As you're speeding down the freeway, all of the sudden you see an ice cream truck pull up next to you with his music BLASTING like crazy!!! He's signaling for you to stop and pull over, so you do, thinking he might be giving you some free ice cream! Instead...
he gives you a speeding ticket! Now would you honestly be inclined to pay that speeding ticket if an ice cream man gave it to you?
Now imagine you're blazing down the freeway in that sweet supercar of yours, and then you hear sirens and notice that red and blue lights going off. Yep, the coppers got you... :(
You would DEFINETLY feel more inclined to pay that ticket, wouldn't you? That's because that cop has the authority from the state to issue speeding tickets.
How does this analogy apply to the Gospel?
Just as the state gives authority to police officers to issue tickets and so forth, the Lord gives His priesthood authority, or the permission to act in His name, to worthy men here on Earth.
So how does one obtain the priesthood? The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, teaches us that:
"And no man taketh this honour (the priesthood) unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. (Hebrews 5:4)"
So how did Aaron receive the priesthood?
By revelation and by the laying on of hands (see Exodus 28:1 and Articles of Faith 1:5).
Aaron didn't receive his authority by paying to go to school to receive a degree (like Simon the magician attempted to do [see Acts 8:18-20]) . The twelve disciples whom Christ gave the priesthood to did not receive their authority by simply feeling inspired to go and do something (Christ taught them "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you..." John 15:16). They received the priesthood through Jesus Christ, who held the authority, by the laying on of hands.
Why is authority important? Even though the ice cream driver was trying to do what was right and keep the road safe, and though his intentions were perfectly good, he did not do it under the direction of the state. When Jesus Christ was baptized, he went "from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him (Matthew 3:13)." Christ came from Galilee to "Bethabara beyond Jordan (John 1:28)", which is about 50 miles, to be baptized by John the Baptist because he held the authority to baptize.
That authority was lost when Christ's church fell away into apostasy, but that same authority to baptize which John the Baptist held has been restored to the Earth! In May of 1829 John the Baptist himself appeared to the prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry and ordained to them "the Priesthood of Aaron (see Joseph Smith History 1:68-72)."
What our bold claim is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only church on the Earth which holds the priesthood authority to perform saving ordinances such as baptism and the sealing of families for time and all eternity. If this is true (which I know it is), this message is the MOST important message the world has ever held! You can know for yourself and allow the missionaries to teach you wherever you are. I promise it won't hurt.
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