they got a hold of the blueprint and decided to do a little remodeling. Changes started happening. Some on purpose, and some on accident with only the best intentions.

After a while, a couple people looked at the house and said, "You know, a lot of this is really different from what Jesus Christ taught, and what those men with God's authority taught too. I don't think that this room should be that big, and I'm pretty sure that the back door didn't even exist when Christ taught us." Or to phrase it differently, "I don't really think that doctrine should be so emphasized, and I'm pretty sure that ordinance didn't even exist when Christ taught us. I'm pretty sure I can remember what the house used to look like, so let's try building it again."

So right down the street, another group build a house. And then someone else built another. And another. Pretty soon there were a whole bunch of houses up and down the street and around the corner and all over the town. John went to the house around the corner and he was pretty sure it was the same house Christ had built, but Rachel went to one next door and she was positive that was the right one. And all of them had the same blueprint (the Bible) but every person seemed to have a very different understanding on what that blueprint would look like when actually built.

There's no coincidence this period in history is called the Dark Ages. Everyone was determined they had the right house, but no one had the foundation that had been taken away, and the blueprint didn't seem to settle anything once and for all.

God needed to build the right house again. He needed the right foundation, with Christ as the chief cornerstone, apostles and prophets as the foundation, and something that could withstand all these outside forces that were trying to tear houses down and reconstruct them and do all sorts of things. Mercifully, thankfully, God waited until the proper moment to not just try to reassemble the rubble, but to just bring the original house back. Because who do you think knows what the actual blueprint looks like?

God. He is the source of truth and He is the architect who designed the house in the first place. He knows what His Church looks like and He knows how it needs to be built. We didn't need a reformation, we needed a restoration. After almost two thousand years of confusion, Christ restored His church. And can you guess how He did it?

That's right, through a prophet. Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that's how He's always done it.




Scriptures:

Many false prophets will deceive (Matthew 24:9-11)
The parable of the vineyard and husbandman (Mark 12:1-9)
A restitution of all things is predicted (Acts 3:19-21)
A problem from within will tear them apart (Acts 20:28-30)
Paul warns us to stay close to Christ's original gospel (Galatians 1:6-9)
Paul predicts that before Christ comes again, a falling away will occur (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5)
Paul predicts people will not endure sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Peter predicts the apostasy (another prediction, you're kidding!) (2 Peter 2:1-2)
People will wander and not find the truth (Amos 8:11-12)
Ordinances will be changed (Isaiah 24:5)


Other sources:

Topical Guide, "Apostasy of the Early Christian Church"
True to the Faith, "Apostasy"
Jesus the Christ, Chapter 40, "The Long Night of Apostasy"
"What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?" by Tad R. Callister






Wednesday, July 9, 2014

the savior's earthly ministry

So after that little history lesson, let's move on to the part of the Bible most Christian churches focus on (and rightly so) - the New Testament, which tells us of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. 

The period leading up to Christ's birth in Bethlehem was one of apostasy. Gradually, the Jewish nation had slipped into a state full of Pharisees, Sadducees, and many others who were so focused on the letter of the law that they had forgotten the spirit of it. Prophets had always testified of a Messiah who was to come, and many people waited patiently for that promised Savior. In the mean time, they obeyed the Mosiac Law and continued to follow the principles they had been given. 

Here enters Jesus of Nazareth. Born in lowly circumstances into a family with royal lineage (had the Roman Empire not been in control at the time, He would have been the rightful heir to the throne, literally the King of the Jews), He was raised like any child of that day, well-learned in the law and gospel. Around the age of 30, He began His mortal ministry and established His church. 

The impact of His ministry cannot be overstated; He fulfilled the prophesies that had been given of prophets since the beginning of time, He healed the sick, caused the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear. He taught the people the higher law - to turn the other cheek, to judge not, to love all. The most important act He performed while here on earth, however, was the atonement. His suffering in the garden of Gethsemane and death on the cross, followed by His resurrection, was of the greatest importance to all humanity. Without it, the plan our Heavenly Father had set in place would be nothing, and there would be no way we could return to live with God. 

Of importance to the principles we've talked about so far, however, is that during His ministry Jesus Christ established His church. He taught with the power and authority of God, and confounded the Pharisees, Scribes, and many other zealots who had slipped into apostasy. Just like prophets of old had done time and time again, He restored God's priesthood authority to the earth. 

From the many disciples that followed Him, Christ called twelve specifically to be his authorized servants, saying, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you" (John 15:16). These twelve apostles were given the priesthood authority of God by the laying on of hands and were instructed to minister to the people and spread the gospel. 


In fact, after Christ's resurrection, the last message He left with the apostles was this:

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

What a message of peace and joy! Jesus Christ, the Son of God, promised us that He would be with us always. He urged His apostles, the ones who had the authority to administer the ordinances of salvation, to spread the gospel to all the world. The message was not then and never will be one that is confined to a specific group of people - it is for all. 

He invites all to come accept this gospel. I suppose the question we must all ask ourselves now is, where is that church Christ established? Which of the hundreds of denominations out there has this authority that was given to the apostles? Who can rightfully baptize us in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in a manner that God himself will recognize?




Scriptures: