🧓📜 Succession by Custom… Not Revelation?
🧓📜 Succession by Custom… Not Revelation?
When tradition wears a prophet’s robe
There’s a quiet little assumption humming in the background of LDS life. Most members never question it. It goes something like this:
👉 “When the prophet dies, the Lord automatically calls the next president through seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve. It’s revelation. Always has been.”
Sounds simple, right? Neat, clean, divinely oiled machinery.
Well… not so fast, partner. 🐎
🕰️ Apostolic Interregnum — Fancy Words, Empty Scripture
The Church likes to use the term “apostolic interregnum.” That’s the gap between the death of one president and the calling of the next. It sounds official, like something you’d find in 3 Nephi.
But it’s not in scripture.
Not once. 📖❌
“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
— Amos 3:7
If the Lord reveals everything of importance to His prophets, where’s the revelation describing the seniority system?
The record is silent.
📜 Four Quorums, Not One Man
Doctrine and Covenants 107 lays out something beautiful and balanced:
Four co-equal councils—the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, the Seventy, and the Standing High Council.
“The twelve traveling councilors are called to be the Twelve Apostles, or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world… and they form a quorum, equal in authority and power to the three presidents previously mentioned.”
— D&C 107:23–24
“The Seventy are to act in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Twelve… and form a quorum equal in authority to that of the Twelve.”
— D&C 107:25–26
👉 Notice that “senior apostle automatically becomes president” is nowhere in this revelation.
Early on, apostles were missionaries 🌍—not the ruling administrative body.
The modern system, where one senior apostle ascends to the top and rules everything until death, is a far cry from the original revealed structure.
It’s like watching a barn turn into a skyscraper and pretending it was always that way.
👴 Joseph F. Smith: “It’s a Custom.”
During the Reed–Smoot hearings in Washington, D.C., Joseph F. Smith was asked under oath about how succession works.
👉 He admitted: it’s not revelation. It’s custom.
No heavenly decree. Just the way they’d gotten used to doing it. Later leaders wrapped this custom in language of inspiration, but the foundation was precedent, not prophecy.
“For the traditions of their fathers caused them to err.”
— Mosiah 1:5
“They have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.”
— Isaiah 24:5
🤝 Power Struggles, Not Smooth Sailing
After Joseph Smith’s death, there was no smooth, divinely choreographed hand-off. It was chaos. Disagreement. Competing claims.
Brigham Young’s rise to power was a political maneuver, not a pre-written heavenly script. His victory became the precedent, and precedent slowly calcified into “doctrine.”
“For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
— John 12:43
“They wear stiff necks and high heads… they seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way.”
— D&C 1:16
Historians like B. Michael Quinn have documented how the seniority system crystallized over decades, not by a single revelation. ⚡
🧓 The Practical Problem Nobody Talks About
Because the “next man up” system is based on seniority, LDS presidents are almost always very elderly. There’s no retirement. You serve until you die.
This means we often have a church run by men in their late 80s and 90s—good men, yes—but sometimes limited by health and energy.
“When a man is old and looketh for strength, his strength is no more in him; therefore, let not the aged bear every burden alone, but let every man and woman receive of the Haymehnay that they may be led aright.”
— Nemenhah Records, Tsi Muhayl 8:53
📚 Tradition Wearing the Mask of Revelation
Here’s the real danger, and it’s one Jesus Himself warned about:
“But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
— Matthew 15:9
When we take administrative tradition and start treating it like divine doctrine, we elevate men’s customs to heaven’s throne.
That’s spiritual sleight of hand. 🪄
“O Lord, forgive my people their weakness; when they look beyond the mark, they must fall.”
— Jacob 4:14
🕊️ Scripture vs. Precedent — Which Voice Will You Hear?
The Book of Mormon is packed with warnings to the Gentiles—that’s us—about mixing up the ways of men with the word of God.
“Because ye have rejected the words of the prophets, and ye have rejected all my words… I will return their own ways upon their heads.”
— 2 Nephi 27:25
The Nemenhah Records echo this too:
“If they seek not the Haymehnay to confirm in them all things, what use have they of much intelligence of how things really are?”
— Tsi Muhayl 8:51–52
Succession by custom isn’t the issue by itself.
The issue is pretending custom is revelation—and then binding souls to it. 🔗
🌾 My Take
For me, this isn’t about anger toward the leaders. Many are sincere men doing their best within the system they inherited.
But the Lord’s house is supposed to be governed by living revelation, not autopilot tradition.
“Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm.”
— 2 Nephi 4:34
If there’s no revelation confirming each presidential succession, then maybe we should stop saying there is.
And maybe we should start looking to Christ—not seniority charts—to know who leads His flock.
🧭 Final Thought
Succession by seniority is a policy, not a prophecy.
A tradition, not a thunderclap from Sinai.
“Therefore, whoso buildeth upon my rock, and heareth my words and doeth them, the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.”
— Helaman 5:12
If our faith rests on traditions rather than the living voice of Jesus, we’re building on sand, not stone.
The question isn’t “Who’s next?”
The question is:
👉 Who’s truly called by Him?
👉 Whose voice do we follow — the robe, or the Shepherd? 🐑
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