Authority

The question of authority is ultimately the question asked of the Savior: By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things? (Mark 11:28).

Divine authority cannot be established merely by office, tradition, institutional succession, sincerity, or human recognition. It must come from God. To understand who may act in His name, we must therefore understand how He gives authority, how He defines its bounds, how revelation relates to stewardship, and how different works may be authorized by the same Lord.

The Source and Order of Authority

All Authority Belongs to God

God alone possesses authority inherently. He is the source of law, truth, priesthood, power, salvation, and exaltation. No person, office, church, title, ordinance, or institution possesses divine authority independently of Him. Whatever authority mortals exercise is delegated authority and remains subject to the God who gave it.

Jesus Christ administers the work of the Father. He calls, appoints, commands, reveals, and governs according to the will of God. When He delegates authority, He does not surrender His own. Those who receive it become stewards of something that still belongs to Him.

For this reason, no human act can compel God to recognize what He has not authorized. An ordinance does not bind Him merely because someone performed it, and an institution does not acquire divine jurisdiction merely by declaring that it possesses it. God determines what authority exists and where it may be exercised.

Authority is God's to give, define, limit, enlarge, withdraw, and restore.

Stewardship Establishes Authority

God grants authority by giving stewardship.

A stewardship is a responsibility the Lord assigns to a person or body: a work, a people, an ordinance, a ministry, or another duty to be administered in His name. Because the Lord requires the work, He gives the authority necessary to perform it.

Authority is therefore not an independent possession that can be collected and used wherever a person chooses. It is the right and responsibility to fulfill an assignment God has actually given. With that assignment comes accountability to Him.

Only the Lord can establish a divine stewardship. A person cannot appoint himself to one, and a church cannot create a divine mission merely by organizing itself. Human leaders may appoint responsibilities within a stewardship already entrusted to them, but they cannot create divine jurisdiction beyond what God has given.

The order is:

God gives the work → the work establishes stewardship → stewardship carries authority.

Revelation Follows Stewardship

The right to receive governing revelation follows the stewardship God has given.

When the Lord assigns responsibility for a work, He also provides revelation necessary to administer it. A prophet may receive governing revelation for the people and work committed to him. A church may receive revelation concerning the stewardship entrusted to that church. Individuals may receive revelation concerning their own lives, covenants, repentance, duties, testimony, and relationship with God.

But receiving revelation is not the same as receiving jurisdiction.

God may speak to anyone. He may teach, warn, correct, comfort, or reveal truth to whomever He chooses. Yet a person cannot use personal revelation to claim authority over a stewardship the Lord never gave him. Governing revelation does not precede stewardship and create it; it follows stewardship and operates within it.

No one has the right to receive governing revelation for a stewardship the Lord has not given.

Authority Has Boundaries

Because authority follows stewardship, every delegated authority has defined bounds.

A person may possess genuine authority in one work without possessing authority over every work God performs. A prophet may truly speak for God within his assigned stewardship without thereby receiving jurisdiction over every other servant or people the Lord may appoint. Likewise, a church may possess genuine priesthood keys without possessing every priesthood stewardship Christ may ever establish.

Institutional age, size, prestige, or prior authority does not enlarge jurisdiction beyond the boundaries God has set. Neither personal revelation nor institutional declaration can lawfully seize another stewardship.

Presiding over a divine stewardship is not the same as possessing universal authority over everything God does.

Universal authority remains with Jesus Christ.

The Lord's Continuing Work

God May Establish More Than One Stewardship

Scripture repeatedly shows the Lord giving different servants distinct responsibilities at the same time.

Jeremiah ministered as a prophet in Jerusalem while Lehi was also called by the Lord and commanded to depart with his family. Their callings were not mutually exclusive; they were different assignments from the same God (Jeremiah 1:4–10; 1 Nephi 1:18–20; 2:1–4).

Christ likewise declared that He had other sheep who were not of the fold then before Him (John 10:16; 3 Nephi 15:21). When His disciples tried to forbid a man who was doing works in His name because he followeth not us, the Savior answered, Forbid him not (Mark 9:38–40).

These patterns do not prove every independent claim of authority to be true. They establish something narrower and more important: the existence of one authorized servant or body does not prevent the Lord from establishing another stewardship.

