Marjorie asked me, “Why did the Lord wait so long to bring about the Restoration?”

Good question.  In theory, had the Restoration happened hundreds of years before it did, many millions more people could have received its blessings, and things would have been farther along than they are today.  That would be one line of thinking, but it wouldn't be so.

The truth of the matter is that the world wasn't ready.  People weren't ready.  The Restoration couldn't have happened before it did.  Had Joseph Smith tried to do what he did in any other time or place he'd have been killed before he had hardly begun.  Groundwork and preparation had to happen first.

During the Dark Ages gross darkness covered the earth and the minds of its people.  Satan and the great and abominable church reigned.  The great and abominable church included the Catholic Church, which ruled Europe, and the idol-worshiping nations that constituted the rest of the world.

Europe was in captivity.  In England it was illegal for anyone but priests to own a Bible.  William Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English.  Those who disagreed with Catholic doctrine or who refused to pay taxes to support priests who did nothing were put in stocks or in prison and had horrible things done to them.  The penalties for owning translations of Bible materials, or tracts that disagreed with the church, included having your nose slit, your ears cut off at different times, being branded on the forehead, being tortured in various ways, or of being burned at the stake.

It was illegal to leave the country without permission from the crown.  William Brewster and his companions in 1620 managed to elude the authorities and got aboard the Mayflower in an effort to find religious freedom in a brand-new land.

In Spain, the Inquisition prosecuted 150,000 people, 3,000 to 5,000 of whom were executed for heretical practices.  The Spanish Inquisition was inaugurated in 1478, and was not abolished until 1834.

In Italy Galileo was tried by church authorities in 1633 for the crime of saying that the earth rotated around the sun instead of vice versa.  He was threatened with death unless he recanted his heretical idea.  He was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

In France the king ordered the killing of leading Protestant Huguenots.  Things spun out of control, and mobs took over.  The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 in Paris lasted three days.  It eventually spread to a dozen other cities.  No one knows how many were killed.  Estimates range from 5,000 to 30,000 or possibly to 70,000.

Louis XIV of France reigned from 1643 to 1715.  He made Protestantism illegal.  Dissenters were either forced to convert to Catholicism or to flee to other countries.

In 1517 in Germany Martin Luther's efforts to reform the Catholic Church led to mass dissensions and the Thirty Years' War which killed hundreds of thousands, and impoverished the survivors.

Satan smiled.  Satan ruled.  His church held sway.  All of Europe was in his power.  The rest of the world was in ignorance about Jesus Christ and His Atonement.  Satan did his utmost to keep the world in those conditions.

The Restoration would require discoveries, inventions, technology, and a country with a free, democratic government.

Books were necessary. In 1436 Johannes Gutenberg was inspired to invent the printing press.  Martin Luther said that “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.”

Literacy was necessary.  Literacy in Europe was very low.  In America in 1776 only 15% of the people could read.  Book printing accelerated literacy and the availability of knowledge.

A new country where religious thought would not be restricted was necessary.  Christopher Columbus was sent in 1492 to discover it.

A free, democratic government would be necessary.  Such a thing did not exist anywhere in the world.  The most amazing collection of minds ever to come to earth was sent to the English colonies in the New World.  Those minds brought about the revolution which separated America from European tyrannies and thinking.  They wrote a Constitution which embodied unheard-of freedoms.

A strong leader with a pure heart, and a mind not cluttered with false teachings, was necessary.  Just 16 years after the establishment of the Constitution of the United States a baby boy was sent to Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith who would become that leader.

Helps, tutors, angels, and revelations were sent to the boy, Joseph Smith, as he was prepared step by step to do what he did.  Step by step the truth was restored.  Satan opposed every step.

Mobs were organized by the leaders of various sects of the great and abominable church.  Satan's intention was to silence truth and to prevent the Restoration from happening at all costs.  The mobs were successful in driving the Lord's restored Church out of New York State; out of Ohio; out of Jackson County, Missouri; out of the state of Missouri; out of Illinois; and finally clear out of that new, free nation.  The Church was driven into the wilderness to an uninhabited land.

This took place in that new land of liberty.  The Restoration could not have even gotten a toehold anywhere else in the world.

The purpose of the restoration of the gospel is to make truth and eternal covenants available to every soul, living or dead.

The Restoration hinged upon a number of ideas and discoveries, all orchestrated by the Lord.

The Restoration hinged upon Columbus' discovery of the new land.

The Restoration hinged upon the radical thinking and actions of the leaders of the Reformation, like Martin Luther and John Wesley.

The Restoration hinged upon the invention of the printing press which would make the scriptures and knowledge readily available to everyone.

The Restoration hinged upon having a literate, educated populace.

The Restoration hinged upon inventions that would make rapid communication and travel possible.  Those inventions included the telegraph, trains, steam-powered ships, automobiles, airplanes, telephones, computers, and the internet.  The Lord's missionaries needed to be able to rapidly get to their fields of labor.  Family history research needed to become simple, fast, and doable by ordinary people  Many thousands of inventions were necessary to bring these things into existence.  It all began in 1830 with the organization of the Church.  The world took off on that date.  The floodgates were opened.  It couldn't have happened any sooner, and it couldn't have happened in any other place.  It required Joseph Smith to turn the key.

The Restoration is ongoing.  It is not through.  It is accelerating.  Hundreds of temples have been built.  Thousands will be necessary.  The gospel must yet sound in every ear.  Temple ordinances and covenants must be offered to every soul.

The Restoration was slow in coming as the world was made ready step by step.  The Restoration is now in full swing, and is unstoppable.  We are privileged to be a part of this great effort.  It is an honor and a responsibility that should not be taken for granted nor ignored.