The Succession Crisis

[Fether]

I never understood this bit in church history.

The questions I have take the following path

Why didn’t Joseph Smith make it clear who the next prophet would be or at least explain the process?

Wait... Did he? 

Were the early saints under the impression that more prophets were to come following the death of Joseph?

Why did Brigham Young become the President if the Church, but not the Prophet till years later?

does anyone have any insights on these questions? I am by no means an early church history scholar.

Edited November 18, 2018 by Fether

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Fether said:

I never understood this bit in church history.

The questions I have take the following path

Why didn’t Joseph Smith make it clear who the next prophet would be or at least explain the process?

Wait... Did he? 

Were the early saints under the impression that more prophets were to come following the death of Joseph?

Why did Brigham Young become the President if the Church, but not the Prophet till years later?

does anyone have any insights on these questions? I am by no means an early church history scholar.

I consider the succession to be similar to the succession between Elijah and Elisha.

[SpiritDragon]

1 hour ago, Fether said:

I never understood this bit in church history.

The questions I have take the following path

Why didn’t Joseph Smith make it clear who the next prophet would be or at least explain the process?

Wait... Did he? 

It may not fully answer your question, but I believe the following may help. The prophet Joseph Smith taught on the authority of succession belonging to the twelve by teaching:

‘I will give you a key that will never rust. If you will stay with the majority of the Twelve Apostles, and the records of the Church, you will never be led astray’”

We also have what is sometimes termed the last charge given to the apostles wherein Joseph rolls the kingdom off his shoulders and onto the brethren. 

Concerning Brigham Young in particular, I was listening to the dramatized church history audio recordings and heard them relay a story of Brigham speaking in tongues and the members feeling that Brother Joseph would set him straight soon enough, as he had done with others who were not acting on the spirit of the lord when doing so. In this instance Joseph, instead, defended Brigham's gift of the spirit and declared he had spoken in the pure Adamic language and would one day preside over the church. I wondered if this could be verified or if it was a bit of artistic licence taken in the dramatization of the narrative. I was pleased when I was able to later find that there is a record of this event in the 25th volume of the millenial star on page 439 under the heading of History of Brigham.

The link I had doesn't seem to be working, but I can give you a screen shot of the PDF version I have on my computer.

 

2 hours ago, Fether said:

Were the early saints under the impression that more prophets were to come following the death of Joseph?

Why did Brigham Young become the President if the Church, but not the Prophet till years later?

does anyone have any insights on these questions? I am by no means an early church history scholar.

I'm not sure what impression the early saints were under. I do know that in the vacuum created by the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum who would have succeeded him that there was a push to grab power by various factions. Sidney Rigdon felt to take charge as the surviving member of the First Presidency. Brigham Young became the president of the quorum of the twelve and explained the position that in the absence of the president, the first presidency dissolved and Sidney's claim to leadership wasn't correct. It seems the bid to have Joseph the third take leadership was perhaps Emma's doing and she wanted to put an end to polygamy by guiding the young leader. Joseph did teach sufficiently to help the young church know what to do, but it took time because they were all so used to asking Joseph everything.

I hope any of that helps.

[Just_A_Guy]

There’s a LOT that could be said here.  For now I will simply note that the Twelve (with some exceptions) whole-heartedly got behind certain Nauvoo-era doctrinal developments that many other potential successors knew of, but weren’t on board with (Bennett, Rigdon, Law, George Miller, etc).  Joseph’s clearly and publicly naming the Twelve as his successors at that juncture would have given the waver-ers cause to publicize and debate things that Joseph did not want publicized and/or debated just yet. 

Edited November 19, 2018 by Just_A_Guy