“If what you said is the case then, well, it’s the authority of the Catholic Church against that of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.”
That is exactly the case. Either the keys of the kingdom were passed on to the current pope, or they were lost long ago and restored to Joseph Smith and handed down from there to the current President of the Church.
Only TWO choices??
What about the 'keys' being a parable?
The KNOWLEDGE of Jesus being the Messiah??
?
KJV Matthew 16:19-20
19. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
20. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
Well, it's not such an either or....there have been plenty of modern-day "prophets" who have made claims as Smith had. Some more believable than others, but all united in their contention that the Catholic Church went off the rails somewhere along the way.
And in so doing, note that they always put themselves above the authority of the Church...you can't judge the Church to be heretical, unless you yourself know what is heretical. But we maintain that you can't actually know what is heretical without the Church.
>> That is exactly the case. Either the keys of the kingdom were passed on to the current pope, or they were lost long ago and restored to Joseph Smith and handed down from there to the current President of the Church. <<
Hmm-hmmm.... And what do we have to support Smith’s claim? Purely his own testimony; he was even tested with an infinitely simple test, and came up with a silly, conveeeeeenient excuse for failing the test.