It will be said by some that he founded this church government on the pattern of that described in the New Testament, and thus attempt to dispose of his achievement. But the outlines of church government that may be traced in the New Testament are so faint that they can scarcely be defined, and have led the most learned of our Christian scholars to diverse conclusions. One sees in the New Testament authority for the Episcopal form of government; and a gradation in the orders of the ministry. Another sees in the New Testament authority for the conclusion that there is a perfect equality in the Christian ministry, no gradation of officers, but a government through synods, assemblies and councils of these officers of equal rank. And still a third finds in the same book authority for the idea that each congregation within itself constitutes an independent Christian church, subordinate to no other organization, self-governing, and only bound to other like societies by sympathy which springs from faith in a common doctrine and common aims. Such is the confusion into which the learned are thrown by considering alone the data that exists in the New Testament for a church government.
Although I have once before briefly sketched the organization of the church from such data as exists in the New Testament, I find it necessary again to go over the ground that we may see how meagre the materials are; and how utterly impossible it would be for Joseph Smith to frame such an organization as he established from such materials.
Jesus called twelve men whom he named apostles and conferred upon them divine authority, by which they were to preach the gospel, administer its ordinances and proclaim the kingdom of heaven at hand. He also called into existence quorums of seventies to aid them in this ministry, and conferred upon them like powers. These are the only church officers called into existence, so far as we are informed in the New Testament, previous to the crucifixion of Jesus. But after his resurrection from the dead, he was with his disciples forty days "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." [1] It was during that interesting period of his association with his disciples that he doubtless gave those instructions by which their actions were governed in organizing churches after the gospel began to spread abroad.