The Latter-day Saint Restoration: Restored Authority and an Expanded Canon
As taught in the Latter-day Saint tradition
How Latter-day Saints read Scripture through restoration, living prophets, and an open canon
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — whose members are commonly called Latter-day Saints, and in older usage "Mormons" — traces its origin to the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., and the organization of the church in the United States in 1830. The tradition is now headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the centre of the Latter-day Saint self-understanding is a single organizing idea: restoration. Latter-day Saints hold that the church Jesus established with apostles and prophets fell into a "great apostasy" after the death of the original apostles — that authority to act in God's name was lost, plain truths were corrupted, and the church as a divinely authorized institution ceased to exist on the earth.
By the end of this lesson
- Explain the Latter-day Saint claim of a 'restoration' of the original church and priesthood authority through Joseph Smith after a perceived 'great apostasy,' and how it differs from the historic Christian claim of unbroken continuity with the apostolic church.
- Identify the four 'standard works' — the Bible, the Book of Mormon ('Another Testament of Jesus Christ'), the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price — and distinguish which are Latter-day Saint-distinctive scripture from the shared Bible.
- State accurately the Latter-day Saint understanding of the Godhead as three separate beings united in purpose, alongside the Nicene Trinity (one God in three coequal persons of one substance) that historic Christianity confesses.
- Describe the doctrine of continuing revelation through living prophets and how it keeps the Latter-day Saint canon open in principle.
- Summarise how Latter-day Saints read James 1:5, Amos 3:7, Ezekiel 37:16-17, John 10:16, and Acts 3:19-21 in support of restoration, an open canon, and continuing revelation.
Scripture
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