The Remnant Church - The Restoration of his Church

THE RESTORATION

Old Testament prophets foretold the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the apostasy of the church which he established (Isa. 9:6,7: 24:5; Amos 8:11,12; Mic. 3:6,7).

The New Testament records the marvelous nature of the personal ministry of Jesus. It also chronicles the building up of the church and the great power with which the ministers of New Testament times ministered to the needs of the souls of men. Several of these New Testament ministers, even while they were serving the needs of men, foretold the time when the power of the ministry would be gone and the church would be a dead form (Gal. 1:6-8; Acts 20:29-31; II Pet. 2:1-3).

The testimony of history is that the time did come when there were no longer prophets to be heard; when men would no longer endure sound doctrine (II Tim. 4:3). The church became simply the instrumentality of men and existed by the power of men. In such conditions the powers of prophecy were no longer in the church; it was no longer the Church of Jesus Christ. It had degenerated or apostatized into an organization which continued to perform its rituals but was no longer able to manifest the power of God to the salvation of the human soul.

A Day of Restoration

However, the work of the Lord cannot be frustrated. The same prophets who knew of the coming of the Lord and the period of darkness knew also that there would come a time of the restoration of the power of God, manifested through his chosen servants in His church. Isaiah prophesied, “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee” (Isa. 60:2).

Similarly, the great men of the New Testament who foresaw the apostasy or “falling away” also foretold a day of restoration. John the Revelator was inspired to say: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth,. and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Rev. 14:6). Here the fact that the gospel which is to be preached must be delivered from heaven by the hands of an angel indicates that there must have been an apostasy or a removing from the earth of this pure gospel. Here is also prophecy that the Lord God, by the hand of an angel, will restore the gospel of power to the earth.

Martin Luther, John Wesley, Roger Williams, Alexander Campbell, and others saw these errors and shortcomings of religious thought. Each sought to correct these errors, thus giving rise to the many religious denominations in existence today. But these men also sensed their own limitations and, being students of the Scriptures, looked forward to the restoration of greater spiritual power. As we have seen in the study of the falling away, Williams concluded that there could be no recovery from the great apostasy until Christ should “send forth new apostles to plant churches anew”; Wesley looked forward to the time God would arise and maintain his own cause and set up his kingdom over all the earth. Campbell recognized that the primitive gospel was yet to “shine out . . . to regenerate the world.”

It has been said, and is obviously true, that the vindication of the prophet is the fulfillment of his prophecy. We now have a story to tell which comes as a remarkable vindication of the prophets we have mentioned and also comes as a marvelous fulfillment of the expectations of the great reformers.

A Young Man’s Experience

In the year 1820 ministers from three large Protestant denominations held a protracted evangelistic meeting in the town of Manchester, New York. Attending this series of meetings were Joseph Smith, Sr., and his family. Several members of the family became concerned about their soul’s salvation and most of the family decided to join the church represented by one of the ministers. One of the sons, Joseph Smith, Jr., found it difficult to make a decision as to which of the churches he should join. He prayed, read the Scriptures, and discussed the matter with the various ministers concerned. But still he could not make up his mind until one day when he was reading the Bible he came upon the words: “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” (James 1:5). Of this experience, Joseph said, “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.”

He pondered upon this experience a great deal and finally decided that this was a promise of God and that he would accept the invitation. Accordingly he retired into a wood which was near to his home and he turned to God in prayer. In recounting the experience which followed he said, “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun; which descended gradually until it fell upon me. . . . When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages (whose brightness and glory defy all description) standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said (pointing to the other), ‘This is my beloved Son, hear him.’” He continued, “My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. . . . I was answered that I must join none of them.”

A few days later, he took occasion to tell of his experience to one of the ministers from whom he had sought counsel. To his great surprise, the minister denounced the experience as having come from the devil, if indeed there had been such an experience. The minister assured him that all such experiences had ceased with the apostles. Here indeed was evidence that Protestantism had not been able to lift the church out of the mire of apostasy into which it had fallen. Here was expression of the prevailing opinion in Protestantism–a man calling himself a minister for Christ, who denied the right, or power, or desire of God to reveal himself to the children of men as he had done in former times. At the same time he tacitly admitted that the churches then existing were not in the form of the Church of Jesus Christ by referring to a time when there had been apostles in the church.

Another Spiritual Experience

In 1823 this young man had another experience which he recorded as follows: “On the evening of the twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God. . . . While I was thus in the act of calling upon God . . . a personage appeared at my bedside. . . . He called me by name and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni. That God had a work for me to do and that my name should be had for good and evil, among all nations. . . . He said there was a book deposited written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants. . . . After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament. . . . He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be.”

There is prophetic evidence in the Old Testament which points to the fact that an angel would visit such a young man and bring assurance that prophetic promises would be fulfilled. Zechariah gave account of a vision in which he saw two angels and one said to the other, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein” (Zech. 2:4). This prophecy, given hundreds of years ago, indicated that a time would come when the city of Jerusalem would be expanded beyond its old walls. It indicated that the announcement of the approach of the time of the fulfillment of the prophecy would be made through a young man. We are therefore not at all surprised to find that within a few years after the young man, Joseph Smith, Jr., announced that this prophecy was soon to be fulfilled, it was actually in the process of fulfillment. Today we find that there is much more of the city of Jerusalem which lies outside the ancient walls than there is lying within them.

