Lesson 1 of 12, Sep 13
Why a Restoration, and who holds the authority?
From Preach My Gospel, Lesson 1; Gospel Foundations, The Restored Church of Jesus Christ Today
Anything with a plus sign opens for more: the full verse text, the history behind it, and what a Catholic or Protestant friend would actually say back.
Follow up
Last Sunday's invitation was to read the first twenty verses of Joseph Smith's history. Not just what happened, but what he was actually asking. He wanted to know which church to join. He didn't go into the grove to start one.
Everything this class covers grows out of that single question, and the answer that reframed it entirely.
The unanswered question
Why are there so many churches, and if Christ built one, where did it go?
Here is a question most of the Christian world has a hard time answering. There are tens of thousands of Christian denominations. Christ prayed that His followers would be one, and He built a church with twelve apostles. So where did it go, and why are there so many now?
A Catholic would answer that differently than a Baptist would. What we're about to look at is an answer with a name, a date, and a place attached to it, which is rare enough that by the end of this lesson it will be clear why no other church can say the same.
Hold the question. The scriptures answer it next.
Scriptures
Read in class. Someone reads it aloud; then we ask what it means for someone sitting here.
- Amos 8:11–12
- 2 Thessalonians 2:1–3
- Joseph Smith History 1:16–19
Amos, about 750 years before Christ, warns a prosperous nation that has stopped listening to God. He doesn't predict a famine of scripture; they'll have plenty of that. He predicts a famine of hearing: God speaking, and no one on earth authorized to receive it (Amos 8:11–12). What would it be like to want an answer from God and have no one authorized to give one?
Paul writes to the members in Thessalonica, who think Christ is coming back any day. He corrects them: something has to happen first, a falling away (2 Thessalonians 2:1–3). This is Paul, in the Bible, saying the very Church he helped build would fall away.
And then there is the boy in the grove. Joseph Smith History 1:16–19 records what he asked and what he was told: not which church was right, but that none of them had what was lost.
Watch a short clip: Joseph Smith's First Vision, Now You Know (about three minutes)
Sent to you this week
Open any of these for the text and a note on why it is on the list.
- Peter, preaching at the temple, says heaven must keep Christ until "the times of restitution of all things." Restitution means restoration.
- This is the Catholic Church's foundational text for apostolic succession, so read it carefully.
- The Protestant text for the "priesthood of all believers." Read it with Exodus 19:6, which Peter is quoting: Israel was called a kingdom of priests and still had an ordained priesthood with Aaron at its head.
- A building needs its foundation the whole time it stands, not only the day it is laid.
- Paul lists the offices Christ put in His Church and then says how long they are needed: till we all come to unity and the fulness of Christ.
- How was Aaron called? Exodus 28: God told Moses, and Moses ordained him.
- Nephi, six hundred years before Christ, describes the scene Joseph walked into in 1820: churches each saying "I am the Lord's," priests contending, learning in place of the Holy Ghost.
- Within a few decades of the Resurrection, whole congregations were drifting to "another gospel." The apostasy did not wait for the apostles to die; it started while they were alive and fighting it.
- One verse, one date, one place: May 15, 1829, on the bank of the Susquehanna.
- The same three men who were with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.
- April 3, 1836, Kirtland Temple.
- Joseph's own account of the same event as D&C 13, with the detail that John acted under the direction of Peter, James, and John.
- Two sentences that summarize the whole lesson.
What we believe
The answer to today's question
Why are there so many churches, and if Christ built one, where did it go?
Christ built one Church with apostles holding His authority. After they died, the authority was withdrawn and the Church He organized was gone from the earth. Reformers could correct doctrine, but no one can reclaim authority that God has taken back; it has to be given again. In 1829 it was, by the same men who held it anciently.
- Christ established a Church with apostles holding priesthood authority.
- After the apostles died there was a widespread falling away, and the authority was withdrawn.
- Reformers sought light but could not restore what was lost. Authority must be given, not reclaimed.
- God restored the gospel through Joseph Smith; heavenly messengers restored the priesthood and its keys.
- Living prophets and apostles lead the Church today in an unbroken line from those ordinations.
