LDS Priesthood Unveiled Appendix 1Priesthood Lineage Through Ordination
Up until his excommunication from the Church, Oliver had accepted how Joseph
presented the priesthood authority to baptize and confer the Holy Ghost. On the banks of
the Susquehanna River, Joseph expounded upon what had been revealed in the Book of
Mormon about the “holy order of God” and the power of a “priest” ordained after this holy
order to baptize. Oliver and Hyrum realized that they did not need anyone to give them the
authority to baptize, except “the certainty that we heard the voice of Jesus.”^131 They saw and
heard the voice of Christ with their spiritual eyes and ears, through the “power of the Holy
Spirit.” In other words, they understood what was expected of them.
The Jewish/Christian world inquired as to where Joseph Smith and his followers
received the authority to baptize the people in “the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost.”^132 These religions would not accept the Book of Mormon as a reference of
authority. The world believed that ordination by the laying on of hands was the only and
proper way to transfer power and authority, according to the Bible. Joseph, under mandate
to be unto them as Moses was to the rebellious house of Israel (and for the same reason that
caused the resurrected Christ to groan within), gave the world what it wanted, because the
people desired it. He gave the people a lineal priesthood passed on by the laying on of
hands to conform to accepted biblical traditions.
Consequently, Hyrum laid his hands first, upon the head of Joseph, and then, the
head of Oliver Cowdery, according to the traditions of the Jews, and thus conferred the
Aaronic Priesthood. When Joseph was compelled to make an official history of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he did not lie; for “John the Baptist,” reincarnated as his
older brother Hyrum Smith, did confer the priesthood of Aaron upon them.
The Real “Peter, James, and John”
As explained above, Oliver had learned that Joseph was going to present the story of
the Aaronic priesthood in a manner that did not relate to the actual events of May 1829. He
(Joseph) was also going to perpetuate the stumbling block they had devised for the
Melchizedek priesthood in claiming that Peter, James, and John gave it to them. All of this
was going a bit too far, even for Oliver. After confronting Joseph and telling him that he
would have no part in the matter, Oliver reluctantly agreed to the Peter, James, and John
ordination story. Joseph convinced him that it would protect the identity of the men who
actually had given Joseph the “keys of the priesthood.” Modern historians cannot find the
date when Peter, James, and John came and restored the Melchizedek priesthood to Joseph
Smith, because they never did.^133
Joseph played on his own experience “of receiving the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven...to commune with the general assembly and church of the Firstborn,” which he would later
teach is the actual “power and authority of the higher, or Melchizedek Priesthood.”^134 As explained
to Oliver, to get him to accept the story of the priesthood as it was presented to the people,
Joseph explained that he received much of his understanding from his interactions with the
Three Nephites: Timothy, Mathoni, and Mathonihah. As far as Joseph was concerned, when
he “communed” with them he was with those of the “general assembly” and the only
“church of the Firstborn” upon earth. These three men, without disclosing their true identity
to the world, were those to whom Joseph referred when he “revealed” that he and Oliver
received the Melchizedek Priesthood—not the actual Peter, James, and John—but from