The Essence of the Priesthood

If you read the Doctrine and Covenants in chronological order of when each revelation was received, the very first words are these: “Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 2:1). This was spoken by the angel Moroni when he visited the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1823 (as also recorded in JSH 1:38) and is an alternate translation of Malachi’s famous prophecy. Elijah did not confer priesthood—Joseph already had the Melchizedek Priesthood—but he did bestow keys of the priesthood, telling Joseph and Oliver: “Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands” (Doctrine and Covenants 110:16). The Prophet commented later that the “keys of the kingdom” are “the sealing and binding power” and that is what Elijah revealed to Joseph (Doctrine and Covenants 128:14). I have written before about this language and how we might consider that Elijah came to reveal the purpose of the priesthood. That is, the priesthood exists in order to seal families together—without that power which Elijah revealed to Joseph, the whole earth would have been wasted. This is a fitting first recorded revelation for this dispensation to emphasize that the sealing of families through the priesthood is at the center of the Restoration.

               I do not think it is a coincidence, then, that the last section in the Doctrine and Covenants (chronologically and numerically) is also about the sealing of families together. In Joseph F. Smith’s great revelation on salvation for the dead we see more clearly what Elijah’s visit meant: “The Prophet Elijah was to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to their fathers, Foreshadowing the great work to be done in the temples of the Lord in the dispensation of the fulness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the sealing of the children to their parents, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:47-48). Elijah’s revealing of the priesthood was really a revealing of the meaning and purpose of temple work where the most important ordinances of the priesthood are performed to bind families together and seal children to their parents. In this section Joseph F. Smith also alluded to the prophecy of Isaiah that the Savior would “bind up the broken-hearted” and “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:42). While certainly the Savior binds our wounds by healing us in mortality, perhaps a more important way to understand this verse is that He literally binds us up by sealing families together. In other words, Isaiah may have meant here that the broken-hearted are those who are not bound to their families, those who are not sealed through the priesthood, and the Savior organized the great work for the salvation in order to “bind up” these people to their families through temple work. This interpretation is consistent with the rest of the verse which speaks of proclaiming liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to those bound, an allusion to those under the bondage in the spirit world without the saving ordinances of the gospel that could be performed for them in the temple (for example Joseph rejoiced that the work of salvation for the dead “would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22).

               As we explain the priesthood to those not of our faith, we often will give a description along the lines of what the Guide to the Scriptures says, “The authority and power that God gives to man to act in all things for the salvation of man.” That is certainly correct, but Doctrine and Covenants 2 suggests that we also might accurately describe the essence of the priesthood as simply the power of God that seals families together. In the end, that is the great purpose and reason for the priesthood and the end goal of all other ordinances performed with the authority of the priesthood.