Caesarea Philippi (where Peter was promised the keys) sits at the base of Mount Hermon, which is one of the reasons that I’m inclined to accept it as the Mount of Transfiguration.
(Click to enlarge.)
(Click to enlarge.)
Compare Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; 9:37; John 12:28-30
In Matthew 16, Jesus promised to give Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew 17, Peter, James, and John — acting as the First Presidency of the Church — received them.
As the Church’s New Testament manual for college-age students explains, “These keys include the power to administer the ordinances of salvation in a manner acceptable to God and the power to administer the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. An event similar to this one in Matthew occurred in our day when the Prophet Joseph Smith received the keys of the kingdom for this dispensation in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 [see Doctrine and Covenants 110]. Since then the keys have been given by ordination to every Church President.”
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