The concept that the Church of Christ would have a single presiding officer arose in late 1831.

However, it was still unclear whether Smith's and Cowdery's callings as apostles gave them superior authority to that of other high priests.

[5] Smith was ordained to that position and sustained by the church on January 25, 1832, at a conference in Amherst, Ohio.

In 1844, in jail awaiting trial for treason charges, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob.

Before a large meeting convened to discuss the succession in Nauvoo, Illinois, Sidney Rigdon, the senior surviving member of the church's First Presidency, argued there could be no successor to the deceased prophet and that he should be made the "Protector" of the church.

[10] Brigham Young opposed that reasoning and motion, as Smith had earlier recorded a revelation, which stated the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was "equal in authority and power" to the First Presidency,[11] so Young claimed that the leadership of the church fell to the Twelve Apostles.

On December 27, 1847, three-and-a-half years after Smith's death, Young was ordained the President of the Church.

[14] In 1875, Young changed the definition of seniority to be determined by the longest continuous term as an apostle.

Wilford Woodruff, explained in 1879, "Elder Taylor is the oldest in Ordination and that is why he presides today.

[15]: 123  When Taylor died, the pattern changed, and the members of the First Presidency rejoined the Quorum based on their seniority.

On March 31, 1900, Snow met with his counselors, Cannon and Smith, and decided to change the policy to gauge seniority based on entrance to the Quorum, rather than ordination as an apostle.

Before Snow died, he instructed Smith not to wait to reorganize the First Presidency, which gave no time to John Willard Young to object.

On November 23, 1918, Anthon H. Lund, the most senior apostle, was called to serve in the First Presidency.

In an unprecedented move, Nelson was introduced as the new church president by D. Todd Christofferson, the senior apostle on the Church Public Affairs Committee on January 16, 2018, in a broadcast originating from the annex of the Salt Lake Temple.

[17] However, the appointment is not made official until the Quorum of the Twelve meets and selects the next president of the church.

Since then, the surviving apostles have typically met in the Salt Lake Temple on the Sunday following the late president's funeral, to select and set apart the next president of the church (that was done in 1973, and described in detail by N. Eldon Tanner to Brigham Young University students in 1978).

[15] In another instance, Ezra Taft Benson left active status in the quorum for a time when he was serving as the United States Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration.

However, Benson did not lose seniority in the Quorum, and he became the president of the church upon the death of Spencer W. Kimball.

[20] Members of the church are considered not fully justified in their actions if they "blindly" follow the president.

For example, David O. McKay had five counselors during the final years of his presidency and at one point, Brigham Young had eight.

There have been other cases of counselors being ordained to the office of apostle but not set apart as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, such as Alvin R. Dyer.

Other counselors in the First Presidency were never ordained to the office of apostle, such as Charles W. Nibley and John R. Winder.

Whether or not a counselor in the First Presidency is an ordained apostle, he is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.

[37] The Council determined that Joseph Smith had "acted in every respect in an honorable and proper manner with all monies and properties entrusted to his charge".