077 The Two Orsons and the Question of Succession

Church History Matters

Who is next in line to become the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Today this is not a difficult question. It is well understood that whoever is the next most senior apostle to the current Church president will be the next president, should he live long enough. The singular issue is seniority. It all boils down to seniority. So, what determines seniority among the apostles? Again, today there is a ready answer to this question. But it was not always so.

In fact, in this episode of Church History Matters, we walk through the winding path of how criteria for seniority in the apostleship has changed significantly from Joseph Smith’s day to our own. And we’ll talk about how Church presidents have responded to difficult seniority questions, such as, If two men are ordained apostles on the same day, who is the senior apostle? And, if a man is ordained an apostle but never becomes a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, how is his seniority determined? Or say two men were ordained apostles, the one sometime before the other, but then the man ordained second becomes a member of the Quorum of the Twelve ahead of the man ordained before him. Which of the two men has seniority over the other? Or how, if at all, is a man’s seniority affected if he is an apostle who leaves the Church or is excommunicated for a time, but is then reinstated back into the Quorum of the Twelve?

While these may seem like very technical questions, they have come from real-life circumstances. And the decisions made about each scenario have determined, more than once, who has become president of the Church.

For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/