Keys pertain to two aspects of temples and temple service:
(1) Keys of the kingdom: Ancient prophets restored these keys to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple (see D&C 110). Church presidents in our dispensation “have received and exercised the priesthood keys of the kingdom, including the keys which authorized them to perform in the holy temples of God the ordinances essential for the salvation of both the living and the dead. Those ordinances, which center on our Savior Jesus Christ and his divine mission, can be had in no other place.”184
(2) Certain signs: On May 1, 1842, Joseph Smith taught: “I preached in the grove on the keys of the Kingdom, Charity, &c The keys are certain signs and words by which false spirits and personages may be detected from true, which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completed. The rich can only get them in the Temple—the Poor may get them on the Mountain top as did Moses.”185