Messenger Magazine

Who Holds the Keys?

Posted on 1/1/2004 at 12:58:48 PM

“It is necessary to know who holds the keys of power, and who does not or we are likely to be deceived.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 336)

Most orthodox LDS Church members and Mormon Fundamentalists accept Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and John Taylor as Prophets, Church Presidents, and Presidents of the Priesthood, all holding the keys of Elijah (or the authority to preside over all of the ordinances). Past this point Fundamentalists have raised some controversy over the position of Wilford Woodruff to Joseph F. Smith and beyond.¹

For those studying the fullness of the Gospel who realise the need for the authority to live the higher laws and ordinances of the Gospel this can lead to confusion: Have the keys of the Priesthood continued to our day and how can we judge who holds them? The best - if not the only source - our Latter-day Saint readers will accept is the teachings of and revelations to those Prophets we all agree on the calling and authority of. If we claim authority through Joseph Smith and say we believe in the word of the Lord to him, then there is no better place to begin to study these matters than with the Doctrine and Covenants.

A continuation of the keys of the Priesthood

The first question we need to address is whether the Lord has promised that the keys of the Priesthood would continue throughout this dispensation. God answered this within the same year of the organization of the Church and just a year following Joseph receiving the Priesthood from Peter, James and John, when He promised that the “keys of my kingdom” were committed “for the last times; and for the fullness of times.”² He later informed the Prophet that it would be those keys “committed unto man” that would allow the gospel to “roll forth … until it has filled the whole earth.”³ As those times have not yet come, the keys must remain to fulfil God’s promises and purposes. But is it still possible those keys could have been lost if the Lord’s prophet ‘fell’ and disqualified himself? The Lord has allowed for such a possibility, and made the provision that even in a situation where the man holding the keys might become unworthy of his calling, that responsibility would pass to someone who was qualified and who had received that authority through him:

But verily, verily, I say unto you, that none else shall be appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations until he be taken, if he abide in me. But verily, verily, I say unto you, that none else shall be appointed unto this gift except it be through him; for if it be taken from him he shall not have power except to appoint another in his stead. For verily I say unto you, that he that is ordained of me shall come in at the gate and be ordained as I have told you before, to teach those revelations which you have received and shall receive through him whom I have appointed.”⁴

Worthiness, however, is not the only condition upon which those who claim to hold the keys and preside over them must meet. 

A continuation of ordinances, and laws

The Prophet Joseph clearly taught the Saints that all the ordinances of the Gospel were “instituted in heaven before the foundation of this world in the Priesthood for the salvation of man,” that they were “not to be altered or changed,” and that “all must be saved upon the same principles.” He added that they “must be kept in the very way God has appointed; otherwise their Priesthood will prove a cursing instead of a blessing.”⁵ Even Joseph Smith’s Priesthood authority was dependent upon him receiving all of the ordinances in the manner that God restored them, as we can see from the Lord’s promise to him that “the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom shall not be taken from” him “while he liveth, inasmuch as he obeyeth mine ordinances.”⁶

If this was a condition upon which Joseph’s authority rested then it would also be a test by which we can judge anyone who claims to be his successor and hold the keys he did. Have they received all the ordinances, and kept them “in the very way God has appointed,” or are there ordinances they have not received or changes they have tried to make to those they have? Could any man ever have the right to perform an ordinances he had not received? Brigham Young posed this same question to the Saints of his day: “Can any man or set of men officiate in dispensing the laws and administering the ordinances of the Kingdom of God or of the kingdoms and governments of the world legally, without first obeying those laws and submitting to those ordinances themselves? … do not forget that no man has authority to officiate in the ordinances of heavenly or earthly governments only so far as he has obeyed them himself.”⁷
That keeping alive such ordinances is necessary to hold and exercise the keys of the Priesthood is something Joseph Smith explained very plainly in his day:
 

The spirit, power, and calling of Elijah is, that ye have power to hold the key of the revelation, ordinances, oracles, powers and endowments of the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood and of the kingdom of God on the earth; and to receive, obtain, and perform all the ordinances belonging to the kingdom of God”⁸

He was also by the Lord that if he did not introduce a principle he would lose any authority he already had:

An angel of God … told him that, unless he moved forward and establish plural marriage, his Priesthood would be taken from him.”⁹

Likewise Heber C. Kimball was told by the Prophet that if he did not take another wife “he would lose his Apostleship.”¹⁰ This was not just a condition placed upon Brothers Joseph and Heber, but upon all the Apostles:

When this commandment was given, it was so far religious, and so far binding upon the Elders of this Church, that it was told them if they were not prepared to enter into it, and to stem the torrent of opposition that would come in consequence of it, the keys of the kingdom would be taken from them and given to others.”¹¹

The necessity of living this high and holy law to be able to preside over the Priesthood was repeated again by the Lord to his servant John Taylor in 1882, in which He said:

Thus saith the Lord to the Twelve, and to the Priesthood and people of my Church: … You may appoint Seymour B. Young to fill up the vacancy in the presiding quorum of Seventies, if he will conform to My law: For it is not meet that men who will not abide My law shall preside over My Priesthood; … For my Priesthood, whom I have called and whom I have sustained and honored, shall honor one and obey my laws, and the laws of my Holy Priesthood, or they shall not be considered worthy to hold my Priesthood, saith the Lord.”¹²

