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Article of Faith 6




We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

Jesus Christ personally visited his apostles and disciples in the old and new worlds, that is Jerusalem and the Americas. They were actual witnesses of Jesus Christ. They saw Him, they walked with Him, they learned from Him.

Then the great apostasy came. All of the prophets, apostles, and disciples were killed off. The truth was taken from the Earth and the dark ages came.

Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet. He saw Jesus and God in a grove of trees near his home. They told him all churches were false and they denied the doctrine of Christ. None of them were to be accepted as the truth church.

Joseph eventually called apostles, twelve men to occupy the twelve vacancies that had been left when the others were killed of. The church had been restored to the Earth and it organization continued on from the old days.

Why did Jesus not personally visit and call these apostles Himself? It was how He did things in the days of old. Why not continue on with that? Is He not a God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.1 His ways never changing?

There are those who would cite the Doctrine and Covenants:

What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.2

If the apostles of old had received such a persona witness of Christ, why do the apostles today not receive that same personal witness? Prophets in these latter days, after Joseph Smith, do not declare they have seen Jesus as Joseph once did. Why is that? Is it not the same church that was established like that of old? Would it not be the same way?

1. Hebrews 13:8
2. D&C 1:38
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