After the death of Jesus Christ, wicked people persecuted the early Christian Saints and the Apostles, killing many of them as Christ had prophesied (Matt. 24:9). But it was not only persecution and death that were problems for those early Saints.  The doctrines taught by the Apostles and by Christ were being corrupted. This period of time in Christianity is often referred to as the Apostasy, the turning of individuals from the truth. In Act 20, verses 28-30 Paul warns the saints to “take heed..to all the flock…that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter among you…speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them”. Even before the Apostles death the Apostasy had began. Galations 1:6-9 tells us that there were those that troubled the saints and would “pervert” the gospel. A warning was issued “If any man preach any other gospel unto than that ye have received, let him be accursed”. It was a very serious time, and rightly so. The Church was under attack.

With the death of the Apostles, the authority and power to direct, lead and teach the Church (the Priesthood) was lost to the earth. No one had the correct authority to lead, only the Apostles had that power, but now they were gone. Amos, a prophet in Old Testament times, prophesied of these days: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea and from north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.(Amos 8:11-12) Without the Apostles, doctrines became corrputed and unauthorized changes were made to ordinances such as baptism and conferring the Holy Ghost.

Without revelation and priesthood authority, people relied solely upon the wisdom of men to interpret the scriptures. Soon, false ideas were taught as truth and the knowledge of the the true character and nature of God the Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were lost. Many churches began to rise because of different interpretations of the scriptures.

Centuries past and finally truth seeking men and women began to protest against the corruption of the doctrines being taught. Men like Martin Luther and John Calvin went about to reform their prospective churches, realizing that portions of the truth had been lost. These men never professed to be prophets, because they had read the scriptures and knew that only those called of God could be a prophet (Luke 6:13, John 15:16 and Hebrews 5:4). 

Along with all of the prophesies and warnings about the forthcoming Apostasy (Matt 24:9-11, Mark 12:1-9, Acts 20: 28-30, Galations 1:6-9, and 1 Timothy 4:1-3) there is also a scripture in Acts 3:20-21, where Peter cries repentence to the people, telling them to do so before the second coming of Christ, when they would be in His presence. An interesting phrase is mentioned in verse 21, “Whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things…” . I looked up the word “restitution” in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary. It means 1: an act of restoring or a condition of being restored: as a: a restoration of something to its rightful owner b: a making good of or giving an equivalent for some injury 2: a legal action serving to cause restoration of a previous state (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/restitution). 

This verse is a prophesy of the apostasy that was to come, for why would Christ need to restore the Church to it’s original state if it had not become corrupted? 

To read about The Restoration please read the post titled  ”The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.