Friday, March 9, 2018

No “Great Apostasy” to take place in this Dispensation


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)