Reformation and Restoration- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

This discussion is not an expression of surprise that Joseph Smith, by accident, stumbled upon a coherent set of answers to the knotty religious problems of the Fathers of the Reformation. Or that he, in the brilliance of a 'religious Mozart,' made up a better set of answers than the Fathers of the Reformation were able to thru their own extensive debates.

In fact, the challenges of divisive Christianity were the well-spring of the Restoration (a term used by Latter-day Saints, also known to much of society as Mormons, do denote the re-establishment of the original organization, authority, and complete doctrine of Christianity).

Joseph Smith recounted in detail the atmosphere of competitive contention of Protestantism in his community in upstate New York in ~1819, where ministers and pastors, under the guise of 'revival' vied with each other for converts by preaching their versions of Christian doctrine and decrying the interpretation of the other sects, though they all referred to the same Bible for support.

Two of my own great grandfathers, William Kyle Shupe and James Richey, recounted the challenges they had, at somewhat later dates, as they struggled to understand the confusing religious landscape of incomplete and multifaceted Protestant Christianity that they experienced in their youth. Both earnestly studied the religions of their communities and tried to discern which was true, by comparing those religions to the Bible. (Kyle Shupe, as a boy, obtained a Bible as a prize for faithfully perfect attendance at a Sunday School 10 miles distant, walking there each Sunday for a year on his own initiative, and reading the volume thru when he had obtained it.) Both Kyle and James were dissatisfied with the doctrines and practices of these religions BECAUSE these religions did not fully conform to the Bible, and they were frustrated in their desires to embrace the complete religion of the Savior. Only when they encountered Mormon missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did they feel that they had found the complete Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Over the centuries since the Protestant Reformation, many of the faithful, who sought to worship God in truth, have been dissatisfied with established religion and have tried to better it by breaking away and continuing to refine it. Some of my ancestors, a William Stradling and his son Matthew, are at the top of the petition to form early "Nonconformist" congregations in England, splinter groups who felt that the Church of England was an inadequate representation of the Church of Jesus Christ.

When Joseph Smith was confused by the contention and conflicting claims of the various Christian sects, he found inspiration in the Bible, where James (James 1:5) instructed him that God would clarify confusion, that a man might appeal to God for clarity and that God would not rebuke the seeker.
Joseph Smith did appeal to God for an answer and his answer came with great clarity and power. God the Father and Jesus Christ visited him in person and declared that those Churches were incomplete and adulterated with human philosophy and instructed him to not join any of them; that God would provide a path forward for him in which the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ would be restored to the Earth.

So it is satisfying that in the Restoration of the Gospel, that all of the core questions which were left in contention by the Reformation were answered by the revelations and doctrines given to Joseph Smith by God.

It seems disingenuous for Protestants, particularly fundamentalist evangelicals, who cannot agree among themselves on the doctrines of Christ, to deny the Christianity of the Latter-day Saints, who have sought for and received the fullness of the doctrines of Jesus Christ, by appealing to Him directly and receiving revelation from Him.

I believe that is worth while recounting the original Reformation questions, providing an overview of the status of these questions as provided by current Christian Sects (hopefully by reference to published positions of those churches that you can find on-line) and the complete and correct doctrinal as elucidated in the revelations God has given thru His re-establishment of His Church in the latter days. 

Thomas Madden's course and the List of Questions

I listened to a great audiobook course by Thomas Madden called  Christianity at the Crossroads, a set of 14 lectures by Prof Thomas Madden. 

While I have had courses in college on the Protestant Reformation and comparative religions, somehow I missed the grand sweep of theological development that went with the Reformation. 

As I listen to these very clear and balanced lectures, it is easy to see the particular points of theological struggle of Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Moore, Loyola and others.  Prof Madden presents a sympathetic perspective of these sincere efforts and captures the passion of the very hard issues and the personal struggles that lead to the schisms. I am particularly taken with the efforts of Luther and others to really live all of the commandments and the resulting conclusion by Martin Luther that since he failed (repeatedly) to become perfect, that it must be impossible, AND therefore the focus of the Catholic church on works (including indulgences) being the key to salvation must be in error. (I think he meant, 'If he could not do it, with extreme efforts, who can?') But, he goes from that to an assertion that 'works' (meaning obedience to the commandments) have no role in salvation and that it is only by the grace of Jesus Christ that we are saved. This led to doctrines of predestination, with several different flavors. 

