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Per Lima West Mission 01 Sep 2013 President Archibald Espero que los compaerismos puedan trabajar juntos para entender y aprender. Elder Tad Callister The Inevitable Apostasy pp. 50-53 Chapter 6 When was Christs Church Taken Away? The answer to the question, When was Christs Church taken away? depends upon ones definition of the apostasy. In the larger sense, the apostasy was that overall process that resulted in loss of priesthood authority, loss of revelation, loss of the gifts of the Spirit, and a perversion of Christs teachings and ordinances. That process began during the life of the apostles, and continued until the Church was restored in 1830. In that sense the apostasy continued for eighteen centuries. In a more specific and commonly used sense, the apostasy was the process that resulted in the loss of the priesthood keys (which were the power to direct the use of priesthood authority) from the earth so that the church no longer had the power to save and exalt a man. That loss occurred in two general stages: fist the loss of the priesthood keys held only by the apostles, which occurred at their death; and second, the loss of the remaining priesthood keys, which occurred with the death of those to whom the apostles had given limited priesthood keys and powers. Commenting on the approximate period when the apostasy occurred, Brigham Young wrote, Soon after the ascension of Jesus through mobocracy, martyrdom and apostasy, the church of Christ became extinct from the earth. (Discourses of Brigham Young, 415) Referring to the time period immediately following the death of the apostles, Elder James E. Talmage noted, As a divine institution the church soon ceased to exist, the powers of the holy priesthood were literally taken from the earth. (The Essential Things, 273) Elder Bruce R. McConkie was in accord with these views: I think were in the habit of erroneously extending the extent of the Christian faith out. Somebody says, When was the apostasy complete? and an ordinary answer received in the church is that it was complete by 325 A.D. , by the time of Constantine and so on. Well, it was so obviously complete at the time that there was no question about it. But really, it was completed a long time before that. It was completed by the time that the Apostles quit ministering among men, coupled with the period that would have succeeded that while there (were) still some legal administrators who had been authorized once the keys went, then there was nobody on the earth left to authorize somebody to confer the priesthood on someone else. And it always takes two things it takes priesthood and it takes keys. And so any additional supposed ordinations to the priesthood would not have been valid. (Excerpt from an audio tape of a graduate institute class, Doctrine and Philosphy, taught by Elder Bruce R. McConkie in July and August, 1967. The lesson was entitled Keys of the Kingdom.) The forgoing Church leader recognized that when the apostles died, certain priesthood keys were lost and the Church in its fullness was no longer on the earth. Other Church leaders have reminded us that certain other priesthood powers (not unique to the apostles) continued for a short time thereafter. (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 86; President J. Reuben Clark CR April 1949, 184; Joseph F. Smith Gospel Doctrine, 191; ) The important point is that the current Church leaders have been unanimous in their assertion that the Church of Jesus Christ was lost from the earth shortly after the death of the apostles. Perhaps the process of removing Christs Church from the earth was somewhat akin to the Churchs restoration process. We commonly say that the Church of Jesus Christ was restored on April 6, 1830, yet at that time there was no Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, no Quorum of the

Seventy, no baptisms for the dead, no endowments, no sealings, and no keys for gathering Israel, While the restored Church of 1830 did have certain saving powers, manifested by its ability to baptize, confirm, and ordain to the priesthood, it did not yet have the keys to save dead or exalt the living, It was in a sense, the basic Church, not the full Church. As the Church matured and grew in numbers and righteousness, the Lord empowered it with additional spiritual endowments, until eventually it had all the powers necessary to save and exalt both the living and the dead. Thus, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the Quorum of the Seventy were organized in 1835, the keys of the gathering of Israel (D&C 110:11) and temple work were bestowed in 1836, the first baptisms for the dead were performed in 1842, the first endowments occurred in 1842, and marriage sealings took place thereafter. (Words of Joseph Smith, 306) In truth, the Church in its fullness was restored in heaven-appointed installmentsline upon line, precept upon precept. A major revelation concerning Church doctrine on the redemption of the dead (D&C 138) was not given until almost on hundred years after Joseph Smithss first v ision, and another major revelation on the availability of the priesthood and temple ordinances was not revealed until almost 150 years after the church was organized (Official Declaration--2) The apostasy, likewise, took place in installments or stages, with each stage resulting from the increased wickedness of the people. An important first step was the loss of the apostles, Certain keys could be passed on only with their approval. Accordingly, within a generation after their death, certain keys were lost from the earth. At his point the Church in its fullness was no longer on the earth. It is likely, however, that certain other basic powers and keys remained in existence for a short timesuch as the power to baptize and confirm. (Based on the current method in which keys are regulated and distributed, it would seem that after the death of the apostles, no new apostles, seventies, stake presidents (if they existed at the time), or bishops could be selected, since each of these offices or callings requires the approval of the apostles. Accordingly with in one generation after the apostles deaths, these callings and offices would die out. However, stake presidents (or their equivalent) could ordain high priests and elders; bishops could ordain priests, teachers and deacons, but none of these offices could perpetuate themselves, and thus within one generation after the death of stake presidents (or their equivalent) and bishops, these other offices would likewise be gone. Under this line of reasoning, the priesthood would disappear within two generations after the death of the apostles. We do not know however, if the priesthood keys were governed in the primitive Church in the same manner as they are in the restored Church. In New Testament times, travel was slow, and there were no phones or instantaneous means of communication, If Paul knew he would not get back to an outlying congregation for ten years, or perhaps ever, then maybe he was able to make allowance for that by delegating the power to perpetuate keys on a limited basis, just as apostle can delegate to seventies the power to dipense keys on a limited basis, or perhaps John the Revelator helped perpetuate the priesthood for a limited time. These are issues to which we simply do not currently have the full answers. What we do know is that there was a point, not too long after the death of the apostles, when the priesthood was lost from the earth.) As the wickedness increased and the heresies proliferated, the ongoing church diminished in truth and power, as though one were stripping the layers from an onion, until little remained. Eventually there were no authorized priesthood keys upon the earth. Fragments of the original teachings and remnants of the original ordinances remained, but the priesthood, the power that gave the Church its spiritual life and sustenance, was gone. Brigham Young places this loss of the priesthood in its properly perspective: It is said the Priesthood was taken from the Church, but it is not so, the church went from the Priesthood and continued to travel in the wilderness, turned from the commandments of the Lord, and instituted other ordinances. (JD 12:69) In estimation the date of the apostasy, some are evidently referring to the time when the first keys were removed due to the death of the apostles, and others are referring to the time when the last remnants of priesthood authority disappeared (meaning when no keys or powers remained). We may not be able to identify the exact day the priesthood was removed, but there was a day when the priesthood was all gone. . . We may not be able to determine with exactness the precise date, but there is no argument that the event occurred. Likewise, the most important thing to know is not the exact day of removal, but that the authority and keys of the Church were ultimately lost from the earth, and thus a restoration was necessary. The loss of Christs Church, however, did not mean the apostasy was over. With the priesthood gone, there would yet be further perversions of the teachings and ordinances by the on going entity

that succeeded the true Church. The apostasy continued until Christs Church was restored, and revelation once again replaced reason as the Churchs governing scep