The most straightforward definition of the keys of the ministering of angels might mean having a special right to behold angels. There are other possible interpretations of the phrase found in the Doctrine and Covenants as well. For example, some general authorities have suggested it means that priesthood holders serve as ministering angels or empower others to receive the ministry of angels. The phrase could also have meant a number of things in Joseph Smith’s time. In this interview, Chad Nielsen discusses how our understanding of the keys of the ministering of angels has evolved.
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What scriptures talk about the keys of the ministering of angels?
Sections 13 and 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants both discuss the keys of the ministering of angels being associated with the Aaronic or lesser priesthood. (Section 13 is a duplication of the content in Joseph Smith—History 1:69.)
How have general authorities interpreted the keys of the ministering of angels?
General authorities have suggested several different interpretations over the years of what the keys of the ministering of angels mean. The major ones include receiving a special privilege, acting as angels, and empowering others to receive the ministering of angels.
1. Special privilege
One interpretation taught by general authorities is that the keys are a special privilege to experience the visitation and ministering of angels.
For example, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith wrote, “It is to be the privilege of those holding the keys of the Aaronic priesthood to have the visitation and ministering of angels if the occasion should arise, in relation to the temporal matters of the Church.” (Answers to Gospel Questions: The Classic Collection in One Volume (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1966), 116.)
2. Acting as angels
Another interpretation holds that when men ordained with the Aaronic priesthood serve other people, they act as ministering angels themselves. For example, Elder L. Tom Perry noted that a friend “shared a brief experience that deeply touched his heart, because one of the priests reminded him of what it really means to be a true minister of Jesus Christ—literally, a ministering angel” (Perry, “The Priesthood of Aaron,” 93).
The experience was of a priest serving someone in the ward during a sacrament meeting.
3. Empowering others
General authorities have also taught that when men ordained to the Aaronic priesthood administer ordinances that offer a remission of sins to those who receive the ordinances, they open the door to the ministering of angels to all Church members.
Dallin H. Oaks stated:
In general, the blessings of spiritual companionship and communication are only available to those who are clean. As explained earlier, through the Aaronic Priesthood ordinances of baptism and the sacrament, we are cleansed of our sins and promised that if we keep our covenants we will always have His Spirit to be with us. I believe that promise not only refers to the Holy Ghost but also to the ministering of angels, for ‘angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ’ (2 Nephi 32:3). So it is that those who hold the Aaronic Priesthood open the door for all Church members who worthily partake of the sacrament to enjoy the companionship of the Spirit of the Lord and the ministering of angels.
Dallin H. Oaks, “The Aaronic Priesthood and the Sacrament.”
What is the historical context of D&C 13?
Section 13 of the Doctrine and Covenants was originally written as a part of the history of the Church that Joseph Smith started in 1838 and 1839. It was added to the Doctrine and Covenants as part of Orson Pratt’s work to reformat and expand the Doctrine and Covenants that was published in 1876. Notably, that same history was used as the basis of Joseph Smith—History in the Pearl of Great Price, which was canonized in 1880 (resulting in the content in section 13 being duplicated there).
Within the historical narrative, the text of D&C 13 consists of the words spoken by John the Baptist when he ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to the lesser priesthood:
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.
Doctrine and Covenants 13
Notably, the text that we have in section 13 seems to be an amalgamation of two texts—an 1834 history by Oliver Cowdery and section 84’s text from September 1832.
Cowdery’s account does not include the keys of the ministering of angels:
Upon you my fellow-servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer this Priesthood and this authority, which shall remain upon earth, that the Sons of Levi may yet offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness!
Oliver Cowdery
That aspect of D&C 13 seems more dependent on D&C 84:
The lesser Priesthood continued, which Priesthood holdeth the keys of the ministring of Angels and the preparitory gospel, which gospel is the gospel of repentence and of Baptism, and the remission of sins, and the Law of carnal commandments
D&C 84, Joseph Smith Papers
The text of section 13 seems to be the relevant portion of section 84 sandwiched in the middle of Cowdery’s account, combining the revealed light and knowledge that each separately had on the subject in the official historical account of John the Baptist’s appearance to Cowdery and Smith.
What did “keys” mean to Joseph Smith?
In one dictionary that was contemporary with Joseph Smith’s time, there are eleven different definitions for the word “key,” four of which are possibly relevant to the keys of the ministering of angels:
- An instrument for shutting or opening a lock;
- An index, or that which serves to explain a cypher. Hence,
- That which serves to explain any thing difficult to be understood; and
- In the Romish church, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or the power of the pope, or the power of excommunicating or absolving.1
The first definition, taken figuratively, could mean that the Aaronic priesthood is an instrument for unlocking the veil to allow angels to minister to the holder. This also aligns fairly well with the contemporary Masonic use of the term “key” as a means that allows one to do something or to access hidden knowledge.
The second and third definitions could mean that the Aaronic priesthood opens the ordained individual’s eyes to the appropriate way to receive the ministering of angels.
The fourth definition could be the authority to call on angels to minister to the holder (i.e., it is within their ecclesiastical jurisdiction to call on angels). This definition is the root of how we use the term “priesthood keys” in the Church today, though Joseph Smith frequently employed the third definition in his use of the word “key.”
Together, these definitions create a range of options for us to understand the statement that the Priesthood of Aaron “holds the keys of the ministering of angels.”
What questions does this topic raise about priesthood ordination?
Seeking to understand the keys of the ministering of angels leads to a number of questions about the purposes of ordination to the priesthood.
For example:
- What is the purpose of the priesthood?
- How does it work?
- What does it allow that people not ordained to the priesthood do not have access to?
How is this connected to Joseph Smith’s desire for everyone to see God?
One of the major threads of Joseph Smith’s religious thought was a desire for his followers to see the face of God in vision or to enter into the presence of God. As early as November 1831, a revelation (now section 67) promised the elders of the Church that:
“It is your privilege & a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto the ministry that in as much as ye strip yourselves from Jealesies & fears & humble yourselves before me[—]for ye are not sufficiently humble[—]the veil shall be wrent & you shall see me & know that I am[,] not with the carnal neither natural but with the spiritual for no man hath seen God at any time in the flesh but by the Spirit of God[,] neither can any natural man abide the presence of God.”
Revelation, circa 2 November 1831 [D&C 67], p. 115, Documents, The Joseph Smith Papers
Here, we see a promise from the Lord to “you that have been ordained” that if they purify their souls, they will have the chance to “see me & know that I am.” This theme of purification to prepare to see and know God appears in many of the revelations we have in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Significantly, this theme of seeing the Lord was included in one revelation about the priesthood received in September 1832 (now section 84).
This revelation states that the “Priesthood which is after the holiest order of God”—what we would call the Melchizedek priesthood today,
adminestereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the misteries [mysteries] of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God[.] therefore in the ordinences thereof the power of Godliness is manifest and without the ordinences thereof, and the authority of the Priesthood, the power of Godliness is not manifest unto man in the flesh, for without this no man can see the face of God even the father and live.
Revelation, 22–23 September 1832 [D&C 84], p. 1, Revelation Book 1, The Joseph Smith Papers.
Here again, priesthood ordination is linked to “the key of the knowledge of God.” While it’s not the most straightforward language, the “key of the knowledge of God” seems similar to the earlier promise that the elders could “see me & know that I am.”
In other words, those ordained to the higher priesthood could have the opportunity to see God and come to know Him if they were pure. This understanding seems to be confirmed as the 1832 revelation continues by stating, “Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and saught diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God, but they hardened ther hearts and could not endure his presence.”2 The ongoing goal of Moses’s ministry, in this understanding, was to sanctify his people so they could “behold the face of God.”3
Notably, section 84 was the same revelation that discusses the lesser priesthood holding “the keys of the ministering of Angels,” suggesting that this lesser priesthood, with its preparatory gospel, is a stepping stone to the higher priesthood and its functions.
