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The Universal Apostasy or Falling Away
by Robert L. Smith
Many ancient records have been lost due to the ravages of time and the elements or due to their intentional destruction by religious zealots who tried to suppress what they believed were pagan beliefs. Many ancient records have been discovered which were buried to be preserved for future generations, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi texts, and many Apocrypha documents exist that never made it into the Bible. But could there be hidden records, hidden in plain sight, simply because the interpretation of their meanings have been lost to our understanding?
The Bible is filled with hidden messages whose meanings have been lost to most people because the Prophets who recorded them were destroyed, and the spirit of revelation and prophesy was lost to the people, due to their rejection of the prophets. The Judeo-Christian religions were founded upon the belief that God reveals his will to Prophets, who by the Holy Spirit, reveal the will of God to the people.
According to the Apocryphal
Books of 1st and 2nd Macabees, the Helenization of the
Holy Lands began in the third century BC. In 172 BC, Onias III, the legitimate
High Priest, was murdered in
The Apostles of the New Testament were likewise prophets who received revelation from Jesus Christ after his resurrection, as evidenced by the vision of Peter in Acts Chapter 10:10-22 where he was on the roof, while the Centurion of the gentile, Cornelius waited at the gate.
This vision was a revelation from the resurrected Lord, which led Peter to understand that the gospel should be preached to the gentiles as well as the Jews.
Throughout the New Testament, the Apostles testified of revelations from the Lord to guide them in their teachings. But they also warned that the spirit of revelation would be lost and the church would fall into a state of apostasy, which is defined as rebellion against the truth, or a falling away from the truth. In Acts: 28 – 30, Peter warned:
28 ¶ Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
The Apostle Paul warned the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 2:2-12 that there would be a falling away from the true gospel before the second coming of Christ:
Again Peter warned in 2 Peter: 1- 2
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
Hugh Nibley writes of the apostasy or falling away from the truth by describing the prophesies of Jesus Christ to his apostles:
“Jesus announced in no uncertain terms that his message would be rejected by all men, as the message of the prophets had been before,6 and that he would soon leave the world to die in its sins and seek after him in vain.7 The Light was soon to depart, leaving a great darkness "in which no man can work" while "the prince of this world" would remain, as usual, in possession of the field.8 (II) In their turn the disciples were to succeed no better than their Lord: "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?"9 Like him they were to be "hated of all men," going forth as sheep among wolves, "sent last as it were appointed unto death,"10 with the promise that as soon as they completed their mission the end would come.11
(III) But what of the church? Those who accepted the teaching were to suffer exactly the same fate as the Lord and the apostles; they were advised to "take the prophets for an example of suffering affliction and patience," and to "think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try" them, but rejoice rather to suffer as Christ did "in the flesh … that we may also be glorified together."12 After them too the prince of this world was waiting to take over; they too were to be lambs among wolves, rejected as were the Master and the disciples: "The world knoweth us not because it knew him not."13 Knowing that "whosoever will save his life must lose it," they openly disavowed any expectation of success, individual or collective, in this world.14 (IV) As for the doctrine, it was to receive the same rough treatment, soon falling into the hands of worldly men who would "pervert the gospel of Christ" from a thing the world found highly obnoxious to something it was willing to embrace, for such has always been the fate of God's revelations to men.”
With the death of the Apostles, by 100 AD, the true church which Jesus established was usurped by imposters from within, who changed and molded it to their perceptions, without the benefit of revelation from the Holy Spirit or the resurrected Lord.
The result was the loss of understanding of basic gospel teachings which had been revealed by God to the Prophets from the beginning of man. These basic teachings are in the Bible, but have become lost to the understanding of many people, due to the loss of prophets who can properly interpret their meanings. When these messages are understood collectively, the blur of confusion about Heavenly Father’s plan, our relationship to him and his Son Jesus Christ, and our purpose here on earth becomes focused and clear for the first time.
Examples of lost or hidden knowledge which is sometimes misunderstood by some include:
1. The nature of God the Father, Jesus Christ, as separate, immortal, resurrected beings, and the Holy Ghost who is a spirit who testifies of the Father and the Son.
2. We are created in the express image of Heavenly Father who has an immortal and glorified physical body.
3. All men and women lived as spirits with God and Jesus in Heaven before the creation of the earth.
4. There was a plan in Heaven for the creation of the earth so that each of us could obtain a mortal body and learn by faith to keep the commandments.
5. In the spirit world, before the creation, we were foreordained (not pre-destined) to perform important works in this life.
6. One third of the spirits in Heaven chose to follow Lucifer instead of Heavenly Father and the Savior, and they were cast down to the earth, never to receive mortal bodies.
7. Free agency, or the right to choose good or evil is given by the Father to all of his children. This explains why bad things happen to good people.
8. Jesus Christ was the creator of all things on this earth under the direction of His Heavenly Father.
9. Jesus Christ was Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Spirit God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, before being born in the flesh to the virgin Mary.
10.
Jesus told his Apostles that he had other sheep that he must
visit, that they would hear his voice, and that there would be one fold and one
Shepard. Some assumed that he meant
the gentiles, but Jesus was not called to preach unto the gentiles.
The other sheep were descendants of the tribe of
11. Jesus visited the spirits in the Spirit Prison during the time between his crucifixion and his resurrection and preached to them to liberate the captives.
12. All men and women will be resurrected because of the resurrection of Christ, which makes salvation from the physical death a free gift to all, through no works of their own.
13.
All men and women who accept Jesus Christ as their savior and are
baptized will receive the blessings of the atonement, and be forgiven of their
sins, and will be rewarded in the highest
14. The early Apostles performed the ordinance of Baptism for the Dead in behalf of their ancestors.
15. Heaven consists of three different kingdoms, comparable to the glory of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and that in the resurrection, our bodies will be glorified with different glories comparable to these three kingdoms.
16. Jesus gave Peter the power that “whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven,” which gave him the power to seal families together for eternity.
17. Jesus taught, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” He also taught that the scriptures teach that “ye are gods,” being the children of God.
Each of these hidden nuggets of knowledge, which are in plain sight in the Bible, will be explored in future articles, one by one. But the collection of this knowledge turns the chaos and confusion of religion into a clear picture that gives new meaning to life.
A glorified, immortal, resurrected Heavenly Father (and a Heavenly Mother) had myriad spirit children before the creation of the earth. In this pre-earth life, we could see that our Heavenly Father had a perfected immortal body and we desired to be like Him. Like all good parents on the earth, Heavenly Father wanted us to have that opportunity, but he knew that we must have the gift of free agency to be able to learn like He did to choose righteousness over evil. A plan was formulated before the creation of the earth for each of us to come to the earth to gain our earthly bodies and for our trials here. Our station here on earth is predicated upon our obedience in this pre-earth life, and we were foreordained to accomplish certain things while here, but were given the right to choose whether or not to do those things.
The plan was for us to be born into families, who would nourish and care for us until we are able to do the same for our children. This plan called for us to develop love for our children, and allowed us to participate with Heavenly Father in the process of creation of physical bodies for his spirit children yet to be born. This experience allows us to develop love for our children, just as Heavenly Father loves us, enabling us to become like him in some infinitesimally small way.
The eternal law of justice requires a punishment for disobedience to God’s commandments and rewards for obedience, but the ultimate punishment or reward is deferred until after our passing. Since none of us is perfect, Heavenly Father’s plan established the law of mercy, and called for his firstborn son, Jesus Christ, to become a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Only one who is without sin could offer such a sacrifice. Born of an immortal Heavenly Father and a mortal mother, Mary, Jesus was both a God and a man. He had the capacity to suffer and experience the pains and joys of the physical body, but had the power to overcome death for himself and all mankind.
He commanded all men and women to believe on Him and be baptized, but not all would hear his voice, or the voice of his servants. Billions of people lived on the earth before his birth and after, who never heard his message. So he established a plan for them to be taught in the Spirit Prison after their death, so that they could “be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” He is no respecter of persons, so being a just and merciful God, he provided a way for all of his spirit children to have the opportunity for salvation from both the physical and the spiritual death, which is to be denied his presence for eternity.
Jesus taught his Apostles for
forty days after his resurrection, but few of his teachings to them at this time
are recorded in the Bible. Apocrypha
documents record some of these secret teachings, which pertain to
The rewards he promised to those who love and serve him are beyond our capability to imagine.
These nuggets of knowledge, which are lost to many, but are in plain sight in the Bible, have been brought out of obscurity by a modern Prophet, Joseph Smith, who was called by Jesus Christ to restore his true Church to the earth after centuries of darkness due to the universal apostasy. Future articles will explore each of them in more detail, relying first on the Bible, and then on modern revelation which adds depth to their understanding.
Footnotes from
The Passing of the
Hugh W. Nibley
Reprinted by permission from Mormonism and Early Christianity, vol. 4 in The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987),168–208.
6. Matthew 17:12; 21:37–39; 23:31–37; Mark 12:6–8; Luke 17:25; John 1:5, 10–11; 3:11–12, 19, 32; 5:38, 40–47; 7:7; 8:19, 23–24, 37–38, 40–47; 15:22–25; cf, Acts 3:13–15.
7. Matthew 9:15; Luke 9:41; 13:25–27; 17:22; John 12:33–34; 12:35–36; 13:33; 14:30; 16:16; cf. Acts 3:21.
8. John 9:4–5; 14:30. Evil triumphs from Abel to the eschaton: Matthew 23:35–39; 17:12; Luke 11:51; Recognitiones Clementinae (Clementine Recognitions) 3, 61, in PG 1:1208.
9.
Matthew 10:24–25; Mark 13:13; Luke 10:16; John 15:18–21;
17:14; Acts 28:26–27; Frederick C. Grant, "The
10. Matthew 10:16–22, 28; 24:9; Mark 3:9; Luke 10:3; John 16:1, 2, 33; 1 Corinthians 4:9; Clement, Epistola I ad Corinthios (First Epistle to the Corinthians) 5, in PG 3:217–20.
11. Matthew 24:14; 28:20; Mark 13:10.
12. James 5:10–11; 1 Peter 1:6–7, 24; 4:12–14; Romans 8.
13. 1 John 3:1; 1 Peter 5:1; John 17:25.
14. Matthew 16:24–26; 2 Corinthians 4:8–16; Philippians 3:1–21; Luke 12:22–34.