Restorationist Foundations in the LDS Church

The Great Apostasy, Part II

This article is Part 2 in my examination of the Great Apostasy. If you have not read Part 1, please read it first. In this article, I will summarize relevant points from part 1 and then expand upon them, with some examples illustrating the foundations of these concepts in the LDS church and the Orthodox perspective. There is not enough space here, however, to touch on every area of the church influenced by restorationism, so a few examples will have to suffice.

Review of the LDS view of The Great Apostasy

James E. Talmadge, an LDS apostle, notes that the need for, and legitimacy of, the LDS faith hinges on a need for a restoration due to complete and total apostasy. In his book, The Great Apostasy, he writes:

If the alleged apostasy of the primitive church was not a reality, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not the divine institution its name proclaims.¹

Talmadge lays out other fundamental reasons for the apostasy in chapter 40 of his book, Jesus the Christ.²

The most important of the internal causes by which the apostasy of the Primitive Church was brought about may be thus summarized: (1) The corrupting of the simple doctrines of the gospel of Christ by admixture with so-called philosophic systems. (2) Unauthorized additions to the prescribed rites of the Church and the introduction of vital alterations in essential ordinances. (3) Unauthorized changes in Church organization and government.

From the article The Great Apostasy on the LDS church website.³

The Apostles were killed, and priesthood authority—including the keys to direct and receive revelation for the Church—was taken from the earth. Because the Church was no longer led by priesthood authority, error crept into Church teachings.

The LDS perspective boils down to two fundamental assertions.

• The Apostles had the priesthood authority, but it was lost. Due to the Apostles’ death, the ability to direct and receive revelation for the Church was taken away.⁴

• There was a pristine original “primitive church” that taught all the correct principles, had pure doctrines unspoiled by philosophy, and a pure form of organization and government.

This is fundamentally a historical claim that an examination of history can address. Let’s examine the loss of priesthood authority first.

Orthodox Authority and First-Century Continuity

The Orthodox tradition places great importance on preserving a continuous lineage of faith, rituals, traditions, and priesthood authority that dates back to Christ. "Orthodox" itself denotes "correct belief," underscoring the church's commitment to safeguarding against any hint of heresy or apostasy, a sentiment echoed by the early church father Athanasius.

Let us [as well, continue to] note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the [Orthodox] Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the apostles and was preserved by the Fathers. On this, the Church was founded, and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian: there is a Trinity, holy and perfect, acknowledged as God, in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit . . . and thus there is preached in the Church one God, “who is over all, and through all, and in all” [Eph. 4:6]. He is over all as Father, as beginning, as source; and through all, through the Word; and in all, in the Holy Spirit. - Athanasius, Four Letters to Serapion of Thmuis, 336.

The assertion that a Great Apostasy occurred due to the loss of authentic apostolic priesthood following the death of the apostles is incorrect. The Bishops are the rightful successors to the Apostles, a structure established by the Apostles themselves. Notably, the Apostle Peter served as the first Bishop of Antioch before becoming the Bishop of Rome around AD 60.⁵

The Orthodox Church has a verified apostolic succession, ensuring the priesthood's continuity from the time of Christ. It takes three bishops to ordain a new bishop by the laying on of hands. Like the LDS line of authority, we trace our bishops’ and priests' authority back to the apostles. i.e., See the list of the Patriarchs of Antioch going back to Peter and the list of Patriarchs of Constantinople going back to Andrew. These "lines of authority" are not all published online, but they are documented within the records of the patriarchates.

The Orthodox Church also maintains what they call Holy Tradition. Tradition is the non-written canonical counterpart to scripture. The Tradition of the church comes from the teachings of Christ, the Apostles, and decisions made in church ecumenical councils through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The Orthodox see no need for additional scripture to help understand the scriptures they themselves wrote. Why? Because the oral teachings of Christ and the Apostles remain in the tradition of the church. When Peter founded the Church at Antioch, he stayed and taught the community there for three years. Other Apostles did likewise. Christ taught orally; he did not write anything down. The scriptures were written by the Orthodox Church as a record of some of its traditions, but they contain only a small fraction of what was taught. They didn’t magically descend from heaven, and they were never meant to exist apart from the Church. It’s not scripture and tradition; it’s scripture in tradition.

While all are free to reprint and read the scriptures, the proper interpretation of them can only happen within the tradition and the Body of Christ - i.e., the Orthodox Church.

In LDS Speak - the Church can never fully apostatize as it is guided by revelation, proper authority, and a “correct interpretation” of scripture that can only happen through the body and framework of the Church. Groups may schism and break off due to pride and error, but the church itself will never fall.

Restorationist Philosophies

Joseph Smith grew up and formed the LDS church during a period called the Second Great Awakening. At this time, there were a number of theological ideas that were prevalent, particularly Restorationism, which included a number of other concepts such as Dispensationalism, Millennialism, and Primitivism - which I will save for the following article in this series.

It is important to note that these ideas:

1. Are theological philosophies created by Men.

2. Do not exist in early Christian history. With the exception of millennialism, they are developments that happened after the 15th century.

