The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration

What happened to Christ's Church? Did it survive Christ's death? Or was it lost, and if so, is it present on earth today?

Author Tad R. Callister has delved deeply into the writings of both early Christian writers and Latter-day Saint leaders to present thirteen evidences that Christ's Church fell into apostasy, including the loss of the apostles, revelation, priesthood, miracles, scriptures, and gifts of the Spirit, and the corruption of the doctrinal teachings and holy ordinances. But beyond just presenting the evidence of a great apostasy and the need for a heavenly restoration, the author explores the equally important questions of why?

• Why was an apostasy inevitable?
• Why were the teachings of such basic doctrines as the nature of God, the Fall of Adam, baptism, grace and works, and marriage corrupted and changed?
• Why were the ordinances of the sacrament and the temple altered, and in some cases lost?
• Why was Christ's Church not immediately restored to the earth?
• Why is it important to understand the doctrine of the apostasy and the restoration?

Brother Callister invites the reader "to test this book with an open mind, to analyze its historical accuracy, to verify the scriptural authenticity, to contemplate its underlying rationale, and, most of all, to sincerely ask God for a spiritual confirmation as to whether or not there was an apostasy of Christ's Church, followed by a restoration in modern times. As I personally exercised that prerogative, the answer was clear and profound."

The apostasy was inevitable and the promised restoration did happen—in the spring of 1820 when the boy Joseph Smith asked God the Father essentially, "What happened to Christ's Church?"

Tad R. Callister

Tad R. Callister was serving in the Presidency of the Seventy and as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was called as Sunday School General President in April 2014. Brother Callister received a BS in accounting from Brigham Young University, a JD from the University of California-Los Angeles, and an MS in tax law from New York University Law School. He spent most of his professional career practicing tax law. He is the author of the best-selling books The Infinite Atonement, The Inevitable Apostasy, and The Blueprint of Christ's Church He and his wife, Kathryn Louise Saporiti, are the parents of six children.