The Restoration and Early Christian Teachings
Historical research shows that truths revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith were taught by early Christians.
From the day the Prophet Joseph Smith
received the gold plates in 1827 until his martyrdom in 1844, the
floodgates of revelation were opened as he restored scripture,
doctrines, and priesthood authority. The Restoration not only
reestablished the original Church of Jesus Christ but also reestablished teachings that had been lost.
Many
teachings and practices that distinguish Latter-day Saints from other
modern Christians are now known to have been believed and practiced by
the early Christians as well. Here are a few of them.
Our Premortal Life
Though the doctrine of premortal life is hinted at in the Bible (see Jeremiah 1:5), many Christian
theologians before Joseph Smith had taught that humans and their
spirits are created from nothing. The book of Abraham reveals that we
had a premortal life with our heavenly family and that we chose the plan of salvation presented by our Heavenly Father (see Abraham 3:22–23).
We
now know that this doctrine of premortal life was also accepted by many
Jews and Christians around the time of Christ. According to one Jewish
scholar, Jews in the first few centuries after Christ believed that the
soul existed in a heavenly “spiritual reservoir”1 before being placed into a body, as evidenced by the Apocrypha’s reference to spirits waiting in “chambers of souls”2
before birth. The pseudepigraphical book of Enoch, which some Jews and
early Christians considered scripture, taught that “all the souls of the
children of man have been before they came down to the world.”3
Salvation for the Dead
Though
some Christian denominations disagree with each other regarding the
necessity of ordinances and works, they all agree that in order to be
saved, we must accept Christ and make His sacrifice fully effective in
our lives, acknowledging His divinity and the wonderful gift He gave us.
However, since the days of Adam, only a small fraction of God’s
children have ever had the opportunity to hear the gospel, much less
accept it.
Thanks
to modern revelation, we know that ordinances necessary for individual
salvation can be performed by proxy for those who didn’t have the chance
to receive them while in mortality. A loving and just God allows all
His children the opportunity to accept or reject the gospel and its
necessary ordinances.
Baptism for the dead is mentioned in the New Testament (see 1 Corinthians 15:29), as is the fact that the Savior delivered the gospel to those in spirit prison (see 1 Peter 3:18–19; 4:6),
but before Joseph Smith’s day most Christian theologians taught that
these passages were simply anomalies or ambiguities that didn’t really
describe early Christian practices and beliefs. More recently, however,
non-LDS scholars have written about ancient Christian traditions
describing Christ’s preaching to the dead in the spirit world and having
taught that baptism was the key to their release.
Some of these early traditions suggest that just as John the
Baptist’s birth preceded the birth of the Savior so that he could herald
Jesus’s ministry, so likewise John was killed before the Crucifixion to
herald Jesus’s coming in the spirit world.4
Clement
of Alexandria, an early Christian writer of the late second to early
third century, said that “Christ went down to Hades [the spirit world]
for no other purpose than to preach the gospel.”5
Clement claimed that Christ not only “visited” and “preached” to the
dead but “baptized the just men of old, both gentiles and Jews, not only
those who lived before the coming of the Lord, but also those who were
before the coming of the Law.”6
Some non-LDS scholars now recognize that baptism for the dead
was an authentic ancient Christian practice. One historian reports that
in the early Christian Church “the necessity of Baptism is such that
the Apostles and teachers … who preached the Gospel had to go down to
limbo, there to teach and baptize the just already dead.”7
Degrees of Glory
While
Christian teaching had traditionally maintained that the dead go either
to heaven or hell, Joseph Smith learned that there are many degrees of
glory in the hereafter. Jesus once taught in a parable that we will reap
what we sow and that some will bring forth fruit “an hundredfold, some
sixtyfold, some thirtyfold” (Matthew 13:8).
