The Board Of Directors

The idea that continuity of organization determines the validity of the church is further propounded when Hunt describes the manner in which popes are selected.  When he makes mention of "authority" he means the priesthood.  He is fixed on the idea that priesthood comes with office.  On the selection of popes father Hunt says:

"The organization of the Church, as already noted, resembles a board of directors, one of whom is chairman or president.  When the chairman dies, the office does not die with him.  It remains to be filled by the other directors, most of whom continue to live.  They may act quicky or they may procrastinate. They may agree among themselves or disagree.  They may split into factions; they may indulge in quarrels.  They may lose prestige and influence.  But the one and all-important fact is that the organization continues to exist.  In time a new chairman is chosen, at which moment he acquires all the authority belonging to the office" (Ibid, p. 21).

The process Hunt describes for the selection of a new president is devoid of the voice of God.  He admits the process works more like a company, with its key leaders engaged in cordial discussion until a verdict is agreed upon.  If God is not found interceding, then their decisions are considered to be His will.  This is the logical way to work through a problem when the voice of the Lord cannot be obtained.  It is the very way in which the First Councils of Nicea and Constantinople proceeded and concluded, and is how all ecumenical and provincial councils have thereafter functioned.  As it turns out, their creeds are an abomination (JSH 1:19).  This is how the commandments of men become doctrine.   

Because we live in a telestial world, there is a tendency among even very good men to slide into darkness and away from the light of truth.  Without perpetual communion with God men resort to their own devices to resolve issues of organization and matters of doctrine.  Comparison to a board of directors is I think an apt description of how the process actually works.