The following was presented at the 1989 Sunstone Symposium, held in Salt Lake City.

As man is God once was, as God is man may become. What a wondrous thought, what a glorious opportunity for mankind—to become as God is! To reign supremely over worlds without end! Our Father in Heaven has given His children a promise that those who receive the Fullness of His Gospel and endure to the end, shall receive exaltation in His presence. They shall enter the Celestial Kingdom as Gods and Goddesses, sons and daughters of God in His Celestial Family. A kingdom in which our Heavenly Father eternally rules, and ruling by His side is our Heavenly Mother. It is a patriarchal society comprised of immortal beings, Kings and Priests, Queens and Priestesses who have earned the right to preside over their own eternal posterity, to create worlds without number, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

The Bible is a history of a special family here on Earth. A royal lineage chosen by God upon whom He bestowed his choicest blessings. The Prophet Joseph Smith revealed that this ancient people possessed the fullness of the gospel and a fullness of the priesthood and its ordinances.

From the days of Adam to Moses, it was a patriarchal era, a time in which the patriarchs reigned. It began with Adam, who received certain authority from God.^{1, a} This authority or the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood enabled Adam to administer the fullness of the everlasting Gospel, giving laws and administering endless lives to his sons and daughters.^b Being "the Firstborn"^c he established a patriarchal birthright line, the presiding office of which was referred to as "The right of the Firstborn."² In Adam's absence or death, his patriarchal heir who held this Right, stood in Adam's place as presiding Patriarch to the world. The "Right of the Firstborn" was handed down from father to son^d and could only be held by one man on the earth at a time.³ This was the Patriarchal Order or as it came to be known "The Holy Order of God."

It was in this order that a man and woman received the ordinances of the Priesthood which prepared them for Godhood and which would ultimately bring them into the presence of God. The integral part of this Priesthood was the sealing power—it had the power to seal on earth that which would remained sealed in heaven. It was through this sealing power that eternal marriages and eternal families were created. This power was had on the Earth until the children of Israel upon their release from Egyptian bondage rejected this higher gospel. They sinned against the Lord and the Lord withdrew the Holy Order and the Priesthood thereof ⁴ and so ended the reign of the Patriarchs.

Centuries later with the advent of Jesus Christ, Israel had the opportunity to regain all that they had lost. Jesus had the fullness of his Father's gospel and the keys to administer its ordinances. He received the sealing keys or the Fullness of the Patriarchal Priesthood on the Mount of Transfiguration.⁵

Had Christ and his Apostles not been rejected by the people, the Patriarchal Order would have again been established.^e But the Gospel of the Father was rejected and the world was plunged into the dark ages where it remained until 1820 when an unlearned farm boy by the name of Joseph Smith was chosen by the Lord to restore His Gospel. Joseph received first the Aaronic priesthood under the hands of John the Baptist. Later he received the apostolic authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood under the hands of Peter, James and John. Finally he received the higher order of the Patriarchal Priesthood and the fullness thereof from under the hands of Moses, Elias and Elijah in the Kirtland Temple. Thus on the 3rd of April, 1836, Joseph Smith received the same blessings which were given to Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. He was given the sealing keys of Elijah which gave him the authority to seal on earth that which would remain sealed in Heaven.⁶ It was this higher order of the Patriarchal Priesthood (though not its fullness) which the Prophet referred to on August 27, 1843, when he said that: "[the] second Priesthood [is] Abraham's Patriarchal power which is the greatest [Priesthood] yet experienced in this Church."^f

The Lord had again brought forth His Holy Order, the Patriarchal Order over which Joseph Smith Jr. stood as the presiding Patriarch, Priest and King.^g He stood as God to the people and administered endless lives to them, just as the ancient patriarchs did before him. The Prophet had received the "Right of the Firstborn"—the right to stand as Adam and through this authority he established the "Church of the Firstborn" on Earth!⁷

It was on May 4th, 1842, that the Holy Order met for the first time in this dispensation.^h It was at this meeting that the Prophet first administered the Endowment—the ordinances of the Holy Order and communicated keys pertaining to the highest order of the Melchizedek Priesthood.⁸ Joseph referred to it as the ancient order of things because it was the same order which the ancient patriarchs had—the Patriarchal Order!