Irenaeus, an early Christian writer of the late second century,
explained this passage to mean that there will be varying degrees of
reward in the hereafter:
“Then
those who are deemed worthy of abode in heaven shall go there, others
shall enjoy the delights of paradise, and others shall possess the
splendour of the city. … There is this distinction between the
habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, and that of those who
produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold: … it was
on this account the Lord declared, ‘In My Father’s house are many
mansions’ [John 14:2; see also D&C 98:18]. For all things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling-place.”8
Heirs to the Father
Latter-day Saints believe that our Heavenly Father wants us to
inherit all that He has so that we can become like Him and His Son. The
Epistle to the Hebrews taught that Jesus is “appointed heir of all
things” (Hebrews 1:2). Paul taught that the righteous will become “joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17), and Peter taught that they would be “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
Many
early Christians believed that the righteous could become like the
Father. Irenaeus wrote that Jesus Christ became “what we are, that He
might bring us to be even what He is Himself.”9
Clement
of Alexandria wrote that Jesus became man so that we may “learn from
man how man may become God” and explained that because the righteous
will become so “near to the Lord, there awaits them restoration to
everlasting contemplation; and they are called by the appellation of
gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other gods that have
been first put in their places by the Saviour.”10
Even as late as the third century, Hippolytus, bishop of
Portus, explained that the righteous will become “a companion of the
Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved with lusts or
passions, and never again wasted by disease. For thou hast become God.”11
The
early Christian writings on deification are so extensive that non-LDS
scholar G. L. Prestige stated that the early Christian Church “taught
that the destiny of man was to become like God, and even to become
deified.”12
Conclusion
These
and other authentic ancient Christian teachings were restored through
the Prophet Joseph Smith because he sought the Lord in study and prayer.
From Joseph Smith’s First Vision—which came after he read James 1:5—we
find that many of the Prophet’s revelations were precipitated by his
hunger for scripture study and asking Heavenly Father for divine
insight. Teachings which had been lost after the demise of the early
Apostles were once again given to the Saints of Christ’s restored
Church.
Thanks
to the restoration of these lost teachings, we rejoice with the early
Christian Saints in the knowledge that we once lived a premortal life
with our Heavenly Father. We know that God is merciful and loves all
humankind and has established a plan so that every one of His children
will have the opportunity to hear the gospel and receive the ordinances
of salvation—even if they never had the chance while in mortality. We
also learn that Heavenly Father expects us to participate in the work of
bringing salvation to those who died without hearing the good news.
With our early Christian brothers and sisters, we can rejoice in the knowledge that Heavenly Father is just as well as merciful
and offers different degrees of glory according to our faithfulness and
willingness to follow His Son. Lastly, and most importantly, we learn
that we really are God’s sons and
daughters and that He wants us not only to become like Him but also to
share in his glory and become partakers of His divine nature.
In
the more than a century and a half since the days of Joseph Smith,
scholarly studies have buttressed the claim that the Prophet restored
doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught in the meridian of
time. The eternal truth of these teachings, however, can be confirmed
only by the Spirit. Only by aligning ourselves with God can these
teachings bless our lives, help draw us closer to the Father, and
eventually lead us back to our heavenly home.
Michael R. Ash lives in Utah, USA.
Answering Questions
Why was a restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ needed?
A general falling away from the truth occurred after the death of Christ’s Apostles. This is called the Apostasy (see Amos 8:11–12; Acts 20:29–30; 2 Timothy 4:3).
After
the Apostles and many righteous Church members were killed and other
members departed from the truth, the Lord took the priesthood authority
and His Church from the earth. Without God’s priesthood authority, the
Church no longer functioned as Christ had established it. The ordinances
were changed, and many plain and simple truths were lost. While many
good people and some truth remained, the original Church was lost.
The Apostle Peter prophesied of the “restitution of all things” before Christ’s Second Coming (see Acts 3:19–21). Having been lost because of the Apostasy, Christ’s Church and His authority were to be restored to the earth.
Joseph
Smith’s First Vision marked the beginning of the Restoration of the
gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. In subsequent years, Christ
restored His priesthood and reorganized His Church. He has continued to
reveal truths to His prophets and to restore the blessings that were
taken from the earth for a time. (See Restoration in FAQ on Mormon.org.)
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