The Order of Succession Explained

THE REVELATIONS OF JESUS CHRIST

SECTION 160.

Revelation Received August8,1989,Provo, Utah on the Reason of the Separation, that the Seventy are Not to Be High Priests.

The reason, saith the Lord, that the Seventy are to be totally segregated from High Priests is to maintain the system of checks and balances in the Kingdom of God, that the keys belong to the Seventies.    2 And though    the    High    Priests    may mourn over it, it is just so, and any man, chosen by the Lord, (not just a select corporate clique of businessmen and high priests, such as those who govern the Mormon Church today) may attain to the Apostleship with all the keys of the Kingdom of God encompassed within this ordination, and thus provide a check and a safeguard against this elitism, and the rich and powerful  politically  taking  over the Church as the High Priests think they have done today.

‘‘There is authority and there are degrees of authority, and there is a difference in degrees, callings and authority of the Priesthood. If there should be one apostle left on the earth, he can regulate and set in order the whole of the church and kingdom of God. If there is one seventy left he could do so. This order is not my getting up, it is the Lord’s doings; high priests my mourn over it, the Lord has said it, and I have no right to say it is not so." Brigham Young