Lessons of 2025
Lesson No. Forty

One of the Most Important and Least Understood Keys of the Priesthood

Introduction. D&C 110 is the account of four separate visions given in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836. The Kirtland Temple had been dedicated one week earlier (see D&C 109), and these visions were each related to temple worship. They were the fulfillment of the blessings that the Lord promised His people if they built a temple to His name. (See D&C 38:32; 105:31-34)

The first, third and fourth visions. In the first vision the Lord accepted the Kirtland Temple as His house (vs 7). He promised that because of the temple, blessings and an endowment would be poured out on people world-wide (vs 9). In the third vision “Elias appeared and restored the keys of celestial marriage. In the fourth vision Elijah appeared and restored the keys of the sealing power which is to bind on earth and to have it bound in heaven. The keys restored by Elias and Elijah, as used in temples world-wide, makes eternal marriage possible.

The second vision is the subject of this Lesson. “Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of “the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north” (vs 11).

The keys, returned by Moses, for the “gathering of Israel” refers to temple building. I, like many others, have understood that the keys of the gathering of Israel refers to missionary work. What I now understand is that missionary work is only the beginning, and the purpose and use of these keys is to build temples so Israel can be gathered from all parts of the earth into eternal families as part of the eternal family of our Heavenly Parents.

When we think about missionary work we should remember the following:

1. The Aaronic priesthood and the keys to preach the gospel and to baptize was restored to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery by John the Baptist on May 15, 1829. Missionary work began in 1830 when the Lord called Oliver Cowdery to “go unto the Lamanites and preach my gospel unto them” (D&C 28:8). In 1833 Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were called to preach the gospel in New York. (See D&C 100:3-8). Considerable missionary work had already been done when Moses restored the keys of the gathering of Israel.

2. The Melchizedek priesthood, the Apostleship, and the keys of the kingdom of God was restored by Peter, James, and John to Joseph and Oliver late in the Spring of 1829. The Lord told Joseph Smith in 1831: “The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth” (D&C 65:2). In 1835, a year before Moses restored the keys of the gathering of Israel, Joseph Smith instructed the Twelve Apostles that the power of the Apostleship, which they had been given, included keys to open the nations for the preaching of the gospel.

When we think about temples and temple building we should remember the following:

1. Moses was a temple builder. The first chapters of Exodus describes how he brought the children of Israel out of bondage so they could qualify for temple blessings. The later, and less known, chapters of Exodus are about building the tabernacle so the people could receive the ordinances of the temple.

2. The Lord told Joseph Smith that to be acceptable certain ordinances must be performed in a house (temple) built to his name (see D&C 124:37). Like Moses, Joseph Smith was commanded to build a temple in Nauvoo where, like temples today, temple ordinances were performed. The Lord explained to Joseph: “For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was” (D&C 124:38).

The Lord’s pattern to gather Israel in the latter days is:

1. In the Nineteenth Century the saints gathered to central locations where they built the Nauvoo Temple and later the four pioneer temples in Utah, the Salt Lake, St. George, Manti, and Logan Temples.

2. In the Twentieth Century, temples were built in several places world-wide, and saints were encouraged to stay home and gather to stakes in their own country.

3. In the Twenty-First Century there has been a great acceleration of temple building world-wide in order to give saints much better access to temples. President Russell M. Nelson said our most important work is to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. By this he meant that we should be worthy to receive the ordinances of the temple, and then we should do vicarious temple ordinances for ancestors and others who are on the other side of the veil.

Nephi taught an important but not well understood gospel principle. He said that even though the prophecies of Isaiah were not easy to understand, nevertheless, “in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled men shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass” (2 Nephi 25:7). In other words, those who live when prophecies are being fulfilled will recognize the fulfillment of that prophecy.

Isaiah’s prophecy found in Isaiah 2:2 is an example of this principle Nephi spoke of: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it” (emphasis added). Now because we live at this time, we can see that that one of the ways this prophecy will be fulfilled is that when the renovation of the Salt Lake Temple is completed a six month open house will be held. At this time millions of people from all nations shall flow unto the Salt Lake Temple.

Testimony. I rejoice that I have lived during the ministry of President Russell M. Nelson who, like Moses, was a great temple builder. President Nelson, again like Moses, also emphasized that the gathering of Israel culminates in the temple. I am so grateful that I recognize that the keys of the gathering of Israel, restored by Moses, where held and exercised by President Russel M. Nelson as he built many temples and emphasized their importance.

I also rejoice that, as I live during the ministry of President Dallin H. Oaks, I recognize that he has already begun to emphasize that the ultimate purpose of the gathering of Israel and the use of temples is for the creation of eternal families.

I testify that the creation of eternal families, patterned after the family of our Heavenly Parents, is the purpose of the priesthood keys restored by Moses, Elias, and Elijah to Joseph Smith. I also testify that these keys are now held by President Dallin H. Oaks, and that they are frequently exercised in temples world-wide.

Released on October 19th. 2025.