Two weeks ago my blog entry focused on the conditions of general apostasy that have often fallen upon the world and discussed God's answer to these conditions of apostasy. Last week I shared the events that led to what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints call the great apostasy.
During this team the prophets of God who held the priesthood keys that gave authority to receive revelation from God on behalf of the world were killed and withdrawn from the earth. The priesthood keys were lost with them. Without these keys to guide the masses in interpreting the messages of the scriptures, the truths about God and His laws became corrupted.
Fortunately the effort of righteous people of many faiths kept the knowledge of Jesus Christ alive. These people also helped preserve the records of the Holy Bible. For centuries these messages were carried to the populations of the world through the efforts of the Catholic church. No one can deny the great debt we owe the Catholic religion and its people for the preservation of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the sacrifices He made.
Unfortunately, the Catholic religion didn't contain all of the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth about the Holy Trinity, the true nature of God, the characteristics of God, and many of the ordinances of the gospel instituted by Jesus Christ as He walked the earth had been lost or corrupted. But the Lord started preparing the way for the full restoration of these truths.
The efforts of many people in the history of the world were instrumental to bringing about the restoration of these truths. Christopher Columbus was one such person. Since his early childhood, he felt the stirrings of the Spirit of the Lord within him. They drove him to learn the mariner's art and seek for funding for oceanic exploration. He received that funding and found the American continents, where religion could have a fresh start from the harsh religious states of the European nations. Here in the American continents religion would have the ability to blossom and grow.
The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg and the translation efforts of Saint Jerome, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, and Erasmus of Rotterdam brought the Holy Bible to the average person, allowing everybody to study the precious messages of the gospel. At the same time, reformers, such as an John Calvin, Jan Hus, William of Occam, and Martin Luther started seeing there were missing doctrines of truth and led the great Reformation. This led the pilgrims to travel the paths Christopher Columbus traveled and come to America for religious freedom.
Then the American continents declared independence from Great Britain and won their war for freedom. The leaders of the nation met together to draw up the Constitution of The United States of America. This historic document granted religious freedom to the inhabitants of America.
God had a hand in every step of this process. Through it all He was setting the stage for restoring the fullness of His gospel. Through it all He was guiding righteous people to seek for Him. These people were people of faith who believed God would protect them as they sought Him. And He did. He responded to their faith. And because of their faith in Him, He was able to direct them to lay the foundation for religious freedom necessary to bring back the priesthood keys and restore the truths of the gospel.
No comments:
Post a Comment