Several of the Biblical prophecies of
the apostasy support the conclusion that God’s authority was to be completely removed
from the earth. Amos prophesied that there would be a famine of hearing the word
of God:
The time is coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send famine on the land, not hunger for bread or thirst for water,
but for hearing the word of the Lord. Men shall stagger from north to south,
they shall range from east to west, seeking the word of the Lord, but they
shall not find it. . . . (Almos 8:11-12 NEB)
It might be countered that Amos
referred to the time of apostasy in Israel between the Old and New Testaments,
when we have no further record of any prophets adding their witness to the
Bible. However, the New Testament clearly demonstrates that Israel had not
undergone a total apostasy, which is clearly what is predicted in this
passage. For example, the case of Zacharias shows that the Aaronic priesthood
was still operative (see Luke 1), and Jesus’ statement to the Samaritan woman
that “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22) indicates that tier laws and
ordinances retained some efficacy. Indeed, Luke referred to Anna as a “prophetess”
(Luke 2:36), so clearly the word of the Lord could be found during the
intertestamental period, even though it was not generally accepted. Latter-day
Saints do not argue that there was absolutely no inspiration or revelation
during the period between the apostasy and Restoration, but post-Apostolic
Christianity in general does not claim to have had nay prophets who could speak
the word of the Lord with authority. (Barry Robert Bickmore, Restoring the
Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity, 2d ed. [Redding,
Calif.: FairMormon, 2023], 20-21)
