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The Falling Away and Restoration
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Foretold
A falling away from the true religion that Christ preached, from the ordinances he performed, and from the church he organized was foretold in the Bible. Confirming this loss of truth are many voices of history's great Christian reformers. Many of them sought to conform with the Holy Scriptures; some looked for the restoration "of all things" that Peter had prophesied.
The Latter-day Saints not only recognize the falling away, but also announce that God has made himself known to mortal men in these modern times, and has restored his church in detail as it was anciently.
A FALLING AWAY PROPHESIED
APOSTLE PAUL
"Be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. . . ." II Thessalonians 2:2-3
CHRISTIANITY HAS CEASED TO EXIST
MARTIN LUTHER
"I have sought nothing beyond reforming the Church in conformity with the Holy Scriptures. The spiritual powers have been not only corrupted by sin, but absolutely destroyed; so that there is now nothing in them but a depraved reason and a will that is the enemy and opponent of God. I simply say that Christianity has ceased to exist among those who should have preserved it." In Galat. (1535) Weins IX, P.I. 293, 24-27, p. 50, Luther and his Times, p. 509, Martin Luther, p.188.
GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST NO LONGER FOUND
JOHN WESLEY
"It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the Church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian; . . . From this time they almost totally ceased; . . . The Christians had no more of the Spirit of Christ than the other heathens. . . . This was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian Church; because the Christians were turned Heathens again, and had only a dead form left." Wesley's Works, vol. 7, Sermon 89, pp. 26-27.
WAITING FOR NEW APOSTLES
ROGER WILLIAMS
"There is no regularly constituted church on earth, nor any person authorized to administer any church ordinance; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking." Picturesque America, p. 502
SEES A RESTORATION OF CHRISTIANITY
THOMAS JEFFERSON
"The religion builders have so distorted the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods, have caricatured them into forms so inconceivable, as to shock reasonable thinkers. . . . Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive Christianity, I must leave to younger persons to encounter and lop off the false branches which have been engrafted into it by the mythologists of the middle and modern ages." Jefferson's Complete Works, vol. 7. pp. 210 and 257
ALL THINGS TO BE RESTORED
APOSTLE PETER
"He shall send Jesus Christ, 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." Acts 3:20-21
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, Restored Through a Modern Prophet
In 1820, in a quiet grove in upper New York state, fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith prayed for guidance in choosing a church to join. His prayer was answered by the visitation of two heavenly personages. One spoke to him and said, pointing to the other, "This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!"
From the Son young Joseph received the astonishing announcement that he should join no existing church, but that he was to aid in the restoration of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days. Members of the church he was later to organize by direct commandment of the Lord—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—testify that these divine visits to Joseph Smith and other prophets brought about the "restitution of all things" as foretold by the Apostle Peter. This is the message that Mormons give to the world: that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and that His Church is now completely restored upon the earth—even as it was anciently.
Source: Classic Missionary Pamphlet
The Falling Away and Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Foretold
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