Restoration and apostasy are constants; one or the other is underway at all times. There is never stasis for Christ’s gospel. Apostasy loses, deducts, and subtracts truth. That process of losing light changes truth to error. To prevent salvation, it is not necessary for religion to become utterly corrupt; it is only necessary to change the ordinances and break the covenant.
https://youtu.be/tbspakv2Fyo?si=kjMvaUvZZkMYTBGZ Mormonism started and, in the last years of Joseph Smith’s life, returned to restoring a religion older than Christianity. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians that God preached before the gospel unto Abraham. Joseph Smith was recovering that gospel, which was also known to and practiced by Adam
Because both Campbellites and Mormons shared the ideal of restoring a pure religion, they were destined to intersect. Campbellite ministers Parley Pratt and Sidney Rigdon began the contact. Rigdon was a dynamic preacher and a trusted follower of Alexander Campbell. Rigdon met the first Mormon missionaries as they passed through Ohio and was impressed enough with their message and the Book of Mormon to investigate the claims. He traveled to New York, met Joseph Smith, and was entirely satisfied. He not only joined the movement but quickly became one of the leaders of the new Mormon church.
Joseph Smith sought to restore primitive Christianity through divine revelation. At the age of 14, he had a divine experience in the woods, similar to Moses and Paul. He claimed that God and angels appeared to him, guiding him to translate an ancient book, the Book of Mormon, by divine power. Smith founded a church, translated new scriptures, and organized communities, all with the goal of restoring what he believed was lost Christianity due to apostasy.
While Roger Williams was patient, awaiting a restoration, Thomas Campbell aimed to actively cause one. A Scottish Presbyterian Minister who migrated to the United States in 1807, Thomas disagreed with Presbyterian teachings, leading to a split. He published a tract in 1809 titled “Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington,” emphasizing the promotion of simple Evangelical Christianity and rejecting human authority and opinions in matters of faith.
The Protestant fathers achieved a great deal of good, but certain elements required for original Christianity couldn’t be reformed back into existence. Reforming a corrupt institution and recovering the original requires more than human effort – it demands God’s involvement and someone sent by God to undertake the work.
The Protestant fathers were able to protest against institutional Christian corruption, reform and improve Christianity, and publish the scriptures to allow the common man to read the words of Christ, prophets, and apostles for the first time. However, what they couldn’t achieve was the restoration of what had been lost. Between the close of the New Testament and the 16th century, Christianity had not merely declined; it had perished. It had become an institutionalized belief system with fixed forms of conducting that system. Professional clergy supported by the tithes and offerings of the believers was universally accepted before and after the Reformation. The church owned property and exercised control, with no separation between Christianity’s right to preach morality and the right to enforce morality. The Protestant Reformation fathers assumed that this was entirely proper.
