What Is the Latter Day For Saints?

According to the tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints, all time since the original apostles (nearly all of the time the Church has existed) is Latter Day. Mormons use the term saint in the Pauline sense, meaning the term applies to all members of the Church.

However, what distinguishes this latter day from the time of the apostles (the first day) is the Great Apostasy, meaning that Mormons believe that after the death of Christ, the persecution of his followers caused many to drift from his teachings. This caused a break in the authority conferred by Christ to his Apostles- what Catholics and other denominations emphasize as the Apostolic Succession.

Because of this break, further error crept into Christian teachings. Beliefs drifted from those of Christ to those produced through human reason by his followers. Though some reformers, such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, attempted to restore the true nature of original Christian teaching, the generational drift of Christian doctrine has been toward greater error and deeper division- because the teachers themselves have lacked divine and apostolic authority.

Thus it was under the direction of the Heavenly Father that the prophet Joseph Smith restored the gospel of Jesus Christ in America. After a long period of spiritual searching and confusion, Joseph Smith received a vision of Jesus Christ which encouraged him to find his own path. Later, John the Baptist and other prophets and apostles appeared to endow him and an associate with renewed Apostolic authority. Subsequently, Joseph Smith received the Book of Mormon- an account of Christ's mission to the Americas.

Thus Christ has restored proper teaching and apostolic authority in this latter day, and promised that neither will lapse again. This latter day is also the last day of Christian history.