Priesthood Authority and Power

The rapid growth of the Church in the 1830s presented monumental administrative challenges. As a significant number of new converts joined the Church in and around Kirtland, members from New York also began gathering to Ohio. This movement and expansion created the need for the Church to provide increased housing and job opportunities.

As this growth and movement occurred, missionaries were sent to preach the gospel. These missionaries and the families they left at home needed support as they went into the world to preach.

Along with these missionary efforts came the need to start publishing Church materials such as the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s revelations for missionaries and members to have. All of these changes created a significant demand for more leadership structure.

Many of the most familiar aspects of the Church today have their roots in revelations and organizational changes that occurred while the Church was headquartered in Ohio. These include bishoprics, the First Presidency, stake organizations, priesthood quorum presidencies, and General Authorities for the Church.

These changes in priesthood structure coincided with doctrinal developments that were being received and helped to prepare the Saints to receive the endowment of power promised when the construction of the house of the Lord was completed.

Immediately after Joseph Smith arrived in Ohio, the Lord revealed the first of many new offices and quorums of the priesthood designed to meet the challenges that the Church then faced.

In a revelation received the day of Joseph’s arrival, the Lord directed that Edward Partridge, a successful businessman from nearby Painesville who had recently been baptized, be “ordained a bishop unto the church” and called on Partridge to “leave his merchandise and to spend all his time in the labors of the church” (Doctrine and Covenants 41:9).

Additional revelations received over the next several months clarified and expanded the office of bishop by adding counselors and outlining specific responsibilities of the office.¹

As the Church continued to grow, the need for additional oversight continued. In June 1831, several men were ordained to “the high priesthood,” a newly revealed office in the Melchizedek Priesthood that we now commonly refer to simply as “high priests.”³

In November 1831, a revelation directed Joseph Smith to establish the “president of the high priesthood,” who would “be a seer, a revelator, … and a prophet, having all the gifts of God which he bestows upon the head of the church” (Doctrine and Covenants 107:65–67, 92).

On January 25, 1832, Joseph Smith was appointed president of the high priesthood and accepted by unanimous vote of those attending a conference in Amherst, Ohio.⁴ Six weeks later, on March 8, Joseph Smith called Sidney Rigdon and Jesse Gause as counselors to assist him in the newly created First Presidency of the Church.

On April 26, 1832, a revelation consecrated Kirtland as “a stake to Zion.” In February 1834, a presidency of the stake in Kirtland was created, along with a high council. Later that year, a stake was also organized in Missouri, and both stakes were led by a presidency, a bishop, and a high council.⁴

High priests and elders quorums were also organized in each of the stakes. Beginning in January 1836, when Don Carlos Smith was called as president of the high priests quorum and Alvah Beman as president of the elders quorum, these two quorums began meeting regularly.

In a revelation received in June 1829, the Lord called upon Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to seek out “the Twelve” who would be “my disciples” and “desire to take upon them my name with full purpose of heart” (Doctrine and Covenants 18:27). This was the earliest indication that a special quorum of 12 disciples, like Christ’s ancient Apostles, would be part of the restored Church. Finding these 12 men took nearly six years.

A year after the Kirtland high council was organized, on February 14, 1835, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was formally organized and its members ordained. During a meeting in the nearly completed house of the Lord, the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris—were called upon to “pray each one, and then proceed to choose twelve men from the church as Apostles to go to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.”⁵

After praying and being blessing by the First Presidency, the men chose Lyman Johnson, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, David W. Patten, Luke Johnson, William E. McLellin, John F. Boynton, Orson Pratt, William Smith, Thomas B. Marsh, and Parley P. Pratt to serve in the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

During the next several weeks, each of the Twelve were ordained to their calling. Over the course of several months, Joseph Smith met frequently with the Twelve to train them in their duties as the “traveling high council” of the Church, with authority to “unlock the door of the kingdom of heaven unto all nations.”⁶

Shortly after the Twelve were called, the Seventy, an additional office of the Melchizedek Priesthood, was introduced, and quorums were organized with the specific responsibility to assist the Twelve by “pruning the vineyard for the last time”⁷ and to serve as “especial witnesses unto the Gentiles and in all the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 107:25).