The History of the Beginning of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Part 2)

Carrying on from the previus hub, to restore something is to bring it back to its original state. After the death of the apostles, the world went into a state of Apostasy, or a period of time where there was not a prophet on the earth, or anybody who was called of God to teach the doctrine. Christ had repeatedly told his apostles about the day when darkness would cover the earth. The Old Testament prophet Amos gave us this foreboding prophecy "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." -Amos 8:11-12


Yes, we have the Bible which is The Word of God, but judging by how many different versions, ideas, and churches there are, I'd say we're still missing some of God's words. Have you noticed just how many different churches there are? how many different belief systems they each have? How many different interpretations of the Bible we have? How could God be the author of so much confusion? Ephesians 4:5 states that there is One Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism. So...which is it? And how can we tell?

Around the year 1820 a young boy, only 14 years of age, had those same questions. His family had just recently moved to Palmyra, New York. There was an excitement of religious gathering going on, each faith reaching out for followers, and contending with the other. This boy would attend each of these faiths from time to time, he would question their teachings and doctrine, but most importantly, he wanted to understand. He wanted to know which faith was right, and what path he should follow. Indeed, this boy was so devoted to God that he not only wanted to believe and follow his example, but he wanted to do it right. How was he to know who was right? Which was the right path to take? If there is one God, shouldn't there be one way?

This boy continued to read from his Bible every night, then one night he was reading in James chapter 1, and came across verse 5 which reads "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." In his own words, he says "Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible."

Every Prophet has something they're great/remembered for. Adam was the first man on the earth, and father of all of us. Noah had the ark, Moses parted the sea and brought the Jews from Isreal, David slew the Giant Goliath, Daniel the Boy Prophet, Abraham Father of the covenant, asked to sacrifice his true son Isaac, Joseph sold into Egypt, interpreter of dreams...Each called prophet had his mission, they were sent to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, and more. After the Apostles were rejected and killed, the world wasn't ready for a prophet and the fullness of the truth was lost. However, thanks to the great Reformers, brave and good people who gave their put their lives on the line in searching for Truth and doing good, such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ghandi, Mother Teresa and others, the ground work was being laid for the restoration of God's true church and restored gospel once again. That boy, Joseph Smith Jr., had the courage and faith to ask God himself which of these faiths was true, and he answered that none of the churches had the fulness, it was lost to the world, but he was called to be the next prophet and to restore the truth to the earth again, in preparation to Christ's Second Coming.