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The One True Church

 

 

 

 

“Wherefore I the Lord…called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jr.…and also gave commandments to others…[that they] might have power to lay the foundation of this church [Latter Day Saint] the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I the Lord am well pleased.”

 

                                                – Joseph Smith Jr.[1]

 

 

“I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”

 

                                – Jesus (Matt. 16:18 KJV) 

 

Was There a Complete Apostasy of Christ’s Church?

            One of the identifying marks of a cult is the belief that they are the “only true church.” For nearly 140 years this has been the proud claim of the RLDS church. According to Joseph Smith’s story, the early Christian Church went into complete apostasy shortly after the death of the apostles and was taken from the earth. After hundreds of years, the Lord allegedly restored it in 1830 through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith.[2]

            And so, Joseph Smith did not begin his movement to reform the New Testament church such as Alexander Campbell had attempted, rather his mission was to restore true Christianity to the earth. He declared that the Christian churches of his day were all wrong, that their creeds were an abomination[3] and that they were nothing more than a corruption of the early Christian church.

Former RLDS Patriarch, Elbert A. Smith, explained the church’s view on apostasy and the need for restoration.

 

“Christ declared, ‘I will build my church.’ One church only was established by the Lord…. After the first century, serious changes took place, affecting the organization, doctrine, and practice of the church. The multitudinous sects of today testify by their existence to a departure from the faith of the primitive apostolic church. But God has not changed. And now in the evening of time, he has restored the gospel, as it was in the beginning, in harmony with prophetic announcements…. The Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days [RLDS] exists in complete accord with the primitive apostolic model of the church.”[4]

 

Evan Fry, former radio minister for the RLDS church expounds on this subject.

 

“Latter Day Saints believe that the church of Christ lost its life, its power, its authority during the dark ages of apostasy, and became a dead church. Many great and honorable men tried to restore it to life through reformation but…they succeeded only in establishing great and beneficent organizations, which, because of their lack of perfection in organization and their lack of that mysterious but vital life-giving Spirit, could not truly be called the church and body of Christ. Not until the living Christ himself moved to reestablish and reorganize his church with all the functional relationships needed to make his perfect body on earth, and then to plant within it the life-giving power of his authority and his priesthood, was his body, his church, to be found on earth. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was brought into being not by any act of man, but by an act of God who appeared to the young prophet Joseph Smith in vision, and pointing to his Son, Jesus Christ, by his side, said, ‘This is my beloved Son; hear ye him.’”[5] 

The Bible Refutes the Idea of a Complete Apostasy  

      Christians have always acknowledged that there have been periods of corruption and apostasy throughout the duration of the church age, but both scripture and historical records disprove the idea of a complete apostasy. The Bible gives abundant proof that the Lord has never left himself without a witness on earth. This is illustrated in the following Scriptures.

 

• Eph. 3:21 “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end Amen.” (KJV)

• Psalms 100:5 “ His truth endureth to all generations”(KJV)

• Psalms 33:11 “But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”

• Isaiah 5l:8  “My righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.”

• 1 Tim. 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some [not all] will abandon the faith.”

• Matt. 16:18 Christ said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (KJV)

• Psalm 145:13 “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.”

• Jude:3 “Dear friends…I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the Saints.”  

• II Thess. 2:3 KJV  “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” (This falling away is not speaking of a complete apostasy following the death of the apostles, but a partial one just prior to Christ’s second coming).

• Acts 20:29 “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock” In this verse, Paul is not speaking of a complete apostasy, but is showing that false teachers will come into the church preaching “another gospel.” His statement has proved prophetic throughout the church age.

     F. Henry Edwards declared, “If the apostasy was not a fact, then the…restoration of the gospel was entirely unnecessary.”[6]

     Christians agree with this statement and conclude that the alleged apostasy and restoration of the gospel by Joseph Smith was not only unnecessary, but in fact, did not occur at all! Not only does scripture disprove the idea of a complete apostasy, but the historical accounts of literally thousands of dedicated Christians throughout the ages expose the fallacy of this claim. Beginning with Jesus and the apostles down to the present time, thousands of martyrs have died in such horrendous ways it defies the imagination, simply because they did not deny the gospel.[7]

 

“One may go through century after century from the first to the twentieth and prove that the apostasy claimed by Mormonism is a myth. No one denies there were periods of darkness but the true apostolic faith was never lost in any generation…. Why does the Mormon Church continue to proclaim a universal apostasy in spite of massive evidence, biblically and historically, to the contrary? Simply because it has no choice. If there was no universal apostasy, then Joseph Smith’s claim that God restored true Christianity through him must have been false, and if false, Joseph Smith could not have been a true prophet of God.”[8] 

Were the Christian Creeds in 1830 Really Abominable, as Joseph Smith Claimed? 

