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Transcript

The decision was made the Seventies could reorganize stakes and call stake presidents. And in doing so, the stake president has to hold keys. And the whole doctrine of the keys came into focus. And each member the Twelve holds all of the keys so that if a member of the Twelve succeeds to be President of the Church, he already holds all his authority. The stake president has to have keys, keys of the presidency of the stake. Well if a member of the Twelve was there he would need to give them. What would happen if it was a Seventy? Well Seventies by delegation can do anything the Twelve tell them to do. And they can confer keys, which would be an extension of the keys of the Twelve. So now after all this time when I think of the wrestling that was done in the councils, well can we do this? Is that right, can we do that after consulting the scriptures and trying to figure out? We would do what we did in the first place, resort to prayer, and ask the Lord what to do, and He'd always tell us what was the next step. A Seventy goes out under apostolic power from the Quorum of the Twelve. And so when I receive an assignment to go to a stake to participate in a stake conference or whatever other assignments, I go with apostolic keys and authority as depending upon that assignment. And so, in a very literal sense I carry that power and authority with me. And it's a wonderful thing to go out, and do that, and to feel that, and to interact with the people, and do that work, and accomplish that. And then that authority goes back because that assignment is completed. That Brigham Young was told by Joseph Smith he was going to ordain some Seventies and he said, be sure to give them the apostolic authority. So when a Seventy is ordained, either General Authority or the Area Seventies, they have conferred upon them the apostolic authority. And they are privileges that belong to all the offices in the priesthood. A teacher can do something that the deacons can do. And a deacon can't do what the priest can do. But a priest can do everything that a teacher and deacon would do. And so it is that one with the apostolic authority can do anything. It's clear they're not Apostles, ordained as such as the office. But they have conferred upon them that authority. So we don't lack for sending somebody somewhere to do something that has to have that authority. I feel very humbled with even the thought of trying to extend the Twelve and certainly take great care to try not to teach anything that they aren't teaching. With such a worldwide organization of Seventy now, how does the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve ensure that they're trained properly, and how is it actually done? We do most of the training at general conference. Once a year they're all called in from all over the world. And we have 320 right now of the Seventies and spend a few days training them. But the question of training is interesting because generally they don't need much, a little in the procedures of the Church, some dos and don'ts. The first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, which was given as a revelation, at the time it was published it wasn't first in consecutive order. But there's a very interesting sentence in there that says that "every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world." So any worthy elder who is called and ordained an elder, holds the Melchizedek Priesthood, he holds as much priesthood as I do, as the President of the Church holds, different office but all the priesthood he needs. How do we train them?

They train themselves really. Grow up and learn how to receive revelation, how to run the Church. Incredible really. I wasn't raised in the Church, but my mother taught me to read the scriptures from a young child. So I'm grateful for her influence in my life. I think of a mission as a young man as being a very pivotal change for me. I joined the Church and a year later went to serve a mission. A mission president had a tremendous influence in my life. And I'm grateful for him and his good wife, who set a great example and taught us many things. So I think that those early beginnings are very important for any future service in the Church. The scriptures say that it will be given at the very minute, that portion which will be meted out to every man. That's very comforting. There's not much fear involved. Once you know the Lord and know the process of revelation, He never fails to tell you what to do.

President Packer Talks about Seventy (Part 2)

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President Packer and members of the Seventy speak about keys of the priesthood and delegation (part 2).
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