We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
The Primitive Church is of great interest to Latter Day Saints. We often talk of being a part of the Restored Gospel. This of course implies that the Gospel needed to be restored in the first place. The Primitive Church in my opinion had greater insights about God and more of His authority than any other group up until these the latter days. The authority and insights of Jesus began to wane with his death and the deaths of his apostles. I subscribe to the historical theory called apostasy, and I’m at times very critical of orthodox Christianity because of this belief. I am also fascinated with how Islam filled the gaps when Christianity became apostate. It seems to me that God would not just let divine authority bleed away without doing something about it. If prophecy is restored then I makes sense to me that it was a some point sealed. But that is a discussion for another day.
The offices of the priesthood do not seem as clearly defined in the Latter Days as they were in the Primitive Church. We are, for instance, led by a prophet and he directly oversees twelve apostles. But there are two counselors to his office, which are less than prophets, but more than apostles. I do not object to this order, but I also do not see how it reflects first century Christianity. The LDS Church has a lot of teachers and many are called to their task, but often the teacher is whoever is available and capable, and even with callings this tends to be the case. I have not in my fifteen or so years in the faith met anyone who was set apart in any specific way as a pastor or evangelist. Considering these differences, I wonder how much we actually conform to the organization of the Primitive Church in the Latter Days.
Latter Day Sinner 