theology restoration a summary from the journal of a book of mormon student the laws o the restoration are the laws governing the restoring to the earth of the different keys of the holy priesthood during the dispensation of god to man in the past certain keys and trusts were held by men and if they became faithful custodians of the same they are still in their possession unless they were favored to restore them in the following dispensation of the gospel god bestows his power and authority upon his prophets making known unto them through revelation his holy will and they in turn give this unto his people they are given the authority to perform certain ordinances and he respects this authority we have numerous examples of this when cornelius a devout man but a gentile prayed to god to know what to do to be saved instead of god's telling him he sent him to peter one of the apostles who lived in a neighboring city to be instructed and taught concerning his will when saul afterwards called paul the great persecutor of god's people while journeying towards damascus was stricken blind by god he cried out to know what to do to be saved god did not tell him but commanded him to seek out ananias a devout man who would tell him what to do two striking incidents in the life of christ are those of his baptism and resurrection christ went to john to be baptised although john need of baptism of christ nevertheless baptise and christ respected his authority tion instead of christ's appearing to pilate them of their wickedness showing them that ruler of this world he went to manded them to go into all the declared that he had r john held the authorit at the time of the resu and the jews and taunting then they had killed the son of god his apostles and blessed them world and preach the gospel to th these laws were observed not only in older but also in modern times in the very first vision joseph smith received he beheld two per sonages one of whom said this is my beloved son hear ye him here again god respects the authority he had placed upon his son christ came to earth a redeemer of mankind and as such was respected by his father it was the mission of motoni to see to the restoration of the plates and to prepare joseph smith for the reception of them he did not speak of any doctrine or priesthood for that was the mission of others and he respected it one would naturally suppose that mormon would be the one to do this as the book is named after him and most of the abridgement was written by him but moroni was the last one to hold the records and they were given into his hands for safe keeping when the temple was finished elijah appeared to joseph smith and oliver cowdery and gave them the keys of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children unto the fathers this gave us the authority to do work for the dead whereby we become saviors upon mount zion performing a vicarious work on earth for people that have died without the knowledge of the gospel thus obtaining for them the blessings that they cannot otherwise enjoy for god has said , ' ' whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven and what is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven there is very little in the bible relating to baptism for the dead paul briefly refers to it in 1 cor 15 chapter 12 verse why are ye baptised for the dead if the dead rise not at all this is brief but it is as good as if he had written a whole book on the subject for it shows thatthe principle of baptism for the dead was so universally accepted in that day that he used this to prove the resurrection a subject tegatding which there is evidently some disputation in other words — baptism for the dead seems to have been more universally believed and accepted than the resurrection itself the law of restoration was fulfilled again by moses who held the keys of the gathering when he was sent to bestow them upon joseph smith