The statement that the keys of the kingdom have been committed unto man indicate that the Lord is taking a kind of hands-off approach. He will allow men to manage the kingdom on His behalf. He can and will revoke those keys from individuals when necessary if they abuse their position or title but He will also allow men to continue to function with His keys when they make honest mistakes while truly striving to do His will in His work.
The prophecies that:
- the kingdom of God like a stone cut out of a mountain would fill the earth;
- the name of Joseph Smith would be known throughout the world; and
- the Church would fill the Americas and fill the world
might have seemed laughable 170 years ago. The little band of believers, eking out a living on the American frontier and moving to escape persecution didn’t look like the foundation of a faith that would cross international borders and penetrate hearts everywhere.
These prophecies about filling the world and being known world over: Preposterous? Perhaps. Unlikely? Undoubtedly. Impossible? Emphatically no. It is happening before our eyes.
President Gordon B. Hinckley observed:
“It was said that at one time the sun never set on the British Empire. That empire has now been diminished. But it is true that the sun never sets on this work of the Lord as it is touching the lives of people across the earth.
“And this is only the beginning. We have scarcely scratched the surface. … Our work knows no boundaries. … Those nations now closed to us will someday be open.”
Our most important message, which we are both divinely commissioned and commanded to take everywhere in the world, is that there is a Savior. He lived in the meridian of time. He atoned for our sins, was crucified, and was resurrected. That matchless message, which we proclaim with authority from God, is the real reason this Church grows as it does.
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