The Golden Book

Perhaps the most remarkable part of what the angel had to tell Joseph Smith was that which concerned a book written upon plates of gold. This story was more difficult to accept at that day than it is today because of a lack of knowledge which existed then. The angel said that the book contained a record of the inhabitants of former days on the American continents. He also said that the plates were hidden in a stone box buried in a hill not very far from the Smith home. At that time, writing upon metallic plates seemed preposterous. So did the idea of such plates having been buried in a stone box. There was also practically no general knowledge of any such civilization in America capable of having made a written record of its existence. Thus in the day when Joseph Smith, Jr., told his story there was much ridicule and abuse heaped upon him as a result. Today, however, scientists have discovered that there was such a civilization, that people of various parts of the world including ancient America have in ancient times inscribed records upon gold and other types of metallic plates and that such records have been buried in stone boxes only to be discovered long after their having been so deposited. The discovery in 1936 of the records of Darius the Great, King of Persia, is an outstanding example, for these records were inscribed upon metallic plates. Thus the story of the young man’s experience is given strong credibility.

At the time of his vision (1823) the young man was allowed to see the plates but was not permitted to remove them from their hiding place. In 1827 the angel delivered the plates to him and at the same time warned that he must guard them with his life. He was soon to find why such a warning was issued. There were many attempts made to take the plates from him by one means or another. He was even commanded that he was to show them to no one except those whom the Lord should command him. Eventually, he was commanded to show them to eleven men. Three of these are called the “special witnesses” because an angel of the Lord appeared and made it known to them that truly the plates were what Joseph had said they were. The other eight men simply testified that they saw and lifted the plates and knew that they were what Joseph said they were.

Shortly after receiving the plates, he began the process of translation. Having no knowledge whatever of the language which was on the plates, he was given power from God to translate. In the beginning, his wife Emma seems to have done most of the writing as he translated it; but he soon received help in various ways. Oliver Cowdery, a young schoolteacher in the area, believed his story and began to act as scribe. He was later to be one of the three witnesses and to share many outstanding spiritual experiences with Joseph.

The translation was published in 1830. It is called the “Book of Mormon” because its principal ancient editor was a man named Mormon. It tells of two colonies of people who came to the New World from the Old. The first of these, called the Jaredites, came from the Tower of Babel after the confounding of tongues there. The second group of people were of the tribe of Joseph and came from Jerusalem shortly before the Babylonian captivity of the people of the kingdom of Judah. It indicates that both colonies prospered and built high civilizations while worshiping God in spirit and in truth, and that each fell because the people finally rejected God. Much of the story seemed fantastic in 1830 when the book was published, but has been remarkably verified by scientific investigation since that time. The book exists today as strong evidence that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God.

Ministerial Authority

While the “Book of Mormon” was in process of translation, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had a number of significant spiritual experiences. Once when they were praying together, an angel appeared to them and said that he was John the Baptist, who had been the forerunner of the work of Christ in former days. He said he had been commanded to confer upon them the priesthood of Aaron. Accordingly, he placed his hands upon the head of each of them and conferred this priesthood and then commanded that each should baptize the other after which each should ordain the other. Later the Melchisedec priesthood (see Heb. 5:5,6; 7:11) was also restored. Thus the same power and authority to minister in the name of Christ that had existed in former days and which had been lost through apostasy was restored. A ministry of power was now again upon the earth.

Eventually, the command came to organize the Church of Jesus Christ again. On April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and four other men met in a farmhouse in Fayette, New York, and did as the Lord commanded. As time passed, and more people were baptized into the church, ministerial offices were filled until the church existed in the latter days according to the same pattern as it had in former times. There were prophets, twelve apostles, seventy (special missionaries), high priests, evangelists, bishops, elders, priests, teachers, and deacons. The dream of Roger Williams had been realized–the Lord had truly called forth new apostles to plant churches anew. Power was manifested in their ministry. They taught the same principles of the doctrine of Christ and practiced the same ordinances as had been taught and practiced in former times. The gifts of the Spirit, including wisdom, knowledge, healing, tongues and interpretation of tongues, and prophecy, were given for ministry to the souls of men. Under the impetus of this power, men in the ministry traveled the length and breadth of the land and across the seas. Soon thousands of people had been baptized and many churches established in this land and abroad.

In the early years of the church in Jerusalem, the saints were drawn together by the bonds of the spirit. They seem to have worked more closely together and have developed a stronger spiritual organization as a result of their close association. They even shared their earthly possessions with one another so that there were no poor among them (Acts 4:31-37). Because of this close working relationship this nucleus of the church was able to develop great spiritual stature and to send missionaries into all parts of the then known world.

