Musings on priesthood keys 1

I have never yet heard a complete and satisfying discussion of priesthood keys.

For example, the gospel was being preached abroad well before Moses returned the keys of the gathering of Israel. What difference did returning those keys make? It obviously made some important difference, but I am not sure what it is.

Is the meaning that one with keys to preside has the right to direct a matter as he believes right by virtue of his keys if the Lord offers him no clear direction on what needs to be done? Is it that he has the right to determine those matters by right of the keys he holds that are two small to inquire of the Lord over, and which the Holy Ghost does not see fit to clarify?

Or are keys to preside simply the right to instruct those who one is presiding over by revelation? That would make sense, but it leaves open the question about Moses returning keys, for certainly, the gathering of Israel was already presided over by revelation through Joseph the seer before Moses turned keys over to Joseph Smith.

There are certainly multiple kinds of keys. We like to use the word “keys” to mean one exact thing these days, but in the scriptures the word “keys” seems to be used more freely for anything that unlocks something. The same seems to be true of Joseph Smith’s statements about keys.

1) There are keys of presidency, i.e. keys that put one in the position of presiding.

2) There are keys which unlock by providing a way to discern. Such are the three grand keys whereby we can determine whether any ministration is from God given in D&C 129. These are keys in the sense that they unlock our ability to discern whether an angel or spirit that appears is from God or not. These keys do not allow us to preside. In fact, they are keys that are not formed of authority, but of knowledge, for it takes no authority to exercise them or even to convey them to another. They are keys made simply of knowledge.

3) There are keys that unlock in some other sense which is altogether unclear, i.e. the keys of the ministering of angels held by the Aaronic priesthood. These are not keys to preside. We do not govern angels until we enjoy that state referred to in D&C 132:20 “Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.” The power referred to in that verse comes by the Melchizedek priesthood. It is far, far away from the authority of the Aaronic priesthood.

There is one clear sense in which these do unlock something, and are thereby keys. It is in the sense that doing the full duty associated with the Aaronic priesthood presumably prepares one, in time, to enjoy the ministering of angels. But that hardly seems to warrant the name “keys”. Is there more to the meaning?

Yes there is. In the temple we do also learn about what Brigham Young taught.

“Let me give you a definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.”

It seems safe to point out that, not surprisingly, some of these key words, signs, and tokens are Aaronic and some are Melchizedek. Of those that are Aaronic some are associated with the ministering of angels and are keys in precisely the sense of the keys in D&C 129. They help us discern whether a ministration is from God.

And while we can’t go into it in more detail due to the sacred setting, pondering that relationship makes clear what part of the meaning of the phrase that the Aaronic priesthood holds the keys of the ministering of angels really means.

And once we understand that, then we can, by extension, understand what the intention is when we read:

D&C 84:19 And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.

Knowledge of the thoughts and intents of our hearts

While it is true that:

“The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work; hence they are blessed in their departure to the world of spirits. Enveloped in flaming fire, they are not far from us, and know and understand our thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained therewith.” (TPJS page 325)

there is a limit to the depth to which they understand our thoughts, feelings and motions except God reveal it to them (which may be the very means by which they understand them at all), for we also read

D&C 6:16 Yea, I tell thee, that thou mayest know that there is none else save God that knowest thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart.

The key that Antonin Scalia firmly held

With the passing of Antonin Scalia, the only justice to be found in the Supreme Court these days, my wife had collected a number of quotations from him. This one seems particularly worthy of note. 

“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools…and He has not been disappointed….If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.” 

I think that statement is a key that unlocks the ability of men with power to avoid being destroyed by that pride and the flattery of men. If only the many members of the church who serve in positions of power in government held and lived with the same key firmly in hand, we would no longer be ashamed of our God in government. We have heard that our founders took world altering political action based on truths they held to be self evident about man and his creator. But we think we can reject the builders foundation, we think we can avoid having to stand by self evident truth and by god in government, and we think those those actions won’t destroy the government those founders created. We think that being “good members” of the true church involved in politics can substitute for standing by god and truth in government without fear. As if membership held any key above and beyond our actions.

