The Prophet's conceptualization of an authoritarian priesthood also had its roots in the Old Testament. Although the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods were restored by New Testament figures, the fulness of the authority, power, and doctrines of these priesthoods was revealed in the Kirtland temple in March 1836 by Moses, Elias, and Elijah. Elijah brought the all-important sealing powers, which meant that whatever the Prophet bound or loosed on earth would be bound or loosed in heaven. What was not done by this authority was not of eternal duration. Section 132 teaches that one of the ultimate purposes of the sealing power is to bind husbands, wives, and children together for eternity. Significantly, this idea was presaged in Kirtland.

As early as April 1830 Joseph Smith refused to accept baptisms performed in other churches on the basis of a revelation that declared "all old covenants ... to be done away." They were "dead works."33 The plural "covenants" suggests that more than baptism was involved. In Kirtland the Prophet's extension of the necessity for priesthood authority in other important social realms was consistent with this revelation. For example, in Ohio he anticipated and began to give substance to a theocratical kingdom of God which was based on legitimate authority. To Smith the power of God's agents transcended what he considered the usurped civil authority of the day.