"Mormon" Doctrine Plain and Simple; Or, Leaves from the Tree of Life

by Charles W. Penrose

The departure from the order, doctrine, ordinances and spirit of primitive Christianity commenced at a very early period. Contentions began to creep in among the early saints, and they soon commenced to array themselves in factions, some being of Paul, others of Apollos, others of Cephas, etc. And the inspired leaders of the Church foresaw the great apostasy which would take place, as may be seen from their epistles.

Paul declared that the day of the Lord's second advent would not dawn until a "falling away" should occur. He described the condition of apostate Christendom, when the people "would not endure sound doctrine," but would "heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;" when "doctrines of devils" should be taught instead of the pure gospel; when they would have "a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof;" and Peter declared that false teachers would arise in the place of the duly authorized servants of God, and bring in damnable heresies; who "through covetousness would make merchandise" of the souls of men; and by whom "the way of truth would be evil spoken of." This "mystery of iniquity" had already begun to work even in their day, and rapidly increased after their departure.

The combined powers of the world, the flesh and the devil, made such inroads upon the Church of Christ, that, by the time when John, the beloved disciple, was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he received the great vision known as the Book of Revelation, only seven branches of the Church were worthy of divine mention, and some of them had become so corrupt that terrible denunciations were hurled against them, and they were threatened with complete rejection.

In that same vision the inspired apostle beheld the utter and universal apostasy of the Church and the spread of spurious Christianity until all nations were "made drunk with the wine of the wrath of the fornication" of Babylon, "the mother of harlots and abominations." Instead of the chaste Church of Christ, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and the crown of twelve stars upon her head, the scarlet-clothed impostor, sitting upon the beast, grasping a golden cup full of filthiness for the whole world to drink. Regal pomp and state power, instead of the solar glory of the Melchisedec and the lunar rays of the Aaronic Priesthoods, with the stellar crown of apostleship shining at the head! Mystery instead of light! Painted gaudiness instead of modest purity! Names of blasphemy instead of that one sacred name at which every knee should bow!

When the lights that Christ kindled on earth to lead mankind in the only true way were put out by the hands of murderous men, darkness overspread the world, and "gross darkness covered the people." Errors multiplied. Heresies sprang up like rank weeds. The Spirit of Christ gradually withdrew. And when what was left of the form of Christianity became allied to the softened paganism of the Romish empire, the angels looked down from afar upon another triumph of the arch adversary, who rules as prince of this world, and reigns in the hearts of the children of disobedience.

The Papal church, seated upon the Romish State, was fitly prefigured by the woman upon the beast. The Church of Christ was gone, without even a shadow of its presence to be seen upon the earth. All nations were blinded and intoxicated by the mystery and abominations, the heresies and perversions, the pomps and vanities of this spurious ecclesiastical system, with its popes and cardinals in the place of apostles and prophets, its priestcraft in the place of the Priesthood, and its force, bloodshed, cruelty and lust in the place of the love, liberty, peace and charity of the departed Church of the Redeemer.

After a time came the reformation. Protestants against the tyranny, falsehood and gross villainies of this blasphemous hierarchy sounded aloud the story of her abominations and shook all Christendom with the force of their eloquence. Anathematized and excommunicated from the mother church, they established new churches, discarding many errors but retaining as many more. Still further "reformations" were inaugurated, originating more churches, and thus sects produced sects, and as religious liberty increased so religious systems multiplied, until the term Christianity covered an incongruous mass of discordant elements, representing all shades of human opinion, without a single authoritative voice deputed of heaven to harmonize and bring them into order.

For, though immense good accrued to the world through the exposure of error and the unfolding of truth, which were the consequence of the reformation and its successive developments, and though many excellent mea spent their lives and suffered cruel deaths for principles of righteousness, yet there was no direct communication established between them and the heavens, and that authority by which the apostles administered for and in behalf of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost was still unrestored to man. There was no inspired prophet, no gifted seer, no appointed revelator through whom the will of God could be made known. Therefore, the ordinances of the gospel could not be administered acceptably to God, and all such ceremonies as were established among the various sects were of necessity void and without virtue in heaven.

So the world rolled on, and men framed religions, all containing some truth as well as some errors, and many persons who would have done well in advocating what they believed to be right, in their own names, undertook to assume the name of the Trinity, and to officiate as though authorized by Jesus Christ, while they openly admitted that there had been no communication from on high for centuries, and maintained that the days of revelation were gone forever.

And thus the effects of Mystery, Babylon, the Mother of abominations, were felt directly or indirectly throughout all the nations professing to be Christian, and millions upon millions of mistaken souls passed behind the vail without receiving the principles and ordinances of salvation, and the living and the dead were left in the spiritual darkness of centuries of apostasy to wait until the dawning of the great and last dispensation, the times of restitution, when the crowning act of God's mercy to man should be performed, and the ushering in of the millennial day should bring again to the world, with increasing glory, the gospel, the Priesthood, the blessings and the powers of all former ages, for the salvation of the human race and the permanent establishment of the Church and kingdom of God, no more to be thrown down forever.