      The RLDS church believes they were. F. Henry Edwards, former member of the first presidency has stated, “The Restoration Movement began in an affirmation that existing creeds were wrong. During the years which have elapsed since that time the various protestant churches have agreed with this judgment and have shown their agreement by making changes in their fundamental statements of belief. ”[9] (emphasis added)

 Evan Fry wrote,

 

“Joseph Smith came back from his first vision in the woods with a declaration that God had told him that the creeds of the popular churches of his day were all wrong…A very interesting study…would be the study of the changes which have come about in those creeds since 1823, and the changes and modifications and innovations in doctrinal belief which have come to every church in Christendom since Joseph Smith’s day. There is hardly a church today which has not radically changed its creeds or doctrinal beliefs in the last hundred and thirty years!”[10] (emphasis added) 

     Nothing could be further from the truth. The essential doctrines of the Christian faith found in the early creeds have not changed since the birth of the church at Pentecost, nor have true Christian denominations made changes in their fundamental statements of belief.

 

“He [Joseph] declared that the creeds of all the churches were an abomination to [God] that all those who professed those creeds were corrupt and the Christian pastors were deceivers. There was no authority of God left on earth! What was the Christian confession in that day? The same as it was at the time of Christ! The same as it is today! The same zeal for souls seen in the life of Paul is the same zeal we read about in the life of Charles Finney in Joseph Smith’s day, and it is the very same zeal we see in the Christian body this very hour…. One need only skim through “Foxe’s Book of the Martyrs” and read some of the many testimonies of the Christian martyrs throughout the centuries to know without a doubt the zeal of the Lord of Hosts is still performing the establishing of His Kingdom.”[11] 

John Ankerberg comments.

 

“Had he [Joseph Smith] consulted with Christian men or read the New Testament carefully, he could have determined that the differences among the various Christian denominations [in 1820] were largely on minor points, not major doctrine. Orthodox Christian denominations have always agreed on the major historic doctrines of the faith. For example, all Christian churches of Joseph Smith’s day accepted the divine authority of the Bible, the doctrine of the Trinity, [the virgin birth], the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ, salvation by grace through faith alone, the bodily return of Christ, and many other biblical teachings. Thus, if he had wanted to, Smith could have determined that the various churches were not “all corrupt” as the beings in…[his] vision maintained. And he could have determined that the spirits that appeared to him had to be lying…. The official account of the first vision portrays Smith as a sincere and godly inquirer after divine wisdom. But if the… revelations that Smith received from various spirits denied what God had already revealed in the Bible, then they certainly could not have been divine revelations.”[12]

 

Is the Lord’s Return Dependent on RLDS Readiness?

     The RLDS believe that God has called them as the only authoritative, exclusive church to develop a society righteous enough so that the Lord can return (Doc. and Cov. 36.). They believe this is something nominal Christians have not been able to do. One RLDS minister stated in the Saints Herald, “In the church of my choice there is the basic and underlying sense that we are called to develop a righteous society [Zion] of such quality that the Lord can return…. This calling of the entire institution to save society is in addition to the calling of each individual to be saved.”[13]

     This echoes the pronouncement of RLDS prophet F. M. Smith that, “Zion glorified will become the justification for the return of the son of man…. Upon us rests the responsibility of justifying his [Christ’s] return to the earth.”[14]

     The belief that the RLDS church is exclusively called to build a perfect society before Christ can return is not founded on Biblical truth. Furthermore, their claimed authority to develop this righteous society is dependent on a priesthood system that does not, and never has existed in New Testament Christianity. 

Do the RLDS Contradict Themselves?

     The RLDS claim that after a complete apostasy there was no one left on earth with authority to preach the gospel. However, their own scriptures contradict this argument. In the Book of Mormon, Jesus promised three of his disciples (the three Nephites), that they would not taste death but would remain alive until the second coming of Christ. Also, in a revelation the Lord supposedly told Joseph Smith that the apostle John would be allowed to tarry on the earth until Christ’s return.[15] These four men would certainly have had authority to preach the gospel, yet Joseph Smith claimed all authority had been removed from the earth. 

Is the RLDS Church Patterned After the New Testament Church?

            A popular argument the RLDS have used to prove they are the true church is that they alone are patterned after the New Testament church. They proudly declare they have Apostles, Seventies, High Priests, Patriarchs, Priests, Teachers and Deacons, all of which, they claim, were embodied in the early Christian church. However, only three of these seven listed  (teachers, deacons and apostles)[16] were included in the New Testament church.

Conclusion

The good news of Jesus Christ never has and never will be taken from the earth. Christ’s true Church is not a denomination but a living organism, a body of true believers, regardless of their earthly identity (I Peter 2:5–10). That body constitutes the one true church, “But you [all born-again believers] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (I Peter 2:9). Joseph Smith could not have restored true Christianity to the earth simply because it has never been taken away.