Restoration of All Things

In our most recent post we commented on the priesthood restrictions that have been in place from the time of Adam (women were excluded) down until the time of Christ (only the sons of Levi could hold the priesthood).

A point that I failed to make in my last post was that after the time of Abraham the priesthood and its availability seems to have been limited to the Hebrews only. I am unaware of any scriptural injunction for this, but since the family of Abraham; and later the children of Israel were the only worshipers of the true God, the priesthood naturally was limited to them. (This is a de facto limitation, not a legal one as far as I know)

At the birth of Christ eligibility for ordination to the priesthood was limited to the male descendants of Levi, the same standard that had existed from the time of Moses. Jesus started to reverse this trend and commenced an expansion of priesthood eligibility that wasn't completed until 1978. While recognizing the legitimacy of the Levitical Priesthood, Jesus expanded priesthood eligibility by ordaining men who were not of the tribe of Levi (apostles, deacons, priests, evangelists, bishops, etc...) . This expanded and restored eligibility for priesthood ordination to a level similar to the time of Abraham.

In quick order Peter received a revelation restoring the gospel (and its priesthood) to the Gentiles, thereby expanding priesthood eligibility to a level that existed from the time of Noah to Moses. Just as the limitations were revealed to prophets (Noah and Moses) so has its reversal been revealed through prophets (Jesus, Peter, and Spencer W. Kimball).

What I find fascinating is that the priesthood restrictions that started with Adam and were gradually put in place until the time of Christ were reversed in exactly the opposite order in which they were applied. A timeline of restrictions and the lifting of those restrictions goes something like this:

1. The priesthood was available to all men for 2000 years (Adam - Noah).
2. The limitation on the descendants of Canaan was the first limitation and that lasted as the only limitation for approximately 1000 years (Noah - Moses).
3. The next limitation was restricting the priesthood to Levites which stayed in place for over 1000 years (Moses to Christ).
4. The priesthood was restored to all men except the sons of Canaan for nearly 2000 years (Peter to Spencer W. Kimball).
5. In 1978 the restriction against the sons of Canaan was lifted (Spencer W. Kimball through the end of time).

It has taken 2000 years for all of the restrictions to be reversed (Christ to 1978) to a point in time where now the priesthood is as widely available as it was at the time of Adam. The only standard at the time of Adam was worthiness among the sons of men; a standard that has been restored in our day. It truly is evidence of the "restoration of all things" predicted by the prophets.

Our next post will address more of the details involving the lifting of the final restriction in 1978. Stay tuned!