Frank Smith, an Evangelical anti-Mormon who I once interacted with on the topic of Christology (he lost--badly--and demonstrated that, as with many other Evangelical critics of the Church, that he has no intellectual integrity), wrote the following on a facebook group:
[I]n their own BoM in the book of 3 NEPHI 28 ;7-9 , it speaks of three Nephites never tasting death , because of their desires in which the latter part of verse 9 is interesting , , that ye have desired that ye might bring the souls of men unto me while the world shall stand ,? Now if this is true then the question should be how was there a complete Apostasy upon the earth , while these three Nephites was ministering to the souls of men ,The Gospel would not have been loss in which this alone.
Some other critics also throw in John the Revelator who was "translated" (D&C 7) as evidence against LDS claims about there being a Great Apostasy and a need for a Restoration. However, Frank just shows his lack of critical-thinking skills and/or intellectual honesty here.
According to President Harold B. Lee:
"There has never been a moment of time when there hasn't been someone holding the priesthood on the earth with power to check Satan and to hold him within bounds. Now that doesn't mean that the kingdom of God was present, because these men did not have the authority to administer the saving ordinances of the gospel to the world. But these individuals were translated for a purpose known to the Lord. There is no question but what they were here. (Address delivered at Brigham Young University to Seminary and Institute personnel, 8 July 1964.)
Joseph Smith said:
"Many have supposed that the doctrine of translation was a doctrine whereby men were taken immediately into the presence of God, and into an eternal fullness, but this is a mistaken idea. Their place of habitation is that of the terrestrial order, and a place prepared for such characters He held in reserve to be ministering angels unto many planets, and who as yet have not entered into so great a fullness as those who are resurrected from the dead" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 170).
So even though these four prophets of God did hold the priesthood during their mortal lives they do not have the authority to pass it on or perform ordinances without the kingdom of God on the earth; they are only to act as ministering angels to help bring people into the gospel. There is no "problem" to LDS claims of there having been a Great Apostasy and a need for a Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