Each claim must still answer the same question: Did God give the work?

The Work Remains the Lord's

Delegated authority never places the servant above the Master.

Priesthood holders act in Christ's name; they do not become the source of priesthood. Prophets administer revelation; they do not become the source of truth. Churches administer divine stewardships; they do not become owners of God's work.

The Lord remains free to reveal, call, command, enlarge, restrict, reorganize, or commence another work according to His wisdom. Authority previously delegated to mortals cannot be used to limit the One who delegated it.

Scripture declares that God is able to perform His own work (2 Nephi 27:20). His work belongs to Him before He entrusts any portion of it to mortals, remains His while they administer it, and remains His when a particular mortal stewardship changes or ends.

God Is the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever (Hebrews 13:8). The Book of Mormon likewise teaches that God is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity (Mormon 9:9).

This does not mean He gives identical instructions to every servant in every age. It means His nature, character, power, wisdom, and divine prerogatives do not change. He remains the God who calls prophets, reveals truth, delegates priesthood, performs miracles, establishes covenants, and begins works according to His purposes.

Additional revelation does not make God change. Different instructions for different stewardships do not make Him inconsistent. They reflect different responsibilities, people, seasons, and purposes.

Therefore, the restoration of one work does not establish that God can never reveal more or authorize another. Any claim that Christ has permanently surrendered that right must itself rest upon revelation from Him.

Authority May Be Given, Restricted, Withheld, or Restored

Because authority belongs to God, He governs its mortal administration according to His purposes and the condition of His people.

He may enlarge a stewardship when His people are prepared, restrict one when circumstances change, withhold a higher order for a season, or restore a responsibility when He determines the time has come. Scripture repeatedly shows the Lord adjusting what His people are permitted or prepared to receive.

The early Saints, for example, were told that Zion could not yet be redeemed because they had not learned the obedience and unity required of them (Doctrine and Covenants 105:1–10). The delay did not abolish Zion. It showed that the Lord controls the timing and administration of His work.

A stewardship being withheld is therefore not the same as the underlying divine power ceasing to exist. A work being delayed does not mean it can never return.

Divine authority is constant in its source while its mortal administration remains subject to God.

The Higher Order May Be Withheld

A law or priesthood order being withdrawn from mortal administration does not mean that the law has ceased to exist, that its priesthood power has been destroyed, or that Christ has surrendered His authority over it. The authority always remains with Him. What changes is the stewardship through which He permits that authority to be exercised.

This principle is important in understanding the higher order of celestial marriage. The Lord restored the New and Everlasting Covenant through Joseph Smith, including the sealing power and the higher family order associated with it. When the Saints proved unable to continue that order, the Lord did not abolish the eternal law. He restricted its mortal administration.

The work that remained within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continued according to the stewardship the Lord gave that Church. Families continued to be sealed, husbands and wives continued to enter eternal marriage, and the great work for the dead continued. But the fuller order of plural celestial marriage was withheld.

The Lord has revealed concerning that period that He caused the sealing together of families and the work for the dead to become the principal sealing work of that Church while the higher family order was sealed away until a people could be prepared who would receive His law.

This distinction is essential. The Lord did not lose the sealing power. Neither did celestial marriage cease to exist because one portion of its mortal administration was withheld. Jesus Christ remained the holder of the keys and the governor of the law. He determined what portion of the sealing order would be administered, through whom it would be administered, and when the fuller order would again come forth.

Therefore, when Christ established the Kingdom of Zion and gave the sealing keys necessary for its work, He did not create a new priesthood unrelated to that restored through Joseph Smith. He opened again a stewardship that had been withheld and gave the authority necessary to administer the higher covenant order He had now commanded.

The power remained His throughout. The stewardship changed according to His time, His people, and His purposes.

Authority, Covenants, and Ordinances

Human Authority Does Not Supersede God's Covenants

God establishes His covenants and determines their conditions. Authorized servants may administer them, but they do not own them.

A church may determine membership and standing within its own organization, regulate participation in its ordinances, and maintain its own records and discipline. Those administrative acts belong to institutional stewardship. They are not, by themselves, identical to God declaring that a faithfully kept covenant has ceased to exist.

Covenant standing ultimately depends upon the covenant God established and the individual's faithfulness to it. Human authority remains subordinate to the God whose covenant it administers.

