In the Dispensation of the Meridian of Time, when the Savior ministered among the Jews, he restored the Gospel with the Higher Priesthood. He called and ordained Twelve Apostles and gave them power, before his ascension into heaven, to complete the church organization, and commissioned them to carry the message of divine salvation into all the world. In restoring that which had been taken away, he annulled the carnal law, which had been added in the place of the higher law, for it had filled the measure of its creation.
Commission of the Apostles
Under the commission Jesus gave the apostles to carry the Gospel message into all the world and preach it to every creature, they commenced their active ministry on the day of Pentecost, preaching in power to the convincing of many souls. As the work of the ministry grew, and the assistance of other laborers was required to carry on the work, men were divinely called and ordained to specific offices in the Church. The Lord, himself, had called and ordained, besides the twelve, seventies, and sent them forth throughout Judea bearing the message of truth. When they returned from that missionary journey it was with much rejoicing because even the devils were subject unto them. What other officers the Lord ordained and set apart, the scriptures do not reveal. That the Twelve Apostles were empowered to set in order all things pertaining to the Church, is, nevertheless, beyond dispute. We learn that under their direction and ministry, as branches were formed and the work of the ministry required it, high priests, evangelists, patriarchs, elders, bishops, deacons, priests, pastors and teachers were called into the service of the Church. The organization was in this manner effected during the days of the apostles. The Church was also blessed with the divine gifts and blessings of the Spirit of the Lord in those early days, just as it was during the Savior’s ministry. There were in the Church many prophets who uttered, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, many remarkable predictions.
Essential Offices in the Church
All of these offices in the Church, are essential to the advancement of the members and cannot be discarded with impunity. Paul said, the Lord “gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfection of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” These were not merely to remain in the Church during the formative period, or for a brief season in order to start the work, and then to be replaced by other officers of another kind. Men were ordained to these callings “for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12–13). Evidently, then, as long as there is imperfection in the Church among the members, in doctrine, knowledge, or love, they fall short of “the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
These officers are all needed and cannot justly be removed, for the Lord never so intended. The writer of the epistle to the Ephesians also further compares all these officers to the various parts of the human body and says: “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” This same apostle also likens the spiritual gifts to the physical body, declaring each to be essential in the Church, just as the parts of the body are each necessary and one part cannot say to another, “I have no need of you,” for all are necessary that all men may “profit withal.”
Chapter 2
The Falling Away
The Body of the Church Destroyed
Notwithstanding that the early officers of the Church were endowed with the Holy Priesthood and exercised the spiritual gifts, which were to remain until all came “unto a perfect man unto the stature of the fulness of Christ,” there came a great and terrible change, absolutely destroying the perfect body of the Church. In its place arose a strange organization which eventually gained dominion over the earth and ruled the destinies of men, not in love unfeigned, but in blood and carnage most appalling, and with an iron hand.