One of the passages I frequently cited when teaching about the Great Apostasy as an LDS missionary was Acts 20:28–31:

“Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them. Therefore be alert and remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”

I used to think this was one of the most persuasive apostasy passages because it mentioned specific heresies and false teachings arising within the church—an apostasy so significant that Paul warned about it with intensity for years. Surely, I thought, Paul was predicting the coming of the Great Apostasy.

But what I never noticed was what actually happened in Ephesus after Paul’s warnings—and in particular, what the Book of Revelation says about it.

The Ephesians Heeded the Warning

The Epistle to the Ephesians was written around A.D. 62. The Book of Revelation, by contrast, was most likely written around A.D. 90–95, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian. (A minority of scholars date it to A.D. 68–70, viewing it as a prediction of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, but the weight of historical and internal evidence favors the later date. This is also the dating accepted in LDS manuals and the BYU New Testament Commentary.) For the sake of this post, I’ll go with the standard late date.

In Revelation, John relays messages from Christ to seven churches in Asia Minor. These messages offer us a snapshot of the spiritual health of these churches about 30 years after Paul’s warning to the Ephesian elders.

And what do we find?

Jesus specifically praises the church in Ephesus for their doctrinal vigilance and their resistance to heretical teachers:

“I know… how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false… You are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake.” (Revelation 2:2–3)

In particular, the Ephesians had rejected the heretical teachings of a group known as the Nicolaitans, whose influence plagued some of the other churches (see v. 6).

This is the same church Paul warned in Acts 20. And far from apostatizing, they had remained vigilant. They tested false teachers. They rejected wolves in sheep’s clothing. They endured for Christ’s name. In short—they listened to Paul.

Jesus’s Warning

That’s not to say all was well in Ephesus.

Jesus continues:

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first… If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4–5)

This is a serious rebuke. Doctrinal vigilance without love is not enough. Jesus warns that unless they repent, their lampstand will be removed—that is, they will no longer be recognized as one of His churches.

But notice: this is very different from what I had taught about the Great Apostasy based on Acts 20. The Ephesians hadn’t fallen into doctrinal darkness or become a false church. Jesus still walked among them. He still spoke to them. He called them to repent—not to start over from scratch, but to return to the love they once had.

This isn’t the story of a church collapsing into apostasy. It’s the story of a living church being lovingly disciplined by its living Lord.

The Church Prevails

Acts 20 was a warning—not a prediction of a complete apostasy. And the Ephesian church proved that the warning worked. This reinforces the point I made in a previous post about the “dog that didn’t bark.” If the early church had truly fallen into total apostasy—losing all authority and truth—we’d expect the New Testament to say so plainly.

But instead, we see Christ preserving His church, refining it, and warning it with love.

It’s also worth noting that among the seven churches addressed in Revelation, two of them—Smyrna and Philadelphia—receive no rebuke at all, only encouragement and commendation. That hardly fits the narrative of a thoroughly corrupt church, or of John being unable to find worthy successors for the Apostleship.

The Real Story

The real story isn’t about the true church vanishing from the earth. It’s about a faithful Savior who keeps His promises—even to imperfect churches.

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)

That’s not a church that needs to be restored—it’s a church that is being shepherded. And Christ is still doing exactly that.