No delegated authority can rightly command a person to violate what God has required or redefine a covenant contrary to the One who established it.

Righteousness Governs the Exercise of Authority

Divine authority cannot be separated from the principles upon which the powers of heaven operate.

The Lord declared that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven and that those powers cannot be controlled or handled except upon principles of righteousness (Doctrine and Covenants 121:36). He further warned that when men attempt to exercise control, dominion, or compulsion unrighteously, the heavens withdraw themselves (Doctrine and Covenants 121:37).

Office and divine power are therefore not identical. A person may retain a title while exercising that office contrary to the principles of God.

Submission to legitimate divine authority is part of God's order, but submission to God is not unconditional compliance with every demand made by a human officeholder. Delegated authority cannot make unrighteous dominion righteous, command what God has forbidden, or forbid what God has commanded.

Ordinances Require Authorized Stewardship

Ordinances belong to God. He determines their meaning, form, conditions, and administration.

Authorized administration matters because an ordinance performed in God's name is a representative act. The administrator must therefore possess stewardship to perform it. Sincere desire alone does not create authority to act representatively for God.

The heart also matters. Outward form without willing covenant faithfulness does not accomplish the inward alignment God requires.

Divine order therefore preserves both elements: the ordinance is administered through the stewardship God has established, and the person receiving it enters the covenant sincerely before Him.

Everyone May Hear God, but Not Everyone Governs for God

No mortal institution owns access to God.

Every person may call upon Him, seek the witness of the Holy Ghost, and receive personal instruction, correction, comfort, warning, or testimony. God does not need an institution's permission to speak to one of His children.

Yet direct revelation is not automatically ecclesiastical authority. Knowing truth is different from being commissioned to govern, and receiving divine instruction is different from receiving jurisdiction over others.

Governing authority requires an actual stewardship from the Lord.

Prophetic Discipleship Does Not Create Governing Jurisdiction

The Lord desires mature disciples to become prophetic in the scriptural sense. They are to learn to hear God, receive revelation, testify of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost, recognize His correction and direction, and walk under His personal guidance. Revelation is not meant to remain something His people read about only in the lives of ancient prophets. His covenant people are to become a people who live by revelation.

This does not mean that every person who receives prophecy or revelation becomes a governing prophet over others. A prophet or prophetess of Christ is not thereby given jurisdiction over another person, household, Church, or stewardship. Knowing the Lord's will and possessing authority to govern in His name are different things. Governing authority follows the stewardship God actually gives.

A mature disciple may therefore receive true revelation, prophecy, dreams, visions, warning, instruction, or testimony from Christ while remaining entirely within his or her own stewardship. Spiritual gifts do not create jurisdiction. Christ may speak to anyone He chooses, but only He can appoint the responsibility by which one person is authorized to govern another.

Discerning Claims of Divine Authority

Scriptural Tests of Authority

Because divine authority cannot simply be assumed, claims made in God's name must be discerned.

Scripture gives several tests.

1. Divine calling and revelation. God calls His servants. Scripture records Him making Himself known through His voice, visions, dreams, manifestations, and the Holy Ghost (Numbers 12:6–8; Jeremiah 1:5–9).
2. Fidelity to God. Moses warned that even a sign coming to pass does not validate one who leads people away from the Lord (Deuteronomy 13:1–4). True authority does not turn people away from Christ, His law, or His covenants.
3. Fulfillment. When someone specifically claims that the Lord has declared a future event, the claimed word is accountable to fulfillment (Deuteronomy 18:21–22).
4. Fruits. Christ taught, By their fruits ye shall know them (Matthew 7:20). Divine ministry should produce fruits consistent with Christ: repentance, righteousness, humility, charity, obedience, holiness, truth, and greater devotion to God.
5. The witness of the Holy Ghost. Spiritual truth is ultimately discerned through the Spirit of God. The Spirit does not lead sincere seekers away from Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:3).
6. Edification. What is received through the Spirit brings truth, understanding, and edification rather than spiritual confusion and darkness (Doctrine and Covenants 50:17–24).
7. Signs. Signs may follow those who believe and may stand as witnesses of God's power, but they do not replace righteousness, truth, or divine calling as the foundation of authority (Mark 16:17–18).

These tests work together. No single outward claim should replace the whole scriptural pattern.

Good Works Do Not Create Stewardship

Good fruit is relevant evidence, but good works and governing authority are not identical.

A person may do genuine good, teach truth, or bring others closer to Christ without possessing every priesthood key or jurisdiction. Likewise, an institutional office does not by itself prove that the powers of heaven accompany everything done by the officeholder.

Authority requires more than either good intentions or institutional standing. It requires divine appointment, an actual stewardship, proper jurisdiction, fidelity to Christ, righteous exercise, and the confirming witness of God.

Institutional Exclusivity Cannot Prove Itself

A church cannot establish universal jurisdiction merely by declaring that no divine authority can exist outside itself. Such reasoning assumes the very point that must first be established: whether God actually gave that institution authority over every work He may perform.

This matters when the Lord calls a church His only true and living church (Doctrine and Covenants 1:30). The declaration should be received as given. It establishes that the Lord recognized and authorized that Church in the work He had restored.

But the declaration should not be expanded beyond its words to mean that Christ can never afterward establish another distinct stewardship unless the Lord Himself has revealed that limitation.

An outside claim should therefore be neither accepted merely because someone invokes revelation nor rejected merely because it stands outside an established institution. The governing question remains whether the Lord actually established the stewardship.

The Two Latter-Day Church Stewardships

The doctrine of stewardship explains the relationship between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Church of Jesus Christ of the Kingdom of Zion. Both belong to Jesus Christ. Both derive their authority from Him. Neither receives its authority from the other.

Their distinction is found in the work the Lord has assigned to each.

The Restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Jesus Christ restored His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith and restored the priesthood authority and keys necessary to administer its latter-day work.

That authority was genuine. The ordinances restored through Joseph Smith were genuine. The prophets and apostles called within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received a real stewardship from the Lord to administer the work He committed to that Church.

For almost two hundred years, Christ's Latter-day Saints Church stood as the sole institutional church holding those restored priesthood keys. The establishment of another stewardship does not make that Restoration false or diminish the authority Christ gave to His Latter-day Saints Church.

The authority always belonged to Christ. The Restoration placed that authority into the stewardship He established for the work then before Him.

The Restoration Remains Sacred

The establishment of another stewardship by Jesus Christ does not diminish the truth, ordinances, revelation, priesthood authority, or righteous work through which He established the earlier Restoration. Greater light does not make earlier truth false. A disciple who is called into greater covenant responsibility should therefore not despise the path through which Christ prepared him.

Truth previously received remains truth. Saving ordinances remain sacred. Faithful teachers and servants through whom Christ blessed His people remain worthy of gratitude. The prophets and apostles who preside over The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continue to hold a genuine stewardship within the work Christ has given them. They continue to proclaim Jesus Christ, teach repentance, administer saving ordinances, minister to the living and the dead, warn the nations, and guide the people committed to their care.

Those whom Christ prepared through that Church should therefore retain the gospel of Jesus Christ, the saving ordinances, the teachings of faith and repentance, the discipline of covenant keeping and service, and every truth the Lord gave them there. Advancement into another stewardship is not proven by scorning the foundation upon which the Lord built.

The words of the prophets and apostles within that stewardship should be treated with respect and received wherever they teach truth. Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church is not strengthened by belittling Christ's Latter-day Saints Church, denying its genuine Restoration, or treating its work as though Christ had never established it.

Both stewardships belong to Jesus Christ. Each remains responsible for the work He has given it. To advance when Christ calls is not to forget the foundation. It is to remain grateful for what He gave before while faithfully receiving what He now requires.

Why Jesus Christ Has Established Two Churches

The existence of two Churches is not merely an administrative arrangement. It belongs to the fulfillment of a latter-day work the Lord declared long ago.

The scriptures describe an appointed order in the last days. The gospel would first go forth among the Gentiles, and after the fulfillment of that work the Lord would turn again to Israel, remember His covenant, gather His elect, and bring forth Zion (Luke 21:24; Romans 11:25–27; 3 Nephi 16:4–15; 20:27–29; 21:1–29).

These prophecies do not themselves name the two modern Churches. They establish the larger sequence of the Lord's latter-day work: first the work among the Gentiles, then the turning of the work toward Israel, the gathering of His elect, and the establishment of Zion.

