Authority - Doctrine and Covenants 12-13

There is a real event that occurs when hands are placed upon heads and authority is endowed, priesthood authority. It is not just a tradition, or ceremony. The act of an authorized minister conferring their authority upon another invokes a power that is difficult to understand, but no less real than the earth we walk on. By that same power was the earth organized and life placed upon it.

There is a difference between a baptism performed by one having authority from God and one who does not. There is an orderly manner in which that authority has been propagated throughout generations. An orderly manner that helps us recognize who has received it and acknowledge the consent of he who grants it. For Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, John the Baptist of the New Testament would be immediately recognized as one with authority. John who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, returning to initiate another who would do the same - prepare the way for the Lord. All things done in order, he who holds the keys of the lesser priesthood, the predatory priesthood, the priesthood of Aaron, the obligation of the sons of Levi, the Levitical priesthood, spans the great apostasy and returns to restore them once again to modern disciples. A farmer and a school teacher.

Hebrews 5:4 “And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.“

Immediately after their immersion in water for the remission of sins, a dramatic change came over them and they began to prophecy. Their spiritual eyes were, for a time, freed from the weight of a sinful world. For the first time in hundreds of years, priesthood authority was again exercised. The heavens must have shouted and sang with joy at this event.