The Prophet of the Restoration pt.1

Hello Brothers and Sisters.

Since Adam and Eve, God has given us prophets to guide us in our lives. The first one being Adam, following him are some big names in the bible like Abraham and Moses, Elias and Elijah. God has always wanted us to have a prophet on the earth to communicate Gods words with ours. Picture this. This idea is more of a visual but since you cant see me, just do your best to picture it in your mind. you hold your hand in a fist in the air and someone else holds their fist above yours. You close your eyes. The other person then moves your hand and you try to follow his movements. That wont work very well because you cant see anything. Now, you grab one end of a pen, and the other person grabs the other end. Now close your eyes and follow his movements. It will be quite a bit easier as the pen acts as a guide. think of your hand as yourself, the other hand as God, and the pen as a prophet. You can not see god, so its quite hard for you to follow him. But with a prophet in the mix, he can guide you to what God wants you to do.

Like I said before, God has a prophet with the priesthood for us on the earth. This is called a dispensation. But, in history, people follow the same pattern. God presents a prophet, the people follow, then the people disobey, and people kill the prophet, and with him, the priesthood leaves the earth. This is called an apostasy. When Jesus Christ was killed, resurrected, and ascended to heaven, and left the apostles to preach his word, that was a dispensation. But as I said before, the pattern followed once again. People disobeyed the apostles and killed them off. With them left the priesthood of God. We can picture the gospel and the priesthood as a plate. When people killed the apostles, it was like the plate dropped and shattered. As people tried to put the pieces back together, the plate still was broken, the plate needed a restoration to look brand new. God needed to come back to the earth and restore the gospel in its fullness to the earth. For fourteen hundred years, the priesthood was not found on the earth. Until God came to a boy of fourteen years old. This young boy was named Joseph Smith. He was to be the Prophet of the Restoration.

The Smith family was raised on a farm. The family were God fearing people. They would read their scriptures as a family at night. At this time, there were many different sects of churches. Young Joseph, at the age of 14, would say, "During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness." (Joseph Smith History) Young Joseph went to the different sects to listen to what they would have to say. He would talk to each of the pastors for questions and find that each pastor said the only way to salvation was to not question what they say. Joseph could not decide which sect was correct, and what he should choose. Filled with questions, he began to read and study the bible. He came upon one scripture in the epistle of James. which reads, 'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of god, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.'(James 1:5) He had this to say about it.

"Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart." Knowing that he had questions that needed to be answered, he did as James directed. Young Joseph went to a lonely place to pray to God. While he found himself alone, he started his prayer. "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other, This is My Beloved Son, Hear Him."(Joseph Smith History)

God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph. Joseph asked which sect to join, and The Son said to join none of them. Christ said that he would be the new Prophet of God and that he would restore the Gospel and priesthood, in its fullness, to the earth.