Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church and the Question of SuccessionSmith, Joseph Fielding
History
Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church and the Question of Succession
Smith, Joseph Fielding
Latter Day Saint churches -- Government; Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- Government
"During this period of disintegration one Brigham Young, who
had identified himself with the 'Mormon Organization' as early
as 1832, a man of indomitable will and undaunted courage, bold
and unscrupulous, seized upon the occasion of the demoralization
incident to the death of the prophet to place himself at the head
of some 5,000 Mormons, and marching over desert and mountain,
established himself with his adherents in the valley of Salt
Lake, July 24, 1847, then Mexican territory, where he undoubtedly
indulged the hope that the new doctrine of polygamy about to be
publicly proclaimed by him might be promulgated with impunity
and practiced and maintained without interference by the United
States."[1]
Now, this is not true. The senior senator from Michigan has here stated
the position of the "Reorganized" Church as capably and clearly as any
member of that sect could possibly have done, and in exactly the same
way that they have stated it for the past forty-seven years. Why he was
led to make such a statement he best may know, but it shows the careful
coaching that he has received by members of the "Reorganized" Church in
their opposition to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In a pamphlet published by that organization in 1864, the following
appears:
"The greater portion of the Church did not follow this Brigham
Young, and in obedience to the revelation in relation to gathering,
remained around about the land of Zion, waiting for the Lord to
again reveal Himself; and today where there is one Saint who was in
the Church in the days of Joseph the martyr, now associated with
Brigham Young, there are ten of those old members standing aloof or
rejoicing under the administration of the word of the Lord through
his son Joseph."
SAINTS FOLLOWED PRESIDENT YOUNG.
And this is not true. Now I intend to show that at the martyrdom the
Latter-day Saints followed President Brigham Young and the Twelve. And
too, in accordance with divine revelation. For we learn in the Doctrine
and Covenants that the quorum of Apostles is equal in authority with
the First Presidency and it is their right to take the lead of Church
affairs and the presidency in the absence of the First Presidency, or
when that quorum is invaded by the death of the President of the Church.
At the time of the martyrdom the Church in and about Nauvoo, the
headquarters, numbered not to exceed 20,000 souls. This information is
based on the best possible authority. And while this was not all the
Church membership in the United States, it was the great bulk of the
Saints, as the following will show:
In the Times and Seasons, volume 2, page 274, in a "Proclamation to the
Saints scattered abroad," and signed by the Presidency Joseph Smith,
Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith, dated January 15, 1841, we read the
following:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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