Restoration, The

The restoration is not the property of an institution. Although dozens of churches claim the role of succeeding to Joseph Smith’s “true and living” church, the restoration belongs to everyone. Whether one belongs to some denomination claiming Joseph as a founder or one is a traditional Christian, the things restored through Joseph Smith came from God as a gift to all. Because of this, everyone has the responsibility to remember and respect the inspired work of Joseph Smith. The restoration is God’s call to action and offer to renew His direct contact with mankind. If there is any chance of remembering the restoration, it is now. Until the restoration is remembered, there can be no completion.¹ God’s work is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. Those who would like to throw mankind about by every wind of doctrine are merely teaching the commandments of men as if they were doctrine. They are not. “God spoke through Joseph and expects us to remember and study what was given. God will do no more to move the restoration forward until we repent. The first order of repentance is to remember what God gave to us through Joseph. If we do that, we will find God is willing to resume the restoration and move it forward to completion. When we fail to honor what was given, God will simply wait for another generation more humble and meek than ours.”² “The third and fourth generations have passed. The atrophy of the restoration has now brought it to an end. The Lord intends to complete what He began through Joseph. God gave us prophecy, telling what would happen, and signs have confirmed the gentile failure. We live at the end of one era and the beginning of another.”³ God’s house is a house of order. He does it according to patterns. It is not God’s purpose to abandon the restoration, but it is His purpose to preserve it, which at this moment is in terrible jeopardy. The restoration must be rescued and preserved. Those who cannot detect the terrible changes it has undergone and is now undergoing are blind, indeed. Shall God forget the work He began through Joseph? Shall the downward course be permitted without Him raising His hand to save it? Or should a kind and merciful God give mankind a chance to preserve it, with His assistance, if they choose to act? There are many willing to act. They only need some indication from God of how to do so. Thankfully, the pattern was given through Joseph Smith.⁴ “We should follow all that has been given to us in scripture. We should be completing the restoration, not throwing anything away. We are trying to preserve, return, and renew. Nothing given through Joseph should be discarded if it is useful, laudable, worthy, desirable, or came through the restoration. God’s purpose is to preserve, not abandon, the restoration.”⁵

The Restoration had elements which, necessarily, involved creation, renewal, restoration of light, and newness. It was, after all, a “new” and everlasting covenant coming into play. “I do not think Joseph drove the agenda. Nor do I think that we can drive the agenda when it comes to what Heaven is working out for mankind. Instead it is the Lord’s agenda, with His timing, and our responsibility to conform to it. However, it was restored for a ‘last’ time, with judgment to follow after a period of probation. The time of the gentiles is drawing fast to a close, or has closed and is now merely moribund and in need of a funeral. We are numbered among the gentiles. So for us, the harmonic to which we should conform involves that portion of the cosmic ring involved in closing, ending, judgment, and loss. This closing down, as all cycles, will be followed again with renewal, for those who survive. The timing will shift again, and a happy new day will dawn with all the possibilities of creation anew. Of course, even inside the decline, there are elements of renewal and rebirth on an individual basis. While Noah was preparing the ark there were still those who received eternal rebirth as [Genesis] confirms. But the agenda is the Lord’s. Always has been and always will be. We get invited to the party, but the party is His. Therefore, I continue to entertain the conviction that despite the seasons and times assigned to us, we are supposed to realize the ‘signs of the times’ which are upon us and conform our own petitions and conduct to the larger picture within which we are living. When we do, we get a response. When we don’t, we get silence.”⁶