1. History of the Church
RELIGION 341
MISSOULA INSTITUTE OF RELIGION
SPRING SEMESTER 2014

2. Objectives
 Increase your understanding of and appreciation for
key events in the history of the Church.
 Increase your ability to distill principles and
doctrines from those events.
 Increase your ability to apply those principles in your
life.
 Increase your ability to explain and testify of those
principles and doctrines to others.

3. Text for the Course
 Church History in the Fullness of Times ($9.50)
 Online (free)
 institute.lds.org
 HTML format
 PDF format

4. Course Expectations
 Read the assigned text prior to class.
 Identify and write down questions.
 Distill principles and doctrines and write them down.
 Share your discoveries in class.

5. Prelude to the Restoration
 The New Testament Church
 The Great Apostasy
 The Long, Dark Night
 Renaissance and Reformation
 Discovery and Colonization of America
 Religious Freedom in America

6. The New Testament Church
 Christ restored the gospel and higher
priesthood.
 He organized a church with a ―foundation of
apostles and prophets‖ (Ephesians 2:20).
 The gospel went first to the Jews and then to the
Gentiles.
 The ministry of the apostles spread the gospel
throughout the Middle East, Mediteranian, and
North Africa.

7. The New Testament Church

8. The Great Apostasy
 Internal apostasy and rebellion
weakened the Church: ―men
arise, speaking perverse
things, to draw away disciples
after them‖ (Acts 20:30).
 Periods of severe persecution
existed under Roman rule.
 The Apostles were killed.
 Pagan philosophies crept into
the doctrines of the Church.

9. The Great Apostasy
 President Joseph F. Smith taught:
―Satan in his wrath drove the [Church] into the wilderness, or from the
earth; the power of the Priesthood was taken from among men, and
after the Church with its authority and gifts disappeared from the
earth, then in his anger the serpent continued his war upon all who had
faith and sought the testimony of Jesus, desiring to worship God
according to the dictates of conscience. So successful did he become
that his dominion extended over all the known world.‖

10. The Long, Dark Night
 With the loss of the twelve apostles leadership fell to
local Bishops who began to define doctrine and
policy.
 A few Bishops claimed superior authority
(i.e., Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch) and
influenced larger regions.
 Christians were a threat to political and religious
leaders because of their stance on key issues that
made them ―un-Roman‖ and were persecuted.

11. The Long, Dark Night

12. The Long, Dark Night
 Despite the persecution Christianity continued to
spread.
 Due to political expediency and the weakening of
the Roman Empire previous edicts were rescinded.
 Constantine comes to power and issues the Edict of
Toleration in 313 AD which grants individuals the
right to worship as they please.
 Constantine’s acceptance and endorsement of
Christianity placed Christianity in partnership with
the aims of the empire.

13. The Long, Dark Night
 In 325 AD Constantine was instrumental in calling
the Council of Nicea, the first of the great
ecumenical councils that established orthodox
Christian doctrine throughout the empire.

14. The Long, Dark Night
 The revelatory process experienced by the Church
through the apostles is supplanted by
argumentation and decree leading to further
apostasy and distance from the teachings of Jesus
Christ.
 Various European tribes turned the unity of the
west into shambles destroying the Roman Empire.
 The Church was heavily influenced by the feudal
lords of these emerging European states resulting in
further discord.

15. Renaissance and Reformation
 By the 14th Century a renewed interest in classical
Greece and Rome results in a rebirth in
literature, science, and art.
 Interest in these earlier times turned attention to
the writings of the early church fathers and to the
scriptures themselves.
 Seeking for an original faith, the stage was set for
the Protestant Reformation.
 One of the chief reformers was Martin Luther.

