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Mission of the Prophet
"For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." ( D&C 115:4 )
The Church Restored
"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." ( Matt. 16:18 )
When Jesus Christ lived on earth he organised a church. It was not the church of John the Baptist, the Apostle Peter, Paul or the church of any other human being. It were his own church and he were its head ( Ephesians 5:23 ). The church was an organisation which purpose were to help his followers prepare their own salvation, and to receive help and comfort. The Lord didn't leave members of his church unorganised after his dead. He ensured that the church with its offices were there for them. The church was necessary to guide and comfort each member, who wandered on the narrow path that leads to eternal life.
A Restoration of the Church of Christ was predicted
The prophet Daniel (606 BC - 536 BC) saw in a vision that the God of heaven in the latter days would "set up a kingdom, which should never be destroyed." ( Daniel 2:44 ) This kingdom was symbolized by a stone that was "cut out without hands," the stone "smote the image" (the kingdoms of the world), and "became a great mountain," that eventually "filled the whole earth." ( Daniel 2:34-35 ) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believes that the "stone" which was cut out without hands is the restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days, and the restoration of the everlasting Gospel, which is now being preached in the world ( Rev. 14:6-7 | D&C 45:28 ), as a preparation for the Second Coming of the Lord. ( D&C 1:17-18 | L&P 45:39-44 )
Why was a Restoration of the Church of Christ needed?
The restoration was necessary because the church of the Savior and his apostles came to an end within a century after He had organized it. All the apostles, except John, died during the first century. The apostle John was imprisoned. By the last two decades of the second century the first generation of those who knew and heard the apostles were also gone. Without the apostles there was noone to guard doctrinal unity in the church, no authoritative church officials to clarify scriptural ambiguities. The Prophet Isaiah predicted this apostasy from the true religion:
"The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." ( Isaiah 24:5 )
The apostasy began while the apostles were still alive. After their death it however accelerated. The apostasy were not only a falling away, but an uprising against the established authority in the church. The Lord has said: "This is my church, and I will establish it; and nothing shall overthrow it, save it is the transgression of my people." ( Mosiah 27:13 ). This is what happens when members of the church "transgress the laws." They no longer support the leaders of the Saviors church. Transgression or wickedness among the members was thus a major reason for the apostasy.
Paul predicted "the falling away" and "that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." ( 2.Thes. 2:3 ). That happened when grievous wolves entered in among the christian flock ( Acts. 20:29 ). Greek philosophy and tradition were incorporated into the church and its influence spread rapidly throughout the christian community. The church adapted to this and it was officially established by the Nicene Creed in 325 A.D., as well as by the Athanasian Creed about 500 A.D. The decisions at these councils resulted in a completely different concept of the existence of God. The Nicene and Athanasian creeds have since been used in western christianity. Isaiahs prophecy regarding transgressed laws, changed ordinances and broken covenants ( Isaiah 24:5 ) had finally been fulfilled. Men who claimed to be Apostles were found to be liars ( see 1.John 2:18 | Rev. 2:2 ). Without the apostles and the authoritative church officials the sad day had finally arrived, which the Prophet Amos (792 B.D. - 740 B.D.) had prophesied about: "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." ( Amos 8:11 )
Nearly all of the Epistles in the Bible were written with the purpose to work against apostasy in the church. Some members, for instance, denied Christ ( 1.John 2:22-26 ), while others stopped believing in the resurrection ( 1.Cor. 15:12 ). These are only a few examples. An earlier Apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ, Elder Mark E. Petersen said:
".. the teaching of the Jews had perverted many christian practices, the glamour of the pagan rituals crept into the christian rituals. The true doctrine of God was lost. Greek philosophy had almost rationalized away the simple divine truths. Men denied Christ and his church and introduced their own doctrines and forms of worship. But all this had been foreseen. The Lord had predicted this apostasy.
( See: Matt. 24:9-12 | Acts. 20:29-30 | 2.Peter 2:1-3 | 2.Tim. 4:3 )
In a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1831 the Lord, among other things, repeated what he had said through Isaiah (24:5):
"For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant." ( D&C 1:15 )
Isaiah 24:5 is a warning from God against administering the ordinances of the Gospel without having received the proper authority ( the priesthood ) from Him to do that.
One must ask oneself what church Paul would have been a member of had he lived today, for he said:
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism." ( Ephes. 4:5 )
The opposition to Pauls statement today is seen by the many churches with different creeds, different doctrine and different ways of performing baptism. God is a God of order. He isn't the author of confusion. He established one church, with one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, and it was supposed to continue so.
A Prophecy about many Churches in the Latter Days
About BC 559 to BC 545 the Prophet Nephi propheSied that there would be many churches on earth in the latter days. Today there are 38.000 christian denominations (see p.43). The existence of all these denominations in our time was predicted by Prophets of God. Their existence today is therefore strong evidence that an apostasy occured from the church which the Lord established in the meridian of time. It is also one of the Signs of the Times which ushers in the Second Coming of our Savior:
"For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other: Behold, I, I am the Lords; and the others shall say: I, I am the Lords; and thus shall every one say that hath built up churches, and not unto the Lord." ( 2.Nephi 28:3 )
Apostles were supposed to continue in the Church
Christ placed officials in his church, each of whom had certain duties ( Luk. 6:12-16 | 10:1 | Ephes. 4:11-14 ). Besides preaching the Gospel to the world ( Mark. 16:15 ) it were also their responsibility as shepherds to watch over the members of the church ( John 21:15-17 ). These officials should guide them on the path to salvation and protect them against the "wolves", that would penetrate the church and attempt to create division in the church and introduce false doctrines in it. ( Acts. 20:29-30 ).
The apostles were the senior leaders off the church ( Ephes. 2:19-21 ). It is evident from the scriptures that it was the Lords intention that living apostles should continue in the church. Judas who deceived Jesus was a member of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He died shortly after his shameful act and thereby a position in The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles became empty. As it is evident in the scriptures the procedure in such cases was to call a new apostle to fill the empty position. The apostles didn't themselves undertake the responsibility of choosing a new member for the council of the twelve. They prayed to find out whom the Lord wanted to be called as an apostle:
"And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles." ( Acts. 1:21-26 )
With the death of the apostles, the lifeblood of the church were cut off. The divine authority disappeared from the church and the corruption of the ordinances began as prophesied.
Due to this apostasy a restoration of the true religion and church were necessary. The message of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to earth in modern time through a Prophet. The Church of Jesus Christ has been restored in its original form with the uncorrupted ordinances that the Lord himself instituted while He lived on earth. The Prophet of the restoration was Joseph Smith. The Lord called him as he had called other prophets before, like for instance Enoch, Noah, Moses, Isaiah, Malachi and others. The Prophet Joseph Smith was a great instrument in the hands of the Lord at the restoration of the fullness of the Gospel and The Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days.