LDS Church History is a Microcosm of Judeo-Christian History

For quite a while I have viewed the history of the Church as a modern reenactment of "The Restoration of All Things" - meaning that I have seen something akin to an evolutionary process as the Church has progressed that models religious history.

A sort of spiritual explosion (Big Bang) started it all - taking chaos and starting to organize it into a habitable formation; an Old Testament-like isolation and "kingdom building" (the establishment of a new "people") followed; next came a long integration into "the world"; finally, a New Testament-like shift in emphasis to principles over form occurred as the composition of "the chosen people" morphed to include "others".

I see the Church as being in the early but not beginning stages of that New Testament shift and expansion.