Christ's Latter-day Saints Church was restored within the first of these great latter-day works. It was sent broadly among the nations with the gospel of salvation.

The Lord has now declared the commencement of the next work:

For the time of the Gentiles hath ended, and I, the Lord God, hath declared it, and the commencement of the work of the Jews is at hand. For I shall gather Mine elect, and they shall be gathered together in one body. For I will have a covenant people upon the earth. (Section 36)

The Lord has established The Church of Jesus Christ of the Kingdom of Zion in connection with this work.

This does not mean that one Church became false so another could become true. The Lord did not establish two Churches to compete for the same people or administer the same mission. He has given them distinct stewardships within the latter-day work He foretold.

Christ's Latter-day Saints Church was commissioned broadly among the Gentile nations with the gospel of salvation. Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church has been established with the commencement of the work of the Jews to teach the gospel of exaltation to those whom the Lord personally calls and brings into that work.

The reason for two Churches is therefore more than different administration. They belong to distinct portions of the latter-day work the Lord said He would perform.

A Hinge Point in the Latter-Day Work

The latter-day work does not remain forever in one stage. The Lord moves His people forward as the purposes of one season prepare the way for the purposes of the next. President Russell M. Nelson described this period as a hinge point in the history of the Church. A hinge point marks a transition where what has already been built becomes the support for what comes next.

This is an important pattern in the Lord's dealings with His people. He teaches one law before another, establishes one covenant before requiring the next, gives milk before meat, and proves His people in lesser things before entrusting them with greater things. The existence of a next step does not condemn the step that came before it. The earlier work was necessary because it prepared the people to move forward.

For generations, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taught the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Gentile nations, restored the saving ordinances, built temples, taught covenant obedience, proclaimed continuing revelation, and prepared a people to expect that Jesus Christ still speaks. That work established the foundation.

The prophetic chronology by which the Gentile stewardship reaches its appointed end and the work of the Jews commences is established in The Time of the Jews. The authority principle here is narrower: one stage of Christ's work may prepare the way for another without making the earlier stewardship false or stripping it of the authority Christ gave it.

A People Prepared to Hear Christ

The higher law cannot be established among a people who know only how to receive direction from other mortals. They must learn to hear Jesus Christ. For years the Saints were repeatedly taught the necessity of personal revelation, preparing them to understand a principle essential to the work of Zion: disciples must learn to receive revelation from God for themselves.

This does not remove prophets, priesthood keys, ordinances, doctrine, or governing stewardship. The Kingdom of Zion is governed through the Prophet whom Christ has appointed, and governing revelation for the Kingdom belongs to that stewardship. At the same time, Christ prepares the people who enter the Kingdom individually by teaching, calling, correcting, giving witnesses, and requiring them to act upon revelation.

The Lord has declared concerning those who come to Zion that they have been called by His hand and prepared by Him. The increasing emphasis upon personal revelation was therefore necessary preparation for a people who could recognize His present work. The fuller doctrine of the personal discipleship required of those entering Zion is established in The Path to the Kingdom of Zion; here the governing point is that Christ prepares the people while the Prophet governs the stewardship.

The Work of the Gentiles and the Gospel of Salvation

The principal latter-day mission entrusted to Christ's Latter-day Saints Church belongs to the time of the Gentiles and the proclamation of the gospel of salvation.

Its broad missionary commission reflects that stewardship. Its servants are sent among the nations to teach faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, obedience, and the ordinances and covenants pertaining to salvation. Its work also includes ministry for the dead.

This work is outward-facing by design. Christ's Latter-day Saints Church is sent into the world to preach the gospel and invite the Gentile nations to come unto Christ.

Revelation governing that work belongs to the leaders Christ has appointed over that stewardship. No person outside it has the right to seize the government of Christ's Latter-day Saints Church or claim governing revelation for the work the Lord committed to it.

Its authority is real, but its stewardship does not become universal merely because it was once the sole institutional holder of restored priesthood keys. Authority remains bounded by the work Christ gave.

The Work of the Jews and the Gospel of Exaltation

The Lord has established Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church in connection with the commencement of the work of the Jews, the gathering of His elect, and the latter-day work of Zion.

