Summary Of The Melchizedek Priesthood

RESTORATION OF THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD.

The Prophet Joseph, in a communication to the Church, under date of September 6, 1842 [more than 12 years after the event supposedly occurred], makes allusion to the possible appearance by Peter, James and John in the course of a review of the great things God had revealed to him. He said: "And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from Cumorah. Moroni (We covered this earlier in this report – someone has evidently inserted the name Moroni for Nephi in this revelation), an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfillment of the prophets--the book to be revealed. A voice of the Lord in the wilderness of Fayette, Seneca county, declaring the three witnesses to bear record of the book. The voice of Michael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an angel of light.

The voice of Peter, James and John in the wilderness between Harmony, Susquehanna county, and Colesville, Broome county, on the Susquehanna river, declaring themselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom, and of the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times." (Doctrine and Covenants, sec. cxxviii: 20.) Anything mentioned here about the Melchizedek Priesthood by name?

The rest of it was written in September of that year. If these revelations were indeed received in 1830 as B.H. Roberts says, they were not written until after 1833 as they didn’t appear in the 1833 Book of Commandments in a form including any mention of Peter, James, & John. These two allusions--the one by the Prophet and the other by the Lord--to the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood not only make clear the fact that the Melchizedek Priesthood was restored in accordance with the promise of John the Baptist when conferring the Aaronic Priesthood, but they make it possible to fix upon the place where, and approximately the time when, the event