“In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit”. So starts one of the best fictional stories known to mankind. A hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who enjoys the simple, comfortable, and cozy life of the Shire is one day met by the wizard, Gandalf. Gandalf and a group of dwarves convince Bilbo to leave his quiet life to go on an adventure across the land to the Lonely Mountain in hopes of retrieving a massive treasure seized decades earlier by the great dragon, Smaug. He was promised a portion of the treasure for his assistance.
They eventually made their way to Lonely Mountain to find Smaug guarding the treasure. Among the treasure was a stone more valuable than all the treasure itself. The Arkenstone. Bilbo was able to sneak into the mountain aided by his ring which gave him invisibility. While there he conversed with, and to an extent taunted Smaug and fled the hoard of treasure with a small cup. This agitated the great Smaug and he left the mountain and reigned terror and fire upon the nearby Laketown. The brave Bard in defense of his town slayed Smaug with a black arrow.
With the dragon slain, the treasure was no longer guarded, and the nearby dwarves were able to claim their once lost treasure. This wasn’t the end of the story, however. As anyone understands, wealth is an easy temptation for all peoples. Word spread quickly across the land that the treasure was now unguarded, and different armies marched on the Lonely Mountain to retrieve the treasure for themselves. The people of Laketown led by Bard, slayer of the dragon, and now their leader sought recompense for the damages caused to their town. Greed had overcome Thorin, leader of Bilbo’s company, to the extent he was willing to fight and die in defense of his treasure. Bilbo saw bloodshed and contention as unnecessary. Unbeknownst to Thorin, he had already found the Arkenstone in the mountain. Bilbo understood its value. He knew he was promised a portion of the treasure. Bilbo quietly went outside of the Lonely Mountain, and met Bard, offering the Arkenstone as recompense to Laketown if he would call off his armies. From Bilbo’s perspective, he was willing to sacrifice what he saw as his promised portion of the treasure, to avoid unnecessary war. Not for his own good, but for others, and the greater good.
If you were raised in the LDS church and attended primary, you’ve sung and heard of the song “Follow the Prophet”. The chorus of the song has you repeat the phrase “Follow the Prophet” over and over, to ensure you never forget. The phrase is also often repeated in General Conference, and other church meetings, talks, and lessons. If you start a gospel discussion with a Latter-Day Saint, it will likely be within 5 minutes before they mention “Follow the Prophet”. Missionaries might knock on your door, they’ll say “We have a message about Jesus Christ for you”. You invite them in and within 5 minutes they want to start talking about the Prophet, and following him. Why such heavy emphasis? I couldn’t tell you to be honest. The phrase “Follow the Prophet” does not appear in any canonical scriptures within the LDS church. It was something emphasized by church leaders at some point in history, and it stuck to the culture.
Of course by now, you’ve seen the title of this article. Perhaps you sighed at the unoriginal tongue in cheek usage of the word “profit” rather than “prophet” and lament that this is going to be an article about church finances. I will not speak of finances as I feel that was covered well enough in my article about the doctrine of tithing entitled “The Fee for Salvation”. I will however, dive into true doctrine from the scriptures and what it might mean to “Follow the Profit”.
My sharing of Mr. Baggins’ story had purpose. He and the company he traveled with embarked on a journey seeking a financial profit. The moral of this part of the story is that he saw what the greater good was, and that the greater profit was in helping others. It was worth sacrificing his own financial profit.
Let’s examine the teachings of Jesus on this subject:
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?“ (Matthew 16:24-26, KJV)
We are commanded by Christ, to deny ourselves and follow him. Our souls are greater value than that of the temporal. If we follow him, we will have a profit to our soul. Conversely, supporting the words of Christ are Nephi’s words: “cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh” (2 Nephi 4:34).
We know Christ commands us to follow him. Our culture dictates Follow the Prophet. If the Scriptures are clear that it is Christ that profits our souls, and brings our souls salvation, you may question why some emphasize so much the need to follow man for the salvation of your soul. Most of the time this is met with an explanation such as “The President of the church is the only man that has the Keys of the Priesthood, for saving ordinances!”. Not a conference goes by without mention of the Prophet’s Keys that are essential for your salvation, to allow you to be baptized, or sealed to your family for eternity.
Lets discuss keys for a moment. If we spend some time being honest with ourselves, we know by policy and procedure of the church “Keys” reside with the leadership of the church. I personally don’t see much scriptural precedent for it, so I’ll do my best to explain from my own experience. First, what does a literal key do? It unlocks something that is locked. So lets say I come upon a room I need to access, but access is only through a locked door. I must contact one of my leaders who has a key to this door, and he’ll come to the door and open it for me where I can briefly accomplish the task I needed access to the room for, afterwards, he’ll shut the door and lock it again, until I need access again, and he grants me permission.
From a young age, the church allows young men to be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. Per church doctrine, someone who is a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, or ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood can ordain a young man to the Aaronic Priesthood. As you are ordained to be a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, you are given the authority to bless the sacrament and baptize people. However, only with a “Keyholder’s” (such as your bishop) permission.
