Thursday, April 22, 2021

The Council of Fifty’s Authority to Test Revelations: Further Evidence of the "High Ecclesiology" among Early Latter-day Saints

 

 

Brigham Young also brought his doctrinal revelation that “we are in Eternity, [and] the Millennium has now commenced” to the body of the Council of Fifty before presenting it to the Church (Nauvoo Council of Fifty Minutes <27 February 1845> page 533. This doctrine as publicly announced at the following conference, see Complete Discourses of Brigham Young <6 April 1845> page 80). Two years later, he presented “The Word and Will of the Lord”, now canonized in D&C 136, to the Council of Fifty the day after receiving it—before presenting it to the High Council or other quorums.

 

From the real world contemporary evidence of the Fifty receiving revelations, it isn’t surprising that multiple independent sources identify a function of the Fifty was to test and approve revelations before they were to be presented to the Church.

 

Almon Babbitt in the Council of Fifty minutes commented that “When a revelation comes from the proper sources that is the law to him, but he understands that when a subject is presented before this council we have to investigate it and when we agree upon it that is a revelation; that is the mind of God” (Council of Fifty Minutes <11 March 1845> page 307). Babbitt believed the revelations given to the body by the “proper source” – the Prophet, Priest, and King over the Council (Joseph Smith told the council on April 18, 1844: “It is not wisdom to use the term ‘king’ all the while. Let us use the term ‘proper source’ instead of ‘king’ and it will be all understood and no person can take advantage.’ [Nauvoo Council of Fifty Minutes <18 April 1844> page 128) – were “law” without question, however the Council held the prerogative to investigate matters and when they came to a consensus was “the mind of God”. The minutes record no one objecting or correcting his claim ascribing the authority to test revelations to the body.

 

Later, Peter Haws and James Whitehead also asserted that the Council of Fifty was a quorum where revelations were to be tested and approved before being brought before the Church, Peter Haws commenting that “no Revelation could be given as a command to the Church without the sanction of the Fifty” (The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History page 188). Almost identically, James Whitehead, described the Council of Fifty as the ultimate head of Church government stated that “no revelation or law could go to the church without being presented to and sanctioned by this body of fifty” (Saints’ Herald vol. 26 no 6 <15 March 1879> page 87). (Jacob Vidrine, “New Light on Joseph Smith’s ‘Last Charge,’” One Eternal Round: A Magazine Dedicated to Mormon History and Theology, issue 4 [15 September 2019]: 42-44)