He viewed the organisation as being part of a world government which would guide and direct the Kingdom of God (Zion) on earth during the end times as a theodemocracy.
[1][2] As advisers, the Council of Friends would serve as the base of the governing body, but possessed no real political power.
[3] The concept of a Council of Friends or Priesthood Council is central to the Mormon fundamentalist theology developed by Lorin C. Woolley and others in the late 1920s, wherein it was said to consist of seven "High Priest Apostles" holding higher authority than the Quorum of the Twelve of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
[4] Early fundamentalists believed that the council had been restored in secret by Joseph Smith before the LDS Church itself, and dated back to the time of Adam.
They felt that its existence gave them the right to continue solemnizing plural marriages even after LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff's 1890 Manifesto discountenancing the practice.