16. Renaissance and Reformation
 Martin Luther wrote:
―Unless I be refuted by Scriptural testimonies, or by clear
arguments—for I believe neither the Pope nor the councils
alone, since it is clear that they have often erred and contradicted
one another—I am convinced by the passages of Scripture, which I
have cited, and my conscience is bound in the word of God. I cannot
and will not recant anything; since it is insecure and dangerous to
act against conscience.‖

17. Renaissance and Reformation
Other well-known reformers include:
 John Wycliffe
 Ulrich Zwingli
 John Calvin
 William Tyndale
 John Knox

18. Renaissance and Reformation
President Joseph Fielding Smith has written:
―In preparation for this restoration the Lord raised up noble men, such as
Luther, Calvin, Knox, and others whom we call reformers, and gave them
power to break the shackles which bound the people and denied them the
sacred right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. . . .
Latter-day Saints pay all honor to these great and fearless reformers, who
shattered the fetters which bound the religious world. The Lord was their
Protector in this mission, which was fraught with many perils. In that day,
however, the time had not come for the restoration of the fullness of the
gospel. The work of the reformers was of great importance, but it was a
preparatory work‖ (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3
vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56), 1:174–75).

19. Renaissance and Reformation

20. Discovery and Colonization of America
―Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever
nation shall possess it shall be free from
bondage, and from captivity, and from all other
nations under heaven, if they will but serve the
God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath
been manifested by the things which we have
written‖ (Ether 2:12).

21. Discovery and Colonization of America
―And I looked and beheld a man among the
Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my
brethren [descendants of Lehi], by the many
waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it
came down and wrought upon the man; and he
went forth upon the many waters, even unto the
seed of my brethren, who were in the promised
land‖ (1 Nephi 13:12).

22. Discovery and Colonization of America
―And I looked and beheld a man among the
Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my
brethren, by the many waters; and I beheld the
Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought
upon the man; and he went forth upon the many
waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who
were in the promised land. ―And it came to pass
that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought
upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of
captivity, upon the many waters‖ (1 Nephi 13:1213).

23. Discovery and Colonization of America
President Joseph Fielding Smith said:
―The discovery [of America] was one of the most
important factors in bringing to pass the purpose
of the Almighty in the restoration of his Gospel in
its fullness for the salvation of men in the latter
days.‖

24. Religious Freedom in America
 Additional religious groups such as Roman
Catholics and Quakers colonized throughout
America.
 The Great Awakening began in about 1739 and
lasted for about two decades sweeping throughout
the colonies.
 The religious zeal reflected in the Great Awakening
led to participation of both layman and ministers in
organized religion and in formation of democratic
order.

25. Religious Freedom in America
 Europeans came to America seeking
economic, political, and religious freedom.
 Many groups were intolerant of others beliefs such
as the Puritans who established the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts who believed they had the true
faith.
 Dissenters such as Roger Williams, who later
established Rhode Island, rebelled against Puritan
ideas and advocated, among other things, for a clear
distinction between church and state.

26. Religious Freedom in America
 The American Revolution provided a new sense of
freedom.
 After a few years as an unsuccessful confederation
of states, the United States drafted a new
constitution in 1787 that was ratified in 1789

27. Religious Freedom in America
The Prophet Joseph Smith stated:
―the Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard;
it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it
is to all those who are privileged with the sweets of
liberty, like the cooling shades and refreshing waters of a
great rock in a thirsty and weary land‖ (Joseph
Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph
Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), p.
147).

28. Religious Freedom in America
 Concurrent with the Revolution and the drafting of
the Constitution was the Second Great Awakening.
 New religious groups emerged such as the
Unitarians, Universalists, Methodists, Baptists, an
d Disciples of Christ.
 A desire to return to New Testament Christianity
was shared by many.
 The revivalism described by Joseph Smith in his
youth was a significant aspect of these
movements.

29. Religious Freedom in America
According to one historian, there was a special
timing to when the Restoration took place:
―Its timing in 1830 was providential. It appeared at precisely the right
moment in American history; much earlier or later and the Church might
not have taken hold. The Book of Mormon would probably not have been
published in the eighteenth century, in that still largely oral world of folk
beliefs prior to the great democratic revolution that underlay the religious
tumult of the early Republic. In the eighteenth century, Mormonism might
have been too easily stifled and dismissed by the dominant enlightened
gentry culture as just another enthusiastic folk superstition. Yet if
Mormonism had emerged later, after the consolidation of authority and the
spread of science in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, it might
have had problems of verifying its texts and revelations‖ (Gordon S. Wood,
―Evangelical America and Early Mormonism,‖ New York History, Oct. 1980,
p. 381).