The Know

When Joseph Smith was commanded to move the Church to Kirtland, Ohio, he and the Saints were promised that the Lord would there “give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:32). Details about that law and promised blessing were soon revealed in Doctrine and Covenants 42, detailing the law of consecration that the Saints were invited to begin following.1 In short, the Saints were commanded to consecrate, or sanctify, all that the Lord has blessed and will bless them with in order to assist in building up His kingdom, thus enabling all to establish once again a pure Zion community.

When Joseph received this revelation, many in the Kirtland area had already been prepared for it. The word Zion prophetically appears in the Book of Mormon almost fifty times.2 By early 1831 Joseph Smith had also worked on his inspired translation of the Bible through the early chapters of Genesis, which spoke of a people whom the Lord named “Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). In addition, many would have also read about the early Church in Jerusalem, whose members “were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common” (Acts 4:32). Perhaps most of all, they may have been deeply inspired when they read that the righteous people in the Book of Mormon had been greatly blessed for four generations as they “had all things common among them” after the resurrected Jesus instructed and ministered among them (4 Nephi 1:3).

Previously, in 1829, Isaac Morley had started a small community called the Family on his farm just outside of Kirtland that sought to emulate this idealistic belief of early Christianity.3 When the first missionaries came to Kirtland in the winter of 1830–31, many in this community, including Isaac Morley, were well prepared and readily joined the Church.

However, there were significant problems in how certain principles had been practiced by the Family that worried Joseph. As Steven C. Harper summarized, “Their practices undermined personal agency, stewardship, and accountability,” and many members were still only interested in their own profit at the expense of others in the Family.4 Thus, John Whitmer noted that they “were going to destruction very fast as to temporal things.”5 When Joseph received section 42, it offered many needed divine corrections to how these well-intended Saints were trying to implement this exalted law.

The revelation clearly taught that the law of consecration could be practiced only when based on righteous principles and doctrines. Harper thus compared the law of consecration to “a three-legged stool,” with each leg being a foundational doctrine: agency, accountability, and stewardship.6 The law of consecration is also founded on the truth that “individual freedom and the private ownership of property . . . exist in relationship to God. Our culture ignores God’s ultimate ownership of everything, but the law of consecration is founded on that fundamental truth.”7

God will never take away anyone’s power to act for themselves, and individuals alone are accountable for what they do with the things they have been given stewardship over. Hence, the Lord declared, “Every man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward over his own property, or that which he has received by consecration, as much as is sufficient for himself and family” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:32).

Practicing this law became a primary concern for many members of the Church. The members of the Family were among the first to accept this revelation, and Joseph recorded that their errors were “readily abandoned for the more perfect law of the Lord.”8 This was especially true when Doctrine and Covenants 70 was revealed, which affirmed that “none are exempt from this law who belong to the church of the living God” (verse 10).

In the early days of the Church, members who consecrated their property would lay it “before the bishop of my church and his counselors” and actually deed it to the Church. The bishop in turn would then give the member stewardship over that property (Doctrine and Covenants 42:32). The call to consecrate properties was given, moreover, in connection with a command to “remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:30). This call was made several times in those years, especially as poor Saints moved into Kirtland and Missouri and relied on the compassion of their fellow Saints (see Doctrine and Covenants 48:2–3).

Oftentimes, property deeded to the Church did not actually exchange hands, but the act nonetheless showed the Saints’ faith and willingness to live the laws and principles of God.9 It was also left up to their discretion what or even how much they consecrated—Joseph even instructed the bishop Edward Partridge not to infringe upon any man’s agency, knowing that the Lord would judge each individual one day.10

A specific initiative to apply the law of consecration included the organization of the Literary Firm, intended to use consecrated funds to support those people who were working full-time to print Church scriptures and materials. In addition, the United Firm (occasionally known as the United Order) operated between 1832 and 1834 and consisted of eleven leaders using their consecrated properties to assist each other in managing some affairs of the Church.11 While the United Firm was dissolved with the revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 104, that was not the end of the law of consecration—simply the end of one way that the law of consecration was practiced by those particular people to accomplish a dedicated goal.12

In 1838, an additional revelation was received regarding how the Saints could live the law of consecration. In a letter to Joseph Smith, the Apostle Thomas B. Marsh optimistically reported, “The people seem to wish to have the whole law of God lived up to; and we think that the church will rejoice to come up to the law of consecration, as soon as their leaders shall say the word, or show them how to do it.”13 In response to their faithful readiness, Joseph Smith received and delivered Doctrine and Covenants 119 on July 8, 1838, which declared that the Saints now “shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever” (verse 4). As a standing law forever, Latter-day Saints pay tithing today as part of keeping the law of consecration.14

The Why

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today, members no longer deed their property to the Church and receive in return a written stewardship for their property. However, that does not mean Saints do not live the law of consecration today, as it has never been rescinded. Steven C. Harper summarized, “Some peripheral practices have been adapted, but all of the core doctrines endure. Some means have been modified. The end of eternal life remains.”15 Likewise, President Gordon B. Hinckley taught, “The law of sacrifice and the law of consecration were not done away with and are still in effect.”16

In the temple endowment, Latter-day Saints specially covenant to keep the law of consecration as it has been explained in Joseph Smith’s revelations. As such, the imperative to keep all aspects of that law is something that Latter-day Saints should strive to keep. By paying a full tithing as well as by dedicating to God’s purposes all our time, talents, and all else God has blessed us with, people find fulfillment, love, and joy, living this outward recognition that everything is ultimately God’s and that He honors people by enabling us to bless others in this world. As Harper notes, “There is nothing in the temple or the Doctrine and Covenants that discourages us from keeping the law of consecration here and now. We are not waiting for a green light from the Lord. He is waiting for us.”17 Through living the law of consecration, Latter-day Saints can take hold of the promise the Lord gave to all who follow it: “That my covenant people may be gathered in one in that day when I shall come to my temple. And this I do for the salvation of my people” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:36).

As Hugh Nibley has observed, the temple covenant made to live the law of consecration is “made by the individual to the Father in the name of the Son, a private and personal thing, a covenant with the Lord. He intends it specifically to implement a social order—to save his people as a people, to unite them and make them of one heart and one mind, independent of any power on earth.”18 Ultimately, it is up to each individual to live the law and underlying principles of consecration, and by so doing they can most effectively remember the poor, the needy, and help prepare all the world for the Second Coming of Christ, just as the Lord promised in revealing this exalted and exalting law.