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Picking up from last episode, Sidney has been excommunicated and Brigham Young, as head of the Quorum of the Twelve, begins to made rapid organizational changes in defiance of scriptural requirements. We cover those changes and the unintended consequences that continue to cause organizational changes even in 2019. We conclude with the conference in 1847 in which Brigham reconstitutes the First Presidency and some of the succession policies he made along the way to make sure the person he wanted became the third president of the church.
Great content as always.
If I may, I would like to suggest the topic of the priesthood being revealed by the hand of Elijah. And to focus on how that happened BEFORE the Kirtland Temple, which is how it’s taught traditionally today.
Just a suggestion. 🙂
I find it interesting that even though Brigham was consolidating power, he seems to also have been used by the Lord to show us the state of the priesthood today. For example, you guys pointed out that he basically made all priesthood holders subject to the 12 by making them 70’s. Thus, neutering the stake presidency. However, if the high priesthood was lost, which it was, and which is necessary for Zion, then there were no longer any valid stake presidents or stakes anyways. Furthermore, since the 12 are to regulate in all places where stakes are not, Brigham actually had authority to lead as he had the keys per section 124 to the quorum of the 12. So even though Brigham seems to have simply been power hungry, what he did was actually semi legitimate, and I believe he was being used by the Lord to show us that we had lost the high priesthood which is necessary for Zion, and that we were now back in the wilderness and in an unorganized state where the 12 have the authority to promulgate the message of the fullness as the fullness had been lost. The Lord always uses what appears to be bad to accomplish his purposes.
Also, I wanted to mention Samuel Smith’s death. Also I don’t think you mentioned William Smith getting excommunicated as well. But anyways, it’s quite convenient that Willard Richards was present for not only Samuel’s death, but for Joseph and Hyrum getting killed as well. He also was conveniently the only one unharmed in Carthage jail, and I believe he had been a mason before he was a mormon. You can read more here: http://w.mormonismi.net/pdf/homer1994.pdf
In any case like you guys said we probably won’t know for sure in this life but it seems like a masonic secret combination killed all three of the Smith brothers, which left the three masons, Brigham, Heber, and Willard to reconstitute the first presidency and promote polygamy, etc.
That is a great observation.I have used the “no stakes without Zion” concept to describe our situation today, but hadn’t applied it to Nauvoo. There is a lot to ponder with that.
Can I recommend to you a study of Joseph’s run for the president of the US? He really didn’t do it seriously and said he would not campaign. The men who went east to campaign for him went just so that they could be out of town until he was killed. It is a very interesting study. Their own journals condemn them. These men did not attend political conventions where candidates were nominated etc. They missed both of these events completely, (Democratic convention and the Whigs convention) That is history. They were part of the secret chamber mentioned in section 38 that sought Joseph’s life. Like so many other things in Church History it is somewhat of a defacto story. Joseph’s Journals and others were were edited and manipulated to appear a certain way.