Thoughts on Priesthood Keys

A week before (July 3, 2011) I was released as the Bishop of my ward (July 10, 2011), our Elders Quorum President invited me to teach a lesson on Priesthood Keys. What follows is my lesson outline. You will notice that I had a forward that asked that the brethren in the Quorum not make comments. I had not done that before and don't that I will ever do it again. However, because of my limited time that day (and ultimately as bishop of the ward) I felt that questions would be more appropriate in this case rather than comments. I hope that there may be something useful here that will benefit you.

Forward:

I am going to ask that you not make comments. Rather, if you have an honest question please feel free to pose it. Otherwise I will ask that you please refrain from making comments. My time is more limited than we realize and I want to be sure I express myself wholly and completely on this vital topic.

Scriptural Foundation

D&C 43:7 – Keys holders and all others that minister to the Saints must come in at the gate. This is similar in principle to John 10:1-2, though Christ’s words in John are more to the point.

Joseph Smith taught: “The fundamental principles, government, and doctrine of the Church are vested in the keys of the kingdom.” (HC 1:338.)

Definitions

• Key: locks or unlocks doors.
• Priesthood: the power and authority of God.
• Priesthood Key: the power and authority to lock and unlock Gods blessings. They are the “right of presidency” (D&C 107:8) or the right to preside.
• Key Holder: one who presides (a president) by right of authority, who oversees and authorizes the specific saving ordinances over which he presides in a geographic area.
• It is important to note that Priesthood Keys are geographic. This is why it is so important to observe ward boundaries, as silly as that may seem.

Why Priesthood Keys

• I believe that Keys were lost in the Great Apostasy
• Keys are what were restored to Joseph Smith (always with a witness)
• Keys are what enables us to access the redemptive powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ
• Without Keys we would just be another Christian church that teaches good things
• Keys ensure that the Lord's house is always a house of order. Without Keys confusion would reign (D&C 132:8)

Some Examples of Correct Principles

• Sacrament Meeting (Can all men hold a sacrament meeting? What about when traveling? What if your wife suggests you stay home and hold a nice romantic sacrament meeting?)
• Revelation (counsel, blessings, direction, etc.)
• Callings and Announcements—and why they ought to be kept confidential (Law of Common Consent and who has the right to extend calls and releases)
• Bishops says one thing and Stake Primary Presidency says another… (What to do?)
• Elders Quorum and High Priest Group Leaders are stake callings, yet they must absolutely check all callings through the Bishop… (Why?)

What does it mean to me to hold keys?

·         Paul and Ananias (Acts 9:1-18) “Jesus had come from the courts of glory to chasten and reprove Saul. Why, then, did not the Lord tell his future minister how to turn from the error of his ways? Why appear to him without delivering the whole message? Simply because the Lord had a servant named Ananias whose commission and work it was to teach and baptize Paul. The presiding officer of heaven and earth would not overstep the bounds of his own laws. He had delegated power to his local officer to handle matters of this sort and to him even the future apostle to the Gentiles must apply for counsel and direction.” (DNTC 2:90.)

·         It means the Lord has asked that I be His steward for a time and a season to act in his behalf for the salvation (both temporal and eternal, both short-term and long-term) of the members of our ward.

What does it mean to me that others do not hold keys?

·         Rights of revelation are limited to spiritual and physical geography.

·         Wilford Woodruff: “The spirit of revelation belongs to the priesthood” (Collected Discourses, April 8, 1894)

·         Joseph Smith, “I will inform you that it is contrary to the economy of God for any member of the Church, or any one, to receive instruction for those in authority, higher than themselves; therefore you will see the impropriety of giving heed to them; but if any person have a vision or a visitation from a heavenly messenger, it must be for his own benefit and instruction; for the fundamental principles, government, and doctrine of the Church are vested in the keys of the kingdom.” (Teachings, p. 21)

·         What do you do if an angel appears? What should his message be? (The same as Christ’s to Paul to go find Ananias.)

How should we treat those that hold keys?

·         They are men, imperfect and more aware of their own faults than anyone else could point out.

·         With respect and deference to the keys and office and calling that relate to those keys.

·         With prayers and sustaining (D&C 107:22)

·         President John Taylor said with typical boldness, “You cannot say that you submit to the law of God while you reject the word and counsel of his servants.” (Journal of Discourses 7:325.)

