One other thing about priesthood keys--what are they exactly?
Again, the standard church manual explanation is that "priesthood keys authorize priesthood holders to preside over and direct the Church within a jurisdiction, such as a stake, ward, or quorum."
That definition works fine in most circumstance. But there is one problem: Members of the Quorum of the twelve have all the priesthood keys, but do not have the authority to exercise them; only the president of the church has the authority to exercise them.
If you put the definition of priesthood keys together, with the restriction on the member of the quorum of the twelve it goes like this: Members of the Quorum of the twelve have authority to preside over and direct the church, but not the right to exercise that authority.
If you can't exercise the authority to preside, do you actually have the authority to preside? What exactly do you have?
3 comments:
So what about when an apostle is visiting a stake and they are presiding? Are they always on assignment from the 1st Presidency and hence delegated the keys, or can the president of the 12 send them (is he delegated the power to delegate keys?)? If they are attending their home ward are they presiding? If they are it would seem that they do have active keys to preside paramount to anyone but the 1st Presidency (I'm assuming they are not assigned to visit their home ward every time they attend).
You should let Jeff know about your blog; I'd be curious to hear his thoughts.
I'm thinking maybe a more accurate way to say it is that keys are the power/ability to preside, but not the authority to do so. Most calling will have both the power/ability and authority, so the bifurcation is unnecessary. But it does get confusing in the case of the quorum of the twelve where we say they have all the keys, but don't have the authority to preside over the church, and keys are supposed to be the authority to preside.
I think apostles use their own keys for their work, for example, when reorganizing a stake. I think I've actually heard a member of the quorum say that. But you do raise an interesting question: when do apostles have the right to exercise their owner keys, and when can they not exercise the keys that they have?
Actually, that power and authority distinctions is still pretty confusing.
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