It was through the ordinances of the Holy Order that Joseph Smith created his own family kingdom which came to be known as the Council of Fifty. This special council of men were adopted to the Prophet through an oath and a covenant as sons.ⁱ In this Council the Prophet was sustained as presiding Patriarch, Priest and King over all Israel as well as God's entire worldly kingdom.⁹ The Council of Fifty was a priesthood body.¹⁰ In its meetings the members dressed in temple robes and offered up the signs and tokens of the Priesthood. In a revelation to this Council the Lord gave them their name: "Verily thus saith the Lord, This is the name by which you shall be called—The Kingdom of God and His Laws, with the Keys and power thereof, and judgment in the hands of his servants, Ahman Christ." (UPR Part 57a) The existence of the Council of Fifty was kept a well guarded secret. Its members were sworn to secrecy and its records were well protected. At one point Joseph had them buried to keep them safe.¹¹ The Church as a whole was kept entirely in the dark as to its proceedings, for its secrets could only be revealed through the oaths and covenants of the Temple which were administered to relatively few people during the Prophet's lifetime. Eventually the Prophet hoped to bring every worthy Saint into this order including the women.^j

It was the Prophet's doctrine that the women who were brought into the Holy Order received the Priesthood along with the men. They received their washings and anointings at the hands of other sisters who had already been endowed and who had been anointed and ordained to the Keys of the Priesthood. Sister Eliza R. Snow, wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith made these remarks:

The sisters were also apostolic in a priestly sense. They partook of the priesthood equally with the men. They too "held the keys of the administration of angels." . . . Woman also soon became high priestess and prophetess. She was this officially. . . . The genius of a patriarchal priesthood naturally made her the apostolic help-meet for man. If you saw her not in the pulpit teaching the congregation, yet was she to be found in the temple, administering for the living and the dead! Even in the holy of holies she was met. As a high priestess she blessed with the laying on of hands! As a prophetess she oracled in holy places! As an endowment giver she was a Mason, of the Hebraic order, whose Grand Master is the God of Israel and whose anointer is the Holy Ghost. She held the keys of the administration of angels and of the "sealings" pertaining to "the heavens and the earth" (Women of Mormondom 22-23)

President Brigham Young referred to the fact that women did indeed hold the Priesthood, when in a discourse given on June 28th, 1874, he told the Saints:

Now, brethren, the man that honors his priesthood, the woman that honors her priesthood, will receive an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of God. (JD 17:119)

On March 15th, 1846, Orson Hyde read and distributed to the Saints in the Nauvoo Temple a revelation which he had received that morning:

I have made my Church as upon a hill. The Priest-hood holds the power and all have been ordained or ought to be. It is necessary that it should rest upon all, not upon men only but upon women also that ye may be all one. Fear not little flock, it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. It is given to you and power to overcome all things. (Bullock Minutes, 15 March 1846, BYU Studies Vol. 31, No. 1 p. 61)

It was in an address which the Prophet Joseph Smith gave at the first meeting of the "Female Relief Society" on April 28th, 1842 that he first alluded to the fact that he intended to ordain women to all the keys of the priesthood. In the History of the Church concerning this occasion he wrote: "At two o'clock I met the members of the 'Female Relief Society,' and after presiding at the admission of many new members, gave a lecture on the Priesthood, showing how the sisters would come in possession of the privileges, blessings and gifts of the Priesthood." (HC 4:602)