Not Observing Priesthood Channels and Keys can lead to apostasy:

·        President Kimball taught the following:

Apostasy usually begins with question and doubt and criticism. It is a retrograding and devolutionary process. The seeds of doubt are planted by unscrupulous or misguided people; and seldom directed against the doctrine at first, but mete often against the leaders.

They who garnish the sepulchers of the dead prophets begin now by stoning the living ones; they return to the pronouncements of the dead leaders and interpret them to be incompatible with present programs. They convince themselves that there are discrepancies between the practices of the deceased and the leaders of the present….

Apply this to modern times…. Many budding apostates follow the pattern progressively. They allege love for the gospel and the Church but charge that leaders are a little “off the beam.” Soon they claim that the leaders are making changes and not following the original programs. Next they say that while the gospel and the Church are divine, the leaders are fal­len. Up to this time it may be a passive thing, but now it becomes an active resistance and frequently the blooming apostate begins to air his views and to crusade. He is likely now to join [others and perhaps] groups who are slipping away. He… is flattered by the evil one that he knows more about the scriptures and doctrines than the Church leaders who, he says, are now persecuting him. He generally wants all the blessings of the Church: membership, its Priest­hood, its temple privileges, and expects them from the leaders of the Church, though at the same time claiming that these leaders have departed from the path. He now begins to expect persecution and adopts a martyr complex and when finally [Church discipline] comes he associates himself with other apostates to develop or strengthen cults. At this stage he is likely to claim revelation for him­self; revelations from the Lord directing him in his interpretations and his actions. These manifesta­tions are superior to anything from living leaders, he claims. He is now becoming quite independent.

He fails to recognize that if the Church had gone astray, and if its authorities were “off the beam,” that he could get no authority from them or from anywhere else….

Some of these people disappointed, perhaps ignored in their ambitions, hungry for leader­ship, are deceivers of the first order. To them there is little help we can give. (That You May Not Be Deceived, BYU Devotional, November 11, 1959, n.p.)

• Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught: “Some members or former members of our church fail to recognize the importance of the priesthood line. They underestimate the importance of the Church and its leaders and its programs. Relying entirely on the personal line [of revelation], they go their own way, purporting to define doctrine and to direct competing organizations contrary to the teachings of prophet-leaders. In this they mirror the modern hostility to what is disparagingly called “organized religion.” Those who reject the need for organized religion reject the work of the Master, who established His Church and its officers in the meridian of time and who reestablished them in modern times.” (Two Lines of Communication.)
• D&C 124:45-46 – if we do not hearken to the First Presidency and those they have appointed, we “shall not be blest.” This is the same principle found in D&C 1:38 (“whether by my own voice or the voice of my servant it is the same.”)

Keys are Designed to Bless Us

• Baptism (both of water and fire)
• Sacrament (D&C 20:77, 79)
• Repentance (D&C 13)
• Revelation and Counsel (Heavens continue to be Open and Accessible to us through Keys)

In the end, all keys belong to God. At the last day, all keys will be given back to Christ. For example Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, taught:

“This gathering of the children of Adam, where the thousands, and the tens of thousands are assembled in the judgment, will be one of the greatest events this troubled earth has ever seen. At this conference, or council, all who have held keys of dispensations will render a report of their stewardship. Adam will do likewise, and then he will [surrender] to Christ all authority. Then Adam will be confirmed in his calling as the prince over his posterity and will be officially installed and crowned eternally in this presiding calling. Then Christ will be received as King of kings, and Lord of lords. We do not know how long a time this gathering will be in session, or how many sessions may be held at this grand council. It is sufficient to know that it is a gathering of the Priesthood of God from the beginning of this earth down to the present, in which reports will be made and all who have been given dispensations (talents) will declare their keys and ministry and make report of their stewardship according to the parable. Judgment will be rendered unto them for this is a gathering of the righteous, those who have held and who hold keys of authority in the Kingdom of God upon this earth. It is not to be the judgment of the wicked. When all things are prepared and every key and power set in order with a full and perfect report of each man’s stewardship, then Christ will receive these reports and be installed as rightful Ruler of this earth. At this grand council he will take his place by the united voice of the thousands who by right of Priesthood are there assembled. This will precede the great day of destruction of the wicked and will be the preparation for the Millennial Reign” (The Progress of Man, 3rded. [1944], 481–82; see also Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man [1982], pp.578–88).