Short Attention Span Sunday School: Primary 5 Lesson 2 The Apostasy and The Need For the Restoration of Jesus Christ's Church

PRIMARY 5 LESSON 2 THE APOSTASY AND THE NEED FOR THE RESTORATION OF JESUS CHRIST’S CHURCH

CLASSROOM PREP

• Write on the board “A PASTA C”
• Have them guess what the lesson is about (a pasta c = apostasy)

LESSON

What if we were arrested just for going to church?

What if it was against the law to have scriptures?
What if there were no prophets?
After Jesus Christ died, that’s what life was like for people who believed in him.

This time was called the Great Apostasy

“Great” doesn’t mean good this time- it means big/important

Have you ever thought about what happened after the Bible?

What happened next? After Jesus was born, died, and was resurrected?

Jesus wasn’t on earth anymore.

Apostles taught about Him, though. They wrote letters. People joined the church.

But people who were wicked wanted the commandments to be changed, didn’t want anyone to follow them. Many stopped believing. Apostles were killed. No one was left to lead the church.

The priesthood keys were taken from the earth. No more prophets.

Without the apostles, the members were left alone to protect standards etc.

The church of Jesus Christ was not on earth anymore.

Peter and Paul had said this would happen.

100s of years went by, there were leaders and many church.

No one had apostles of God or the priesthood of God.

Prophets had said after many years, the Church of Jesus Christ would return again.

What happened to the scriptures?

They were changed or lost, bad translations, people changing things how they wanted. We needed someone to restore the scriptures too.

The Lord knew this would happen - 2 Thessalonians 2:3 - so he prepared a way for the gospel to be restored.

Apostasy means to turn away from the truth.

Go over some of the scriptures in the lesson as well.

The first version

After the Restoration

USE CUPS TO ILLUSTRATE THE APOSTASY

6 apostles then and now = 12 (2 per cup)

5 important principles of the gospel the Savior taught = (sacrament, revelation, priesthood, repentance, atonement)
4 ordinances essential to return to Heavenly Father = (baptism, gift of Holy Ghost, endowment, temple marriage)
3 three-fold mission of the church = (redeem the dead, proclaim the gospel, endure to the end)

1 savior

Set up the cups as we talk....
Talk about apostasy

Talk about apostles
Killed off one by one and not replaced

Pull one bottom cup out slowly, only a few will fall from upper layers

Not all collapsed = gospel changed slowly throughout time until all apostles were killed

More and more upper cups fall as apostle base layer pulled out

Talk about Joseph Smith and how important his role was in the Restoration

Talk about how our church is organized

Put new apostle layer down

Build up 5 principles
Build up 4 ordinances
Build up 3-fold mission

Christ at the top

Same organization as in Christ’s church

HAVE THEM EACH TRY TO MAKE THE TOWER
OR
BRING CONNECT 4
- have them each recreate the pyramid with the chips of the game while saying each element as they put each chip in, either by memory or by looking at the cups
- then they collapse out all the chips just as the church collapsed after the apostles were killed

HAND OUT SMALL MACARONI AND CHEESE SINGLE SERVE CONTAINER TO TAKE HOME (IT'LL BE FAST SUNDAY FOR US THIS DAY) --> (macaroni = the "C" shape)