so unless we study history I think it's really easy for us to assume that the church is basically run the same way from the beginning um but we know that that's not exactly how it's gone uh how has this been the case with the development of the priesthood what are some of the things that Joseph Smith might have seen differently than we understand them today Joseph learned line upon line precept upon precept just like we all do for example some of the things that he learned about priesthood and some of the authority that was restored
with the priesthood came because Joseph asked questions because he wondered about things so for example when he and Oliver cowry are translating The Book of Mormon they come upon passages that talk about baptism and the authority to baptize and this leads them to wonder does the authority to baptize exist on the earth and if it does who has it if it doesn't how do we get that Authority and it was based on that question that John the Baptist appeared to Joseph and all on May 15th 1829 to restore the ironic priesthood this authority to baptize
and the same thing happens with the mzc priesthood that it's really questions about the authority to confer the Holy Ghost upon individuals that leads to the restoration of that Authority so by the time the church was founded the authority was present because Joseph Smith had asked these questions uh how did his understanding of that Authority develop for one thing he didn't call it ironic priesthood and mesic priesthood at the time that these authorities were restored that comes in about 1835 when you really see those titles uh affixed to those different authorities okay so when the
church was founded in 1830 uh the priesthood Authority was there although we didn't necessarily call them by those exact names um what about the development of priesthood offices and the administration of the church today we're governed by a first presidency quum of the 12 apostles and the 70 uh people might be surprised to know that when the church is first organized in April of 1830 none of those things existed uh the administration of the church was from Joseph Smith first Elder Oliver cry second Elder the first presidency comes about after Joseph is ordained president of
the high priesthood In 1832 and he then subsequently ordains two counselors to himself and it's really not until 1835 that this body is referred to as the first presidency is is there any comparison to the way that the qu of the 12 developed at the time that the apostles were organized in 1835 they had different responsibilities they had a very heavy prelighting responsibility that they were supposed to go out and serve as special Witnesses of Christ and so they sered several missions to the Eastern United States to England and to other places and it's really
not until the 1840s that you see their administrative role begin to develop more into what we would uh see it today what about some of the other priesthood offices uh how have those developed uh to look as they do to church members today well if you take for example the offices that we have in the ironic priesthood priests teachers and deacons they had different functions in the 1830s than they have today today we think of those as being Preparatory offices for youth uh to help them prepare to receive the mzc priesthood and often times we
see the function of those offices is being directly related to the sacrament so the deacons uh pass the sacrament the teachers prepare the sacrament the priests blessed the sacrament but back in the 1830s these offices didn't have those same functions for the priests their primary responsibility was to help Elders preach the gospel and so they were sent out to make appointments for elders they were called to be companions with Elders to go out and preach the gospel to individuals now you have to understand too that early on in the church there are so many people
that are going out to preach the gospel that uh you needed people there in different branches and locations to actually be able to help regulate the church and so teachers had the responsibility to watch over the church now today we know that as home teaching and the teachers still have that responsibility but back in the 1830s it really was more of the teacher's responsibility to do that and they were to be assisted by the deacons in carrying out that responsibility how has learning about the development of the priesthood in the church impacted the way you
understand the church well for me it's been a great testimony of how the Lord works with a Prophet Joseph learned as he went along he learned as he had questions he learned line upon line and that's the same way that the Lord operates with average church members too uh when we need Revelation about something if we pray about it if we ask the Lord about it he'll reveal those things to us but he doesn't necessarily show us everything at once
