Thinking

This was a great week but it went so fast that I forgot all that happened. 

I have been thinking very much about hope to explain the concept of the priesthood to people who think that authority af God is given to all who the Holy Spirit comes to. Authority of God is a tangible key given from Man to man according to the revelation of God. God is the only one who has the power and authority to give a forgiveness of sins. He gave that power to his Only Begotten Son by which he also could for give his fellow men of their sins. For example in Matt 9 When the man had to be lowered down from the roof on his bed because he lay sick of Palsy, Christ says, "Be of good cheer , thy sin are forgiven thee." The scribes didn't believe and he told them "For whether it is easier to say thy sins are forgiven thee; or ti say Arise and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. 'Arise and take up thy be and go unto thy own house." No man today in his right mind can claim to have that authority by which the Son of man had to forgive sins of another man. But it was that same authority he gave to his chosen twelve to "bind on earth and to bind in heaven" It was that authority that through the names of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost a repentant man can step into the waters of baptism and have his sins be washed away as if the Savior had said the words himself to "Be thou clean." Now the question is, Can any "man take the honor upon himself?" Can a genuinely good man start a church or claim himself to be a prophet and honestly think that Jesus Christ has given him the keys of Salvation by which baptism is made valid. Except by the laying on of hands in the similitude of Christ himself, or his chosen Apostles of even as Moses of old? 

"We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy and by the laying on of hand by those who are in authority to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof."

That's all that has happened this week.