[Footnote B: His. Joseph Smith, Mill. Star, Vol. XIV (Supplement), p. 26.]
"The Savior, Moses, and Elias gave the keys of the priesthood to Peter, James and John on the mount, when they were transfigured before him. . . . How have we come at the Priesthood in the last days? It came down in regular succession. Peter, James and John had it given to them, and they gave it to others"—presumably referring to himself and Oliver Cowdery.[A]
[Footnote A: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 493.]
There is no similarity between the organization of the church of Christ on the 6th of April, 1830, and the alleged reorganization in 1853. The first was organized by men holding the keys of the holy Melchisedek priesthood—the apostleship—which possesses the power to organize the church, ordain all the officers therein and set all things pertaining to it in order. But the "reorganization" is accomplished by men of very questionable standing and authority as to their priesthood; and apparently conscious of the inadequacy of even the priesthood they claim to have possessed to perform the task before them—virtually the organization of the church of Christ—they fly to the untenable position, as false in philosophy as it is in fact, that the lesser can ordain the greater, until that greater thus created can ordain a still greater, even the greatest of all! Investigated, then, "in the rigid character of the facts in the first organization," the "reorganization" is found strewn along the sharp-edged rocks of absurdity; and the conviction is forced upon the mind of the investigator that Mr. Smith was not ordained to be "President of the church" by those holding legal authority.
Josephites lay much stress upon the following passage in one of the revelations:
I say unto you that ye have received a commandment for a law unto my church through him whom I have appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations from my hand. And this ye shall know assuredly, that there is none other appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations until he be taken, if he abide in me. But verily, verily, I say unto you, that none else shall be appointed unto this gift except it be through him, for if it be taken from him, he shall not have power, except to appoint another in his stead; and this shall be a law unto you, that ye receive not the teachings of any that shall come before you as revelations and commandments; and this I give unto you that you may not be deceived, that you may know that they are not of me. For verily I say unto you, that he that is ordained of me, shall come in at the gate and be ordained, as I have told you before, to teach those revelations which you have received, and shall receive through him whom I have appointed.[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. xliii.]
Josephites insist that this revelation provides that the successor of the prophet Joseph must be appointed by him. Following is their reasoning upon the passage:
We find in a former commandment, given February, 1831, . . . these very pertinent and instructive words in respect to how and by whom the successor of Joseph the Seer would be selected and appointed. It says: "But verily, verily, I say unto you, that none else shall be appointed unto this gift [of revelator, seer, prophet, etc., for the church, to receive 'commandments and revelations' for a 'law' unto the church—Ed] except it be through him [Joseph the Seer];" and it then adds that even if the Lord should take that "gift" from Joseph, he shall not have power except to appoint another in his stead; so that in any event the successor in the office of chief presiding seer, prophet and revelator to the church (which always carries with it the presidency of the church and its priesthood), must be selected and appointed through and by the predecessor—Joseph the Seer.[A]
[Footnote A: The Saints' Herald, Vol. XXXIX, p. 358, the words in italics are all the Josephite writer's.]