A Piece at a Time

A Piece at a Time

A Piece at a Time
Mormon History Related

"Joseph's vision of the Father and the Son opened this dispensation. Then came the Restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ with the same organization that existed in the primitive Church, built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets. "Some suppose that the organization was handed to the Prophet Joseph Smith like a set of plans and specifications for a building, with all of the details known at the beginning. But it did not come that way. Rather, it came a piece at a time as the Brethren were ready and as they inquired of God."The Melchizedek Priesthood, the consummate authority given to man from God, was restored under the hands of Peter, James, and John. By them, the Lord said, "I have ordained you and confirmed you to be apostles, and especial witnesses of my name, and bear the keys of your ministry and of the same things which I revealed unto them;" 'Unto whom I have committed the keys of my kingdom, and a dispensation of the gospel for the last times' (D&C 27:12?13). "The First Presidency was in place by 1833; then two years later, in February of 1835, came the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. And that is as it should be. The First Presidency came first in sequence and stands first in authority. And, true to the pattern, it was made of men called from the ordinary pursuits of life."
-- Boyd K. Packer, "The Twelve Apostles," Ensign, Nov. 1996, 6