Hands-on opportunity
One hundred and seventy years ago, a quiet event took place in the wilderness of America involving only a handful of people. As far as we know, only those who were present were aware of it at the time because no one else took note of it. Yet, from that singular act came one of the great movements of this age. It is an event that literally changed history and had an impact on millions of lives, transforming them forever.If ever there was an example of great things growing from small beginnings, this is it.
We're talking about the restoration of the priesthood, a two-phase occurrence which took place in May and June of 1829 when the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods were restored to the earth. It's instructive to think about that in the context of what had to happen and what was to happen.
Consider the situation. In that spring when the young country itself was just beginning its destiny, Joseph Smith had already seen the Father and the Son, who spoke with him. That had been some nine years earlier. He had also been instructed by an angel, Moroni, who had met with him each year for four years. On his last visit, he was entrusted with gold plates, which he had been translating by the power of the Spirit.
With all that had occurred, he already knew more about the fundamental nature of God than had anyone in the 1,400 years since Moroni's death, despite all their schooling and study and lifelong devotion. He knew because he had seen. Not only that, but he had been told that he would perform a special work on behalf of the Lord. Yet despite all that, he could not perform a simple baptism, nor could he bless a sacrament nor act in God's name. He and Oliver Cowdery may have been in constant spiritual communication with heaven as they continued their translation work, but that did not qualify them to perform ordinances.
Only when they realized this and sought for guidance in prayer did the great restoration of the priesthood take place. The hands of John the Baptist were placed upon their heads and the Aaronic Priesthood was conferred upon them. John said he acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which would soon also be conferred upon them. And so it was, several weeks later of the same year.
With the Aaronic Priesthood's authority they did as they were commanded and baptized each other, the first in this dispensation. The simplicity of the event stands in contrast to the great unfolding that was to come.
Almost all that we now hold dear and sacred in the Church came from that time. Without what happened that summer, there would have been no organization of the Church. We would not be blessing our families, nor doing the ordinances of the temple, nor sending missionaries to far-off lands. These all would come, bit by bit, as the message spread and the Church began to grow. It's the genius of the priesthood that it is an individual call to service, and that it is available to all men and through them its blessings are available to their families. Thus it strengthens those who hold it by giving them real responsibilities and real opportunities to work in the Church. Not only is it conferred by the laying on of hands, but it is also very much a hands-on opportunity.
Moreover, those upon whom it is conferred accept a responsibility to not only obey the Lord's commandments, but also to magnify their work. That's surely one reason why the Church has grown, and why the organization of the Church continues to adapt under the priesthood's broad umbrella.
President John Taylor, who saw firsthand the growth of the Church in its early days, answered the question of why the priesthood was given to us. His response: "That we may be enabled to build up the Zion of our God. What for? to put down wrong and corruption, lasciviousness, lying, thieving, dishonesty and covetousness, with every kind of evil, and also to encourage faith, meekness, charity, purity, brotherly kindness, truthfulness, integrity, honesty and everything that is calculated to exalt and ennoble mankind." (The Gospel Kingdom, pp. 130-131.)
A call to integrity and service: an impressive gift to us from those spring days in 1829.