Sidney Rigdon
A powerful preacher who brought hundreds of Campbellite converts into the early Church, served as First Counselor to Joseph Smith, and then — in the succession crisis after the martyrdom — was rejected and fell away.
From the Campbellites to the Restoration
Sidney Rigdon was a gifted orator and preacher from Ohio, a close associate of Alexander Campbell in the movement to restore primitive Christianity. He had already gathered a substantial congregation that was earnestly seeking the ancient church when Parley P. Pratt arrived as a missionary in 1830. Rigdon was given a copy of the Book of Mormon, studied it carefully, and was converted. He was baptized, and within weeks he and nearly his entire congregation followed.
His conversion was transformative for the early Church. It brought hundreds of prepared, literate, and theologically serious converts to Kirtland, Ohio — and it brought Rigdon himself, whose preaching ability was second to none in the movement. Joseph Smith and the New York Saints relocated to Kirtland shortly thereafter, in part because of the strong base Rigdon had helped establish.
First Counselor and Co-Witness of Revelation
Rigdon served as First Counselor to Joseph Smith throughout the Kirtland and Missouri periods. He was present with Joseph when they received the revelation on the degrees of glory (D&C 76) — what they called the Vision — and his joint testimony confirmed what both of them saw: the three degrees of glory, the Sons of Perdition, and the nature of exaltation. He was beaten by a mob in Missouri, endured imprisonment, and delivered the famous July 4, 1838 oration that inflamed tensions and contributed to the Missouri persecutions.
His health broke under persecution. His mental stability became inconsistent. Joseph remained loyal to him far longer than many in the Church felt warranted, but the relationship was strained by Rigdon’s unreliability in his later years in Nauvoo.
The Succession Crisis and Rejection
After Joseph and Hyrum were martyred in June 1844, Rigdon returned from Pittsburgh claiming he had a vision that he should be “guardian” of the Church. He addressed the Saints in Nauvoo on August 8. The same afternoon, Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve also addressed the assembled membership. Many present testified to a transformative experience — that Young’s voice and manner became those of Joseph Smith. The membership voted to sustain the Twelve.
Rigdon was excommunicated in September 1844 after continuing to press his claim. He eventually organized a small movement that never took hold. He spent his remaining years largely in obscurity, never returning to the Church, dying in 1876.
D&C 76:22–23
“And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father.”
What Sidney Rigdon Teaches
Rigdon’s story is a sobering study in the distance between early gifts and final fidelity. He experienced remarkable things — a transforming conversion, joint visions with the Prophet, years at the center of the Restoration. None of it guaranteed the end of the story.
He also represents the critical importance of institutional authority over individual claim. The question in 1844 was not whether Rigdon had once been close to Joseph — he had. The question was where apostolic authority resided, and the membership answered that question by their response to the Twelve. The Restoration’s structure was designed precisely so that no single person’s individual claim could override the keys held by the body of apostles.
Key References
- D&C 35 — Rigdon’s call as a scribe and spokesman for Joseph Smith
- D&C 76 — The Vision of the degrees of glory received with Sidney Rigdon
- D&C 121–123 — Liberty Jail letters written while both Joseph and Rigdon were imprisoned
- August 8, 1844 — Succession meeting in Nauvoo; Brigham Young sustained