The difference most members don't understand
The single least understood difference between us and other Christians is hands-on-head authority. It may be the least understood aspect of Latter-day Saint theology among our own members.
Here is why. When a Latter-day Saint says "you have to be baptized by someone with authority," a Protestant hears "by someone who has faith," and agrees. When we say "someone has to give you authority," the conversation breaks. Protestants do not believe authority is conferred by ordination at all. For them it comes from belief. That is a real difference, not a wording problem, and it is the whole reason the Restoration needed angels and not just a better Bible study.
New members sometimes explain the Church in Protestant terms, because that is the religious vocabulary they already know.
Which is a fair warning for today's lesson. If you find yourself explaining our church in Protestant terms, faith and the Bible and a nice community, you have left out the one thing that makes it a restoration.
Words worth defining
Apostasy. A falling away. Not people leaving a church; the church itself leaving the truth and losing the authority to act for God. Preach My Gospel: "When widespread apostasy occurs, God withdraws His priesthood authority."
Dispensation. A period when God has at least one authorized servant on earth holding priesthood keys. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, Joseph Smith. Ours is the dispensation of the fulness of times (Ephesians 1:10).
Priesthood keys. The right to direct how priesthood is used. Everyone ordained has authority; a much smaller number hold keys. Peter had them (Matthew 16:19). Joseph received them from Peter (D&C 27:12–13).
Reformation vs. Restoration. Reform fixes what exists. Restoration brings back what was lost. You can reform a doctrine. You cannot reform your way into authority you were never given.
Why it matters
Preach My Gospel puts it plainly: after Rome adopted Christianity, important religious questions were settled by debate in councils rather than by revelation. Those councils (Nicaea in 325, Constantinople in 381) produced the creeds. Joseph Smith History 1:19 is the Lord's verdict on them.
Watch a short clip: How the Church of Jesus Christ is organized (about three minutes)
Think about a baptism, a confirmation, an endowment if it applies. Each was performed by somebody laying hands on another person or speaking specific words over them. If the authority behind that isn't real, what happened was a ceremony. If it is real, it was a covenant, and God is bound by His part of it.
That is the difference between reforming something and restoring it. Reform works with what already exists. Restoration brings back what was lost.
What happened, and when
- AD 30sChrist organizes His Church and ordains twelve apostles (Mark 3:14; John 15:16).
- 50s–60sPaul is already fighting "another gospel" in Galatia and predicting a falling away (Galatians 1:6–9; 2 Thessalonians 2:3).
- By ~100The original apostles are dead. No quorum is ordained to replace them. The keys go with them.
- 313Constantine legalizes Christianity. The Church begins to become an institution of the empire.
- 325Council of Nicaea. Bishops debate the nature of God and vote. The Nicene Creed is the result.
- 381Council of Constantinople expands the creed. Doctrine is now settled by councils, not revelation.
- 1517Martin Luther posts the Ninety-five Theses. The Reformation begins: truth-seekers correct doctrine but cannot restore authority.
- 1820The First Vision. God the Father and Jesus Christ appear to Joseph Smith. He is told to join none of the churches.
- 1829May 15: John the Baptist restores the Aaronic Priesthood (D&C 13). Soon after: Peter, James, and John restore the Melchizedek Priesthood (D&C 27:12–13).
- 1830April 6: the Church of Jesus Christ is organized again with the same offices as the New Testament Church.
- 1836April 3: Moses, Elias, and Elijah restore additional keys in the Kirtland Temple (D&C 110).
Preach My Gospel adds something that softens this story: the reformers' work led to an increased emphasis on religious freedom, "which opened the way for the restoration." The Reformation was not the enemy of the Restoration. It was the preparation for it.
The hard parts: what we don't have a record of
You will hear these from critics, so it is better to hear them here first, from a source that believes.
There are four accounts of the First Vision, and they differ. The earliest, from 1832, is the only one mostly in Joseph's own handwriting, and it is rough: misspelled, unfinished thoughts, never published. It says his parents "spared no pains" teaching him religion, and it records the Lord saying "Thy sins are forgiven thee." The 1835 account, taken down by a scribe, adds that Joseph heard footsteps behind him as he tried to pray, and that he "saw many angels." The 1838 account is the one in our scriptures. The 1842 Wentworth Letter is the shortest. Details appear in one and not another.
