Note: This article is a chapter from the author’s book One Lord, One Faith.
DID THE
EVIDENCE OF THE GREAT APOSTASY
Michael T. Griffith
1998
@All Rights Reserved
POINT:
As
the prophets had foretold, the Savior's ancient church and gospel were
eventually taken from the earth because of wickedness and apostasy. The authority to act in the name of God was
withdrawn from among men. By no later
than the fifth century A.D., the Lord's true church no longer existed on the
earth. This falling away had been
predicted in the scriptures.
SELECTED
BIBLE PASSAGES:
The
Apostasy Foretold
Matthew
21:43: Jesus said, "Therefore say I unto you, The
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation, bringing forth
the fruits thereof."
"Therefore,
I say to you, the
Acts
20:29‑30: "For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."
2
Thessalonians 2:1‑3: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye 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 [the second coming] shall not come, except there come a falling away first,
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition."
2
Timothy 4:2‑4: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the
truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
2
Peter 2:1‑2: "But there were false prophets also among the people
[of ancient Israel], even as there shall be false teachers among you, who
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought
them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their
pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth
shall be evil spoken of."
Revelation
13:7: "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him
over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations."
The
Apostasy in Progress Toward End of New Testament Era
1
Corinthians 1:11: Contentions among the saints.
1
Corinthians 3:3: Envying, strife, and divisions among the saints.
Galatians
1:6‑9: Paul tells the Galatians, "I marvel that ye are so soon
removed unto another gospel."
Galatians
3:1: Paul wonders why the Galatians won't "obey the truth."
1
Timothy 1:6: Some have already turned to "vain jangling."
2
Timothy 1:15: Paul laments the fact that "all they which are in
1
John 2:18: ". . . even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know
that it is the last time."
1
John 4:1: ". . . many false prophets are gone out into the world."
DISCUSSION:
The
historical record provides abundant evidence that the Savior's true church
ceased to exist after the fifth century A.D.15 Apostles and prophets were no longer
found in the church. Several of the
early church's most important doctrines‑‑such as the pre‑mortal
existence, man's deification, baptism for the dead, the necessity of baptism by
immersion, and the importance of good works in our salvation‑‑were
abandoned. The correct understanding of
the Godhead as being composed of three separate deities was replaced by the
unscriptural three─in─one belief.
Scriptures were lost, and those that remained were subjected to
uninspired editing.
As
the apostasy worsened, traditional Christendom split into two opposing
factions, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Corruption was widespread among the clergy,
particularly in
It
is interesting to note that many leading figures of the Reformation and of
later Protestantism recognized that true Christianity had been lost from the
earth (Talmage 1976:201‑202; Scharffs 294‑296). Says John Olin,
The Protestant reformers came to believe
that the existing Church had been utterly corrupted and had departed from the
Gospel truth in a most grievous way. (21)
Of all the scriptural predictions of the
church's eventual apostasy, perhaps the most pointed and unmistakable is 2
Thessalonians 2:1‑3. The Greek
word for "falling away" in verse 3 is apostasia, which is the same word used by the Savior in Matthew
5:31 for "bill of divorce." It
is also the same word used in Joshua 22:22 in the Greek Old Testament to
describe a hypothetical rebellion of all
Some anti-Mormon critics challenge this
fact. They claim it is not "exactly"
the same word because it isn't spelled precisely the same as the word for "divorce"
in Matthew 5:31. However, the slight
variation in spelling is due only to a difference in gender. In Greek a noun can have a masculine and a
feminine form. The Greek word for "falling
away" in 2 Thess. 2:3 is merely the feminine form of the same word used
for "bill of divorce" in Matthew 5:31.
Faced with this and other scriptural
proofs of an impending apostasy, some anti-LDS critics will bend half way and
say that there was a "partial" apostasy, but not a complete one. However, the ancient world knew nothing of a "partial"
divorce, and Joshua 22:22 does not speak of a potential rebellion of "some"
of
What
About Matthew 16:18?
Among
those who deny there was an apostasy, no other verse is cited more frequently
than Matthew 16:18, where Christ says to Peter:
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
How
does this verse apply to the apostasy?
Does it mean the falling away was not complete? If so, then what about the
New Testament prophecies of an impending apostasy (or "divorce")? What about the massive historical evidence
that an apostasy did in fact take place?
Although
Matthew 16:18 is seen by many as an assurance that the Savior's earthly church would
never fall away, this verse, when read in its early Christian context, offers
no such guarantee. Rather, Jesus was
saying that the gates to the spirit prison would not prevent the church from
proclaiming the gospel there.
