KnoWhy #813 | September 16, 2025
Why Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Organized According to Ancient Patterns?
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
“Of the Melchizedek Priesthood, three Presiding High Priests, chosen by the body, appointed and ordained to that office, and upheld by the confidence, faith, and prayer of the church, form a quorum of the Presidency of the Church.” Doctrine and Covenants 107:22
The Know
Between 1831 and 1835, Joseph Smith received numerous revelations regarding how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was to be organized in this dispensation. When preparing the Doctrine and Covenants for publication in 1835, Joseph brought together and edited several of these revelations to form a single section. That document, now found in Doctrine and Covenants 107, provides one of the most comprehensive, complete and helpful summaries of how the Lord Jesus Christ organized the Church.1 In 1842, Joseph Smith further declared, “We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth” (Articles of Faith 1:6).
This section marked, according to Wilson K. Andersen, “the beginning of quorums in the Church. It is true that there were . . . ordained offices in the priesthoods from the beginning of the Church, but there were no quorums as yet.”2 Indeed, the Church organization and structure was revealed piece by piece as the Church grew, and section 107 represented an outpouring of revelation regarding how various quorums should be organized, also laying out a clear system of succession in the Church. What’s more, the same organizational patterns seen in section 107 have clear ancient precedents in the early Church.
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
For example, the 1835 revelation constituting the first fifty-eight verses of this section was given specifically for the benefit of the newly called Twelve Apostles, who were to be a “Traveling Presiding High Council, to officiate in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Presidency of the Church, agreeable to the institution of heaven” (Doctrine and Covenants 107:33). The office of an Apostle is familiar to any Christian, as Jesus had called twelve Apostles during His mortal ministry and additional Apostles were called when the need arose.3 These Twelve Apostles could be understood as representative of the twelve tribes of Israel and were chosen to lead the Church and invite all people to make and keep covenants with God.4 In the Book of Mormon, Jesus also set apart twelve disciples as His chosen priesthood leaders, who organized and directed the Church following His post-Resurrection visit among them.5
The First Presidency
Section 107 also calls for “three Presiding High Priests, chosen by the body, appointed and ordained to that office, and upheld by the confidence, faith, and prayer of the church, [to] form a quorum of the Presidency of the Church” (Doctrine and Covenants 107:22). That presidency is led by the prophet of the Church and is known today as the First Presidency. On one occasion, Joseph further taught that the First Presidency was organized after an ancient pattern established in the New Testament Church: “The apostle, Peter, was the president of the Council and held the Keys of the Kingdom of God on the Earth, was appointed to this office by the voice of the Savior, and acknowledged in it by the voice of the Church. He had two men appointed as counsellors with him, and in case Peter was absent, his counsellors could transact business.”6
While the scriptures do not say so explicitly, it does appear that a presidency did exist, both in the Old World and in the New. In the Gospels, Jesus often took Peter, James, and John aside for special instruction, such as on the Mount of Transfiguration. These three Apostles appeared to share a special status beyond that of the other nine. After James was killed by Herod Agrippa in Acts 12, James the brother of Jesus (also known as James the Just) appears to have been called to fill his position. When the Apostle Paul recounted the events of the Jerusalem Council, he referred to Peter, James the Just, and John as pillars of the Church (Galatians 2:9). Clement of Alexandria also taught that Peter, James the Just, and John maintained a special position separate from the rest of the Twelve Apostles: “The Lord after his resurrection imparted knowledge to James the Just and to John and Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the apostles, and the rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one.”7
The Seventy
Another priesthood office recognized in section 107 is that of Seventy. According to this revelation, “The Seventy are also called to preach the gospel, and to be especial witnesses unto the Gentiles and in all the world—thus differing from other officers in the church in the duties of their calling” (verse 25). That First Quorum of Seventy is “equal in authority to that of the Twelve special witnesses or Apostles just named” (verse 26). Already, in 1835, the succession of authority in the leadership of the Church was thus provided for in the event of the death of the President of the Church and thus the consequential dissolution of the First Presidency. Furthermore, that 1835 revelation stated that “it is according to the vision showing the order of the Seventy, that they should have seven presidents to preside over them, chosen out of the number of the seventy,” thereby forming a unique seven-member presidency (verse 93).