This isn’t my opinion. This is the consensus opinion of historians. In his book, Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-Day Saints, author Jason R Combs⁸, a BYU assistant professor of ancient scripture, writes:

Historians today recognize that the synthesized humanist/Reformation narrative of a dark age of apostasy, born in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is not supported by historical evidence. Time cannot be easily divided into distinct chronological epochs, and we cannot pretend that the events of one period contributed nothing to the next. For instance, the humanist/Reformation apostasy narrative ignores Christian teachings, art, and practices that arose in the medieval period and remain influential on Christianity today—including on Latter-day Saints. Similarly, the narrative of widespread apostasy ignores evidence that good Christians continually served each other and worshiped God throughout the history of Christianity.⁹

Let’s now turn to some examples of how these ideas show up in the fundamental foundations of the LDS faith.

Restorationist connections to the LDS faith

Restorationism⁶, while incorporating ideas of dispensationalism, millennialism, and primitivism, is primarily concerned with the following:

• A unified Church through the gathering of Israel → building up the kingdom of Zion.

• Restoring the truth of the “primitive church” due to apostasy. This included the doctrines, organization, and priesthood authority. → “don’t join any church. None of them are true, and you will need to restore the true church and the plain and precious things.” paraphrasing

• Evangelizing that truth to the world → missionary efforts start as early as 1830, and today there are more than 70,000 missionaries in the field.

Restorationists also rejected the Creeds, something most other protestant denominations did not do. (Joseph Smith also rejected the Creeds.)

In 1820, Alexander Campbell, a key figure in the Restoration movement, published a foundational series of articles titled "The Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things" which spread these ideas across the American frontier. Ten years later, Joseph Smith founded the LDS church, his thinking already strongly influenced by restorationist ideas.

Alexander Campbell and Joseph Smith were firm believers in restorationism — the effort to recover or recreate a pure Christianity like that which existed during the time of Jesus and the apostles, which had been lost, defiled, or corrupted. This definition assumes that at some point in Christian history an apostasy or loss of significant doctrines occurred.⁷

[…] Theirs was the hope that in some way their restoration would help prepare for the Millennium.⁸

Sidney Rigdon was a friend and disciple of Campbell and a Campbellite minister before converting to the LDS church in 1830, where he became a scribe and counselor of Joseph Smith and later First Counselor in the First Presidency. Rigdon, well-steeped in restorationist theology, helped write the Lectures on Faith. He became LDS due to a connection with a mutual friend.

In 1830, while on the first LDS mission, Parley P. Pratt, a former resident of northeastern Ohio, suggested they stop in the Kirtland, Ohio, area and visit his preacher friend, Sidney Rigdon. It was Rigdon who had earlier convinced Pratt that the restoration of the ancient order that included Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism for the remission of sins, and the promise of the Gift of the Holy Spirit could be found in Alexander Campbell’s restoration movement.⁹

Sidebar - compare with the text of the 4th article of faith:

4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

While Joseph Smith agreed with, understood, and adopted restorationist principles from both Rigdon and Campbell, he diverged from Campbell in how to restore the primitive church, offices to be included, and when Christ would come again. Campbell took a rationalist approach, and Joseph Smith took an opposite approach known as enthusiasm, which was commonly evident in the camp meeting revivals he regularly attended¹⁰. Enthusiasm places an individual’s internal emotional and personal experiences of God above the external word and means of God.

Profound feelings of the Spirit were felt by many seekers at these meetings [who were] “struck down and exercised” by the Spirit. A neighbor reported that when Emma Hale was young, she “often got the power,” meaning to have or feel the power of God within you. “Getting the power was an important part of religious worship through[out] the Allegheny foothills where they lived.”¹¹ […] Others participated in what were termed “spiritual exercises” that included barking, dancing, visions, and happy, melodious singing that seemed to emanate from the breast.

In this climate, visions, dreams, prophesying, and spiritual experiences became somewhat more acceptable.¹²

The “emanations from the breast” seem to me to be rather similar to the “burning in the bosom.”

Joseph was enthusiasm driven, with his acceptance of visions, revelations, visitations, healings, and the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. Campbell was alarmed so much that he wrote a tract denouncing Joseph and the LDS church.¹³

In describing his experiences with heavenly influence, [Joseph Smith] used phrases such as “[o]ur minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of,”¹⁴ and “[b]y the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God … from the beginning, before the world was.”¹⁵

It is no accident that enthusiasm shows up in Kirtland, particularly during the dedication of the Temple, where it hits such a frenzied height that Joseph Smith had to put boundaries on it. Others were receiving conflicting revelations and visions they sought to advance in addition to recognition of their own spiritual power and authority.

Joseph limits their revelations and visions via revelations of his own, which caution that not all gifts of the spirit are of God, but some are from false spirits. Only Joseph can receive revelation from God for the entire church.

Dispensationalism in LDS Scripture

Dispensationalism is a theological framework that originated between 1820 and 1830 by J.N. Darby, an educated minister and leader in the Plymouth Brethren - a Restorationist group. Dispensationalism includes a belief in a future, physical return of Christ, a literal, earthly millennial kingdom and a distinction between God's plan for Israel and the Church. Mentions of dispensations and the “dispensation of the “fullness of times” are evidence of the use of this philosophy.

Other key theological features: