What are priesthood keys?

[2bizE]

Had lesson #8 today in SS. Started with a discussion on priesthood keys. Of course everyone knows what they are, but nobody really understands them. The teacher gave the standard correlated version. I suggested that as I have studied about the keys, I have learned I don't really know what they are. Back in JS day, the keys seemed to be more about keywords and knowledge. Now they keys are some magic force that nobody can comprehend. It is like trying to understand the godhead from the nicean creed.
What say you about priesthood keys?

[20/20hind]

I can't offer to much on them other than I've lost them and I don't really know if I had them in the first place

[Enoch Witty]

I can't offer to much on them other than I've lost them and I don't really know if I had them anyway

Isn't god always available for lost keys prayers?

[20/20hind]

I can't offer to much on them other than I've lost them and I don't really know if I had them anyway

Isn't god always available for lost keys prayers?

Well the issue is, I'm really not looking for them. I'm thinking someone from ordain women took them when I wasn't looking, which I'm totally fine with.

[deacon blues]

I think priesthood are like the Emperor's New Cloths.....they only mean something to those who believe in them.

[Corsair]

Priesthood keys are only discussed in terms that support the LDS church and leadership directly. The doctrine is that God really wants us to return to him through baptism and other ordinances. But if this is not done through authorized priesthood keys then the personal righteousness of a Christian becomes entirely irrelevant.

This is the primary claim of the LDS church. Nuanced apologists like Tyrell Givens can sympathetically talk about the mistakes and challenges of LDS practice and doctrine. He will kindly discuss challenges of LDS history and culture with people struggling in a faith transition. But Brother Givens still holds that the priesthood keys held ultimately by Thomas Monson are essential to the salvation of mortals on this planet.

The LDS church must claim exclusive stewardship over the priesthood keys for administering essential ordinances of salvation or else they hold nothing at all within Christianity. Any ecumenical relations with other churches will be tempered by this ultimate claim. This is exactly why LDS missionaries proselyte among fellow Christians looking for converts rather than concentrating on people who do not already revere Jesus Christ.

[Rob4Hope]

Had a SP make it very clear. Priesthood Keys are the right to preside and direct. If you have PH, you can't actually direct UNLESS you have the keys to do so.

[Emower]

Yup. As I have sat through countless debates and discussions on priesthood keys, it ultimately comes down to permission to do something from someone who is more righteous, I mean higher in authority than you.

[moksha]

Didn't the Sisters in Nauvoo have some naughty quip when they saw the High Priests come a visitin', "Is that a banana in your pocket or are you exercising your Priesthood keys?"

[Palerider]

Matt. 16: 19

"And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

As it happened these keys were specific to those true Apostles who received them directly from Christ and were not passed on to later apostles or disciples, but were either lost (great apostasy) or simply became dormant among men.

Regarding Joseph's claim of priesthood restoration, all such claims are bogus and were revelations of convenience when Joseph's power began to be questioned in the later 1830's. These "revelations" were later retro-fit into the D&C to appear as if they were given at the supposed time of their occurrence.

To wit: John McLellin, one of the early 12 "apostles", stated in his personal papers:

" I heard Joseph tell his experience of his ordination and the organization of the church, probably, more than twenty times, to persons who, near the rise of the church, wished to know and hear about it. I never heard (him speak) of Moroni, John [the Baptist], or Peter, James, and John.”

http://signaturebooks.com/the-william-e ... in-papers/

[Give It Time]

Had a SP make it very clear. Priesthood Keys are the right to preside and direct. If you have PH, you can't actually direct UNLESS you have the keys to do so.

The one with the priesthood keys gets to demand obedience of those who don't have them.

The whole lesson could be five minutes long, with the rest of the time discussing football. Which they'd rather do, anyway.

[2bizE]

Matt. 16: 19

"And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

As it happened these keys were specific to those true Apostles who received them directly from Christ and were not passed on to later apostles or disciples, but were either lost (great apostasy) or simply became dormant among men.

Regarding Joseph's claim of priesthood restoration, all such claims are bogus and were revelations of convenience when Joseph's power began to be questioned in the later 1830's. These "revelations" were later retro-fit into the D&C to appear as if they were given at the supposed time of their occurrence.

To wit: John McLellin, one of the early 12 "apostles", stated in his personal papers:

" I heard Joseph tell his experience of his ordination and the organization of the church, probably, more than twenty times, to persons who, near the rise of the church, wished to know and hear about it. I never heard (him speak) of Moroni, John [the Baptist], or Peter, James, and John.”

http://signaturebooks.com/the-william-e ... in-papers/

This is good information. I knew about section 27 originally not having anything in it about the "visitors" but this adds more pieces to the puzzle.

[1smartdodog]

I think they work about as good as these keys for opening things.

[orangganjil]

If you read accounts of leaders and regular members during the succession crisis following Joseph's death, it becomes absolutely clear that the keys are the following:

• Endowment keys, tokens, etc.
• Sealing authority as granted by the Second Anointing

The only governing body holding those keys was the Quorum of Twelve. President Marks (stake president) had these as well, but he threw his support behind Rigdon (Marks was anti-polygamy).

A good account of this is Joseph Fielding's journal (he was brother of Mary Fielding, Hyrum's wife). Andrew Ehat wrote a paper containing the journal, which has some real gems, such as Joseph Fielding's wife's revulsion for polygamy as well as her disapproval of some misogynistic comments made by leaders.
https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/they ... h-fielding

So, if you believe in the absolute importance and legitimacy of the endowment, anointing, and Second Anointing, then the leaders are the only folks authorized to disburse those ordinances. If you don't buy into the legitimacy of those ordinances, then the only authority the leaders have is that which the members give them.

[No Tof]

To me as a TBM the keys were what gave the church legitimacy amongst other religions. If we had the power to open doors to heaven then this made all of it worth the effort.

Now it seems they are the keys to keep the masses locked into the cells of obedience. If the key holders say jump you jump if you are TBM, if not they are the coloured plastic variety shown above.

[2bizE]

What I believe has happened though is the church originally described priesthood keys as being key words, real words and information. Not it has been transformed into some magical use of laying on of hands without any type of actual knowledge being transferred.

[MoPag]

To me as a TBM the keys were what gave the church legitimacy amongst other religions. If we had the power to open doors to heaven then this made all of it worth the effort.

Now it seems they are the keys to keep the masses locked into the cells of obedience. If the key holders say jump you jump if you are TBM, if not they are the coloured plastic variety shown above.

+1 ^^^

[John Hamer]

The original idea of "keys" was literal. It comes from Isaiah 22:20-22 (see 22:15-25 for context):

On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.

Keys here at the time of King Hezekiah of Judah are fairly new invention and quite nifty. Eliakim ben Hilkiah, the king's chamberlain or finance minister, has the job of literally holding the keys to the kingdom ("the key of the house of David") and so they have become a symbol of his office. In much the same way in the Middle Ages the Chancellor of the realm was literally the keeper of the king's seal, which was often a symbol of his office.

The author of the gospel of Matthew reworks this passage of Isaiah to assert for Peter (as a leading disciple) the role of leading minister in the spiritual Israel or house of David proclaimed by Jesus "the Kingdom of God" --- which Matthew likes to edit and render as "the Kingdom of Heaven." Just as Israel has been spiritualized and made a metaphor, so too are the keys here. The text in Matthew has no parallel in any other source and almost certainly does not go back to the historical Jesus.

Obviously the papacy has claimed this passage as the basis for Petrine authority and apostolic succession to the present. Keys are thus the symbol of Peter and the Vatican in heraldry. Likewise early Mormon leaders were taken by this passage and Brigham Young's heirs in Utah continue to use it to self-assert that they alone possess the sole authority to act for God on earth.

Scripturally there's no more to it than a creation of the author of Matthew in reworking a passage of Isaiah.

[John Hamer]

Another thing about Utah Mormon ideas on keys is the retrojection of Nauvoo-era ideas of associating keys and "sealing power" regarding marriages back to 1837 and one of the various visions (misrepresented as a visitation by Jesus Christ) in Kirtland Temple. This is a complete anachronism. This idea of sealing power had not been invented yet in Kirtland. As of Kirtland, the idea of the vision, the return of Elijah, restoring the hearts of the children to their fathers and fathers to the children, etc., is all about the apocalyptic mindset that was the church's focus in the Kirtland era.

The basis for the text is Malachi 4, which is apocalyptic:

Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.

The idea that this particular vision restored the "sealing power" is a later LDS apologetic explanation that is an anachronism. There was no event that "restored the sealing power." Nor is there, in my view, any sealing power as the idea is both baseless historically and as a theological proposition has no benefits.

[MerrieMiss]

Several years ago the bishop stood up and corrected me after a talk regarding a reference I made to priesthood keys. I went home and sure enough on lds.org I found exactly what I said. Which only solidified my opinion: No one has a clue what they're talking about. I'm not saying I know anything either, because I don't, only that you can find just as many church approved quotes backing up church teachings/concepts as you can find in disagreement. And there many doctrinal ideas/teachings/concepts for which there is very little or very contradictory information. Priesthood, keys, sealings, revelation, Holy Ghost, etc. You'd think this would make Sunday School remarkably interesting, but no...