First Anointing Kings and Priests and Their Keys
Published by Jacob Vidrine on Sunday, October 31, 2021 at 2:00 PM
An Artistic rendition of the “Holy Order” where the Endowment ceremony was performed in Nauvoo.
Priesthood is one of the more complex historical subjects in Mormonism, and understanding the history and doctrine pertaining to it can be a challenge. One of the purposes of One Eternal Round is to explain the doctrine of the priesthood from historical sources in a way that is accurate and understandable. The subject of this article will be to explore the authority of “First Anointing Kings and Priests” as laid out in One Eternal Round issue #3 — “King and Priest Endowments and the Washing of Feet”.
Latter-day Saint groups who believe in the Nauvoo Temple ceremonies understand that the “Initiatory” or the Washing and Anointing (also called the “First Anointing”) in the Temple Endowment ceremony is only a preparatory ordinance. As it is performed today, the washing is that you “may become clean of the blood and sins of this generations…through your faithfulness”, and the anointing is “preparatory to your becoming a King and a Priest [or Queen and Priestess] unto the Most High God” which also is to eventually be obtained “through your faithfulness.” Knowledgeable Latter-day Saints understand that the full realization of these blessings occurs in the ordinance known as the Second Anointing.
The Demise of First Anointing Kings and Priests
While One Eternal Round #3 — “King and Priest Endowments and the Washing of Feet” proves that in the Nauvoo period the standard way an individual received their Endowment was to be anointed a King and Priest or Queen and Priestess, rather than being anointed to eventually become as such, the article did not explain when this practice was fully abandoned. In the Nauvoo Temple worthy individuals were anointed to Kingly power in their First Anointing, while others were only given a preparatory anointing:
“You are pronounced clean, but were you pronounced clean from the blood of this generation? No! Not all of you. Only some few who have deserved it. …if we have made you clean every whit, now go to work and make others clean.” 1
William Clayton is one example of several individuals who wrote about their washing and anointing in a way to indicate they were actually ordained Kings and Priests. In his journal entry for December 11, 1845, the day endowments started being performed in the Nauvoo Temple, he wrote:
“At 12 President [Brigham] Young said I could go and fetch my wife if I had a mind to. I immediately went down and returned with her at 1 o’clock. I then went into the preparation room and was washed by Elder H. C. Kimball and George A. Smith, and then anointed a priest and a king unto the most High God by President Young and Amasa Lyman and pronounced clean from the blood of this generation.”2
Second Anointings did not start in the Nauvoo Temple until January 8, 1846,3 so these were not Second Anointings, but special First Anointings to confer Temple Authority. The Van Deusen and Lewis apostate exposé accounts of the Nauvoo Temple Endowments similarly indicated they were actually ordained Kings and Priests and Queens and Priestesses in their First Anointings. Yet many individuals only received a preparatory first anointing that they may eventually receive this authority. In the same meeting of newly endowed individuals where Heber C. Kimball acknowledged that many had not been pronounced clean from the blood of this generation, “only some few who have deserved it”, both Kimball and Amasa Lyman acknowledged that most did not receive an ordination:
“You have not yet been ordained to any thing, but will be by and by.”4
“You have been anointed to be kings & priests, but you have not been ordained to it yet. And you have to go get it by being faithful.”5
In early Utah the standard mode for the Endowment was to not ordain any Kings and Priests. As John Hyde remembered being told when he was endowed in 1854:
“...’The Anointing’, administered [in Endowments at the Endowment House is] preparatory to being ordained a ‘king and priest unto God and the Lamb,’ which ordination, however, can only be performed in the real temple.”6
John Hawley, who was endowed in the 1860s, also recalled:
“In Brigham’s endowments both feet and body were washed and anointing with oil; but he did not ordain kings and priests and queens [in the ceremony], as did Lyman [Wight in his Endowments]. He [Brigham Young] brought all under oath and covenant to avenge the blood of the prophets, and gave us a name we would be called forth from the grave by. This is about the extent of his endowment, with the addition of a second endowment, and I am a witness of this also…”7
This policy to not confer temple authority in the First Anointing became permanent, as it became set in stone that individuals did not receive Kingly and Priestly authority until the Second Anointing. As the modern ceremony today states:
“Brother _________, having authority, I pour this holy anointing oil upon your head [for and in behalf of _________, who is dead] and anoint you preparatory to your becoming a king and a priest unto the most high God, hereafter to rule and reign in the house of Israel forever.”8
But when First Anointing Kings and Priests were ordained in Nauvoo, what keys and power did they receive?
Degrees of Melchizedek Priesthood
Some mistakenly believe that the office of an Elder or Seventy has all the Melchizedek Priesthood an individual can receive. If you have ever heard someone intelligent argue for this position, they probably employed the following quote by Brigham Young:
“Whoever is ordained to the office of an Elder to a certain degree possesses the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood; and suppose only one Elder should be left on the earth, could he go and set in order the kingdom of God? Yes, by revelation.”9
Yet only a few minutes earlier in this same speech, Brigham Young indirectly stated that these offices alone do not possess all the priesthood authority one man can receive. He stated that High Priests and other officers in the Church of Christ, if faithful, would “receive at some time all the authority and power that it is possible for man to receive”:
“They [High Priests] possess precisely the same Priesthood that the Seventies and the Twelve and the First Presidency possess; but are they ordained to officiate in all the authority, powers, and keys of this Priesthood? No, they are not. Still, they are High Priests of God; and if they magnify their Priesthood, they will receive at some time all the authority and power that it is possible for man to receive.”10
As Brigham Young said in the Nauvoo Temple, it was being made a King and Priest that gave a man all the priesthood that one man can give another:
“Every man that gets his endowment, where he is a High Priest or Seventy, may go into any part of the world and build up the kingdom if he has the keys—or on to any island. We have been ordained to the Melchisedeck Priesthood, which is the highest order of Priesthood, and it has many branches or offices—and those who have come in here and have received their washing & anointing will be ordained Kings & Priests, and will then have received the fullness of the priesthood, all that can be given on earth, for Brother Joseph said he had given us all that could be given to man on the earth.”11
John Taylor also addressed this issue in saying that High Priests and Seventies have the same priesthood, but that it was really receiving certain “ordinances of the temple” that qualify them to be able to perpetuate the entire Kingdom of God:
“There has been, sometimes, a little feeling manifested between the Seventies and High Priests, as to who has the greatest authority, and some of the Seventies have manifested a desire to be united with the High Priests’ Quorum, thinking thereby to obtain a greater degree of Priesthood. This is folly, for, as I stated before, it is not the office but the magnifying of an office that makes a man honourable. But in relation to their offices, they are called to move in other spheres, and fulfill other callings, rather than possessing different power and authority. Brother Carter thought that some of the Seventies were out of their place, because they were appointed to preside over conferences, whereas they have as much right to preside, when legally appointed, as an High Priest or an Apostle. The Seventies have the High Priesthood, and many of them have received ordinances in the temple, qualifying them to build up the Kingdom of God, if every other officer was dead or killed, and so have the High Priests. So far, then, as authority is concerned, they both have authority, but it is the especial business of the Seventies to preach to all the world, introduce and spread the gospel, while it is the duty of the High Priests more especially to preside; yet a High Priest is not precluded from travelling and preaching, and introducing the gospel (nor a Seventy from presiding).”12
The Testimony of First Anointing Kings and Priests
Two individuals who we know were anointed First Anointing Kings and Priests but did not receive their Second Anointing from Joseph Smith are Lyman Wight and William Smith. Both give details of what authority they understood they were given.
