Far surpassing anything and all that man can bestow is the authority to preach the Word of God and administer Divine ordinances through the investiture of the Holy Priesthood. While Israel lived under the Law, bereft of the fulness of spiritual light such as the Gospel alone can give, Jehovah repeatedly manifested His righteous jealousy or zeal in behalf of His appointed servants and against all who pretended to arrogate authority unto themselves. Read the story of wicked Korah and his associates in their attempt to minister in the priest's office (Numbers 16); consider the rejection of Saul, king of Israel, who offended by undertaking to discharge the functions of the Lord's prophet (1 Sam. 13:8-14). And think of Uzziah, king of Judah, who died an outcast and a leper, through the visitation of punishment for having presumed to officiate without priestly ordination. (2 Chron. 26).
In the establishment of His Church among the ancient Americans, the Lord was specific in conferring upon certain men the authority to baptize, to lay on hands for the giving of the Holy Ghost, administer the sacrament of bread and wine, and otherwise to officiate in the ordinances pertaining to the Holy Priesthood. By personal ordination the Lord invested His chosen representatives to minister in His Name. (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11:21, 22; 12: 1, 2; 18:5).
So also, in the present age, authority to minister in the saving ordinances of the Gospel must be given of God, not assumed by man. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims to the world that the Holy Priesthood, which is the appointment and authority to officiate in the name of God, has been restored to the earth in modern days, through direct dispensation from the heavens by angelic ministry to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The imperative urgency of the call is thus set forth in current revelation:
"And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days. And they shall go forth and none shall stay them, for I the Lord have commanded them. . . . Wherefore the voice of the Lord is unto the ends of the earth, that all that will hear may hear: Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh. . . . For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven." (D&C 1).
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FOR TIME ONLY OR FOR ETERNITY
Human Institutions and Divine Authority.
ORGANIZATION is essential to human advancement. The Divine affirmation that it is not good for man to be alone may be applied not only to the union of the sexes in honorable marriage, upon which the perpetuity of the race depends, but also to the association of humankind in community life, without which cooperation is impossible and the achievements of united purpose would be unknown.
It is natural and necessary that men shall establish and maintain institutions for community betterment. The constitution of every liberal government recognizes the right of individuals to associate themselves in any organization having worthy purpose, in harmony with the spirit of law and order, and not interfering with the rights and privileges of non-members.