Many assumed that this was referring to the great Jewish Dark Age
between the Old and New Testament epochs, but the record indicates that there
were still pockets of righteous members who lived before the first coming of
the Messiah during 400 B.C. to His birth. For instance, the story of Zacharias
is evidence that the Aaronic priesthood still operated under full authority
before New Testament times. Full apostasy does not occur if the priesthood is
still being used on the earth (Not that there never has been a time when the
Priesthood was completely absent on earth, but has always existed since Adam
even if the majority of the world’s populous was unrighteous). Jesus said to
the Samaritan woman that “salvation is of the Jews,” which demonstrates the
laws and ordinances were still being enforced and respected by deity. Luke
recalls Anna as a “prophetess,” indicating the authority of the Lord was still
working, albeit on a small scale, during the intertestament period before the
Meridian of Time. With this in mind, the declaration of Amos from the Old
Testament must have been for a future era when the Lord’s work would no longer
be on earth, hence the descriptive phrase “ . . . a famine in the land . . .”
which will become so bad that no one will be “ . . . hearing the words of the
Lord . . .” It is the belief of Latter-day Saints that this is most likely the
Great Apostasy of the Dark Ages after the time of the last apostle around 100
A.D. (R. Merle Fowler, Joseph Smith and His Royal Lineage: A Blood
Descendant of Jesus Christ [2006], 1:117-18)
