In his book,
One Lord, One Faith: Ancient Christian
Evidence of the Restoration, LDS apologist Michael T. Griffith wrote the
following about Eph 3:20-21 and the Great Apostasy (I am quoting from the HTML
version, so no page numbers are provided):
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. (White James, "Hugh Nibley, The Universal
Apostasy, And the Gates of Hades." In PROS APOLOGIAN, Spring 1993, p. 10)
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, Markus. EPHESIANS 1-3. The
Anchor Bible. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1974, 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.