Was there a Great Apostasy that required the gospel to be restored?
After the apostles died, the church fell into a universal apostasy. Priesthood authority was lost, plain and precious truths were corrupted by Greek philosophy, and the creeds replaced revelation. That is why God had to restore the gospel and his church through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
— The teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; see Gospel Topics, 'Apostasy', and Joseph Smith—History 1:19
Jesus promised that the gates of Hades would not prevail against his church and that he would be with his people to the end of the age. The New Testament warns of false teachers and a falling away, but never of a total loss of truth and authority. The writings of the earliest Christians after the apostles show the same gospel continuing: Jesus as Lord and God, his atoning death and resurrection, and baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus himself holds an unending priesthood, so it could not be lost.
What Scripture says
18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
Jesus promises that the powers of death will not overcome the church he builds.
18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The risen Christ promises to be with his disciples as they make disciples 'to the end of the age'.
20Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Paul expects God to be glorified in the church 'throughout all generations', not only until the apostles die.
3Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.
The faith was delivered to the saints once for all, a finished deposit to be guarded, not lost and later replaced.
23Now there have been many other priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office. 24But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
Jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he lives forever; it does not pass to successors who can lose it.
29I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them. 31Therefore be alert and remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Paul warns of wolves and false teachers arising, a real danger, but he charges the elders to resist them, not to await a restoration.
1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. 4He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.
The 'rebellion' Paul describes is tied to the man of lawlessness and Christ's return, not to a church-wide loss of authority after the apostles.
The case
What Latter-day Saints believe
Latter-day Saints teach that after the deaths of Jesus and his apostles, people corrupted the principles of the gospel and made unauthorized changes to the church's organization and ordinances. As a result, according to the Church's own Gospel Topics page on apostasy, the Lord withdrew priesthood authority from the earth. Joseph Smith's 1838 account of his First Vision says he was told to join none of the churches, because their creeds were "an abomination" in God's sight (Joseph Smith—History 1:19). The Restoration, beginning with the First Vision (1820) and the organization of the Church (1830), is the answer to that loss.
This is a serious claim, and it deserves a serious answer. If a total apostasy happened, the Restoration is necessary. If it did not, the Restoration is unnecessary. So the question is historical and biblical: did the faith and authority Jesus gave really vanish?
The case against a total apostasy
1. Jesus promised his church would endure
Jesus said that the gates of Hades would not prevail against his church (Matthew 16:18) and that he would be with his disciples "to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). Paul looked for God's glory in the church "throughout all generations" (Ephesians 3:21). A universal apostasy lasting some seventeen centuries is hard to square with these promises. It would mean that the powers of death did prevail for most of church history.
2. The warnings describe false teachers, not total loss
The New Testament does warn of trouble. Paul expected "fierce wolves" (Acts 20:29) and people who would not endure sound teaching (2 Timothy 4:3-4). But in every case the apostles tell faithful believers to resist error and guard the truth. They do not tell them to expect its disappearance. Jude urges believers to contend for the faith "once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). That instruction assumes the faith will still be there to defend.
3. Christ's priesthood cannot be lost
Latter-day Saints place great weight on priesthood authority. Hebrews makes a striking argument here: Old Testament priests were many because death kept removing them, but Jesus "holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever" (Hebrews 7:24). The New Testament never describes a Melchizedek priesthood passed down through human office-holders. It says Jesus is the high priest, and all believers become a "royal priesthood" through him (1 Peter 2:9). If authority rests in the living Christ, it cannot be withdrawn because men sin.
4. The earliest post-apostolic writings show continuity
We can test the apostasy claim against the documents. Christian writings from the generations immediately after the apostles survive:
| Writing | Approx. date | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Clement | c. AD 96 | Apostles appointed leaders and provided for successors (chs. 42, 44) |
| Didache | late 1st–early 2nd c. | Baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (ch. 7) |
| Ignatius, To the Ephesians | c. AD 110 | Calls Jesus "our God" (ch. 18) and stresses his real death and resurrection |
| Irenaeus, Against Heresies | c. AD 180 | Appeals to the public, apostolic teaching handed down in the churches (3.3) |
These writers had flaws, and scholars debate many details of early church order. But the gospel they preach is recognizably the gospel of the New Testament: one God, Jesus Christ as divine Lord, salvation through his death and resurrection, and the hope of bodily resurrection. There is no gap in the record where that faith disappears.
5. The creeds summarized Scripture
The Church today teaches that the merging of Christian doctrine with Greek philosophy was a grave error. Councils like Nicaea (AD 325) did use philosophical terms. But they used them to rule out readings that made Jesus a lesser, created being. The underlying convictions came first: Christians were worshiping Jesus, praying to him and calling him Lord and God within a few years of the resurrection (John 20:28; Philippians 2:5-11). The creeds defended that worship; they did not invent it.
