A Restoration Before Jesus Christ's Return (Page 1)
Isaiah 40:5
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
For almost two thousand years Christians have anticipated the return of Jesus Christ as prophesied by Him self. Following His resurrection, for forty days he ministered to his chosen disciples, but then it was time for Him to leave. It was the time for them to go forth unto all nations, teaching His gospel, baptising in His name and organising His church. He would be with them, but not in person, as recorded by Luke:
Acts Chapter 1
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
The Saviour made it clear both then and through modern revelation, the exact time of His return was not for us or even the angels in heaven to know, but signs would prepare the way. One such sign Peter prophesied, as he preached to a gathered crowd:
Acts Chapter 3:
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
But Peter’s prophecy of a restitution of all things before God sends back his son raises two questions:
One: why was a restoration needed and
Two: Why has it taken so long?
The standard answer to question one is, because there was a ‘great apostacy’. I have always accepted there was an apostacy but have often questioned just when and how it was complete. But now, through the courage and clear thinking of one man I have the answers to both questions.
Allow me to take you back to that turbulent of centuries the 17th when the English Reformation led to the rise of Protestant churches, the Gun-powder Plot, colonising New England, executing a King, civil war, the great fire of London and the beginning of the age of enlightenment with rational minds like John Milton, John Locke and Isaac Newton. Amongst these there was one man in particular who, though a devout Christian and Puritan of Calvinist persuasion, saw clearly the one evil that perpetrated all nations of the world, it was that almost nowhere was there separation of civil and religious rule, no freedom of conscience. Bluntly this man said:
"Forced worship stinks in God's nostrils" and
"That cannot be a true religion which needs carnal weapons to uphold it.”
That man was Roger Williams (1603-1683)
As a boy he was taken in and tutored by England’s greatest legal mind, Edward Coke (1552-1634). At a young age he learnt short hand and was Coke’s clerk witnessing first hand his battles with the corrupt absolute power claimed by Kings. In his masterpiece, written during one of his several sailings to and fro across the Atlantic, Williams presents his arguments before the English Parliament; it is called (in brief):
‘The Bloody Tenet of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience.’ (1644)
It argues that heresy, which is simply one opinion on the interpretation of God’s word against another, should never be determined, tried and punished by civil authority. Since the time soon after the death of the first apostles until the second millennium, heresy was rife, but usually only resulted in excommunication. Then from 1100 onwards, in England and Europe, non-conformity to the states version of Christian belief and worship was penalised and often brutally punished. Williams saw no argument that supported this; in fact he saw it as grossly contrary to everything Christ taught. The one exception to this was in the new world. In Alma chapter 30 when the anti-Christ Korihor began preaching we read:
Alma 30:7 Now there was no law against a man’s belief; for it was strictly contrary to the commands of God that there should be a law which should bring men on to unequal grounds.
8 For thus saith the scripture: Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve.
9 Now if a man desired to serve God, it was his privilege; or rather, if he believed in God it was his privilege to serve him; but if he did not believe in him there was no law to punish him.
Williams put his opinions into practice after being banished in the dead of winter from the New England colonies and establishing Providence, Rhode Island where the following definition determined the rule of law:
"Who is to decide who truly fears the Lord? The magistrate has no power to enforce religious demands. The laws of the First Table of the Ten Commandments (one to five) are not regulations for a civil society or a political order. They belong to the realm of religion, not politics."
Whether Jew, Christian or Muslim, the Ten Commandments are believed to have been given to Moses from God. These ten laws divided into two tables, in abbreviated form are:
Table 1
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Table 2
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbours’.
Simply put, maintaining civil law and order is the role of government in any society. Laws based on commandments six to ten are therefore justifiable. But to frame laws that control matters of faith, worship and conscience, ie commandments one to five, can never be justified, they are based on one’s beliefs and opinions, not one’s behaviour.
In the past, as believers, we may have enjoyed laws that determine what you can do on the Sabbath day, but if such laws are based on faith alone, can they be justified? Blasphemy may offend, but if laws are made that curtail and punish freedom of speech with regard to matters of faith, we are compelling conformity and whose plan was that?
