Was There Really A Great Apostasy?

While there are a number of things that Bible based Christians and Latter Day Saints agree on, the foundational topic of the Great Apostasy is not one of them. Let’s examine both sides and see where we end up.

The LDS article above states that the Church of Jesus will never again be destroyed. This implies that the Church of Jesus was destroyed at a previous point in time. And now that Joseph Smith restored the Church of Jesus Christ in 1830, it will never be destroyed again. When boiled down, the LDS Church is basically making the following claim:

• “The church that Jesus built was destroyed…but the church that Joseph Smith built will last forever.”

When put this way, it is very easy to see why Bible based Christians would view this claim to be so blasphemous.

In the Old Testament times, God’s people had a historical cycle of rebelling against God, entering into apostasy, then another prophet would come along, get the people back on track by restoring the church and reestablishing priesthood authority. Joseph Smith permanently established God’s church on earth as it would never again be destroyed and fall into apostasy. This alleged accomplishment made Smith feel like he had reasons to brag which is why he stated:

• “I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam… Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.” (History of the Church, 6:408–409)

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When asking Latter Day Saints if there are any Biblical passages to support this idea that the church of Jesus was destroyed, there are two primary passages which they believe are prophecies about the Great Apostasy that was to come. Below is a screenshot from the missionary guide (Preach My Gospel) for the first lesson that they will typically teach investigators:

Amos 8:11-12 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. ¹² People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.”

2 Thessalonians 2:3 “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”

Are Amos 8:11-12 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 truly referring to the Great Apostasy?

When reading the Bible, we ought to study the context of the passage to make sure that we are being faithful interpreters of God’s Word. When striving to do this, it is important to read the previous verses and the following verses to make sure we have a good understanding of the surrounding context. Let’s take this approach and study these two passages to verify what they are talking about.

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2 Thessalonians 2:1 “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,”

• This beginning verse tells us that the contextual timeframe is in reference to the return of Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”

• Christ will not return until the “rebellion” or “falling away” and the man of lawlessness/sin is revealed. These two events are directly connected because it will be the man of lawlessness who is leading the rebellion. That man is the anti-Christ.
• Some posit that the man of lawlessness is Satan. However, we can be certain that this is not the case because in verse 9 we read that this man will be “in accordance with how Satan works.” The anti-Christ and Satan are two separate beings, and they are going to be a tag-team.

This great rebellion/falling away will only happen AFTER the anti-Christ is revealed. That hasn’t happened yet. Since this anti-Christ figure has not yet been revealed, we can be certain that this great rebellion has not yet occurred either. Therefore, we can conclude that this passage in 2 Thessalonians cannot be referring to the Great Apostacy that allegedly took place after the death of the apostles in the following centuries.

Clarification: Do I believe that an apostasy has ever taken place? Absolutely! It all began in the garden of Eden with Satan deceiving Eve and that same apostasy continues to this day. Apostasy can be defined as a deceptive action or a false belief. Even though there is apostasy and false teachings all around us today, that doesn’t mean that the Church of Jesus is absent today or was ever destroyed at a previous point in time. There has always been a general apostasy, but there has never been a complete apostasy. Rest assured that Christ is strong enough to protect his church, even in the midst of apostasy.

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Amos 7:8-9 “And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, “A plumbline.” Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
 - Here in Amos chapter 7, we read that Amos has a vision and God tells Amos that he will not “pass by” the people of Israel any longer. God is going to bring judgement and destruction upon the house of Jeroboam, who was king of Northern Israel at this time. This is a specific prophecy of judgement on the Israelites and it continues into chapter 8:

Amos 8:1-2 “This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. ² “What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.”

• God is once again proclaiming that the time is ripe for His judgement against the Israelites. This begs the question: why would God judge the Israelites? The end of the chapters gives us the answer.

¹⁴ Those who swear by the sin of Samaria— who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’— they will fall, never to rise again.”