During the Covid Pandemic in 2020 public gatherings were forbidden. People weren’t allowed to attend church. The church had to make the decision to allow people to hold their own personal sacrament meetings in their homes. A big topic during this time is how the Sacrament would be administered to people in the home. This could of course only be done under the direction and keys of the bishop of the ward. In my ward, my bishop initially sent out an email to the whole ward saying something to the effect of “I’m giving permission for priesthood holders to administer the sacrament on Sundays in their own home for the duration of four weeks”. It didn’t matter that we had the priesthood, had authority and were ordained to administer such things as the Sacrament. It wouldn’t be considered valid without the bishop’s approval. It would in fact be considered disobedient to proceed without his permission. At this time, I felt obedience to our leaders was important in the matter. I enjoyed having the sacrament in my home with my wife every Sunday, and simply enjoying any gospel topic or discussion we’d want to entertain at the time. It went on for a while where the bishop would send follow up emails saying he approved Sacrament in the home for a specific duration, but there were also times when he wouldn’t send any emails after his “approved duration” was up. Leaving my obedient self wondering if I should continue to bless the sacrament or not. I didn’t want to step out of line with the priesthood keys.
During this time, there was also much discourse in LDS communities online about what was proper or not for “at home church”. Many people lamented that their Bishop’s would not allow the Sacrament to be administered in homes, even if a priesthood holder was there and able to administer otherwise. Some bishop’s would only allow certain people they designated to go around homes perhaps once a month and administer under his direction. Why was this “discretion of keys” so important that it was withholding the blessing of the Sacrament to some, while other wards were given the green-light to administer the Sacrament each week? The figurative door was remaining locked and guarded by Keyholders to the earnest worshipers that wanted in, while others had access by virtue of being in a different geographical location with a different appointed keyholder that would let them in.
The church recognizes Joseph Smith as it’s first keyholder and believes that keys were passed down from him through the subsequent presidents of the church. Joseph spent months in dire conditions in Liberty Jail. He pleaded to the Lord for help in all the injustices suffered. The Lord responded and spoke to him. In this response, he was taught a valuable lesson on the priesthood:
“That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.
That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:36-37, LDS Edition)
If one is ordained to the priesthood, and living in righteousness what value at all is there to limiting the power and abilities of one that is bestowed with such – by virtue of keys? The Lord calls this unrighteous dominion and declares the priesthood of such individuals void.
Keys are power to men that have faith only in men. Real priesthood power is power given through Christ. When the Covid plague was upon the world, did our top keyholders go out and heal the sick and raise the dead? No. They asked us to “follow the wise and thoughtful recommendations of medical experts and government leaders” (Church Newsroom, 12 August 2021). Jesus Christ had power through his priesthood. He performed many miracles during his ministry. This earned the ire of the keyholders in his day:
“Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.
And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.” (Matthew 12:22-24, KJV)
The Pharisees (Keyholders) were not performing miracles. They were the religious authority of the day. If something wasn’t sanctioned by them, the explanation was that anyone performing miracles was a rogue. Thus in their mind, the one with real priesthood was working by the power of the devil, because he was working outside their keys. I ask, What does it profit a man if he has keys? Perhaps he can gain the praises and riches of the world, but is it worth his soul?
Let’s address the actual doctrines in the scriptures that mention keys. We can trust in the words of Jesus:
“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:15-19, KJV)
Our focus from here will shift from keys, but not without first discussing what happened here. Peter proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ. The Savior. The Messiah. Then he was given Keys to the kingdom. This Testimony of Jesus is a Key. A Key that anyone can receive, to unlock doors on their own. Peter is a prime example of a man that changed through his testimony of Jesus. He of course, grew up with his own religious customs and understandings. The Testimony of Jesus unlocked a man of God that would go from ordinary fisherman to one that could heal the sick and raise the dead. A man who would also sacrifice his life for the testimony of Jesus.
Peter’s keys were not passed to him from another man. These keys cannot be passed on this way. If keys are resilient in that regard, we cannot state that the Jews were in apostasy at the time of Jesus’s coming. The Levites were still serving in priesthood capacities in his day (Luke 1). If keys can be passed on in this manner, there could not have been apostasy after Christ’s time, as the Catholics claim authority through Linus, who obtained his keys from Peter.
These false keys cannot make one a prophet, but rather the spirit of prophecy and the true key I mentioned. In the Book of Revelation, an angel speaking to John defines the spirit of prophecy:
“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.“
Notice how John attempts to pay his respects to the angel and the angel redirects John’s attention to Jesus Christ emphasizing that it is the testimony of Jesus that is the spirit of Prophecy? The testimony of Jesus being the spirit of prophecy is why Jesus gave Peter keys to the kingdom. A true prophet will have testimony of Jesus, and proclaim they were given the spirit of prophecy by him. Do any modern prophets you know proclaim their testimony of Jesus, by saying that Jesus directly bestowed keys upon them, or do they claim their keys have been passed down by man?
Should the Arkenstone be kept to one man as a symbol of his own power and authority, or should it be used for the greater benefit and profit of all mankind?
What does it profit the prophet?
To be continued…
I will elaborate further on the subject of prophets and testimonies in a later article entitled, “Witnesses and Dimwits”. Be sure to check back often or subscribe to be notified.
Plurality of Doctrines 