When I was an LDS missionary I taught people about the Great Apostasy all the time. Many of the people I taught were Christians who were very upset about the claim that the true Church of Christ fell away from the earth. But I would reassure them that this did not mean that there were not good Christians on the earth, just that proper priesthood authority was not on the earth and that many false doctrines were taught as true.

Since leaving the Church I have realized that my claim was off base in a significant respect. The LDS Church’s claims regarding the Great Apostasy do not just impact church organization or doctrinal disagreements. They impact the very core of the Christian experience, namely the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Latter-day Saints teach that from the time of the Great Apostasy (400 AD at the latest but likely earlier) until the Restoration (around 1830), there was not a single Christian anywhere in the world that had the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost with them.

I don’t know if Latter-day Saints realize how radical of a claim this is. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit means everything to a Biblical Christian. He is a lifeline to God. His presence is the presence of a member of the Trinity within us. He is the one who changes and transform the Christian believer. He is one who sanctifies us.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost is one of the most precious blessings of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection/ascension. In his great prayer in John 14-17 Jesus explains that he has to go away so that he can send the Holy Ghost and that having the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost is something that will be more valuable to believers than having Jesus physically there because we will be able to have a member of the Godhead with us. He promises that he will send us an “advocate” that will be with us forever, and that he will not leave us as “orphans.” (John 14: 16-18).

This indwelling is what allows a Christian to have a new heart. It is what allows us to be sanctified and conformed to the image of Christ. It is absolutely crucial to the life of a Christian.

LDS doctrine says that for thousands of years not a single Jesus believer was able to access this precious gift that Jesus came to die to provide for us.

When Latter-day Saints claim that no Christians in the world had the Gift of the Holy Ghost, they are claiming that not a single Christian was able to be sanctified by the spirit. It means that not a single Christian could be born again or transformed. They are claiming that Martin Luther and John Calvin and countless other martyrs and reformers throughout the centuries did not have the indwelling of the spirit. They are claiming that millions of Christians believed in Christ but did not receive the most precious gift that Jesus died to provide us. It means that Christ left those who believed in him as orphans for more than a thousand years.

Is that outcome really consistent with Christ’s promise that to send the Holy Ghost to all who believed in his name?