The Broken Key

We had an interesting experience the other day as we were coming home for dinner and as we tried to gain access to our apartment, our key broke off in our lock!  It wasn't very convenient, but it helped us to create some great gospel metaphors. 

The gospel and church of Jesus Christ was set up perfectly on the Earth by Christ Himself. He left the authority, or priesthood, necessary to receive revelation from God to the world and to keep the church on the right path back to our Heavenly Father. When Christ left the Earth the apostles spread the gospel, but were very persecuted and many were killed and run off. When the apostles died, this authority was lost. We call this apostasy. Like the breaking of the key in the lock kept us from gaining access to our apartment, the world lost the direct revelation from God that led the world and kept the church pure and gave us the opportunity to receive all the blessings of heaven. The priesthood is "the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 16:19). It was not the most convenient thing to happen, but because it did, it spurred some other events. For us it was going to the housing service office and letting them know we needed a new key. They were happy to get us a new one, but it took a little time to prepare the new key-they had to have it made for us. This is like the time that the world needed in preparation for the gospel to be restored. Through the prophet Joseph Smith the keys of the kingdom were restored and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was brought back to the earth! The key to our apartment, while a new key, was the SAME KEY that gives us the same access. This is like how The Restoration gave us back that authority, shiny and new, and yet THE SAME as Christ taught and set up while he was here. The gospel is the SAME on the earth today as it was then, and yet new and strong and unbroken! Neither our apartment key or the gospel could simply be taped back together, but they both had to be restored.


I know that the the fullness of Christ's gospel is contained in the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have come to know for myself through prayer and reading from the scriptures, both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, that these things are true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have a prophet today on the Earth, once again leading Christ's church.