Historians expect multiple honest accounts of the same event to differ in emphasis and detail. If they matched word for word, that would be the suspicious result, not the reassuring one.
Four Gospels tell the story of Jesus with different details and emphases. Nobody concludes the writers were lying. You have told the same true story in ten minutes and in ten seconds. Read all four accounts yourself; they are linked below in the Gospel Topics essay.
Joseph never wrote a narrative of Peter, James, and John appearing. There is a gap in his history where you would expect it. The Melchizedek Priesthood restoration is known from revelations that refer to it (D&C 27:12–13; D&C 128:20) and from Oliver Cowdery, who, when he came back into the Church years later, spoke of Peter, James, and John having laid their hands on his head. And the date we all know for John the Baptist, May 15, 1829, comes from a single source: a letter Oliver Cowdery wrote to the Church, not from any document of Joseph's.
Doubting the event because the date is thinly sourced is usually not really about the date; someone who doubted it would doubt it just as much with seventeen sources.
Nobody knows the date of Christ's birth or the date of the Resurrection to the day. It does not stop anyone from believing in them. Gaps in a record are what history looks like; they are not evidence that nothing happened. What we have is a revelation from God, published in Joseph's lifetime, saying Peter, James, and John came, and two eyewitnesses who never denied it, including one who left the Church angry and still would not take it back.
In Joseph's own words
On the confusion that drove him to the grove:
"In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?"Joseph Smith History 1:10
This is the one thing every account of the First Vision has in common: confusion, competing voices, and a boy who could not tell who was right. The confusion is the constant across every telling. The Restoration is God's answer to it.
And from the First Presidency and the Twelve, two hundred years later:
"We solemnly proclaim that God loves His children in every nation of the world."The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World, 2020
Across the Christian world
Each column is that tradition's own answer, from its own sources.
Catholic
Christ gave Peter the keys; every bishop since stands in an unbroken line of ordination from him, so the Church has never lost its authority.
Matthew 16:18–19; Catechism 861–862
Protestant
Scripture is the final authority and every believer is a priest. Authority comes from properly believing in Jesus, not from anyone laying hands on your head. That is one of the least understood differences between Latter-day Saint theology and the rest of Christianity: most Protestants reject lineal, hands-on-head, passed-down authority entirely.
1 Peter 2:9; the Reformation, 1517 onward
Restored
Authority was lost after the apostles died and given back by heavenly messengers: John the Baptist in 1829, then Peter, James, and John.
Hebrews 5:4; D&C 13; 27:12–13
What the Restoration adds: Neither tradition can point to when and by whom authority was conferred on them by God. We can, with names, dates, and places.
It helps to start with what we agree on with our friends. Most Baptists would say the Pope isn't Christ's representative on earth, and most would also say the church went off track somewhere after the apostles. So the disagreement isn't really about whether the church drifted; it's about when, and how far.
A Catholic would say authority came from Christ to Peter, and from Peter down an unbroken line of bishops: apostolic succession. A Presbyterian would say authority is found in scripture itself, that every believer is a priest, and that the Reformers pulled the church back to the Bible.
We agree with Catholics that Peter held real keys. We agree with Protestants that the church drifted from what Christ established. Where this differs is here: the keys were lost when the apostles died, and no amount of correcting doctrine can restore authority that has to be conferred again by someone who holds it. That happened, to Joseph Smith, through John the Baptist and then through Peter himself, and it is the one thing that can be said here with a name, a date, and a place attached.
The Catholic view, and what a Catholic would say back
The Catholic Church teaches that Christ made Peter the head of the apostles and gave him the keys (Matthew 16:18–19), that the apostles appointed successors, and that today's bishops stand in an unbroken line of ordination from them. This is apostolic succession. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 861 and 862, says the apostles left bishops as successors and that the office is permanent.
Notice something: this is close to the argument Rome made against Luther in 1517, in effect: it does not matter whether you disagree with indulgences, because you have no authority, and ours goes back to Peter. The Catholic Church has always understood that authority has to come from somewhere. So do we. That is why, of all Christians, Catholics understand our claim fastest, even when they reject it.
