D&C 90:1-9

90:1-5 - There is no background information given as to why section 90 was received. Going directly into the text, DJR comments that this section, “As it begins, we see that the humble Prophet of the Restoration, Joseph Smith, Jr., had been feeling his inadequacies and had pled with the Lord for forgiveness of his sins.” The Lord begins by assuring JS that He has heard “thy prayers and the prayer of thy brethren.” The Lord tells him “thy sins are forgiven thee, according to thy petition.” The Lord assures him that he is blessed with the “keys of the kingdom” which “shall never be taken from you, while thou art in the world, neither in the world to come.” This is interesting because it shows not only the priesthood power in this life, but that those keys and that authority continues. There was another time when this concept came up in the Book of Mormon and I learned that all callings one has received in this life, continues on with us in the next life. I think it’s nice to have that continuity, the knowledge that this life is not the end and that the gospel perpetuates forward into eternity, makes it easier to follow here. The IM says, “During His earthly ministry, Jesus bestowed on Peter, James, and John ‘the keys of the kingdom.’ Those keys, He said, carried power to bind and loose on earth and in heaven. Latter-day Saints make covenants with God for time and all eternity. Priesthood is the authority to seal those covenants and have them last throughout eternity. Eternal marriage, baptism, bestowal of the Holy Ghost, temple covenants- these are all sealed by the divine authority known as priesthood.” The Lord continues on, but he uses a word that I don’t recall him using before. He says that through JS “the oracles be given to another, yea, even unto the church. And all they who receive the oracles of God, let them beware how they hold them lest they are accounted as a light thing, and are brought under condemnation thereby.” I think that this is speaking directly to me, I have my weaknesses, just like everyone else, but I feel like I’ve come to a point where one particular weakness has been eating away at my spiritual life for some time, and I’m just so hesitant to give it up, I don’t know why. But I feel like the Lord is telling me that I have received his will for me concerning this issue and I’m not taking his instruction seriously and that I’m coming under condemnation for it. I can definitely say that I’ve felt myself drifting lately, away from spiritual matters. I’m not as motivated to study the scriptures as I was before, I’m not really engaging my kids in our scripture study. We’re still reading, but I don’t really talk to them about it as much anymore. I definitely feel like there’s a wall growing between me and the Savior, and I’m the one building it because he told me what I need to do and I’m refusing, I’m too proud, I’m too arrogant. I ask for so much, I expect so much, I have been blessed with so much, and yet I REFUSE to do what the Lord asks me. I feel like he’s continued walking on my own personal path to salvation, but I stopped walking, crossed my arms and stomped my feet and said no. That’s really terrible. And this is my sign, that he’s waiting for me to catch up. And logically I know that when I do what he’s told me, that my life will become even more incredible and I will be so happy and wonder why I took so long, but emotionally I resist, and I’m going to have to work on that. Anyway, concerning the word “oracles” the IM comments, “An oracle can be a revelation or the person through whom the revelation is given. Only the President of the Church possesses the power to receive revelation for the entire Church. This principle was taught to Oliver Cowdery at an early date, when the Lord told him: ‘No one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this Church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., for he receiveth them even as Moses.’ Those who have succeeded Joseph Smith in the prophetic office have received, each in his turn, the power to use the keys of the kingdom and lead the Church by revelation as occasion has required. President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote: ‘The word of the Lord was fulfilled wherein he said that through Joseph Smith the oracles should be given to the Church, and by command of the Lord the Prophet, in Nauvoo a few months before his death, called the apostles together and said to them that the Lord had commanded him to confer upon them all the keys and authorities which he had had conferred upon him, so that the world could be ‘rolled off’ of his shoulders onto theirs. He thereupon conferred upon them this divine governing power, but this governing power could not be exercised by any one of the twelve while the Prophet was living. Upon his death the right to preside and set in order and to hold the keys of authority in the Priesthood and in the Church, rightfully belonged to President Brigham Young and by authority of the ordination he had received under the hands of Joseph Smith and be being sustained by his brethren and the Church, he was vested with the supreme power.’

90:6-9 -  The Lord also later forgives the sins of Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, and “they are accounted as equal with thee in holding the keys of this last kingdom.” The IM says, “In these verses the Lord authorized Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams to hold the keys of the priesthood jointly with Joseph Smith. The two men were set apart a short time later. The Prophet reported: ‘Elder Rigdon expressed a desire that himself and Brother Frederick G. Williams should be ordained to the offices to which they had been called, viz,. those of Presidents of the High Priesthood, and to be equal in holding the keys of the kingdom with Brother Joseph Smith, Jun., according to the revelation given on the 8^th of March, 1833. Accordingly I laid my hands on Brother Sidney and Frederick, and ordained them to take part with me in holding the keys of the last dispensation and to assist in the Presidency of the High Priesthood, as my Counselors.’ Counselors can do everything their presiding officer directs them to do, as if the president were personally acting. In this sense they are equal. However, they have not power to act independent of the president. Both Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams received their ordination from the Prophet Joseph Smith, who held the keys. Since these two men received their authority from Joseph Smith, it follows that they were not equal to him in every sense. Elder John A. Widtsoe observed that ‘the pre-eminence of the President of the Church was maintained… The Counselors do not possess the power of the President and cannot act in Church matters without direction and consent of the President. All this defined clearly the position and authority of the President of the Church.’” DJR further explained, “It is helpful to know that each new Apostles is given all the keys of the priesthood at the time he is ordained an Apostle and set apart to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve. Thus, each of the fifteen ‘prophets, seers, and revelators’ who serve as the First Presidency and the Twelve today holds all of the priesthood keys. However, only the Prophet has the authority to exercise all of the keys. They are dormant in the others until, if, and when they become the President of the Church. Otherwise, there would be no one of earth to give the new Prophet the keys after the previous President of the Church has passed away.” This is an excellent explanation that made sense to me. The Lord continues that one of the purposes of the school of the prophets is so that those brethren who have been chosen to attend “may be perfected in their ministry for the salvation of Zion, and of the nations of Israel, and of the Gentiles, as many as will believe; that through your administration they may receive the word and their through administration the word may go forth unto the ends of the earth, unto the Gentiles first, and then, behold, and lo, they shall turn unto the Jews.” The IM says, “The gospel was… taken first to the Jews in the Meridian Dispensation, and when the Jews rejected it, then it was taken to the Gentiles. The Lord promised that the first should be last and last first in the final dispensation. Therefore the Gospel was revealed and declared to the Gentiles in this dispensation and then it must go to the Jews.”