We believe we can please God with our work in government while being ashamed to mention his name or appeal to his truths. I have a hard time conceiving how that idea enters our hearts. Apparently, we think the verses about being witnesses of God in all things and in all places were just a big joke. We think that the founders had it wrong, and we know how to frame a government more fitly than they did, by building in on a framework of social science and psychological studies instead of on a framework of God and truths we hold to be self evident.

No. No. No. Antonin Scalia’s statement is a key that we must grab firmly if we are to save our country. I repeat it again.

“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools…and He has not been disappointed….If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.” 

Here is another quote from Antonin Scalia. It is precisely the sort of things that can only be said by a man willing to grab hold of that first key and abide by it.

“The death penalty? Give me a break. It’s easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state.”

Brigham Young – J of D vol 1 page 88 excerpts

While speaking the other day to the people, I observed that “the race was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,” neither riches to men of wisdom. I happened to cast my eyes upon Ira Ames, who was sitting in the congregation, I knew he had been in the Church a considerable length of time, I have been personally acquainted with him for twenty years. My eye also caught many more of the first Saints at the same time. These men know that “Mormonism” is true, they have moved steadily forward, and have not sought to become noted characters, as many have; but, unseen as it were, they have maintained their footing steadily in the right path. I could place my hand upon many in this congregation, who will win the race, though they are not very swift, to outward appearance, and they make not great pretensions; they are found continually attending to their own business. They do not appear to be great warriors, or as if they were likely to win the battle. But what is their true character? They have faith today, they are filled with faith, their words are few, but they are full of integrity. You will find them to-morrow as they were yesterday, or are today. Visit them when you will, or under whatever circumstances, and you find them unalterably the same; and finally when you have spent your life with them, you will find that their lives throughout have been well spent, full of faith, hope, charity, and good works, as far as they have had the ability. These are the ones who will win the race, conquer in the battle, and obtain the peace and righteousness of eternity.

…

I would rather hear men tell their own experience, and testify that Joseph was a Prophet of the Lord, and that the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and other revelations of God, are true; that they know it by the gift and power of God; that they have conversed with angels, have had the power of the Holy Ghost upon them, giving them visions and revelations, than hear any  other kind of preaching that ever saluted my ears.

…

The sentiments of my mind, and the manner of my life, are to obtain knowledge by the power of the Holy Ghost.

…

If all the talent, tact, wisdom, and refinement of the world had been sent to me with the Book of Mormon, and had declared, in the most exalted of earthly eloquence, the truth of it, undertaking to prove it by learning and worldly wisdom, they would have been to me like the smoke which arises only to vanish away. But when I saw a man without eloquence, or talents for public speaking, who could only say, “I know, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Lord,” the Holy Ghost proceeding front that individual illuminated my understanding, and light, glory, and immortality were before me. I was encircled by them, filled with them, and I knew for myself that the testimony of the man was true. But the wisdom of the world, I say again, is like smoke, like the fog of the night, that disappears before the rays of the luminary of day, or like the hoar-frost in the warmth of the sun’s rays. My own judgment, natural endowments, and education bowed to this simple, but mighty testimony. There sits the man who baptized me, (brother Eleazer Miller.) It filled my system with light, and my soul with joy. The world, with all its wisdom and power, and with all the glory and gilded show of  its kings or potentates, sinks into perfect insignificance, compared with the simple, unadorned testimony of the

[p.91] servant of God. 

…

when the Almighty sheds forth His Spirit upon an individual, or upon a people, the vision of their mind is opened, so as to discern between the things pertaining to this organization, and those pertaining to organizations which are brought forth in other spheres, all things are made new to them, for all things in the heavens and on the earth are in the power of the Almighty, and can only be revealed unto mortals, in their proper light, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

…

This evil is with us, it is that influence which tempts to sin, and which has been permitted to come into the world for the express purpose of giving us an opportunity of proving ourselves before God, before Jesus Christ our elder brother, before the holy angels, and before all good men, that we are determined to overcome the evil, and cleave to the good, for the Lord has given us the ability to do so. Consequently, when the evil is present with me, I have a little fighting to do, I must turn and combat it until it is eradicated from my affections, as well as from my actions, [p.92] that I may have power to do all the good I wish to perform. Every person is capable of this, all can bridle their tongues, and cease from every evil act from this time henceforth and forever, and do good instead.