Likewise, in the New Testament Luke records that “the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come” (Luke 10:1). Furthermore, though the group is not identified as a Presidency of the Seventy, Acts does, in fact, record the Apostles later calling “seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom,” to help the Apostles look after the temporal needs of the Church (Acts 6:3). These seven men who assisted the Twelve could be understood as a precedent for the current Church structure outlined in section 107.8 It is also possible to see in the Old Testament precedents for the priesthood office of the Seventy, as Moses was instructed to call seventy elders of Israel who stood with him in God’s presence (Exodus 24:1; Numbers 11:16). Drawing on those precedents, the Great Sanhedrin was likewise organized with seventy judges to hear the legal and doctrinal cases brought from across all of Israel.9
Other Offices
The 1835 revelation also notes that the Church should ordain “evangelical ministers,” or evangelists (Doctrine and Covenants 107:39). Joseph Smith later identified these priesthood holders as patriarchs, which is consistent with ancient uses of that term.10 Other offices in the Church mentioned in this revelation, such as bishop, also have biblical precedents.11 Interestingly, just as the bishop in the latter-day Church is to oversee “outward ordinances” such as “the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (verse 20), according to the apostolic father Ignatius of Antioch, it was not permissible in the ancient Church to baptize or partake of the sacrament without the direction of an authorized bishop.12
High Council
Another aspect of Church organization relates to the high council. In each stake of Zion, twelve men constitute a high council and assist the stake presidency. The first high council was organized in 1834 in Kirtland, Ohio. On that occasion Joseph stated, “The Council was organized according to the ancient order, and also according to the mind of the Lord.”13 When members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were called a year later, in 1835, a clear pattern could then be seen in how the high council and stake presidency in each stake were to mirror the pattern of First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve in the general priesthood leadership of the Church.
While little is preserved in the New Testament about how local churches were organized, Ignatius of Antioch related how local organization was indeed set up to likewise mirror the general Church leadership. In several of his epistles, Ignatius noted that a “council of presbyters” was a model of “God’s council and as the band of the apostles,” while the bishop was “a model of the Father.”14 While Ignatius does not detail the duties of this council of presbyters (or elders), it is possible that this council served similar roles as high councils do today.15
The Why
The Lord’s instructions regarding priesthood offices and quorums throughout the Doctrine and Covenants are important revelations that have led the Church ever since they were received. Of all these revelations, section 107 stands above the rest as an inspired roadmap for how Christ’s Church is to be organized. As Elder John A. Widtsoe observed in 1935, “[Section 107] is one of the most remarkable documents in the possession of man. It stands absolutely unique; there is none like it. . . . I doubt whether any other such document, of the same small extent, the same few number of words, lies at the foundation of any other great human institution. This revelation . . . is so comprehensive in its brevity, so magnificent in its simplicity, that we have found no occasion, up to the present, to wish that it might have been more complete.”16
Steven C. Harper has also observed that the same is true today and that there has never been a time when this section lacked in its ability and authority to govern the Church: “As if it were architectural drawings, section 107 built a Church that has not required much remodeling. . . . As the number of Latter-day Saints has multiplied into the millions and congregations grow apace, the Church is still built as section 107 described it.”17 This section established a church that has a set order of leadership and system of succession. It also provided important instructions for calling local leadership as needed, allowing the Church to grow well beyond anything the Saints could have imagined in 1835.18
Undoubtedly, one of the reasons section 107 is such a perfect outline for Church structure is precisely that it is a restoration of the same essential pattern Jesus Christ used in establishing the Church in the meridian of times. Indeed, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a restoration of the ancient Church in the fullest sense of the word, including its reestablishment of the same priesthood offices, quorums, and organization as existed originally in the ancient Church.
Wilson K. Anderson, “Revelations on Priesthood, Keys, and Quorums (D&C 107, 108, and 112),” in Studies in Scripture, vol. 1, The Doctrine and Covenants, ed. Robert L. Millett and Kent P. Jackson (Deseret Book, 1985), 403–16.