How might the ministering of angels be one step in the process of preparing to see God?
If the higher priesthood was important for being able to behold the face of God (as quoted above, “without this no man can see the face of God even the father and live”), then the lesser priesthood could prepare people for communion with the ultimate Heavenly Being by allowing them to commune with lesser heavenly beings (the ministering of angels).
Thus, it almost seems to be a ritualized system of progression in the priesthood from the lesser priesthood (which enables the ministering of angels) to the higher priesthood (which enables entering the presence of God).
This concept seems to have even been incorporated into the Nauvoo endowment temple ordinance, which Joseph Smith described as being “the communication of Keys pertaining to the Aaronic Priesthood, and so on to the highest order of Melchisedec Priesthood.”4
Including “Keys pertaining to the Aaronic Priesthood” as part of the Nauvoo endowment ceremony also points towards another possible interpretation of the meaning of the “keys of the ministering of angels.”
Later in life, Joseph Smith repeatedly discussed means of discerning the type of being you are communicating with when visited by an angel or similar personage, such as the instructions in section 129.
On the occasions Joseph offered these instructions, he referred to them using phrases like “three grand keys whereby you may know whether any administration is from God” and some of “the keys of the kingdom.”
This represents a shift.
These are examples of using the term key as “That which serves to explain any thing difficult to be understood,” or in the Masonic sense of a means of discernment.
In this light, the “keys of the ministering of angels” can be interpreted as being the instructions found in section 129. This represents a shift from understanding the keys as authority bestowed on a person during ordination to the keys being key pieces of information associated with the Aaronic Priesthood.
What complicates seeing these keys as a special right of the Aaronic Priesthood?
It gets a little tricky because Joseph Smith (and the revelations he recorded) never made beholding the face of God or the ministry of angels contingent upon the priesthood. Rather, it was a blessing he desired everyone to obtain.
For example, a May 1833 revelation (now section 93) opens with a promise that:
evry soul who forsaketh their sins and cometh unto me and calleth on my name and obeyeth my voice and keepeth all my commandments shall see my face and know that I am.
Revelation, 6 May 1833 [D&C 93], p. 1, Revelation Book 1, The Joseph Smith Papers
The Lord’s promise is reserved not for those who receive the priesthood but “every soul.”
Similarly, in 1842, Joseph Smith taught the Female Relief Society that “If you live up to your privilege, the angels cannot be restrain’d from being your associates—females, if they are pure and innocent can come into the presence of God; for what is more pleasing to God than innocence; you must be innocent or you cannot come up before God.”5
In this case, it seems that innocence rather than priesthood is the prerequisite to receiving the ministering of angels and entering the presence of God. That would mean the opportunity is available outside the priesthood, complicating interpretations that view the keys as a special privilege.
However, it’s also possible that Joseph Smith recognized this contradiction and sought to resolve it by including instructions about the “Keys pertaining to the Aaronic Priesthood” as part of the Nauvoo endowment ceremony.
Has the Quorum of the Twelve ever discussed this quandary?
Yes. In 1931, they responded in a Church periodical to the question: “May one have revelations and visions of heavenly beings, without the Priesthood?” Their answer was that:
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery did so. In May 1829, John the Baptist appeared to them, and that was before either of them had been ordained. It was John, in fact, who conferred the Priesthood upon them. This function of having visions, of course, was exceptional in their case.
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Joseph Smith and the key of the ministering of angels
Acknowledging that this complicated the purpose of the priesthood, they followed up by asking: “If, then, one may pray, may have his prayers answered, may have the Holy Ghost bestowed upon him, and may exercise many of its gifts, without holding any Priesthood, what is the place of Priesthood on the earth?”
Priesthood functions in connection with organization.
Their response, in short, was that “Chiefly Priesthood functions in connection with organization. That is, the greatest need of Priesthood is where there is a service to be performed to others besides ourselves,” such as the administration of ordinances.6
President Oaks’s definition of the keys of the ministering of angels could also be another example of an apostle grappling with the question.