Because of the adversarial and intense development of these ideas, with lives and nations at stake, the positions taken by both the reformers and the Catholic defenders tended to be extreme and stark. It had to be "Either this or That" rather than seeking nuanced insights or finding balance. The result of this was sects defined by hard positions around narrowly defined theological positions, rather than broadly balanced, deeply detailed, and nuanced theologies. The natural development and origins of many sects:  Lutheran, Calvinism, Huguenots (French Calvinists), Congregationalism, Episcopalianism, Baptists, Presbyterianism, etc are laid out. Madden discusses the tumult of conflict, spanning many wars and nations, costing millions of lives, and eventually leading to the establishment of free nations like the US, Canada and Australia.. 

Critical questions of contention, beyond 'Faith and grace' vs works issue, included:

- The relationship between God and mankind and the relationship between God and man (me!)

- Hierarchical Authority vs local authority (this had implications with political authority and legitimacy of kings and the eventual development of personal freedom and democracy)

- Basis for doctrine: Relying on learned commentary and scholarship (the Catholic tradition) vs lay person access to the basic scriptures and a fundamental interpretation of them (revelation, though occasionally claimed, did not seem to have real standing)

- Enforcement of doctrines and morality in the community by legal compulsion, inquisition,  vice extremes of complete freedom- The Lord's approach (See Alma 26 and the D&C 42) did not really come into consideration. 

- Validity of the sacraments:  Transubstantiation (bread and water becoming the actual flesh and blood of Christ), Sacrament of the Lords Supper as a remembrance, or not even necessary. 

- Free will vs predestination- who is saved and what is the criteria for salvation? Does it matter what we do? 

- Which doctrines are important? Which are less important. 

- Original sin, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden--the role of sex and marriage in God's plan

- etc.

This series also include lectures on admirable efforts to reform the Catholic Church, particularly Loyola's development of the Jesuits. A list of the lecture titles** is given below. 

This discussion is particularly interesting to me as a Latter-day Saint. It brought clearly into focus those "plain and precious" truths discussed in the beginning of the Book of Mormon, in which an Angel of the Lord told Nephi that many basic doctrines had been lost from the record of the Jews to early Christianity. 

I am very impressed as I read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, at how clearly these issues are explained and how the deep arguments are resolved completely. Think about this: The best scholars over three hundred years, from 1512 to 1820, could not get their arms around these many divisive issues. Major wars spilled passionate blood across Europe throughout this time over these religious issues and their political implications. Nations were reshaped based on these disputes. 

Yet Joseph Smith, a young man in a backward area of early America, NOT trained in religion (or anything else), NOT a schooled priest or philosopher, puts them all in a balanced and complete package. With revelation and direction from God (recorded and compiled into the scriptural book, the Doctrine and Covenants), the Book of Mormon as a clarifying book of scripture supporting the Bible, and with a hierarchal priesthood authority linked directly to a living Jesus Christ, he gathered it all together into a true and living Church with a self consistent, integrated and comprehensive doctrinal foundation. Wow!

 

Note here- many folks will have quibbles about various of the LDS doctrines as discussed in the LDS Standard Works (KJB, BofM, Doctrines and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price), particularly as the LDS versions are not in complete agreement with aspects of Protestant and Catholic doctrine. That is really the point of this discussion. Catholics and Protestants all agree that their doctrines are not coherently and completely elucidated by God to they themselves, and that is why they have such long internal and community debates, such extensive scholarship, trying to tease out some agreement. 

Also note, not all LDS doctrines stand without some question. However, the overarching picture is well defined. There are not major gaps. It is complete and self consistent. There is concordance between all of the scriptural works, to within some reasonable resolution of meaning for any particular scripture. (e.g.- there are uncertainties of translations, vagueness of wording, etc. )

I am not a sectarian scholar. However, I will try to lay out, to the best of my ability, what are the key questions, what are the current doctrinal assertions of the various branches of Christianity, and what are the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-ay Saints, based on the scriptural record. 

**Christianity at the Crossroads Lectures:

Lecture 1 Christianity after 1500 Years

Lecture 2 On the Eve of Reformation

Lecture 3 The Hatched Egg: Martin Luther to 1519

Lecture 4 Luther and Lutheranism

Lecture 5 The Splintering of the Movement

Lecture 6 The Radical Reformation

Lecture 7 Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent, and the Lutheran Movement

Lecture 8 John Calvin

Lecture 9 The Reformation in France

Lecture 10 The Reformation in England: Henry VIII (1509-47)

Lecture 11 The Reformation in England: The New Order

Lecture 12 The Reformation in England: Revolutions

Lecture 13 Catholic Reformation: Popes and New Orders

Lecture 14 Catholic Reformation: Inquisition and Council