keys of the kingdom

• sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity

39:4.14The keys of the king­dom of heaven are: sin­cer­ity, more sin­cer­ity, and more sin­cer­ity. All men have these keys. Men use them—ad­vance in spirit sta­tus—by de­ci­sions, by more de­ci­sions, and by more de­ci­sions. The high­est moral choice is the choice of the high­est pos­si­ble value, and al­ways—in any sphere, in all of them—this is to choose to do the will of God. If man thus chooses, he is great, though he be the hum­blest cit­i­zen of Je­ru­sem or even the least of mor­tals on Uran­tia.

• authority over things temporal given to apostles and successors

140:2.2“My Fa­ther, I now bring to you these men, my mes­sen­gers. From among our chil­dren on earth I have cho­sen these twelve to go forth to rep­re­sent me as I came forth to rep­re­sent you. Love them and be with them as you have loved and been with me. And now, my Fa­ther, give these men wis­dom as I place all the af­fairs of the com­ing king­dom in their hands. And I would, if it is your will, tarry on earth a time to help them in their labors for the king­dom. And again, my Fa­ther, I thank you for these men, and I com­mit them to your keep­ing while I go on to fin­ish the work you have given me to do.”

140:2.3When Je­sus had fin­ished pray­ing, the apos­tles re­mained each man bowed in his place. And it was many min­utes be­fore even Pe­ter dared lift up his eyes to look upon the Mas­ter. One by one they em­braced Je­sus, but no man said aught. A great si­lence per­vaded the place while a host of ce­les­tial be­ings looked down upon this solemn and sa­cred scene—the Cre­ator of a uni­verse plac­ing the af­fairs of the di­vine broth­er­hood of man un­der the di­rec­tion of hu­man minds.

• authority over things temporal given to apostles and successors

157:4.5Je­sus, still stand­ing, then said to the twelve: “You are my cho­sen am­bas­sadors, but I know that, in the cir­cum­stances, you could not en­ter­tain this be­lief as a re­sult of mere hu­man knowl­edge. This is a rev­e­la­tion of the spirit of my Fa­ther to your in­most souls. And when, there­fore, you make this con­fes­sion by the in­sight of the spirit of my Fa­ther which dwells within you, I am led to de­clare that upon this foun­da­tion will I build the broth­er­hood of the king­dom of heaven. Upon this rock of spir­i­tual re­al­ity will I build the liv­ing tem­ple of spir­i­tual fel­low­ship in the eter­nal re­al­i­ties of my Fa­ther’s king­dom. All the forces of evil and the hosts of sin shall not pre­vail against this hu­man fra­ter­nity of the di­vine spirit. And while my Fa­ther’s spirit shall ever be the di­vine guide and men­tor of all who en­ter the bonds of this spirit fel­low­ship, to you and your suc­ces­sors I now de­liver the keys of the out­ward king­dom—the au­thor­ity over things tem­po­ral—the so­cial and eco­nomic fea­tures of this as­so­ci­a­tion of men and women as fel­lows of the king­dom.” And again he charged them, for the time be­ing, that they should tell no man that he was the Son of God.

157:4.6Je­sus was be­gin­ning to have faith in the loy­alty and in­tegrity of his apos­tles. The Mas­ter con­ceived that a faith which could stand what his cho­sen rep­re­sen­ta­tives had re­cently passed through would un­doubt­edly en­dure the fiery tri­als which were just ahead and emerge from the ap­par­ent wreck­age of all their hopes into the new light of a new dis­pen­sa­tion and thereby be able to go forth to en­lighten a world sit­ting in dark­ness. On this day the Mas­ter be­gan to be­lieve in the faith of his apos­tles, save one.