Soon after the ascension of
Jesus, through mobocracy, martyrdom, and apostacy, the Church of Christ became
extinct from the earth, the Man Child—the Holy Priesthood, was received up into
heaven from whence it came, and we hear no more of it on the earth, until the
Angels restored it to Joseph Smith, by whose ministry the Church of Jesus
Christ was restored, re-organized on earth, twenty-three years ago this day,
with the title of "Latter-day Saints," to distinguish them from the
Former-day Saints.
Brigham
Young, “Necessity of Building Temples—the Endowment,” April 6, 1853, in Journal
of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F.D. Richards, 1855), 2:31
I could not, nor could any other
man, give a revelation that would be more plain to the comprehension of the
people than the one I have read to you this morning. There is no mystery about
it, nothing mysterious or in the dark, but every man may easily know precisely
what it means; all the people may understand it to perfection. This revelation
was given to the people in their ignorance; it was given, we may say, at the
birth of the man child, in the first days of the being of the Priesthood again
upon the earth, and yet it was so calculated and so worded, that every person
could understand it. Brother Partridge knew what to do; Gilbert, Rigdon, and
Peterson knew what to do; and in returning to Kirtland the Elders were to lift
up their voices by the way, and to build up Churches.
Brigham Young, “Remarks on a Revelation Given in August 1831—General
Instructions,” June 15, 1856, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool:
Orson Pratt, 1856), 3:339
If we follow the history of the
Apostles, we will see how their words were fulfilled. Nearly every one of the
Twelve whom Jesus chose, met with a tragic death in defence of the principles
which they proclaimed. Some were dragged to death, some beheaded, one was
crucified with his head downward, others were thrown into cauldrons of boiling
oil and others to wild beasts; so that at the end of the second century after
Christ, the Church of God in its purity no longer existed upon the face of the
earth. It had been torn asunder; it had apostatized from the truth; they who
were faithful had been put to death, and in their place sprang up a race of
compromisers, who were willing to barter away to the world the principles of
truth, being too weak and cowardly to stand and die for their convictions as
their fellow laborers had done. They were willing to give up this principle,
and concede that point, to amalgamate for the purpose of making them popular
and palatable the doctrines of the pure Christian faith with the pagan ideas of
ancient Rome. So that the temporal body of Christ, the Church, became corrupt,
deformed by this departure from first principles. Apostles, Prophets, were done
away with; spiritual gifts became extinct and were said to be no longer needed;
Bishops were put into the places of Apostles, and a multitude of new offices,
unknown to the original church, were created. Finally two Bishops appeared, the
Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople, contending as to which was the
greatest, and striving, in a Church professing to regard unity and brotherly
love, to divide the dominions of the Christian world between them. More
attention was paid to outward forms, to grand and imposing ceremonies, than to
the simple beautiful principles of the Gospel, and, in course of time were
fulfilled the words of Isaiah, who said that they would "transgress the
law, change the ordinances, and break the everlasting covenant." The
result of this wide-spread departure, this apostacy from the primitive faith,
was the withdrawal of the power of the Priesthood, typified by the
"manchild" of the Apocalypse, which was taken into the heavens to
preserve it from the mouth of the Dragon which sought its life; there to remain
until a more auspicious time should arrive for the establishment of the work of
God, and the winding up of the great plan of human redemption.
Orson F. Whitney, “Prophecy of John the Revelator—Mission of
the Ancient Apostles—Their Reception and Fate— the Great Apostasy—Pre-Servation
of the Apostle John—His Revelation—Restoration of the Gospel—the Earth to Be
Baptized By Fire As It Was Once Baptized By Water—We Are Sent to the World With
a Warning Message—They Can Receive or Reject It—Testimony to the Truth of ‘Mormonism,”
June 21, 1885, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: Daniel H.
Wells, 1886), 26:262-63