How do modern definitions of priesthood differ from Joseph Smith’s historical usage of the term?
Priesthood is a word that is difficult to pin down with a precise definition. Today, we know it generally refers to something men are ordained to use that is important for leading the Church and performing ordinances. The term could also refer more specifically to offices in the Church, authority in the Church, or the power of God.
Priesthood Offices
Priesthood could mean offices, especially those of priests and high priests. In English, the suffix “-hood” is added to a word to denote the state, condition, character, or nature of a person of a particular character or class.
Think of words like knighthood, motherhood, childhood, etc. It means that the person in question can be identified by the word attached to -hood. Hence, priesthood, in this sense, means that the person in question is a priest.
The suffix -hood can also be used to denote an order or organization of people with the status preceding the suffix (“it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood” or “Jacob, come! Tonight you shall join our brotherhood”).
This is also the definition people used to draw upon when saying that “the priesthood will bless and pass the sacrament.” When used in this way, the term priesthood is innately connected to the office of the person.
Priesthood Authority
Priesthood could mean authority. Take, for example, the definition of priesthood given by Elder B. H. Roberts:
It is “Power which God delegates to man, by which man is made the agent of God; by which he may by and in the name of God act for Him.” That is Priesthood, as we understand it.
B. H. Roberts on the definition of priesthood
Roberts went on to compare it to power of attorney when someone has property but:
he is not able to give his personal attention to his business interests in this location; he therefore selects some man in whom he has confidence … and he says to him: I wish you to become my agent, to act for me, to take possession of this property … and whatsoever he shall do, when acting under the law, is just as good and valid as if the owner of the property himself were performing the transactions.
B. H. Roberts
In turn, “Priesthood is something like that. It is power which God gives to men by which they are made His agents.”7
Other comparisons could also be made, such as the authority of police officers to enforce the law. But the main idea is that priesthood is a form of authorization to act for God in administering the Church.
God’s Power
Priesthood could be understood as the power of God. One example of this approach to priesthood comes from President M. Russell Ballard, who taught:
The power by which the heavens and earth were and are created is the priesthood … Not only is the priesthood the power by which the heavens and the earth were created, but it is also the power the Savior used in His mortal ministry to perform miracles, to bless and heal the sick, to bring the dead to life, and, as our Father’s Only Begotten Son, to endure the unbearable pain of Gethsemane and Calvary.
M. Russell Ballard, “This Is My Work and Glory“
In this sense, priesthood is not just authority to act in God’s stead but the power of God as an entity in its own right.
During Joseph Smith’s time, the term “priesthood” seems to have primarily been used in the first sense—being ordained to a specific office or a group of people ordained as priests. Modern definitions tend to lean more heavily on the second and third definitions, especially after Joseph F. Smith reconceptualized the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods as entities separate from the offices of the priesthood.
Are there any other challenges?
The definitions of priesthood are particularly relevant in ongoing discussions about women and the priesthood in the Church. In recent years, there has been a trend towards stating that women have the priesthood in certain ways.
What other authority can it be?
For example, President Dallin H. Oaks taught that:
We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? … Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.
President Dallin H. Oaks on women and the priesthood
Similarly, President Russell M. Nelson taught, “Every woman and every man who makes covenants with God and keeps those covenants, and who participates worthily in priesthood ordinances, has direct access to the power of God.”
During the last decade, leading figures in the Church have affirmed that women have priesthood power and authority.
To understand how priesthood applies to women’s lives, we can look at the three definitions mentioned earlier (specific offices in the Church, authority in the Church, or the power of God). These applications rely on either a very specific approach to the second definition (women perform temple ordinances and Church callings with priesthood authorization or delegated authority) or the third definition (women can have the power of God in their lives through faithful living, covenants, the gift of the Holy Ghost, spiritual gifts, etc.).
The term “priesthood” tends to cause some confusion.