Barry Robert Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (FairMormon, 2013), 181–205.
Casey Paul Griffiths, Scripture Central Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, 4 vols. (Scripture Central; Cedar Fort, 2024), 3:333–57.
Steven C. Harper, Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants: A Guided Tour Through Modern Revelations (Deseret Book, 2008), 395–99.
John Tvedtnes, Organize My Kingdom: A History of the Restored Priesthood (Cornerstone Publishing, 2000).
- 1. For a summary of how these revelations are incorporated into Doctrine and Covenants 107, see Casey Paul Griffiths, Scripture Central Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, 4 vols. (Scripture Central; Cedar Fort, 2024), 3:333–34; Steven C. Harper, Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants: A Guided Tour Through Modern Revelations (Deseret Book, 2008), 395–96.
- 2. Wilson K. Anderson, “Revelations on Priesthood, Keys, and Quorums (D&C 107, 108, and 112),” in Studies in Scripture, vol. 1, The Doctrine and Covenants, ed. Robert L. Millett and Kent P. Jackson (Deseret Book, 1985), 406.
- 3. See Matthew 10; Luke 9:1–6; Acts 1:21–26.
- 4. For more on the ancient calling of the Apostles, see Barry Robert Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (FairMormon, 2013), 190–91.
- 5. 3 Nephi 12:1; 13:25; 15:11; 19:4, 6; Mormon 3:18–19; Moroni 2:1.
- 6. “Minutes, 17 February 1834,” p. 30, The Joseph Smith Papers. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization modernized.
- 7. Clement of Alexandria, Hypotyposes, book seven, as cited in Eusebius’s Church History 2.1.4. Unfortunately, the Hypotyposes has since been lost, and only fragments of this work cited by other early Christians (such as this citation preserved by Eusebius) remain. This translation is taken from Arthur Cushman McGiffert, trans., “The Church History of Eusebius,” in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Henry Wace and Philip Schaff, series 2, volume 1 (Oxford: Parker and Company; New York: Christian Literature Company, 1890), 104. For more on the ancient calling of the First Presidency, see Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church, 190–91.
- 8. For more on the ancient calling of the Seventy, see Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church, 191.
- 9. See Mishnah Sanhedrin 1:6.
- 10. For a discussion on evangelists in the ancient world, see Scripture Central, “What Is an Evangelist? (Ephesians 4:11),” KnoWhy 692 (October 5, 2023); John W. Welch, “Word Studies from the New Testament,” Ensign, January 1995.
- 11. See 1 Timothy 3:1; Titus 1:7; Philippians 1:1; Ephesians 4:11. For more on the ancient precedents to other offices in the Church on a local level, see Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church, 192–94.
- 12. See the Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans 8:2. The term “apostolic fathers” refers to early Church leaders who would have known the Apostles personally, and it is often used to describe a collection of writings either written by or attributed to these individuals as well.
- 13. “Minutes, 19 February 1834,” p. 37, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- 14. The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians 3:1 reads, “Respect the bishop, who is a model of the Father, and the presbyters as God's council and as the band of the apostles.” Similarly, the Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 6:1 observes, “Be eager to do everything in godly harmony, the bishop presiding in the place of God and the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles,” and the Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians 5:1 reads, “Ι have taken refuge in the gospel as the flesh of Jesus and in the apostles as the council of presbyters of the church.” These translations are taken from Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed. (Baker Academic, 2007).
- 15. See Spencer Kraus, “Joseph Smith, Ignatius, and High Councils ‘According to the Ancient Order,’” Latter-day Light and Truth (blog), March 17, 2025. For presbyters as elders, including in the sense of a local council of leaders for a city, see Frederick William Danker et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2000), under “πρεσβύτερος.” Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church, 192–93, notes that this council of presbyters could also refer to the bishop’s counselors.
- 16. John A. Widtsoe, in Conference Report, April 1935, 80.
- 17. Harper, Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants, 398.
- 18. For a history of how the Church has grown and how these offices of the Church have adapted as section 107 allows, see John Tvedtnes, Organize My Kingdom: A History of the Restored Priesthood (Cornerstone Publishing, 2000).