{"id":109292,"date":"2025-03-02T19:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T02:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=109292"},"modified":"2025-03-02T19:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T02:36:19","slug":"a-succession-of-continuity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/03\/a-succession-of-continuity.html","title":{"rendered":"A Succession of Continuity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
The official movie poster for the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s \u201cWitnesses\u201d theatrical film<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To my surprise, the dramatic film Witnesses<\/em> is still available tonight for streaming at no charge via The Witnesses Initiative<\/a>. \u00a0Evidently, nobody has bothered to take it down yet. \u00a0If you wish to take advantage of this offer, you should do so quickly. \u00a0I can\u2019t guarantee that it will last even into tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The other Interpreter Foundation dramatic film, Six Days in August<\/em>\u00a0(2024), is also available for streaming, on several platforms. \u00a0However, there is (in most cases) a modest charge for streaming it that we are not at liberty to waive: \u00a0https:\/\/www.justwatch.com\/us\/movie\/six-days-in-august-2024<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Movie<\/a>
This is the official movie poster for the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2024 dramatic film \u201cSix Days in August.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Tuesday, I\u2019m scheduled to spend several hours interviewing Ron Esplin, who currently serves as a general editor of The Joseph Smith Papers and as director of the Brigham Young Center, for the docudrama portion of the overall Six Days in August<\/em> project, a series of short features that we\u2019re calling Becoming Brigham<\/em>. \u00a0So, in preparation for the interview, I\u2019ve just finished rereading Ronald K. Esplin, \u201cAuthority, Keys, and \u2018the Measures of Joseph\u2019: A Detailed Exploration of 1844 Succession,\u201d in Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, ed., Joseph Smith: A Life Lived in Crescendo<\/em> (Orem: The Interpreter Foundation and Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2024)<\/a>, 745-882. \u00a0It builds upon his very important earlier article, Ronald K. Esplin, \u201cJoseph, Brigham and the Twelve: A Succession of Continuity,\u201d BYU Studies<\/em> 21\/3 (1981): 301-341.<\/p>\n

My impression upon re-reading this new piece is the same as my impression from my initial reading of it, when the article was still in manuscript: \u00a0It is a brilliant and extraordinarily important contribution to scholarship on Latter-day Saint history. \u00a0I want to share one of the many passages from it that I marked as I was going through the article:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
A daguerreotype of the original Nauvoo Illinois Temple as it looked in 1847. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were not, Dr. Esplin argues,<\/p>\n

multiple claimants with plausible claims clamoring to be heard. \u00a0Before the Twelve returned to Nauvoo from their summer mission in the East, there was one: Sidney Rigdon. . . . \u00a0But after Brigham Young, President of the Quorum of the Twelve, and most of his quorum returned returned to Nauvoo in early August 1844 and presented their \u201ccase,\u201d the decision for most Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo was relatively straightforward. . . .<\/p>\n

The crisis was real. \u00a0There was no precedent. \u00a0Many things might have gone awry. \u00a0But the backstory of how Joseph Smith prepared Brigham Young and the Twelve to lead and why the Saints so quickly supported them makes for a different story than one of a deep and lengthy succession crisis. \u00a0It was not a lengthy crisis.<\/p>\n

Why? \u00a0Because if the matter rested on authority, no one else did or could make an equally authoritative claim to having priesthood authority and keys to continue forward. \u00a0If it was a question of who Joseph had confided in, leaned on, and prepared to lead in his absence, no one in Nauvoo in 1844 did or could offer a case comparable to that of Brigham Young and the Twelve. \u00a0Finally, on the question of who the Saints had confidence in, there was no rival to Brigham Young and the Twelve. \u00a0Especially the thousands in Nauvoo who had come from Great Britain felt a love for and loyalty to the Twelve. . . .<\/p>\n

[N]ot only did those who sought an alternative to the Twelve not have anyone to turn to with an equal claim to authority, most of the minority who sought an alternative to the Twelves did so less from a quarrel with the claims Young and the Twelve made to have authority from Joseph, but because they had a quarrel with the program<\/em>. \u00a0They were searching for a way to hold on to the Book of Mormon, to the Restoration, to earlier Latter-day Saint teachings without embracing the temple and its ordinances, and the new, sometimes radical (for traditional Christians) teachings that characterized Joseph Smith\u2019s last years in Nauvoo. \u00a0(746, italics in the original)<\/p>\n

\"Newbold's<\/a>
Cover art by Greg Newbold from \u201cSaints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days: The Standard of Truth: 1815\u20131846\u201d
I hope that what I\u2019m doing here with it will count as acceptable \u201cfair use.\u201d I\u2019m struck by the painting because it\u2019s in the style of Grant Wood, which I love.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve were the only ones on the ground in Nauvoo in 1844 with a plausible claim to lead \u2014 because Joseph Smith had prepared them and had given them all the priesthood keys and authority needed to do so in his absence. \u00a0No one else held all the keys, no one else had the confidence of most of the people, no one else knew the full program in detail, and therefore no one seriously challenged their leadership. \u00a0(747)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Nauvoo Illinois Temple (dedicated in 2002) is an exact reproduction, externally, of the original Nauvoo Temple, which was dedicated in 1844.
(LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My central understanding of the succession of 1844 has not changed since my earlier study, but today we can add important new details that flesh out the story. \u00a0My focus will be on priesthood keys and how Joseph Smith not only conveyed to Brigham Young and the Twelve \u201call the keys I have received,\u201d but how he prepared them with the instruction \u2014 especially pertaining to temple ordinances \u2014 to see that the Saints received the blessings and benefit of those keys even if it be in his absence. \u00a0We will see that Joseph Smith made these preparations in part because he understood that his own time was short and that it was essential to put in place others with the authority and training to see that the temple, the ordinances, and the Restoration would advance in his absence.<\/p>\n

I demonstrated in a different earlier study that Joseph Smith knew when he founded Nauvoo that he would have but little time and only this final opportunity to put in place all that was necessary to fulfill his mission and that the temple and its ordinances were core to that mission. \u00a0Here, my focus will be on him preparing Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve to carry that mission forward \u00a0when he was gone. \u00a0(748)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr. Esplin largely devotes the rest of his very substantial and massively documented essay to justifying the assertions that he makes in the early paragraphs from it that I cite above. \u00a0It is, in my judgment, a seminal piece of historical scholarship. \u00a0Those who doubt that Brigham and the Twelve legitimately succeeded Joseph Smith in the leadership of the Church, and those who favor, say, Sidney Rigdon, or James Strang, or Joseph Smith III, have much to contend against with this article.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 To my surprise, the dramatic film Witnesses is still available tonight for streaming at no charge via The Witnesses Initiative. \u00a0Evidently, nobody has bothered to take it down yet. \u00a0If you wish to take advantage of this offer, you should do so quickly. \u00a0I can\u2019t guarantee that it will last even into tomorrow. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":64938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1266,292,380,4432,356,8514],"class_list":["post-109292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostles","tag-brigham-young","tag-joseph-smith","tag-nauvoo","tag-sidney-rigdon","tag-twelve"],"yoast_head":"\nA Succession of Continuity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  To my surprise, the dramatic film Witnesses is still available tonight for streaming at no charge via The Witnesses Initiative. \u00a0Evidently, nobody\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/03\/a-succession-of-continuity.html\" \/>\n<meta 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