President Oaks clarifies that women are not ordained as priests (or priestesses) and do not exercise priesthood keys, which rules out priesthood using the first definition.
The many ways we use the term “priesthood” tend to cause some confusion in our understanding of how women do and do not have the priesthood in the modern church. This includes ambiguity about the right to the ministering of angels in the lives of women and other individuals not ordained to the priesthood.
Why might this topic be relevant for Church members today?
The discussion over women and the priesthood is one area in which this is relevant, as mentioned above. Another is that how we understand the priesthood affects how we live when we have contact with the priesthood.
While I think that a special right to the ministering of angels is the most straightforward interpretation of the keys of the ministering of angels, the other suggestions shared by general authorities may be more useful for shaping our lives.
I haven’t seen or talked to an angel.
For example, I’ve been ordained to the priesthood for over twenty years and have not seen or talked to an angel in the sense that Joseph Smith did. I have, however, had plenty of opportunities to serve and minister to my fellow humans (as a ministering angel, so to speak) and to participate in priesthood rituals that play a role in repentance and change.
Thus, those definitions have more personal meaning to me (though I also strive to be worthy to accept the ministry of heavenly beings should the need or opportunity arise).
What aspect of the keys of the ministering of angels is often misunderstood?
One issue that would benefit from more clarity is the nature of the ministering of angels in general.
We believe that angels and ministering spirits are the same species as humans, just at different stages in their eternal lives. We also believe that the spirit world is around us and that we live in the presence of unseen spirits, both malevolent and benevolent.
If we believe that we have fallen spirits whispering demonic suggestions and temptations to us as part of Satan’s forces, could we say that righteous spirits are angels whispering heavenly suggestions and support to us in a similar fashion, even if they aren’t seen?
I know that various general authorities have suggested as much, and I like the idea that we have people on our side in the unseen world, helping us so we can say with Elisha, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kings 6:16).
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About the Interview Participant
Chad Nielsen is a freelance historian of the Latter Day Saint movement. He has blogged extensively about issues of Latter-day Saint history and theology at From The Desk and Times and Seasons. Nielsen published his first book in late 2024, Fragments of Revelation: Exploring the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, which includes a section on understanding the keys of the ministering of angels.
Further Reading
- Who Was the Angel Moroni?
- Why Does the Savior’s Church Matter?
- How Was the 1978 Priesthood Revelation a Process?
- What Did Spencer W. Kimball Write About in His Journal?
- What’s the Relationship Between Women and the Priesthood?
Ministry of Angels Resources
- Fragments of Revelation: Exploring the Book of Doctrine and Covenants (By Common Consent Press)
- Early Mormon Priesthood Revelations: Text, Impact, and Evolution (Dialogue)
- Commissioned of Jesus Christ”: Oliver Cowdery and D&C 13 (BYU Religious Studies Center)
- Do We Really Know What Priesthood Keys Are? Here’s a Helpful Breakdown (LDS Living)
- The Missing Rib: The Forgotten Place of Queens and Priestesses in the Establishment of Zion [PDF] (Sunstone)
- Doctrine and Covenants Contexts (Section 13, Section 84)
Sources
- Noah Webster, “Key,” Webster’s Dictionary 1828, MasonSoft Technology, http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/key.
- Revelation, 22–23 September 1832 [D&C 84], p. 1, Revelation Book 1, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- Revelation, 22–23 September 1832 [D&C 84], p. 1, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842], p. 1328, The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-c-1-2-november-1838-31-july-1842/502.
- Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, p. 38, Records of Organizations, The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/nauvoo-relief-society-minute-book/35.
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Why Priesthood at All?”, Improvement Era 34, no. 12 (October 1931), 735, https://archive.org/details/improvementera3412unse/page/n39/mode/2up.
- B. H. Roberts, “Priesthood and the Rights of Succession,” in Collected Discourses Delivered by: President Wilford Woodruff, His Two Counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, ed. by Brian H. Stuy, (Burbank: BHS Publishing, 1988), 2:368–369.
