Per this overview: This period of time lasted for centuries and is known as the Great Apostasy...Christ’s true church did not exist. No one held the authority to act in God’s name.
Wait a minute. I just read -- right at the Lds Church Web site -- that: "The latter-day scriptures clarify that..."
...Jesus' apostle
..."John DID NOT DIE BUT WAS ALLOWED TO REMAIN ON THE EARTH AS A MINISTERING SERVANT UNTIL THE TIME OF THE LORD'S COMING
(... 3 Ne. 28:6–7; D&C 7).
See JOHN, SON OF ZEBEDEE [Official Mormon Church Web site says apostle John 'never died']
Well, that's rather strange.
Here, the Mormon Church teaches that Jesus gave his apostles authority...
...and that the apostle John was inclusive in receiving Jesus' authority...
...and that supposedly -- per the Mormon Church -- said apostle John "did not die..." but has rather hung around Planet Earth to "minister"...
...yet right off the get-go of the Mormon missionary lessons, they teach seekers, contacts and other vulnerables that per Basic Mormon Beliefs.com, " NO ONE"...
(and I assume "NO ONE" includes an alive-on-earth apostle John)
"held the authority to act in God's name."
Therefore, Mormon missionaries (I guess) are telling you that yes, John had the authority to act in God's name...
...and then suddenly...
...he didn't for umpteen hundred years.
Yet was still out there aministerin' eh???
You see, all: The reason why the Mormon narrative has to be that "No one held the authority to act in God's name" is 'cause if they more openly conceded that if the apostle John (and some Nephite disciples also mentioned by Mormon) were still around acting in God's Name and authority all these years, then there wasn't ANY need at all for a Joseph Smith-led "restoration."
He would be merely superfluous.
100% unnecessary.
Hmmm...(Maybe the Mormon god forgot about John and those "Nephite disciples" still alive as his authorized troop-apostles on the ground!
(Maybe the Mormon god forgot that Jesus, when speaking about His Church, said: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20)
Mormons basically call Jesus a liar when they claim an apostasy. Then there is the whole ‘restoration’ thing. How could John the Baptist ‘restore’ a priesthood he did not have and how could John the Beloved (with Peter and James - both dead) still living restore a priesthood they did not have?
What bothers me is how many Christians think Mormonism is benign when in truth it is spiritual cyanide.
I think your great learning may have driven you insane.
(vague bible reference...)