Elder Charles Didier
Of the Presidency of the Seventy
The message of the Restoration is [an] invitation to know why the gospel of Jesus Christ and His true Church have been restored by a prophet in modern times.
Words are part of a vocabulary that we use to share
feelings, knowledge, or information between people. Among these words, one
is used to find the cause or the reason of a thing. When expressed, it is
to satisfy our curiosity, to discover the unknown, or to receive answers
to vital questions related to our mortal life. If not used or ignored, the
thinking process ceases and ignorance prevails. So what is this essential
word? Did you guess it? It is comprised of three letters; it is the word
why.
Why is among the first and favorite words pronounced
early by children and especially teenagers. A favorite why of one of my
grandchildren: "Why
do I need to eat vegetables?" Then, as children grow, the whys start
the exploration of feelings: "Why did Grandmother die?" Then it
is the search for knowledge or for confirmation of responsibilities: "Why
do I need to go to church or serve a mission?" "Why are we commanded
to share the gospel with others?"
This last question is challenging! Missionary
work is also the responsibility of every member—to sound the warning
voice to their neighbors, in mildness
and in meekness (see D&C 38:41). Why? So that others may receive the
saving ordinances in the Church of Jesus Christ by inviting them to come
unto Christ (see Moroni
10:32). The message of the Restoration is this invitation
to know why the gospel of Jesus Christ and His true Church have been restored
by a prophet in modern times.
How can you extend such an invitation to someone?
First, by declaring that God our Father lives, loves us, and that He is
a God of revelation. How is that known? By revelation and the witness of
prophets.
The time line of religious history starts with
the Bible. It is a record of God's early revelation to His prophets, dealing
with mankind. It starts
with an account of Adam and Eve, our first parents; their creation; their
fall, with its consequences—mortality and separation from God; and their
first steps in the mortal world. Probably then one of their first questions
was "Why are we here?" To find out, their only solution was to call upon the name of the Lord,
their only source of true knowledge (see Genesis
4:26). By direct revelation,
they
heard the voice of the Lord commanding them that they should worship the
Lord their God and should make an offering unto Him (see Genesis
4:4; Moses 5:4–5).
Further revelation to Adam and Eve taught them that the offering was in similitude
of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, that Jesus Christ was
the only name whereby salvation would come unto them. Then the gift of the
Holy Ghost was promised to them whereby whatsoever they would ask, it would
be given to them (see Moses
5:6–7; 6:52).
Later Adam obtained by the power of the Holy Ghost a sure and infallible
witness that Jesus was the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world.
There was a literal restoration of an understanding of the mortal status
of the fallen Adam and Eve by giving them knowledge about their relationship
with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; knowledge about the Atonement
and the Resurrection; and further knowledge about the first principles and
ordinances of the gospel of salvation.
Because of what Adam heard and what he saw, he qualified to be called the
first prophet on earth, a personal witness of revelation given to man. His
major responsibility now was to preserve the truth of the gospel as well
as to teach it as it was given to him. Satan, on the other hand, representing the opposition, was going to do
and teach anything to deny, to reject, or to ignore the gospel received
by revelation,
thus inducing the people who had accepted it into apostasy, a state of confusion,
division, abandonment, or renunciation of their previous faith! The rest
of the story of the Old Testament became then a religious history of
continuous
revelation through various prophets like Noah, Abraham, and Moses, at various
times—called dispensations—to restore what had been lost because of renewed
apostasy. These prophets were always called by God. They were given divine
authority; they had the keys of the priesthood; they had a divine commission
to speak in the name of the Lord and teach and prophesy of the coming and
the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world (see
Amos 3:7).
The New Testament confirms the teachings, testimonies,
and prophecies of the prophets of the Old Testament. It is an account of
the birth, life, and
ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; His Atonement; and His
Resurrection. It tells about the establishment of His Church, His divine
authority, His gospel, and His commandment to His disciples to share, to "go . . . into all the world, and preach [His] gospel to every creature" (Mark
16:15).
The message of the New Testament was clear: there
was one fold, one faith, one gospel, one priesthood, one church in order
to be "in one, the children
of Christ" (4 Nephi
1:17).
But again persecution, denial of divine identity, and rejection of Christ's
gospel and His authorized priesthood servants characterized the post-Resurrection
era. And religious history shows us evidence of how rapidly the priesthood
authority was superseded by the secular authority; how the divine doctrine
was traded for shifting, distorted human philosophies; how the ordinances
of salvation were altered or purchased for money; how revelation was replaced
by a veil of obscurity leading into the ages of spiritual darkness.
However, there came a time during this great
apostasy, which had been prophesied before, when the religious quest surfaced
again—the "Why is it so?" Men
of great faith emerged to try to reform false doctrines and false spiritual
authority. Their honest and sincere efforts only resulted in the creation
of more churches carrying their names and their protest and adding more confusion
and more divisions. In reality, two major elements were missing in the reform:
revelation and authority, the Lord's only way to communicate divine truth
to mankind.
As we continue to move rapidly along this time
line of religious history, we find a date and a name. The date is 1820;
the name is Joseph Smith. Pondering
about the total religious confusion and church division of his time, this
young man asked himself, "If any one of [these churches] be right, which
is it, and how shall I know it?" (Joseph
Smith—History 1:10). Why
such confusion? The prophetic model was to ask of God. Religious history
suddenly repeated itself according to God's scenario of how to answer mankind's
whys. Once again a vision came as an answer, this time a vision of the Father
and the Son. Once again a divine testimony of the Father was given: "This
is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (Joseph Smith—History 1:17). Once again direct revelation answered Joseph
Smith's question: "Which of all the [churches] was right . . . and which
I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were
all wrong" (Joseph
Smith—History 1:18–19). Once again apostasy was
declared from the source of truth—by Jesus Christ Himself. And once again
it had to be followed by a restoration, and indeed it was.
In the following years, by revelation, Joseph Smith received full divine
doctrinal knowledge and the authority and the keys of the priesthood. Finally
in 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ, with all the doctrines of salvation
and the ordinances thereof, was restored. Joseph Smith qualified to be called the prophet of the Restoration in modern
times.
As the Bible is the tangible evidence of divine revelation to the prophets
of ancient times, in the same way the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of
Jesus Christ is also the modern convincing evidence that Joseph Smith was
a prophet receiving revelation and authority as they did. A testimony of
the veracity of the Book of Mormon helps people to find an answer to why
the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ have been restored by a prophet
and why we have a living prophet today, namely Gordon B. Hinckley. It also
answers the ultimate why: all the ordinances of the gospel provide the greatest
blessing to prepare our salvation and to fulfill our mortal purpose to create
eternal families. This message of the Restoration is true because it is divine.
Of this I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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