Restored and Restoring: The Unfolding Drama of the Restoration

The spring of 1820 heralded the dawn of a new day. The Sacred Grove in upstate New York was not to be the location of a complete restoration, a place and time wherein God would make all things known and correct all the flaws of a faltering world. Rather, the First Vision began the era of restitution, the times of refreshing, the season of cleansing and purification and endowment that would reach a zenith in a millennial dispensation.

Joseph Smith would not leave the Sacred Grove understanding all he would know when he was martyred some 24 years later. Insights into principles & doctrines of the gospel would come to him, as they would to all Latter-day Saints, incrementally. The "restitution of all things" is a work in progress. This book contains essays that focus on varied facets of that theological & ecclesiastical revolution known as the Restoration.

When Joseph stated that he intended to lay a foundation that would revolutionize the whole world, he did not speak in hyperbole; he meant what he said. Through visions, revelations, delivery of modern scripture, ordination to divine apostolic power, there would come a new Christian culture, a counterculture, a doctrinal shift in perspective, a paradigm shift that would involve gathering in one all things in Christ. God would effect a transformation of human nature, an eventual elevation and renovation of society, and a people prepared for the Second Coming.

Robert Millet is a Professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU. Since joining the faculty he served as chair of the department of Ancient Scripture, dean of Religious Education, director of publishing for the BYU Religious Studies Center. He is author of over 70 books, 180 articles, encyclopedia entries dealing with doctrine & history of the Church & its relation to other faiths.