Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church and the Question of Succession

by Joseph Fielding Smith

The president of their church states it this way: "The individuals who kept this covenant (the new and everlasting covenant of the Gospel) were accepted of Him and were not rejected, nor their standing before God put in jeopardy by the departure of others from the faith. Whatever office in the priesthood each held, under the ordinations ordered by the call of God and vote of the Church, would remain valid. They could as elders, priests, teachers, etc., pursue the duties of warning, expounding, and inviting all to come to Christ, and by command of God, could build up the Church from any single branch, which, like themselves, had not bowed the knee to Baal, or departed from the faith of the Church as founded in the standard works of the body at the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith."—(Saints' Herald, Feb. 17, 1904).

In their attempt to prove that the Apostles led the Church astray and introduced false doctrines, they have one standard by which the Church and the Apostles are measured; but in proving that they are the "faithful who have kept the new and everlasting covenant" and have remained in harmony with "the pattern" their standard of measurement is quite another thing. The Church is to be judged by all the unauthorized sayings and doings of any or all of its members or ministers. Their church is to be judged "by its authorized doctrines and deeds, and not by the unauthorized sayings or doings of some or many of its members or ministers." (See Blood Atonement and Origin of Plural Marriage, page 44).

They even go so far in their own defense as to reject the teachings and revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, wherein they are in conflict with their expressed views and have not been received by them by vote of their church as doctrine; but they deny to us the privilege of being tried by our "authorized doctrines and deeds," and would force upon us, as a body, teachings of any member of the Church wherein they think they could make a point to their advantage; and this they have done in the courts of the land. We grant unto them the right to be tried by that rule laid down by the president of their organization, and claim the right to be tried by the same kind of standard. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not responsible for the sayings or doings of any individual in conflict with that which has been received as a standard by which the Church is to be governed. We are to be judged by our authorized doctrines and deeds not by the whims or notions of men. But the ministers of the "Reorganization" have not been willing from the beginning to permit us to stand on this platform, but insist that we stand on the platform they have prepared for us.

The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, including the Articles of Faith, have been received by the vote of the Church in general conference assembled as the standard works of the Church. On this platform we stand. The Church is not responsible for the remarks made by any Elder or for the numerous books that have been written. The authors of the words or books must be responsible for their own utterances. It is not to be supposed from this that all that has been written outside of the standard works of the Church is discarded and rejected, for these things are profitable as helps in the government of the Church, and to promote faith in the members. The point is this, if in these books mistakes are found, "they are the mistakes of men," and the Church as an organization is not to be held accountable for them, but for that which is received from time to time by vote of the Church, as it comes through the President of the High Priesthood. When the Lord reveals his mind and will it is to be received, "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same," but we are not to be judged by "unauthorized sayings or deeds."

The ministers of the "Reorganization" tell us that the Church has departed from the teachings received from 1830-1844 in many principles of vital importance, viz., the Godhead, marriage, the atonement, the location of Zion, Temple building and the ceremonies therein, and other things, in which they have strictly adhered to the original faith. We will take these subjects up one by one and see which organization it is that is following the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the doctrines of "the Original Church." First as to the Godhead.

THE GODHEAD.

The first article of faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reads as follows:

"We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."

We accept these three personages as the supreme governing council in the heavens. The Father and the Son have tabernacles of flesh and bones, and the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. (D. & C. 130:22). We worship the Father in the name of the Son, who is the Mediator between God and man, and His is the only name given whereby man can be saved (D. & C. 18:23). We accept Jesus as the Only Begotten Son of the Father in the flesh, although we are all His offspring in the spirit, (Acts 17:28) and therefore His children. This is the teaching of "Mormonism."

We are accused by the Reorganites, however, of departing from the doctrines of the Prophet Joseph Smith in that we believe in a plurality of Gods. That we believe in a plurality of Gods is true, and if they do not—and they confess almost unanimously that they do not—then they are not following the teachings and revelations of Joseph Smith. If the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are separate and distinct personages, then they are three Gods, then they are plural, this fact Joseph Smith taught to the world. But our Reorganite friends quote from a purported discourse of President Brigham Young to the effect that Adam is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do. But this discourse even if reported correctly—which we have reason to believe is not the case—is not the doctrine of the Church and has not been received by the Church. Joseph Smith the Prophet taught a plurality of Gods, and moreover, that man, by obeying the commandments of God and keeping the whole law will eventually reach the power and exaltation by which he also will become a God. And if Reorganites do not accept this truth, then they have departed from the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The doctrine of plurality of Gods, did not originate with Brigham Young, but was taught him by Joseph Smith.