Question ...

Were “faction” priesthood recognized in these early conferences?

Response ...

Jason W. Briggs makes the following statement about priesthood in the early reorganized church in the Temple Lot Case (Plaintiff’s Abstract, 397):

“The point was raised at that conference [June, 1852], and substantially decided, as I understood it, that James J. Strang and William Smith could ordain certain officers, could ordain elders, priests, and teachers.  We derived that authority from the laws laid down in the books of authority in the church."

“Odinations by James J. Strang and William Smith to the office of seventies, high priests, apostles, or patriarchs, were not accepted.  The ordinations by any parties to those offices, with one single exception were not accepted, the office excepted was high priest.”

Although he does not say so, the “one single exception” was probably Briggs himself who had been ordained a high priest by Strang and Marks, April 6, 1846.

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