• The end of verse 14 sums it up and helps us understand that the Israelites in Samaria were guilty of idol worship. This chapter describes what God’s judgement on the Samaritans is going to look like when it happens:
  
  – Verse 8: The land will tremble and everyone will be afraid
  – Verse 9: The days/times will be very dark and hopeless
  – Verse 10: It will be a time of mourning and sorrow
  – Verse 11: There will be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord
  – Verse 12: People will look for the word of the Lord but He will remain silent during this time because of their sin

Amos chapters 7, 8 and 9 are all a prophetic warning of what is going to happen to the Israelites if they don’t repent and turn away from their idol worship. Then roughly, 15 years after Amos prophesied this, God used the Assyrians as his tool of judgement who destroyed Jerusalem and carried them off into exile.

• Sequence of events:
  – 755 BC (roughly) – Amos was written
  – 740 BC – The Assyrians began attacking Northern Israel
  – 722 BC – The Assyrians captured Samaria

Amos 8:11-12 is a specific prophecy about a specific group of people who God judged for a specific sin that they were unrepentant of. And we read the fulfilment of this prophecy in 2 Kings 17:5:

“Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.”

Once again, this passage is not referring to the LDS Great Apostasy that allegedly took place in the early Christian church.

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A quick example from the Jehovah’s Witnesses whose doctrine states that Jesus is not Jehovah of the Old Testament but is actually Michael the archangel. They start with this doctrine then go to passages like 1 Thessalonians 4:16

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God,”

They will explain that Jesus has the voice of the archangel because he is the archangel. We can agree that their starting doctrines have caused them to misunderstand the Word of God in this instance. They doctrines have blinded them to what the Word of God truly says.

Bringing it back to the Great Apostasy, Amos 8 and 2 Thessalonians 2. The LDS Church has also started with the doctrinal assumption that there was a Great Apostasy. Then going to these two Bible passages, taking them out of context and incorrectly using these passages to support their doctrine. This is backwards and not how we are to be faithful interpreters of God’s Word. We should never start with our doctrines and then twist God’s Word to make it line up with our doctrines. Instead, we need to start with God’s Word, then change our doctrines to make them line up with God’s Word. The reality is that there is no verse in the entire Bible that contextually references the event of the Great Apostasy.

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What Does God’s Word Tell Us About the Gospel and Church of Jesus?

Matthew 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

• A common response is that the “rock” in this verse is talking about prophets and apostles. The point of this verse is to focus on the last half where Jesus states that nothing (not even the gates of hell) will overcome and destroy his church. But Joseph Smith taught that the devil did destroy Jesus’ church and that the fullness of gospel was lost.

Jude 1:3 “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”

• This verse clearly states that the faith and gospel message would only be delivered once. If the gospel was truly delivered once and for all, then that eliminates the possibility of the gospel being delivered a second time. In other words, there will never be a restored gospel because the gospel of Jesus will always endure.
• Many LDS would prefer the King James Version for this passage in Jude which says that “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” They will typically respond by saying, “My Bible doesn’t say ‘once for all.’ It only says, ‘once.’ I think this means that Jesus delivered the gospel once, and then after the great apostacy, Joseph Smith delivered it once again.”

Which Version Is Right?

Below is a Greek Bible that has the literal English wording above each Greek word.

We can see here that the literal words used are “once for all.” The King James Bible is fantastic for its time, but modern Bibles today are easier to understand and also utilize the earliest manuscripts that were discovered after the KJV was written.

Some serious/more scholarly Latter-Day Saints might push back and say that the Greek word in this passage is “Hapax,” which means “once.” And they aren’t wrong. Yes, “Hapax” can mean “once.” But it can also mean, “once for all” depending on the context. Below is a screenshot of the Strong’s concordance which breaks down each usage of “Hapax” in the Bible and splits them into two groups: passages where it contextually means, “once” and passages where it contextually means, “once for all.”

As we can see, the correct usage of “Hapax” in Jude 1:3 is “once for all.”

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According to God’s Word, how many times has the gospel been delivered to the saints?

Do you believe that God is strong enough to protect his church from being destroyed?

Taking free will and agency into consideration, do you believe that God is smart enough to figure out a way to protect his church from being destroyed?

• If God is strong enough and smart enough to protect his church from being destroyed, why wouldn’t He protect it? The next time you open up a Bible, I invite you to put your doctrines on the shelf, read the New Testament without any LDS study guides/notes, and let the Word of God freely speak to you.

Please let me know your thoughts, things you appreciated or things that you disagreed with in the comment section below. Thank you for reading and God bless!