While some
small groups that have splintered from the LDS Church have argued that the
Church has gone into some form of apostasy, the long-standing teachings of the
Church is that, unlike previous dispensations, the people of God in this, the
Dispensation of the Fullness of Times, will not fall into a state of Great
Apostasy. As Daniel C. Peterson once wrote:
NEVER AGAIN TO BE TAKEN FROM THE EARTH
The physical gathering of the Saints to the
valleys of the American West was, in fact, a unique characteristic of the
restored Church well into the twentieth century. But the prophets teach that
there is, perhaps, an even more fundamental and important difference. Earlier
dispensations failed. This one will not. Joseph Smith contrasted the
dispensation in which we live with those led by earlier prophets:
This is why Adam blessed his posterity; he
wanted to bring them into the presence of God. They looked for a city, etc.,
[“whose builder and maker is God—Hebrews 11:10]. Moses sought to bring the
children of Israel into the presence of God, through the power of the Priesthood,
but he could not. In the first ages of the world they tried to establish the
same thing; and there were Eliases raised up who tried to restore these very
glories, but did not obtain them; but they prophesied of a day when this glory
would be revealed. Paul spoke of the dispensation of the fullness of times,
when God would gather together all things in one etc.; and those men to whom
these keys have been given, will have to be there; and they without us cannot
be made perfect. (HC, 3:388)
Wilford Woodruff declared that:
this is the only dispensation that God has
ever established that was foreordained, before the world was made, not to be
overcome by wicked men and devils. All other dispensations have been made war
upon the inhabitants of the earth, and the servants and Saints of God have been
martyred. This was the case with Jesus and the Apostles in their day. (JD,
17:245)
On another occasion, President Woodruff
reflected:
It is true that other dispensations have had
their Prophets and Apostles, but they never enjoyed the privilege that we do of
having the kingdom of God continue upon the earth until it triumphs over all
other kingdoms upon the fact of the earth and stands forever. Former Apostles
and Prophets had the unpleasant reflection that the Church which they had built
up would fall away, or be overcome by the power of the Devil and wicked men,
and that when they passed of the earth and went behind the vail, they would
have to take the priesthood with them, because there would be none living worthy
to receive it from under their hands. They will be crowned with the Saviour
according to the promises, but in their lifetime they never had the opportunity
of planting on the earth a kingdom that should remain until Jesus should reign
as King of kings and Lord of lords. (JD, 9:162)
The “Great Apostasy,” as Latter-day Saints
often and with entire justice term the destruction of the early church and the
period of relative darkness that ensued, meant real suffering to real, faithful
people. But, to our immense blessing, we have the divine promise that this will
not happen again, not to us .Ezra Taft Benson, thirteenth president of the
Church, made much the same point that President Woodruff did. “This is,” he
said,
the last and great dispensation in which the
great consummation of God’s purposes will be made, the only dispensation in
which the Lord has promised that sin will not prevail. The Church will not be
taken from the earth again. It is here to stay. The Lord has promised it and
you are a part of that Church and kingdom—the nucleus around which will be
builded the great kingdom of God on the earth. The kingdom of heaven and the
kingdom of God on the earth will be combined together at Christ’s coming—and
that time is not far distant. (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 19).
(Daniel C. Peterson, The Last Days: Teachings of the Modern Prophets, volume 1 [Salt
Lake City: Aspen Books, 1998], 8-9)