Answering The Mormon Claim Of Total Apostasy

• Introduction: 

          -Mormonism is a religious sect that was founded by Joseph Smith in the woods of Palmyra, New York, in the year 1820. He claimed that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him to establish a completely new church. In other words, he had visions that gave him allegedly new revelations to restore the church back to the original teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles. The loss of divine truth is said to have occurred sometime after their deaths. The Mormon church was officially recognized in 1830.

          -Smith claimed that the "Angel Moroni" gave him some golden "Nephi Plates" so that he could translate them into English. This religious text is known as the Book of Mormon. The three other religious texts used by the Mormons are the King James Version, Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants. The underlying assumption of Mormonism is that the entire Christian church has gone totally astray. The message of the Bible has been corrupted and lost, to be trusted (to borrow a Mormon phrase) only "as far as it is translated correctly."

• Examining Claims Of Total Apostasy In Light Of Biblical Teaching:

          -If Mormonism is correct in claiming a total apostasy, then Jesus’ promises in Matthew 16:18 and 28:20, and Paul’s declaration in Ephesians 3:21, must be false, which would make God a liar, an unthinkable conclusion for any Christian. Jesus explicitly said the gates of hell would not prevail against His church and that He would be with it always, even to the end of the age. Paul affirmed that God would be glorified in the church throughout all generations, world without end. These are not vague spiritual sentiments. They are declarations of divine continuity and protection. To assert that the church ceased to exist for over 1,700 years until Joseph Smith restored it is to deny the very words of Christ and the enduring work of the Holy Spirit. Scripture consistently shows that God preserves a faithful remnant, not through reinvention, but through continuity. The Mormon narrative of total apostasy and restoration contradicts the biblical witness and undermines the trustworthiness of God’s promises.

          -While the apostles spoke of the coming of false teachers, they nowhere spoke of a total apostasy. It is one thing to say that the church became unrecognizably dirty throughout history, but it is another to claim that the church essentially disappeared from the face of the earth.
          -His Word endures forever, unlike the things of man (Isaiah 40:8; Proverbs 30:5-6; 1 Peter 1:23-25). The Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). The Word of God has not been lost, corrupted, or forgotten. Divine providence rules out that possibility. 

          -Those who present strange doctrine are to be deemed heretics (1 Timothy 1:3-4; 2 John 9-11), of which the Mormons teach several science fiction sounding ideas. Further, angelic visions are not an acceptable method of drawing attention to oneself (Colossians 2:18).

          -The Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:8-9 wrote a categorical condemnation of any different gospels that could arise during his lifetime or in the future after his death. He even issued an anathema to angels who could theoretically arrive to preach differently from the doctrine originally delivered by the apostles. 

          -So, even granting that Joseph Smith had an encounter with the Angel Moroni, Mormonism is a false religion because it preaches a different message of salvation. According to Paul, another gospel is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-7). The gospel never needed to be restored because it was not lost to begin with.

• Examining Claims Of Total Apostasy In Light Of History:

          -When did the Christian church go into the state of total apostasy? If this happened, one should be able to chronicle the steps at which it took place and how it happened. One should be able to refer to established facts, writings, history, etc. However, this has never been done successfully by Joseph Smith or Mormon apologists.  

          -The New Testament is supported by thousands of different manuscripts and manuscript fragments. Further, a creed summarizing the gospel message that the Apostle Paul recounted in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 has been dated back to the first century. The teachings of Jesus and the apostles have not been lost or altered, disproving the claims of Mormonism.
          -Why would Mormons use the Bible at all, since they maintain that the whole of Christianity became irredeemably corrupt after the first century and the canon was assembled by an (allegedly) apostate church? Which parts of the Bible have been corrupted?