Mormonism and authority

Within Mormonism, the priesthood authority to act in God's name was said by Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith, Junior, to had been removed from the primitive Christian church through apostasy (also known as a "falling away"), which Mormons believe occurred not due to the deaths of the original apostles. Mormons maintain that this apostacy was prophesied of within the Bible (see and Great Apostasy), which prophecy warned that an apostasy would occur prior to the second coming and was therefore in keeping with God's plan for mankind. One Christian apologist, Patrick Madrid, believes that a complete apostasy is impossible. He wrote:

Since Christ is the mind and head of his Church (), animating the body, the members enjoy an organic spiritual union with him (). It's inconceivable that he would permit his body to disintegrate under the attacks of Satan.

The LDS belief is that Christ, as Jehovah, also guided the Old Testament prophets and their followers, but that there are Biblical descriptions of many apostasies and warnings against them, evidencing that Jehovah, who was perfect, did not intercede to prevent mankind from using agency and corrupting the true teachings and practices He had established through His prophets.

Catholics often see the Mormon priesthood as a counterfeit of their own Apostolic Succession. Protestants, on the other hand, often believe in the priesthood of all believers.

Most Christians believe that the Canon of Scripture is closed, making the Bible the only sacred text for Christians, though the precise number of books in the Bible is disputed among different Christian denominations. Many Protestants consider the Bible the only infallible authority, a doctrine called Sola scriptura. Latter Day Saints believe that the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants are also the word of God, and encourage that all four "Standard Works" be read and studied, in addition to new revelations given to current prophets.

They also believe that if additional Scripture is found, it too should be embraced as the Word of God (e.g. Paul's Letter to the Laodiceans, which has never been found but referred to by Paul in , see also Epistle to the Laodiceans).

Political structure in early Mormonism

[[Image:Brigham Young.jpg|thumb|right|150px|

Early Mormonism established community legal stuctures as essentially theocracies (see theodemocracy). Joseph Smith and his successor, Brigham Young, presided over The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as LDS Church president and Prophet of God, until Christ's assumption of world kingship at his Second Coming. U.S. President Millard Fillmore even appointed Young governor of the Territory of Utah. Yet there was minimal effective separation between church and state until 1858.

Brigham Young envisioned a Mormon state spanning from the Salt Lake Valley to the Pacific Ocean, and so he sent church leaders to establish colonies far and wide. These colonies were governed by Mormon officials under Brigham Young's mandate to enforce "God's law" by "lay[ing] the ax at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity", while preserving individual rights. Despite the distance to these outlying colonies, local Mormon leaders received frequent visits from church headquarters, and were under Young's direct doctrinal and political control. Mormons were taught to obey the orders of their priesthood leaders, as long as they coincided with LDS gospel principles. Young's view of theocratic enforcement included a death penalty. However, there are no documented cases showing that such threats were ever enforced as actual policy. Mormon leaders taught the doctrine of blood atonement, in which Mormon "covenant breakers" could in theory gain their exaltation in heaven by having "their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins". More clearly stated, this doctrine holds that capital punishment is requisite for offenses of [...].

Commentator Thomas G. Alexander argues that most violent speech by LDS leaders was rhetorical in nature and that statistical studies were needed to determine whether frontier Utah was more violent in reality than surrounding regions. Referring to the frequent Mormon declarations that there were fewer deeds of violence in Utah than in other pioneer settlements of equal population, the Salt Lake Tribune of January 25, 1876, said: "It is estimated that no less than 600 murders have been committed by the Mormons, in nearly every case at the instigation of their priestly leaders, during the occupation of the territory. Giving a mean average of 50,000 persons professing that faith in Utah, we have a [...] committed every year to every 2500 of population. The same ratio of crime extended to the population of the United States would give 16,000 murders every year." Whatever the case, there is evidence that occasionally local church leaders took the rhetoric of such doctrines seriously as they contemplated sanctionable applications of violence.

According to rumors and accusations, Brigham Young sometimes enforced "God's law" through a secret cadre of avenging Danites. The truth of these rumors is debated by historians. While there existed active vigilante organizations in Utah who referred to themselves as "Danites", they may have been acting independently. Haight and fellow local leader William H. Dame were never a Danite; however, Young's records indicate that in 1857 he authorized Dame and Haight to secretly execute two ex-convicts traveling through southern Utah along the California trail if they were caught stealing cattle. Dame replied to Young in a letter that "we try to live so when your finger crooks, we move". Haight and/or Dame might have been involved in the subsequent ambush of part of the convicts' party just south of Mountain Meadows.

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