Church History

This principle of “the gathering” quickly became a working principle in the restored church. The church had its beginning in the East, in New York and Pennsylvania, but the first point of gathering was in Kirtland, Ohio. Many church members from the East gathered to Kirtland and hundreds in the area were baptized so that soon there were more than a thousand members concentrated in the immediate vicinity of this small town adjacent to Cleveland. By 1831 there was enough strength in this group to enable them to send missionaries and a group of people to Independence, Missouri, which was designated as the “Center Place.” The Lord revealed this place as the location for the central nucleus of the church, indicating that there should here be built the “City of God” out of which spiritual strength should flow to the entire world.

In the ensuing years much persecution was heaped upon the heads of these people, and eventually they were driven not only from Jackson County (Independence) but from the state of Missouri. However, they were not without hope, for God promised that “Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children are scattered, they that remain and are pure in heart shall return and come to their inheritances; they and their children, with songs of everlasting joy; to build up the waste places of Zion.”

They were given sanctuary in Quincy, Illinois, and a short while later they purchased the village of Commerce and changed its name to Nauvoo. The city grew rapidly and by 1844 had a population now estimated to have been almost 25,000. However, the persecution that had been theirs from the beginning of the church followed them. In June of 1844 Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, having been falsely charged, voluntarily went to Carthage where they were lodged in the jail with a promise by the governor of the state that they would have protection. In the afternoon of June 27, a mob forced its way into the jail and murdered the prophet and his brother.

Loss of the prophet leader of the church was a severe blow. In the confusion of the people, several would-be leaders arose and brought division and factionalism to the church. One of these factions was led by Brigham Young to Utah where polygamy, which had been denounced by Joseph Smith as “false and corrupt,” was proclaimed to be a doctrine of Jesus Christ.

In spite of the several would-be leaders who arose, there were many of the Saints who refused to follow any of them. Such were the groups at Beloit and Yellowstone, Wisconsin. In 1851 revelation came to these people telling them to “Rise up, cast off all that claim to be prophets, and go forth and preach the gospel, and say that God will raise up a prophet to complete his work.” The people of these groups and others who came to join them followed that direction that God gave. In 1860 God fulfilled his promise as Joseph Smith III, the eldest son of the martyred prophet, accepted the call of God to become the prophet, seer, and revelator of the church.

The Reorganization

Because of false doctrine being taught in the name of the original movement, the church was reorganized by divine direction. In order to distinguish it from the other groups bearing a similar name, the church eventually adopted the name of the “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” Under the leadership of Joseph Smith III, God was able to fulfill the promise that Zion would not be moved and those who remained and were pure in heart would “return.” Indeed the church headquarters along with numbers of its people did return to Zion prior to the death of this godly man.

For many years under the successive prophetic leadership of the sons of Joseph Smith III, God blessed his church. As it grew in membership and strength Independence, Missouri was again established as the “Center Place” for the gathering of the Saints

With operational headquarters of the church the “Center Place” became a strength to the entire church. Personnel, procedures, and information materials began to flow out to all the church from the “City of God.” Prophetic promise was literally fulfilled as the children of those driven out in 1833 returned “to build up the waste places of Zion.”

Sadly, the prophetic insights of the Scriptures (Gal. 1:6-8; Acts 20:28-31; II Peter 2:1-3) were to be again fulfilled. In a few short years sound doctrines once held so tenaciously began to be altered and the church degenerated under the instrumentality of men and existed only by the power of men. The power of “true prophetic insight” was lost and it was no longer the church of Jesus Christ. The authority of the Spirit began to fade from the body as it wandered from its foundational gospel.

In July of 1828, through the founding prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., the Lord has said: “The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God, cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught for God doth not walk in crooked paths . . . . Remember, remember, that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men.” (Doctrine and Covenants 2:1-2)

The Remnant

Similar to past periods of degeneration and apostasy there were those who as a remnant remained unwilling to “bow the knee” to human sympathies and faithfully sought to maintain the “faith once delivered to the Saints.” This nucleus committed to preserving the integrity of the Gospel was led to issue a “Proclamation and Invitation to the Faithful” declaring their intent to remain true to the Gospel restored in 1830, Reorganized in 1860, and to invite those of like intent to regather under the name Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. On April 8, 2000 the Church of Jesus Christ in response to divine direction began the process of renewal. Once again on this earth the body of Christ is committed to the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in preparation for his millennial reign.

Almost two thousand years ago, Christ said to the original apostles, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:18-20). Unfortunately there have been periods of apostasy when those who called themselves after the name of Christ did not “teach all things which I have commanded you.” How grateful we should be that the Lord in his own due time has restored the church, with the same organization, doctrine, and powers of ministry.

From Independence, the “Center Place,” the gospel now goes forth in the same simplicity and purity, and with the same power and assurance, that characterized it in former times.

In the name of Jesus Christ, whose infinite love and concern for man have made possible the restoration of his church and his gospel, we invite you to enlist with him in this great cause. We hope you will prayerfully consider this invitation and seek wisdom from God, for his promises are sure.

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For additional information and literature, contact:

Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

700 West Lexington Avenue

Independence, MO 64050

Tele (816) 461-7215

FAX (816) 461-7278