• Day 210
    • Principle: "Priesthood keys, in essence, are the power of presiding over and conducting the activities of the priesthood of the Church"
    • Book of Mormon Reading: Alma 42:26 - 43:14
      • Alma is teaching for an impact on Corianton, what was he hoping for?
      • Flash forward to Alma 63:2 to see how Corianton is later described.  
    • During the time spent on the Mount of Transfiguration priesthood keys were passed to the apostles.  (For a refresher read Matthew 17: 1-13) Bruce R. McConkie taught about what these keys were:
      • “These keys include the sealing power, that is, the power to bind and seal on earth, in the Lord’s name and by his authorization, and to have the act ratified in heaven. Thus if Peter performed baptism by the authority of the sealing power here promised him, that ordinance would be of full force and validity when the person for whom it was performed went into the eternal worlds, and it would then admit him to the celestial heaven. Again, if Peter used these sealing keys to perform a marriage, then those so united in eternal marriage would continue as husband and wife forever. When they attained their future heaven, they would find themselves bound together in the family unit the same as they were on earth. (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 615–16.)” (McConkie, DNTC, 1:389–90.)
    • McConkie also taught about the importance of the appearance of Moses and Elijah:
      • “Moses, the great prophet-statesman whose name symbolized the law, and Elijah the Tishbite, a prophet of so great fame that his name had come to typify and symbolize the collective wisdom and insight of all the prophets. Moses held the keys of the gathering of Israel and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north; Elijah, the keys of the sealing power. These are the keys which they conferred upon Peter, James, and John upon the mount, and which they also conferred upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple nearly two thousand years later. (D. & C 110:11–16.) Both of them were translated beings and had bodies of flesh and bones, a status they apparently enjoyed so that they could confer keys upon mortal men. We have a detailed scriptural account of Elijah’s translation (2 Kings 2) and a number of scriptural references concerning Moses which can only be interpreted to mean that he too was taken to heaven without tasting death. (Alma 45:18– 19; Mormon Doctrine, pp. 726–730; Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, pp. 107–111.) When these two holy men appeared in this dispensation to restore again their keys and powers, they came as resurrected personages. (D. & C. 133:55.)” (McConkie, DNTC, 1:402–3.)
    • These same keys are on the earth today. 
    • Speaking of Priesthood Keys Dallin H. Oaks taught:
      • Priesthood keys direct women as well as men, and priesthood ordinances and priesthood authority pertain to women as well as men.

      • The understanding we seek begins with an understanding of the keys of the priesthood. “Priesthood keys are the authority God has given to priesthood [holders] to direct, control, and govern the use of His priesthood on earth.”4 Every act or ordinance performed in the Church is done under the direct or indirect authorization of one holding the keys for that function. As Elder M. Russell Ballard has explained, “Those who have priesthood keys … literally make it possible for all who serve faithfully under their direction to exercise priesthood authority and have access to priesthood power.”5

      • Ultimately, all keys of the priesthood are held by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose priesthood it is. He is the one who determines what keys are delegated to mortals and how those keys will be used. We are accustomed to thinking that all keys of the priesthood were conferred on Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple, but the scripture states that all that was conferred there were “the keys of this dispensation” (D&C 110:16). At general conference many years ago, President Spencer W. Kimball reminded us that there are other priesthood keys that have not been given to man on the earth, including the keys of creation and resurrection.

      • Dallin H. Oaks, “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood”, April 2014
    • Additional Study: