The Restoration: The Great Apostasy

So, when Christ ascended into heaven, he left his church with the apostles. As we talked about before, he was still in charge of it and directed it by "giving commandments through the Holy Ghost" to the apostles. So like with the prophets of old, people started to reject the apostles and their teachings. People started persecuting them and killing them. When this happened, no one was on the earth to receive the revelation from God, to guide the Church of Jesus Christ in the direction that Christ wanted it to go! People began to settle religious questions by vote and philosophy, not by revelation. People started to see the Bible differently and break off from each other to for their own churches. We believe that people like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other Reformers were good, honest people who wanted to come close to God. However, they did not claim to have the priesthood authority, or the calling of a prophet to establish God's church on the earth. They needed a Restoration, not a reformation. Because of these men, it led to the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and His Church. He did this by calling Joseph Smith to be a prophet.