Speaking to the sisters "He spoke of delivering the keys to this society" (WJS 116). He also said, "that the keys of the kingdom are about to be given to them" (WJS 177). The Keys of the Kingdom were about to be delivered to those worthy sisters. They were to be conferred on them in the Nauvoo Temple, the only appropriate place where these ordinances could be properly administered and it was necessary that the women that were brought into the order should possess the Priesthood in order to perform Temple work. That this is so is revealed in a blessing given by Patriarch John Smith to Maria Turnbow on Nov. 7, 1845:

Thou shalt have an Endowment in the Lords house [and] be clothed with the Power of the Holy Priesthood [to] be able to redeem thy fathers house back to where they died in the Gospel and bring them up in the first Resurrection (a blessing by John Smith Patriarch upon the head of Maria Louisia Turnbow given in Nauvoo Nov. 7, 1845; recorded in book Dp 464 a. cor)

In another blessing given by Elisha Graves to Lucy Flake, again the necessity of holding the priesthood in order to do temple work is indicated:

thou art a royal heir to all the blessings, privileges and powers which pertain to the Holy Priesthood according to thy sex, which thou shalt receive in due time that thou mayest be able to accomplish thy work in behalf of thy progenitors. Thou shalt be connected with a man of God, thru whom thou shalt receive the priesthood, exaltation, power and eternal glory, become a mother in Israel. . . . . be anointed a queen and priestess unto the most high God, receive thy crown, dominion, power and eternal increase, thy inheritance with thy benefactor in Zion. (Life of Lucy Hannah White Flake p. 4-5; blessing given by Elisha H. Graves, Nov. 4th 1856)

Here is a blessing given by Patriarch John Smith to Emily Jacob in 1846:

I place my hands upon thy head in the name of Jesus of Nazareth and seal upon thee the Priesthood with all the blessings of the new and everlasting covenant, which was sealed upon the children of Joseph, for this [is] thy lineage, the same as thy companion. Thou hast a right to all the blessings which are sealed upon his head, for a woman can have but little power in the priesthood without a man. (City of Joseph the Record of Norton Jacob pages 16-17; Jan. 26, 1846)

It should also be stated that a man has but little power in the priesthood without a woman. Section 131 of the Doctrine and Covenants states:

In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; and in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]; And if he does not, he cannot obtain it. He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase.

Here is another blessing by Chas. W. Hyde upon the head of Sarah Ann Turnbow:

Thou shalt have the gift of discernment and wisdom that leads to eternal life, great shall be thy reward and understanding for thou art of Joseph and a lawful heir to the fullness of the priesthood with [thy] companion and a numerous posterity on the earth. Thou shalt have an inheritance in Zion with all the redeemed and shalt help to redeem thy fathers household. Thou shalt go into the temple of the lord, the place called the Holy of Holy [Holies] and converse with angels and be ordained a Queen by the hand of your Redeemer and thy companiona King and Priest. No good thing shall be denied thee, and I seal upon you these blessings of powers, dominions and Eternal lives for ever and ever. Amen. (A blessing by Chas W. Hyde upon the head of Sarah Ann Turnbow; given Feb. 12, 1862)

All these blessings were to be given to the sisters in conjunction with their husbands in the Nauvoo Temple. Only two years before his death, the Prophet stated, "that the Church is not now organized in its proper order, and cannot be until the Temple is completed" (WJS 115). The Church was going through a period of metamorphosis which would have transformed it from the caterpillar of Bishops, Stake Presidents, Apostles and other presiding officers within the Church into the beautiful butterfly of a Celestial family. Joseph was going to make of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a kingdom of Kings and Priests, Queens and Priestesses to God. They were to become the Royal Family of God on earth over which Joseph Smith stood as the presiding Patriarch, which office was to be passed down from father to son through a line of the Prophet's birthright heirs until when in the valley of Adam-ondi Ahman, God Himself would return and present the Kingdom to Jesus Christ.^k But all this was not to be, for the Prophet and his brother were murdered before the Temple was finished. . . . .