…

When the enemy makes war with me, I am thrown on the defensive, and if I use my weapons skilfully, and with firmness of purpose, my antagonist must yield to me the victory, the Lord being my helper. The Scriptures say—”Rebuke the devil, and he will flee from you.” This is the duty of every Saint. When evil is present with us, we must overcome it, or be overcome by it. When the devil is in our hearts, tempting us to do that which is wrong, we must resist him or be led captive by him.

…

I frequently exhort the brethren not to be in a hurry, for we shall not stop here, we are only hunting for the grave, and there is no fear but we shall find it.

…

We have embraced the Gospel, and are professedly Latter-day Saints, but evil will introduce itself in the midst of my brethren, then I have frequently to chastise them. There are two thousand persons in this assembly, and if only half a dozed of them have done wrong, I could not chastise them without appearing to chastise the whole congregation, whist in reality is not so. By chastising the guilty, however, it is impossible to spot the conscience of good men and women, whose hearts are clean and pure as a piece of white paper.

…

Should the people be determined from this time henceforth, never to do anything but good, and should go forth to build up the Kingdom of God, doing everything in their power to promote the cause of truth, and never do another wrong, it would be but a short time before this people would be a holy people, sanctified unto the Lord. We are already the best people on earth, but we can still improve, we are made for that purpose, our capacities are organized to expand until we can receive into our comprehension celestial knowledge and wisdom, and to continue worlds without end.

…

To this end has He ordained all things to increase and multiply. The Lord God Almighty has decreed this principle to be the great governing law of existence, and for that purpose are we formed. Furthermore, if men can understand and receive it, mankind are organized to receive intelligence until they become perfect in the sphere they are appointed to fill, which is far ahead of us at present. When we use the term perfection, it applies to man in his present condition, as well as to heavenly beings. We are now, or may be, as perfect in our sphere as God and Angels are in theirs, but the greatest intelligence in existence can continually ascend to greater heights of perfection.

The lesson of James 1:5 and members today

As members we find ourselves in an interesting conundrum. We all know the basic story – other churches taught that the days of revelation where past, and that God does not work miracles today. Then Joseph Smith, searching for salvation, read the scripture

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

He obeyed the scripture and sought knowledge from God and the years of darkness were thrust aside as glorious light burst upon the earth.

But here is our conundrum. We haven’t fully accepted the story.

We have changed the story into one in which certain men, selected by God’s arbitrary decisions, can receive revelation. We won’t use the word “arbitrary”, and substitute something like “inscrutable” or some other word that throws a veil of mystery about the decision process. But that is no real difference.

We fail to recognize what Joseph Smith learned. What Joseph Smith learned was not that certain men, choosen by God, could receive revelation. It was that any man can receive revelation.

Joseph Smith taught “No man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations. The Holy Ghost is a revelator.”

And THAT is effectively what he learned from James 1:5, and we have not.

Joseph Smith didn’t learn that prophets, chosen by God, could receive revelation. That wouldn’t have inspired him to go into the sacred grove and petition God. Joseph Smith learned that he, himself, a complete nobody at the time, could go out into the sacred grove and petition God and receive revelation.

And THAT is the right lesson to learn from James 1:5.

Certainly Christ met with opposition from his youth up no different than Joseph Smith

Christ learned obedience by the things which he suffered. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. How so? Because like Joseph Smith the adversary knew that he was to be a disturber of his kingdom, and he met with opposition as Joseph Smith did from his youth up, for example he had to flee into Egypt. But there was more than that. Certainly, while we don’t have it recorded, and while he grew in favor with God and man, nevertheless, the great ones of his day would take notice of this obscure carpenters son whose circumstances necessitated his earning his means by his daily labor.

Short Note: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God doesn’t change that there are save two churches only

The phrase “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” does not change that there are save two churches only, the one is the church of God and the other is the church of the devil, nor does it change the teaching that the righteous will have a perfect knowledge of their cleaness and thier enjoyment, and the wicked will have a perfect knowledge of their filthiness.