Since the time when Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity in the 4th century when the state began to assume power to maintain uniformity of religious belief and practice, the authority of the true church was lost. That power reached brutal heights during the 14th and 15th centuries with Catholic inquisitions in Spain and other European countries. Then in 1572, thousands of Calvinist followers in France known as Huguenots’ died in the St Bartholomew's Day massacre. When England broke free from the Roman Catholic Church it too then penalised those who did not attend Church of England worship on Sundays and when King Charles I was monarch, Puritans were persecuted and punished under the direction of Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645).
Remember the prophecies in the Book of Nephi:
4 And it came to pass that I saw among the nations of the Gentiles the formation of a great church.
5 And the angel said unto me: Behold the formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God, yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity.
6 And it came to pass that I beheld this great and abominable church; and I saw the devil that he was the founder of it.
Now do not think that this great and abominable church was just one. It was any church or government that persecuted anyone on the grounds of their beliefs. Throughout the centuries from the time of Jesus Christ’s departure until now, million’s have courageously and faithfully followed the teachings of Jesus Christ. They are His saints. I honour them and know they have also faithfully and bravely taken those teachings to the entire world. But when one Christian persecutes another or indeed one of any other faith, they have overstepped the mark. Freedom of conscience in matters of faith must never be overruled. Persuasion and exhortation through preaching His gospel is following in the steps of the Saviour, but any kind of physical penalty or constraint on another’s belief is unjustifiable. This includes the forcefully taking land from indigenous people when colonizing new territories. Williams saw this as grossly anti-Christ. He came to know and learn the language and culture of native Americans and purchased the land that became the colony of Rhode Island while the other colonies Plymouth and Massachusetts bay established them under a charter from the King of England, as if the Indians were his subjects!
Of course Christianity is not the only faith where its scripture and doctrine have framed civil laws requiring conformity of belief. Islam, Judaism and Buddhism have even in this day proscribed laws beyond civil conduct. But Christianity is my focus.
Since the invention of the printing press and the subsequent availability of scripture in mother tongues, reformers have tried to turn the clock back to how the church was when Peter, Paul and the other Apostles established it. Then, with the colonizing of the New World, opportunities arose to establish communities where non-conformists could live their brand of Christianity, without persecution, based on different interpretations of God’s word. The New England colonies Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay did exactly that. Civil law included all of the Ten Commandments and other interpretations of scripture. So what if you did not hold to those beliefs? Anyone whose opinions did not conform were tried and punished. Banishment from the borders of the colonies was the typical punishment, as with Roger Williams, but enforcement reached its worst when Quakers Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson, Mary Dyer and William Leddra were condemned to death and executed by public hanging for their religious beliefs under the legislature of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1659, 1660 and 1661.
So, what does this all have to do with the restoration of Christ’s true church?
Roger Williams is also often quoted thus:
"There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."
Since the 17th century those Christians who held this position became known as Seekers. It was not a sect or in any way a church. They were simply individuals who looked for a restoration of the true church, not a reformation, by its head Jesus Christ Himself. Many followers of George Fox who became known as Quakers were also Seekers.
I would then argue that Jesus would not and could not begin such a restoration in any nation that did not allow freedom of conscience. That nation did not come into being until the United States of America was founded and the First Amendment of its Constitution ratified on December 15th 1791, which states:
‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.’
It was not long after this spiritual framework was made law when God began His restoration. Just five years later, in 1796, Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack were married.
In December 1805 Joseph Jr. was born to them.
In the spring of 1820 Joseph received his first vision and instruction from God in answer to a humble prayer.
On 15th May 1829, John the Baptist was sent by the Saviour to bestow the authority to baptise on the heads of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
Two months later Apostles Peter James and John returned to Earth, laid their hands on the heads of Joseph and Oliver restoring Apostolic authority.
With that authority, on April 6th 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ was re-organised.
Soon after this, Seekers like Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor and many others, who for nearly two centuries had been waiting, began to discover and build again the true Church of Jesus Christ.
In a General Assembly in Kirtland, 1835 the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants was being proposed and a declaration of belief regarding government and laws was included, section 134 states this:
4 We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul.
With more certainty than ever, since being baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1966, I believe this church is the Lord's restored church and since 1830, despite continual opposition, under the leadership of prophets of God it is preparing the way for the glorious return of Jesus Christ, who will reign as the Prince of peace.