Rigdon's Ancient Order: Three Degrees of Discipleship

[David T]

In one of Rigdon's 1835 doctrinal dissertations printed in the Messenger and Advocate, on the 'Ancient Order', he set out his understanding of Ephesians 4:11.

In his view, in signified a progression.

• Once one was obedient to the Gospel and developed enough faith to have a personal witness of the Lord, one became an "Apostle", and was granted Authority.
• Following this, one needed to share the message of their witness, call individuals to repentance, giving them the Holy Ghost, thus them Prophets (the people they converted would then strive to advance into Apostles)
• A Prophet would then, in time, advance to become an "Evangelist/Patriarch" and bestow blessings in the Name of Christ. (Meanwhile, the new Apostles would be advancing into Prophets)
• Once this process is established, the other offices and auxiliaries of the Ancient Order could flow and be set in order, such as Pastors and Teachers.

From these quotations it appears, the first thing the Savior done in order to establish his kingdom, was to choose and call apostles, or witnesses for himself; for apostles are witnesses; and these men after using the office of apostles or witnesses, became prophets, and after they were prophets, they became evangelists, and then came pastors, and teachers, and after that miracles, healings, diversities of tongues, and interpretation of tongues, &c. Such then was the ancient order of things, and in this manner did the Son of God build his church on earth, and establish his order among men.

And having these three orders established: namely, apostles, prophets, and evangelists; then followed on other things in their order, such as pastors, teachers, helps, governments, &c.; and

When any man sets himself for to search out the ancient order of things, this is what he will find, if he succeeds in his design, and if he does not obtain this, he will not get the ancient order of things. No church need say to their fellow men, lo here is the ancient order of things, or lo it is there, unless they have the order before mentioned; for it matters not what order they may have, if they have not the order before mentioned, they have not the ancient order.But let us descend to particulars; for there are ways and means which lead to the full development of this order. If there were apostles, it was because there were ways and means ordained of God to make them such, and ways and means too, which were calculated to produce this effect, to make men apostles. In order then to be an apostle a man must in the first instance believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the next place he must repent of all his sins, and then must be baptized for the remission of his sins, and must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; after that he must continue in faith and obedience until he has obtained a manifestation of the Savior; for it was not sufficient to make apostles, that they saw Jesus Christ while he was in the flesh; but it was necessary that they should have a manifestation of him after he rose from the dead, that they might testify to the world, that he lives, and that he is on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens; this made men apostles, or witnesses for Jesus Christ.

Such was the ancient order of things in laying the foundation to establish the order of God, and out of this all the rest of the order grew.

These men thus qualified for their office, went forth, and called upon the rest of their fellow men to believe, repent of their sins, be baptized for the remission of them, and receive the Holy Spirit, which they ministered unto them by the laying on of their hands, and the people thus receiving the Holy Ghost were enabled by this gift, to prophecy, to see visions, and to dream dreams, and by these means grow up to be witnesses for Jesus Christ also, and become apostles, and obtain all the powers of the first; and as the first apostles grew up to be prophets, so those who were brought to a knowledge of the truth by their testimony, would grow up to apostles; and as the first would advance to be evangelists, those who came after them would be advancing to be prophets, and, until they also would become evangelists,-which seems to be the same as Patriarch, whose office it was to administer blessings and cursings in the name of Jesus Christ, according to the will of God. So each one in his turn as he passed along in his course, partook of all the powers of the spiritual kingdom, or the world to come, exactly according to the commission given to the apostles, that those who believed them [the apostles] should have signs following them.

This is definitely a unique exposition, and I don't recall reading of this view being held or promulgated by anyone else. Is anyone aware of a development or repetition of this view?

Needless to say, my study of the old Church periodicals has been fascinating in terms of viewing developing doctrinal understanding and standardization.

NOTE: I am not looking for a discussion of the Ephesians text itself, or having it explained what it 'really means', or how the Church uses it today. I'm specifically interested in this specific Rigdonion view of Progression through the Offices.

[David T]

I see the term 'Ancient Order of Things' appears to have a Campbellite / Disciples origin, but I haven't yet found the origin of the 'chain'.

Parley P Pratt makes reference to it in his autobiography:

Here was the ancient gospel in due form. Here were the very principles which I had discovered years before; but could find no one to minister in. But still one great link was wanting to complete the chain of the ancient order of things; and that was, the authority to minister in holy things-the apostleship, the power which should accompany the form. This thought occurred to me as soon as I heard Mr. Rigdon make proclamation of the gospel. Peter proclaimed this gospel, and baptized for remission of sins, and promised the gift of the Holy Ghost, because he was commissioned so to do by a crucified and risen Saviour. But who is Mr. Rigdon? Who is Mr. Campbell? Who commissioned them? Who baptized them for remission of sins? Who ordained them to stand up as Peter? Of course they were baptized by the Baptists, and ordained by them, and yet they had now left them because they did not administer the true gospel. And it was plain that the Baptists could not claim the apostolic office by succession, in a regular, unbroken chain from the Apostles of old, preserving the gospel in its purity, and the ordinances unchanged, from the very fact that they were now living in the perversion of some, and the entire neglect of others of these ordinances; this being the very ground of difference between the old Baptists and these Reformers

[David T]

If there's anyone interested (the lack of responses showing this may not be the case), I've expanded a discussion of this over at my blog, complete with charts

Sidney Rigdon's Ancient Order