Objection · Case 11 · Mormonism
Every church makes some claim to authority; Catholicism claims to be the one true church too. Why single out the LDS claim as uniquely large?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
The comparison is fair. The Catholic and Orthodox claims are to continuity with the apostolic church; the LDS claim is that the apostolic church ceased to exist for seventeen centuries and was refounded. The second is a larger historical claim because it requires that every Christian community in that span lacked valid authority and that a nineteenth-century restoration reconnected the chain. Claiming authority is not the problem. A claim of total loss and restoration has to explain the historical record of the intervening centuries in a way the continuity claims do not.
About this exhibit
This objection is to “The Only True and Living Church,” Gospel Topics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The church’s own teaching explains that it holds a unique commission and priesthood authority not found elsewhere, and that the fullness of the gospel was lost after the apostles and restored…