In
early Christian theology the expression "the gates of hell" referred
to the entrance to the spirit world (Russell 119‑121; Achtemeier
1985:365; B. McConkie 1965:388‑389; Nibley 1987:107‑109, 115‑121). In fact, the ancient Christians often
referred to the Savior's mission to the spirit prison as his
"descent into hell" (see, for example, Roberts and
Donaldson 5:221‑222; Quasten 1:116, 243‑345; 3:113).
Further
insight into Matthew 16:18 can be gained by considering the logical
implications of the reference to "the gates of hell." "Gates" are stationary; they simply
swing in and/or out. Prison gates are
built to keep prisoners in and to keep would‑be rescuers out. A favorite image of the early church in the
third century was that of Jesus breaking the bolts and smashing down the doors
of hell. The gates to the spirit world
have never posed a threat to the existence of the earthly church; they are in
an entirely different realm. How, then,
can Christ's statement about them be interpreted as a guarantee that the
earthly church would never fall away?
Some
anti Mormon writers cite Ephesians 3:20 21 as evidence that there was no
apostasy. The passage reads as follows:
Now 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all
generations, for ever and ever. Amen.
(NIV)
Evangelical
anti Mormon James White sees this passage as strong evidence against the
apostasy:
It seems quite plain that Paul believed
that the Father would be glorified "in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations." If the
Church failed in its mission, and ceased to exist for 1700 years, it is
difficult to understand how the Father would be glorified in the church throughout
all generations. (10, emphasis in original)
Taking
White's strictly literal interpretation of Paul's words to its logical
conclusion, one would have to believe that the church has always existed, or
else the Father, using White's reasoning, could not be glorified in it
"throughout all generations."
Surely White and his fellow evangelical critics would not accept such a
suggestion. Furthermore, to carry
White's exegesis further, one would also have to believe that the church as
Paul knew it was to continue into eternity, a proposition which is clearly
rejected elsewhere in the New Testament.
White's
interpretation assumes that verse 21 applies exclusively to the earthly
church. But is this necessarily the
case? It is just as plausible, if not more
so, to suggest that Paul was referring to the members of the church, or to the
church in the spirit world, and not to the earthly branch of the church. Viewed in this manner, the verse does not
constitute a promise of the earthly church's survival. Moreover, this understanding of the verse
does not contradict the abundant historical evidence that the New Testament
church did not survive.
Additionally,
there is some question as to the wording of verse 21. The NIV reading quoted above is viewed by most
scholars as the "preferred variant reading." However, a number of New Testament
manuscripts omit the "and" between "the church" and
"Christ," suggesting the reading "in the church through
Christ" (Barth 375). The Vulgate
inserts a comma after "the church," which, says Markus Barth,
"perhaps intends to indicate that temporal praise is given to God 'in the
church,' while eternal praise is offered 'in Christ'" (375).
Finally,
it is doubtful that Paul intended his words in verse 21 to be taken as a statement
about the church's future on the earth.
He was closing the third chapter of Ephesians by offering praise to God;
he was not providing a doctrinal statement about the future of the earthly
church. Elsewhere in his epistles Paul
did specifically address the earthly church's fate, and he made it clear that
it was not going to survive.
The
SUGGESTED
1. Richard Lloyd Anderson, Understanding Paul (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company,
1983), pp. 367‑378.
2. James L. Barker, Apostasy from the Divine Church (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft,
Inc., 1984, reprint of 1960 edition).
3.
Kent P.
Jackson, "'Watch and Remember': The New Testament and the Great
Apostasy," in John M. Lundquist and Stephen Ricks, editors, By Study and Also By Faith, volume 1
(Provo, Utah: Deseret Book Company and the Foundation for Ancient Research and
Mormon Studies, 1990), pp. 81‑117.
4. Hugh Nibley, When the Lights Went Out: Three Studies On the
Ancient Apostasy (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1976).
5. James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, Forty‑Second Edition (Salt Lake City,
Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints, 1976), pp. 199‑204.
--------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael T. Griffith holds a Master’s degree
in Theology from The Catholic Distance University, a Graduate Certificate in
Ancient and Classical History from American Military University, a Bachelor’s
degree in Liberal Arts from Excelsior College, and two Associate in Applied
Science degrees from the Community College of the Air Force. He also holds an Advanced Certificate of
Civil War Studies and a Certifcate of Civil War Studies from
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