In their book
on Apostolic Succession in the history of the Restored Gospel, Tolley and
Bishop wrote the following about Joseph F. Smith passing Brigham Young Jr. in
seniority:
April 5, 1900
JOSEPH F. SMITH PASSES BRIGHAM YOUNG JR. IN
SENIORITY
It was not until April 5, 1900, that the
question of the date of ordination or the date of entry into the Quorum was
resolved. This issue was brought up in a meeting of the First Presidency and
the Twelve. It was decided that the date of entry into the Quorum of the Twelve
rather than the date of ordination to the office of the Apostle determined
seniority.
The minutes of the meeting reveal some of the
logic and inspiration behind the decision: “Bro. John Henry Smith said that he
regarded this as a very important question from the fact that he understood
there had been quite a number of men obtained apostles who had never been voted
upon as such by the church. His kinsman, for instance, Joseph Smith, who stood
at the head of the Re-organized Church, claims he was ordained an apostle by
his father . . . . On this phase of the proposition, the question of man was
simply this: Has a father—himself being an apostle—a right to ordain his son to
the apostleship, and that son to preside without the action of the church, his ordination
antedating that of the man chosen and acted upon by the church? The speaker
said, to his mind there was but one view to be taken to safeguard the church
and this council and to the maintenance of their dignity in the world, such
ordinations were dependent upon joint action, first, on the presentation by the
First Presidency to the Council of the Apostles for their acceptance, and then
to the people for their approval, and then he must be ordained in the proper
way . . . His view therefore was that the safety of the organization of the
church must be based on the action of the people, the action of the Presidency
and Apostles, and the final action of ordination after having been passed upon legitimate
lines” (Minutes of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, April 5,
1900, quoted in Steven H. Heath, “Notes on Apostolic Succession,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought,
20, no. 2 [Summer 1987]:49-50).
The Lord revealed in 1831 the pattern for officers
that publicly administer in the Church: “Again I say unto you, that it shall
not be given to anyone to go forth to preach my gospel, or to build up my
church, except he be ordained by someone who has authority, and it is known to
the church that he has authority and has been regularly ordained by the heads
of the church” (D&C 42:11). In other words, Brigham Young Jr.’s and Joseph
F. Smith’s private ordinations were not made “known to the Church that they had
authority,” and Brigham Young Jr. was only ordained by the head and not “ordained
by the heads of the church” (Minutes of the First Presidency and Quorum of the
Twelve, April 5, 1900, quoted in Steven H. Heath, “Notes on Apostolic
Succession,” Dialogue: A Journal of
Mormon Thought, 20, no. 2 [Summer 1987]:49-50).
If the date
of ordination to the apostleship was the determining factor in seniority in the
Twelve, when Brigham Young Jr. and Joseph F. Smith were placed in the Twelve,
Young would have become President of the Twelve before Smith. If this had not
been the case, Young would have been President of the church for three years
prior to Smith.
(Kevin L. Tolley and Patrick A. Bishop, Apostolic
Succession in the Restoration [Springville, Utah: CFI, 2020], 115-16, emphasis
in bold added)
