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Key to Succession in the Presidency of the Church

P. J. Sanders, Sanders Book Company, 1909, 231 pages. 5.25x8" softbound, reprint by Archive Publishers, Grantsville: Utah.

This well-researched book was written following the 1908 debate between Elder James F. Curtis, an Apostle of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Elder Peter James Sanders of Murray, Utah. Of the debate an author has written: "James Frank Curtis not only had the distinction of the Apostleship, but was well known for his debating and speaking abilities. According to RLDS records, the gifted speaker had participated in over fifty public debates and was an able scriptorian. A few years prior to the debate, Elder Curtis had spearheaded a successful lawsuit against the Utah-based Church to gain control of the temple site in Jackson County, Missouri.

Fresh from the court victory, Elder Curtis was selected by the RLDS to begin a missionary effort in Utah to regain Church members who had mistakenly followed Brigham Young. Initiating the missionary activity, Elder Curtis met with President Heber J. Grant and challenged him to a public debate. Adhering to previous policy, President Grant refused an open confrontation and the talented but unknown schoolteacher, Peter James Sanders was selected to represent Church interests." This superb book was an outgrowth of the debate and of Sanders' scholarship of the LDS Church's early history.

Sanders was a young Bishop who was selected by Church leaders to answer the challenge to a public debate against a member of the First Presidency of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This book is a review of the exhaustive source material used by Sanders during the debate to examine the foundation and beginnings of the RLDS Church while comparing doctrines and organization.

Title: Key to Succession in the Presidency of the Church

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