Gideon Carter recalled that Lyman Wight said that “Joseph Smith had given him authority to perform plural marriage ceremonies in connection with other ceremonies in the church.” In his 1848 epistle Lyman Wight wrote that he and other members of the Council of Fifty had been given “full authority to build up the Kingdom of God on earth.” In Zodiac, Texas Lyman Wight exercised this authority in building a small temple, where followers did baptisms for the dead, adoption sealings, eternal marriage sealings, and an abbreviated endowment ceremony wherein men and women were ordained kings and priests and queens and priestesses respectively.13
William Smith was another individual who was only given his first anointing. Yet he told his followers that he had received the sealing keys of “Elias and Elijah” and authority to perform temple ordinances. As he wrote in his October 1845 epistle:
“I was present with Joseph at the last council that was held previous to the Twelve and others going on their electioneering campaign to the east and various other parts of the United States; it was at this time that I receive my initiation into the highest priesthood lodge, was washed and anointed, and clad with the sacerdotal robe of pure white, and ordained to be priest and king, and invested with all the power that any man on earth ever did possess; power entitling me to preach the gospel, to bind up the kingdom of God on earth, among all nations, and people of every tongue. In consequence of these endowments and ordination received from under the hands of Joseph, I hold as much power and as many keys to seal and bind on earth, as can possibly belong to Brigham Young; this power was conferred equally on all the Twelve, and not therefore bestowed on one.”14
The Authority to Bestow the Second Anointing
When new ordinances or ordinations have been revealed, Joseph Smith first conferred the ordinance on someone else, who then bestowed the ordinance back on Joseph. In the Nauvoo Temple this pattern was mentioned:
“The ordinances of the Lord’s House are at all times first communicated to the children of men, that he who holds the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to minister to men on earth as President Brigham Young now does, should confer the ordinances upon some faithful man who should in turn minister to him according to the pattern of heavenly beings. This is the order observed by the Prophet Joseph, he first baptized Oliver, then Oliver baptized him.”15
Joseph Smith’s history confirms that after Joseph and Oliver had the Aaronic Priesthood conferred by upon them by John the Baptist “accordingly we went and were baptized, I baptized him first, and afterwards he baptized me, after which I laid my hands upon his head and ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same Priesthood, for so we were commanded.”16 Oliver Cowdery recalled that after Peter, James, and John conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood that “This Priesthood we then conferred on each other, by the will and commandment of God.”17 At the organization of the Church on April 6, 1830 Joseph and Oliver ordained each other Elders: “I then laid my hands upon Oliver Cowdery and ordained him an Elder of the ‘Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’ After which he ordained me also to the office of an Elder of said Church.”18
On June 3, 1831 when the office of High Priest was first revealed Joseph ordained Lyman Wight and others as High Priests, and Lyman Wight afterwards ordained Joseph Smith to the same office.19 Similarly, when the Kirtland Endowments began in January 1836, Joseph first anointed his father, who afterwards anointed the First Presidency, who then proceeded to perform the ordinance for other church leaders.20 Then finally on May 4, 1842 when the full Endowment Ceremony was revealed, Joseph and Hyrum first endowed 8 men, and on the next day “myself and Brother Hyrum received in turn from the others, the same that I had communicated to them the day previous.”21
One anomaly in Church History that has not been addressed is that the only time this pattern was not followed was when Joseph Smith and his wife Emma received their Second Anointing on September 28, 1843. No couple received the ordinance before them, and according to James Whitehead, Joseph received the ordinance from Hyrum Smith and William Marks.22 The only logical explanation for this anomaly is that Hyrum Smith and William Marks were already Kings and Priests from the May 1842 endowments—the Second Anointing did not confer a higher office, it just bestowed the full blessings of that office.
It was likely on this basis that Samuel Smith could be designated by Joseph to preside over the Church, even though Samuel had only received his First Anointing. As a First Anointing King and Priest Samuel Smith held the highest priesthood office as a King and Priest just as much as those who had received the Second Anointing — Samuel just had yet to have the fullness of those blessings sealed upon him. 23
Full Authority to Perpetuate the Kingdom of God
Brigham Young recognized the same distinction that Heber C. Kimball did between Endowments that conferred temple authority and those that did not, in his comments distinguishing between those who had been given ‘the keys’ in their Endowments and those who had not. He explained “Every man that gets his endowment, whether he is High Priest or Seventy, may go into any part of the world and build up the kingdom if he has the keys, or on to any island.” Brigham a few days later more explicitly stated that when they leave Nauvoo “there will be thousands and thousands of men that can go into any part of the world and build up the kingdom, and build temples.”24
One example of this in action was Addison Pratt. In being sent on a mission to the Pacific Islands. Addison was given instruction to build a tabernacle to perform some temple ordinances for the members there, Brigham telling him: “‘When you get to [the] Islands build a tabernacle for baptizing for the dead and for the endowments for the Aaronic P[riesthood]’.”25 Addison Pratt was interestingly the only time an individual was endowed at Ensign Peak, three months after this direction was given by Brigham.26 While there are no records of Addison Pratt ever building a temple or performing temple ordinances while serving his mission, Brigham’s comment demonstrates that “thousands of men” could “go into any part of the world…and build temples” was a real possibility, not merely theoretical.
