Additional Insights into Foundational Claims

I ran into this little article in the August, 1998 Ensign.  This adds a little more information to my Foundational Claims analysis.

Gordon B. Hinckley, “Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign, Aug 1998, 72

Following are selected excerpts from public expressions and addresses given by President Gordon B. Hinckley during recent months, printed here for the benefit of Church members.

Foundation of the Church

“As I see it, there are four great foundation stones on which this Church stands, irremovable. The first, the great First Vision, the visit of the Father and the Son to the boy Joseph Smith, the opening of the heavens in this the dispensation of the fulness of times, the great bringing together of all of the work of God in all the past dispensations throughout the history of the world. The curtain was parted with that First Vision, and it stands as an absolute fundamental in the Church and its history and its well-being.

“The second is the Book of Mormon, a new witness for Jesus Christ, a living testimony of the Redeemer of the world. Five thousand copies were printed in that first edition. This year, I think we will print and distribute about four or five million copies. It goes on and on and on. It grows and grows and grows. Its voice is translated into more and more languages. It stands as something which can be held and read and savored and prayed about and pondered over as the word of the Lord for this dispensation, by people everywhere who will listen to it, read it, pray about it.

“The third is the restoration of the priesthood. This remarkable and wonderful gift of authority in these great latter days, given under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John, and the keys of that priesthood which came from them and from other visitations, given by the Lord to His people in this dispensation. Without it, we have nothing. It is the power of governance in the Church. It is the authority to speak in the name of God. It is the greatest gift that any man can hold. It will bless his life and the life of his family and the lives of many others, if he will live it and magnify it.

“And fourth, the sealing ordinances in the house of the Lord, by which we as individuals gain our blessings and then have the privilege of extending them to others, the great work for the dead. No other church in all the world has it, and no other church pretends to have it. And great and tremendous is the mandate which is laid upon us as a people in the exercise of it” (Salt Lake Bonneville Stake conference, 23 Nov. 1997).

It appears that I need to clarify and/or add an element related to the temple and the sealing ordinances.  I believe these to be inextricably linked with the other priesthood keys, but will either clarify that point or add temple ordinances as a foundational claim.