The strongest thing a Catholic friend will say: Christ promised the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church. A total apostasy would mean Christ failed.
A fair answer: Paul, Peter, and Amos all foretold a falling away and a later restoration (2 Thessalonians 2:3; Acts 3:21; Amos 8:11–12). If the apostles predicted it, it was part of the plan, not a defeat. And we agree on the principle that matters most: authority must be passed by ordination from someone who holds it. We differ only on whether the chain survived the first century.
The Protestant view, and what a Protestant would say back
The Reformation began in 1517 when Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others taught that scripture alone (sola scriptura) is the final authority, that salvation is by faith alone, and that every believer is a priest (1 Peter 2:9), so no ordained hierarchy stands between a person and God.
Here is the piece most members miss. Once Rome told the reformers they had no authority, the reformers had to answer. Their answer, in short, was that authority comes from belief. If you have faith in Christ, you are part of His Church, and that is all the authority you need. That is why most Protestants do not claim any line back to Peter: they do not think they need one. And it explains a real tension inside Protestant thought: Protestants insist the Catholic Church fell away, yet deny that anything like priesthood authority could have been lost, because they do not believe such authority exists.
The strongest thing a Protestant friend will say: Authority comes from the Word of God, not a lineage. If you preach the Bible, you have all the authority you need.
A fair answer: the Bible does not agree. Hebrews 5:4 says no one takes the priesthood to himself; he is called as Aaron was, by someone with authority. Ephesians 4:11–14 says Christ gave apostles and prophets to the Church until the saints are perfected, which has not happened. And 1 Peter 2:9 quotes Exodus 19:6, where Israel is a kingdom of priests and still has an ordained priesthood. Then say what we owe them: Preach My Gospel teaches that the reformers "sought greater spiritual light" and that their work opened the way for the Restoration. We stand on ground they cleared.
What the creeds say, in their own words
The creeds are what the councils produced. The Nicene Creed, in the form settled in 381 and still recited every Sunday in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and many Protestant churches, describes "one holy catholic and apostolic Church." Catholic means universal; apostolic means descended from the apostles. Every major tradition claims that word.
Joseph Smith History 1:19 is the Lord's response to the creeds: "an abomination in his sight." Be precise about what that condemns. Not the people who recite them. It condemns creeds as a method: doctrine decided by debate and vote, then fixed so that God cannot add to it. There is an irony worth noting: Protestants keep Nicaea as good tradition and throw out purgatory as bad tradition, using the same Bible to sort the two. That is what happens when men, however sincere, decide what God is like without asking Him.
We come back to the content of the creeds in Lesson 2.
Testify, invite, share it
Consider reading the one-page proclamation the First Presidency and the Twelve issued in 2020, two hundred years after the First Vision, and marking the line you'd use if a friend asked what this church believes.
Our greatest safety is in following the word of the Lord through living prophets. The more familiar you become with what they've said about the Restoration, the steadier you'll feel about it.
God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. The priesthood that shapes this church's ordinances came from Peter, James, and John through him. That isn't a metaphor.
If they push back on the share-it line
The sentence is: "Our church can tell you exactly when God gave it authority, and by whom." A friend may say, "So can mine. Jesus gave it to Peter." Agree. Then ask one question: "And who gave it to your pastor?" A Catholic will describe a chain of bishops. A Protestant will say the Bible, or a seminary, or a congregation. Neither will have a name, a date, and a place where God sent someone. That is not a gotcha. It is the honest difference, and it is why we knock on doors.
Will you read the 2020 proclamation on the Restoration and mark the one line you would use with a friend?
The promise: Living prophets are our greatest safety (Preach My Gospel, Lesson 1).
Watch and study this week
Short clips, two to four minutes
Full talks and reading
Five quick questions
Who restored the Aaronic Priesthood in 1829?
Which prophet foretold a famine of hearing the words of the Lord?
Who conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood on Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery?
According to 2 Thessalonians 2:3, what must happen before the Second Coming?
How do we know the date John the Baptist restored the Aaronic Priesthood?