Brigham’s comment that there would be “thousands and thousands” leaving Nauvoo with keys to build temples is significant to observe. Only 172 men received their Second Anointing in the Nauvoo Temple (with 422 women), which was not anywhere close to a thousand. However, there were over 5,500 Endowments given in the Nauvoo Temple. Even if only 1,000 or 2,000 had received a special anointing which ordained them Kings and Priests and Queens and Priestesses, that would still make Brigham’s comment accurate. Brigham would reiterate this comment in an 1853 talk reflecting on the Nauvoo Temple, stating:
“Who has received and understands such an endowment, in this assembly? You need not answer. Your voices would be few and far between, yet the keys to these endowments are among you, and thousands have received them, so that the devil, with all his aids, need not suppose he can again destroy the Holy Priesthood from the earth, by killing a few, for he cannot do it.”27
Some may interpret the above quote as merely referencing that recipients of the Endowment received a knowledge of the signs and tokens of the Endowment ceremony, but in the context Brigham is not merely referencing keys of knowledge but actually being given authority to perpetuate the priesthood and its ordinances on the Earth.
In Modern Times
In Nauvoo, the purpose of ordaining First Anointing Kings and Priests was to confer the keys, power and authority of the Fullness of the Priesthood upon men so it will remain on the Earth, but not the full blessings of the Fullness of the Priesthood, which are sealed upon recipients in the Second Anointing. It was by virtue of Hyrum Smith and William Marks being First Anointing Kings and Priests that they performed Joseph Smith’s Second Anointing, and by virtue of Samuel Smith’s First Anointing on December 17, 1843 that he held all the keys and power of the priesthood necessary to preside. It was by virtue of several thousand individuals being ordained First Anointing Kings and Priests in the Nauvoo Temple that Brigham Young was confident that the authority of the Temple would never be taken again from the Earth.
When Ross Wesley LeBaron began his Patriarchal Work in 1950, he wrote that he had been ordained to “all the keys, rights, and authority of the Patriarchal Priesthood” by his father. Early sources show that Ross understood these Patriarchal Keys related to the Kirtland Temple restoration and were the keys of Moses, Elias, and Elijah. Lacking a Temple or a Temple in the foreseeable future, Ross opted to simply set apart men as Patriarchs to hold full temple authority. As Ross stated:
“Keys and office are often used interchangeably...[yet it] don’t always work that way. [I may] confer upon you all the keys I myself possess. ...every man that’s ordained [a patriarch in his own right by me] have all those keys, [but that doesn't give them the] patriarchal office of the lineage of Joseph Smith [that I hold].”28
Fred C. Collier was one such patriarch, and his ordination was recorded in the journal of Steve Bjorkman:
“Following the Confirmation I ordained Fred a Patriarch in his own right over his own posterity and over those who follow him by free agency. I then confirmed on him the Keys of the Gathering of Israel as they were confirmed by Moses in the Kirtland Temple [on] April 3, 1836. These Keys are to gather around you those who wish to follow you. Also I then conferred on him the keys to the Dispensation of the Gospel of Abraham. Which Keys give a man the right to organize his posterity as did Abraham into a Patriarchal House with Patriarch, Priest, and King. I then conferred on him the keys to the sealing power of Elijah which give a man the authority to perform all the ordinances for his posterity necessary for them to attain Godhood. Now all of these keys and powers were given to Fred for him to use for the benefit of not only his posterity but also all those who by free agency desire to follow him. Following this Ross & I again laid our hands on Fred and Ross gave Fred a blessing by virtue of the Holy Priesthood after the order of God.”29
When Fred ordained Robert Black a Patriarch and to hold the keys of Moses, Elias, and Elijah on March 10, 1975, Robert recalled that afterwards Fred explained “this was the best that could be done at that time for ordaining men to the Patriarchal Priesthood as we did not have a temple [i.e. to ordain First Anointing Kings and Priests].”30 In 1992 Fred Collier began to organize and administer Endowments, ordaining men and women as First Anointing Kings and Priests and Queens and Priestesses for the first time since the Nauvoo period.31 These ordinances were done with the understanding that “all ordinance work performed outside of a temple will be done or redone [i.e. ratified] in a [future] Temple.”