Why it matters
The question is not whether Christians have sinned. They clearly have, and churches have needed repeated reform. The question is whether Jesus kept his word. Scripture's answer is that the risen Christ never abandoned his people. He is still the living high priest who intercedes for them (Hebrews 7:25). A Latter-day Saint friend who loves Jesus can be invited to trust that promise: Christ has kept his church through every century, and he offers himself fully to anyone who comes to him today.
Word study
greek · “permanent, unchangeable, not passing to another” · Hebrews 7:24
Used only here in the New Testament. The Levitical priests had to be replaced because they died, but Jesus 'holds his priesthood permanently' because he continues forever. The word carries the sense of a priesthood that does not pass over to someone else. Christ's high-priestly authority cannot lapse, because the one who holds it is alive and reigning.
“But what about…?”
Doesn't Amos 8:11-12 predict a famine of hearing the word of the Lord?
Amos was speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BC about judgment coming on it for its sins. Nothing in the passage refers to the Christian church after the apostles. Reading it as a prophecy of a post-apostolic apostasy requires bringing that idea to the text.
But the church really did become corrupt in many ways, didn't it?
Yes. Church history includes real sin, abuse of power and doctrinal error, which is why reform movements arose again and again. But corruption within the church is different from the total disappearance of the gospel and of Christ's authority. The New Testament churches themselves had serious problems (see 1 Corinthians or Revelation 2–3), yet Jesus still addressed them as his churches and called them to repent.
Didn't Greek philosophy distort the doctrine of God?
The early church used philosophical vocabulary to defend biblical claims against misreadings, as at Nicaea against Arius. But the core convictions came first. Long before Nicaea, Christians worshiped Jesus alongside the Father, prayed to him, and called him God (John 20:28; Ignatius, Ephesians 18). Historians such as Larry Hurtado have shown that devotion to Jesus as divine appears very early, within Jewish monotheism, not as a later Greek import.
Where was the true church during those centuries?
Wherever people confessed the apostolic faith, received Christ's word and sacraments, and met in his name. Christ never promised a single unbroken institution free of error. He promised his own presence with his people and that his church would never be overcome.
Where Christians differ
Go deeper
- articleThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- book · 1909The Great ApostasyJames E. Talmage
- book · 2014Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of ApostasyMiranda Wilcox & John D. Young (eds.)
- book · 2003Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest ChristianityLarry W. Hurtado
- book · 2002The New Mormon ChallengeFrancis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser & Paul Owen (eds.)
- book · 2007The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English TranslationsMichael W. Holmes (ed.)
Sources (8)
- Gospel Topics, 'Apostasy' (churchofjesuschrist.org): after the deaths of the Savior and his apostles, 'the Lord withdrew the authority of the priesthood from the earth'
- Joseph Smith—History 1:19 (Pearl of Great Price): all the churches' creeds declared 'an abomination'
- Gospel Topics Essays, 'Are "Mormons" Christian?': post-New Testament creeds rejected; the merger of Christian doctrine with Greek philosophy described as a grave error
- 1 Clement 42 and 44 (c. AD 96): the apostles appointed leaders and arranged for approved men to succeed them
- Ignatius of Antioch, To the Ephesians 18 (c. AD 110): 'our God, Jesus Christ'
- Didache 7: baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.1-3 (c. AD 180): the apostolic tradition publicly handed down in the churches
- Larry W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ (Eerdmans, 2003)
Related questions
Are Mormons Christians?
Many Latter-day Saints sincerely love Jesus and live admirable lives, and that should be honored. But the question is not about sincerity or morals. It is whether Latter-day Saint teaching about God and Christ is the same as the faith the apostles handed down. On central points, such as whether there is one eternal God, whether God was once a man, and whether the Son is eternally God, it differs, and the Church itself says it rejects the historic creeds. So the honest answer is that Latter-day Saints follow a different account of Jesus than historic Christianity confesses.
Is the Book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ?
Christians agree that God can speak, and the question is not whether he may give revelation but whether this book is from him. Scripture tells us how to test any new message: does it agree with what God has already revealed? The apostles taught that the faith was delivered once for all and that God's final word is his Son. The Book of Mormon is tied to a wider restoration that teaches a different God and a different way of salvation, so it cannot be a further testament to the same gospel.
Can humans become gods through eternal progression?
Scripture does hold out a glorious destiny: believers will be adopted as God's children, share in his life, and be made like Christ in holiness. But the Bible draws a permanent line between the Creator and his creatures. God says that no god was formed before him and none will be after him, that he is God from everlasting and is not a man. Christians will share God's glory by grace forever, but they will never become additional gods. There is one God, and we will worship him forever.
This entry is a draft and has not yet been theologically reviewed.