Divine Authority in the present Dispensation -- We claim that the authority to administer in the name of God is operative in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today; and that this power or commission was conferred upon the first officers of the Church by ordination under the hands of those who had held the same power in earlier dispensations. That the authority of the Holy Priesthood was to be taken from the earth as the apostles of old were slain, and that of necessity it would have to be restored from heaven before the Church could be reestablished, may be shown by scripture. On May 15, 1829, while Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were engaged in earnest prayer for instruction concerning baptism for the remission of sins, mention of which Joseph Smith had found in the plates from which he was then engaged in translating the Book of Mormon, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light. He announced himself as John, called of old the Baptist, and said he had come under the direction of Peter, James, and John, who held the keys of the higher Priesthood. The angel laid his hands upon the two young men and ordained them to authority, saying: "Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness."*

A short time after this event, Peter, James, and John appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and ordained the two to the higher or Melchizedek Priesthood, bestowing upon them the keys of the apostleship, which these heavenly messengers had held and exercised in the former Gospel dispensation. This order of Priesthood holds authority over all the offices in the Church, and includes power to administer in spiritual things;* consequently all the authorities and powers necessary to the establishment and development of the Church were by this visitation restored to earth.

No one may officiate in any ordinances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unless he has been ordained to the particular order or office of Priesthood, by those possessing the requisite authority. Thus, no man receives the Priesthood except under the hands of one who holds that Priesthood himself; that one must have obtained it from others previously commissioned; and so every bearer of the Priesthood today can trace his authority to the hands of Joseph Smith the Prophet,* who received his ordination under the hands of the apostles Peter, James, and John; and they had been ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ. That men who are called of God, to the authority of the ministry on earth, may have been selected for such appointment even before they took mortal bodies, is evident from the scriptures. This matter may properly claim attention in the present connection; and its consideration leads us to the subjects following.

No one who accepts Jesus Christ as the Son of God can consistently deny His antemortal existence, or question His position as one of the Godhead before He came to earth as Mary's Son. The common interpretation given to the opening words of John's Gospel sustains the view of Christ's primeval Godship: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We read further, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."* The affirmations of the Redeemer support this truth. When His disciples dissented concerning His doctrine of Himself, He said: "What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?"* On another occasion He spoke in this wise: "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father."* And His disciples, pleased with this plain declaration confirming the belief which, perchance, they already entertained at heart, rejoined, "Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb * * * by this we believe that thou camest forth from God."* To certain wicked Jews who boasted of their descent from Abraham, and sought to hide their sins under the protecting mantle of the great patriarch's name, the Savior declared: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."* In solemn prayer the Son implored, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."* Yet Christ was born a child among mortals; and it is consistent to infer that if His earthly birth was the union of a preexistent or antemortal spirit with a mortal body such also is the birth of every member of the human family.

But we are not left to mere inference on a basis of analogy; the scriptures plainly teach that the spirits of mankind are known and numbered unto God before their earthly advent. In his farewell administration to Israel Moses sang: "Remember the days of old * * * When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel."* From this we learn that the earth was allotted to the nations, according to the number of the children of Israel; it is evident therefore that the number was known prior to the existence of the Israelitish nation in the flesh; this is most easily explained on the basis of previous existence in which the spirits of the future nation were known.

No chance is possible, therefore, in the number or extent of the temporal creations of God.* The population of the earth is fixed according to the number of spirits appointed to take tabernacles of flesh upon this planet; when these have all come forth in the order and time appointed, then, and not till then, shall the end come.