Sources:
1. Heber C. Kimball statement, The Nauvoo Endowment Companies <21 December 1845> pages 116–117.
2. An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton<11 December 1845> page 194.
3. See The Nauvoo Endowment Companies <8 January 1846> pages 375–377.
4. Amasa Lyman statement, The Nauvoo Endowment Companies <21 December 1845> pages 119–120.
5. Heber C. Kimball statement, The Nauvoo Endowment Companies <21 December 1845> page 121.
6. John Hyde, Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs <1857> page 92.
7. John Hawley, True Latter Day Saints’ Herald vol. 3 <28 June 1884> page 412.
8. Quoted from LDSEndowment.org.
9. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses vol. 9 <7 May 1861> page 88.
10. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses vol. 9 <7 May 1861> page 88.
11. Brigham Young, Nauvoo Endowment Companies <26 December 1845> page 192.
12. John Taylor, Millennial Star vol. 9 <7 May 1847> pages 324–325, italics added.
13. Statement of Gideon Carter recorded by B. H. Roberts, 1903, LDS Archives; Lyman Wight, An Address by Way of an Abridged Account and Journal of My Life <1848> page 3; Mel Johnson, Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight’s Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845 to 1858 page 139.
14.William Smith, “Proclamation,” October 1845, emphasis added.
15. Nauvoo Endowment Companies <8 January 1846> page 376.
10. History of the Church vol. 1 pages 39–40.
17. Oliver Cowdery Statement, Reuben Miller Diary, 21 October 1848, LDS Archives.
18. History of the Church vol. 1 pages 77–78.
19. Minutes of a Conference 3–4 June 1831, LDS Archives.
20. History of the Church vol. 2 pages 379–380.
21. History of the Church vol. 5 pages 1–3.
22. “W[hitehead]- Says Wm Marks and Hyrum by command of God ordained Joseph King & priest.” (William W. Blair Diary. 17 June 1874)
23. “Bro. Samuel Smith met with us [and] Received his first anointing.” (Joseph Smith’s Quorum of the Anointed, 1842 – 1845 <17 December 1843>pages 43–44); “Joseph has said that if he and Hyrum were taken away Samuel H. Smith would be his successor” (An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton <12 July 1844> page 138).
24. Brigham Young, Nauvoo Endowment Companies <26 December 1845> page 192, italics added; Brigham Young, Nauvoo Endowment Companies <2 January 1846> page 287.
25. “There were other scattered and isolated references during these years to baptisms for the dead, such as the following injunctions given to Addison Pratt before his return to the islands of the South Pacific to resume in earlier missionary endeavors there: ‘When you get to [the] Islands build a tabernacle for baptizing for the dead and for the endowments for the Aaronic P[riesthood]’.” But so far as is yet known, no such ordinances were ever performed there. General Church Minutes, 8 April 1849, CR 100 318, box 2, folder 10.” (Richard E. Bennett, Temples Rising page 183 footnote 51)
26. “Addison Pratt received his endowments on Ensign Hill at 6 a.m. on the morning of 21 July [1849]. ‘The place being consecrated for the purpose. Ten others participated.’ These included six members of the Twelve, three presidents of the Seventy, and ‘Father Morley’. According to Franklin D. Richards, Pratt’s endowment was ‘immediately bestowed’ indicating that this may have been a shortened, highly abbreviated form of the sacred ordinance.” (Richard E. Bennett, Temples Rising page 146 footnote 25)
27. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses vol. 2 <6 April 1853> pages 31–32.
28. Ross LeBaron interview with Dale Van Atta, 1977, L. Tom Perry Special Collections.
29. Journal of Steve Bjorkman, 10 August 1970.
30. Robert Black, The New and Everlasting Covenant page 399.
31. Fred first articulated in writing his argument that First anointing Kings and Priests was the original way the Endowment Initiatory was performed in Doctrine of the Priesthood vol. 3 no. 2
This article can be discussed over at the One Eternal Round Facebook Group!