Some might ask, as undoubtedly some of the Saints did during President Taylor’s tenure, “apart from the exalting purpose of this divine law, why was it so essential to the issue of Priesthood authority?” To this he plainly answered that “a man obeying a lesser law is not qualified to preside over those who keep a higher law.”¹³

A continuation of Apostleship and the Fullness of the Priesthood

Although “all Priesthood is Melchizedek”,¹⁴ the Lord has designated different offices with specific commissions as well as special callings which both grant and limit the responsibilities of those called. The highest of all the offices within the Priesthood is that of Apostle, which comprehends all other offices. They “hold the keys to open up the authority” of God’s kingdom,¹⁵ they can “ordain and set in order all the other officers of the church”¹⁶ They were acknowledged as “Prophets, Seers, Revelators, and special witnesses to all the nations of the earth, holding the keys of the kingdom”¹⁷ and were “enabled to unlock and unravel all things pertaining to the government of the Church, the welfare of society, the future destiny of men, and the agency, power and influence of spirits;”¹⁸

However, even being an Apostle does not necessarily given a person all of the authority or keys of the Priesthood. The Prophet Joseph taught that there were different degrees within the Melchizedek Priesthood itself, and it wasn’t until the autumn of 1843 that he was “anointed and ordained to the highest and holiest order of the Priesthood.”¹⁹ This was fourteen years after he first received the Priesthood and became an Apostle himself,²⁰ eight years after the formation of the Quorum of Twelve,²¹ seven after he received the keys of the Priesthood in the Kirtland Temple,²² and a year after he first received the Endowment!²³ He left us in no doubt that this authority was essential and that the Lord intended it to continue:

My feelings at the present time are that, inasmuch as the Lord Almighty has preserved me until today, He will continue to preserve me, by the united faith and prayers of the Saints, until I have fully accomplished my mission in this life, and so firmly established the dispensation of the fullness of the priesthood in the last days, that all the powers of earth and hell can never prevail against it.”²⁴

Not all of the Apostles or members of the First Presidency were considered ready or worthy to obtain this before Joseph’s death, and because of this Brigham Young could rightly claim greater authority than Sidney Rigdon (who had not received that degree of Priesthood) and William Marks (who was not living all of God’s laws). Heber C. Kimball told Rigdon at the time that “He has no authority, only what he receives from the Church. … He has not got the same authority as others: there are more than thirty men who have got higher authority than he has.”²⁵ Those Apostles and others who received this ordinance were considered the elect of God and members of the Church of the Firstborn,²⁶ a higher organisation with a greater mandate than the earthly LDS Church. Those who had not received this authority – no matter what their office in the Church – were considered subordinate to the quorum these Saints were members of, as is illustrated by a letter of the Twelve to William Smith:

the President of the Church and each of our Quorum [of Twelve Apostles] are amenable to the Quorum of which you are a member.”²⁷

This raises a question we musk ask those who claim to have all the authority that is necessary to administer the ordinances of exaltation, “Do they have the fullness of the Priesthood?” A man can only receive a fullness of the Priesthood from someone else who has, and it is only valid if they have received all necessary ordinances of the temple first, as Joseph taught that - If a man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.”²⁸

Heber Kimball wouldn’t mention the names of those “who have got authority” in Nauvoo as he feared “the enemy will try to kill them.”²⁹ President Young was also worried about this prospect, but was determined that whatever happened to him the authority should continue. I know there are those in our midst who will seek the lives of the Twelve as they did the lives of Joseph and Hyrum. We shall ordain others and give the fullness of the priesthood, so that if we are killed the fullness of the priesthood may remain.”³⁰ It was paramount to keep that ordinance alive, because through it the highest and fullest degree of Priesthood was given, and without it no one could gain their exaltation or have the authority to exercise the full keys of the Priesthood and preside over them.

A continual and uninterrupted line of succession

God’s “house is a house of order”³¹ and whenever He has had men with authority upon the earth, one of them, by reason of seniority or special appointment has presided, and stood as an administrator and judge over all of the ordinances and laws of the Gospel. This is the pattern designated in the word of the Lord in which God states, “it must needs be that one be appointed of the High Priesthood to preside over the priesthood … from the same comes the administering of ordinances and blessings”³² There is only one man who occupies that presiding position at any one time,³³ and (as we pointed out at the beginning of our treatment of this subject), the Lord has designed that there will be a continual and uninterrupted line of men holding these keys until Jesus returns. When assessing the claims of those who would call themselves Joseph Smith’s successor as head of the Priesthood and holder of its keys, we have a right and responsibility to ask ourselves if they meet the criteria given in the scriptures and teachings of the prophets. Can they show:

• A continuation of administering all the same ordinances unchanged
• A continuation of maintaining the same laws, and living them
• A continuation of living and keeping alive Celestial Plural Marriage
• A continuation of the office of Apostle
• A continuation of the fullness of the Priesthood
• A continual and uninterrupted line of authority and succession from Joseph Smith to them

If they can satisfy all of these requirements then there is only one thing left for us to do, and that is to pray to the Lord for a spiritual witness that this person is the Lord’s anointed Prophet (if our study of these areas has not already led us to that testimony), and to join with those Saints who share our faith, so that we can build up God’s kingdom with them, and prove ourselves worthy of receiving all of God’s ordinances and living all His laws.