God has shown his love to us throughout the ages by calling prophets to lead his children, (Amos 3:7, Old Testament; Ephesians 2:19-20, Ephesians 4:11-14, New Testament). He does not want us to be left unguided in this life. From the beginning of time, the Lord has spoken to us through His prophets, who have been given the authority to act in God’s name, which is called the priesthood. These words of God have been recorded in the scriptures for our benefit. Whenever people disregard the words of the prophets, they distance themselves from the Lord and fall into spiritual darkness. When this condition is widespread, it leads to an apostasy and God withdraws His authority from the earth. At the end of an apostasy, the Lord calls another prophet and gives him priesthood authority.
This pattern of prophetic dispensations has occurred since the beginning of time, starting with Adam and continuing with Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses for the first five dispensations. Each dispensation was started with the calling of these prophets. Eventually, people have used their agency to reject the gospel and fall into apostasy in each dispensation.
The sixth dispensation was opened when Christ came to the earth and again reestablished his church. He called twelve apostles and laid his hands on their heads to give them the priesthood authority (or keys), (Matthew 16:19, New Testament; Mark 3:14). Following His atonement, death and resurrection, the apostles were left with the authority to build up his church and preach the gospel to the world. However, after Christ left the earth, the apostles were persecuted and eventually killed, which again removed the priesthood from the earth. This began the period known as the “Great Apostasy,” which was prophesied to come, (Matthew 24:9-11, New Testament; Acts 20:28-30, New Testament; 1 Timothy 4:1-3, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, 2 Peter 2:1-2, New Testament; 1 Nephi 11:34, Book of Mormon). Without priesthood authority to preside over the church, the doctrines established by Christ became corrupted, resulting in unauthorized changes to church organization and ordinances. (Isaiah 24:5, Old Testament) People were left to rely on human wisdom to interpret the scriptures.
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