Have any of you (all 1 or 2 of you) ever noticed that many, if not most, agents who accept e-mail queries never respond? To me, that's plain rude. It's like not responding to a very legitimate business offer. Plus, it keeps the writer's hopes up unnecessarily. If an agent doesn't like what he/she sees, what is the problem of just hitting the reply key, instead of the delete key, and type in "not for me," then hit the send key, then they can hit the delete key. It's got to be a whole less work than the old snail mail method of slipping a reject slip into an envelope, licking the seal and sealing it, then carting it off to the mailbox.
Okay, enough for my rant of the day.
What do Mormons believe? I haven't broached this subject for a while.
When Jesus organized his church during his mortal ministry, he had a definite organization that included prophets, apostles, elders, priests, teachers, and deacons. It also included bishops and evangelists (or as we now call them patriarchs). So, what happened to that structure? It was evident from the original 12 Apostles actions that they needed to maintain that number of apostles (12). At first, they chose Barnabus to replace Judas Iscariot who had apostatized and committed suicide. Later, they called Paul to the holy apostleship.
So, again, one might ask, what happened?
With the social pressures, persecution, logistical problems, and general apostasy within the church itself, one-by-one the apostles died off (all except for John the beloved). Ravening wolves entered the church as predicted by Paul, and the keys to the priesthood, held by the 12, were lost. Thus began the so-called "dark ages," or the "great apostasy." It lasted nearly 1800 years and didn't end until God reappeared to a boy named Joseph Smith. Through him, the keys to the priesthood were restored. The authority to organize the church in it's former structure was restored.
More later.
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