Its authority does not rest upon separation from another institution, personal preference, or an assumption that previous priesthood office creates unlimited jurisdiction. It rests upon the claim that Jesus Christ Himself established the work, gave commandments concerning it, appointed its stewardship, and bestowed the priesthood authority and keys necessary to administer it.

The principal teaching mission of Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church is the gospel of exaltation.

Its commission differs from the broad missionary work given to Christ's Latter-day Saints Church. Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church does not go throughout the world seeking converts or gathering a people by its own effort. The Lord gathers His own elect. He prepares them, calls them, and brings them to the Church.

The Lord declared:

Ye shall receive, according to My word, a people who hath been called by My hand. They shall be a delightsome people who hath been prepared by Me. (Section 36)

Only after the Lord has personally called a person into this work does Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church begin teaching that person the doctrine entrusted to its stewardship concerning exaltation, celestial law, Zion, covenant order, and the commandments revealed for this work.

The Lord therefore performs the gathering. The Church receives and teaches those whom He sends.

This establishes a clear boundary between the two missions: Christ's Latter-day Saints Church is sent among the Gentile nations to teach the gospel of salvation; Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church teaches the gospel of exaltation to those whom the Lord personally calls and brings into the work of Zion.

The Same Priesthood for Different Works

The priesthood authority associated with these two stewardships comes from the same source.

The priesthood keys restored through Joseph Smith came from Jesus Christ. The priesthood keys given to administer the work entrusted to Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church likewise come from Jesus Christ.

They are not rival priesthoods. Priesthood does not derive its identity from the institution administering it. It derives from the Lord who gives it.

What differs is jurisdiction.

The keys given to administer the work of the Gentiles govern the stewardship Christ assigned to His Latter-day Saints Church. Those same priesthood powers and keys, when given for the work of the Jews, govern the distinct stewardship Christ assigned to His Kingdom of Zion Church.

The priesthood is the same because the Giver is the same; the jurisdiction differs because the stewardships differ.

This is why the existence of priesthood authority in one Church does not prevent Christ from giving priesthood authority for another work. The keys belong to Him. He determines the work for which they are exercised.

Revelation Within the Two Stewardships

Because revelation follows stewardship, each Church receives governing revelation for the work Christ has assigned to it.

The leaders of Christ's Latter-day Saints Church receive revelation for the stewardship committed to that Church. The leaders of Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church receive revelation for the stewardship committed to this Church.

A true revelation given for one work does not automatically become governing revelation for the other. Different instructions may both come from God when they address different responsibilities.

This does not create disorder. It preserves it.

Neither Church may lawfully seize the stewardship of the other. Christ alone stands above both. He determines the boundaries of each work, gives the revelation necessary for each, and remains the final authority over both.

Revelation follows stewardship because stewardship establishes the right to govern.

The Temple and the New Jerusalem

Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church is established. The Temple and the New Jerusalem belong to a future stage of the work that awaits the Lord's appointed place and command.

The Lord has declared that His covenant people will build the New Jerusalem in His name and that He will rule from it (Section 36). When He reveals where the city is to be established and commands the work to begin, the first work will be the building of His Temple. The Temple will stand as the center point and foundation of the New Jerusalem.

The Church does not assume authority to begin that work before the Lord gives the commandment.

This demonstrates the law of stewardship in practice. Knowing that a future work has been promised is not the same as possessing present jurisdiction to perform it. Authority follows the stewardship the Lord has actually opened.

By What Authority Do Ye These Things?

The question remains the same one asked in every age: By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things? (Mark 11:28).

The answer for Christ's Kingdom of Zion Church is not self-appointment, institutional ambition, personal sincerity, or borrowed jurisdiction from another Church.

Jesus Christ established the work, defined its stewardship, and gave the priesthood authority and keys necessary to administer what He has commanded. Revelation follows that stewardship, and the authority extends only as far as He has authorized it.

The same principle honors the authority He restored to Christ's Latter-day Saints Church. Its priesthood and stewardship remain genuine within the work Christ committed to it.

Neither Church derives its authority from the other. Both derive it from Jesus Christ, and both remain accountable to Him.

Authority belongs to God. Stewardship comes from God. Revelation follows stewardship. Jesus Christ remains the Lord over every work done in His name.