In response to the criticism that
JOSEPH SMITH HAD A REVELATION IN
1834, THAT THE UNITED ORDER WOULD BE AN EVERLASTING INSTITUTION IN THE CHURCH
(DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 104:1, 32, 69-70 AND 82:18-21)
Thomas S. Medford wrote that
“one of the Lord’s celestial laws is the law of consecration.
Early in this last dispensation, the Lord revealed this law and also a system
called the ‘united order’ for applying the financial aspects of the law. From
February 1831 (see Doctrine and Covenants 105:42), when the united order was
first introduced, until June 1834 (see Doctrines and Covenants 105:34) when the
Saints were told that this law was to be fulfilled after the redemption of
Zion, some unsuccessful attempts were made to establish the united order (The
following are the historical highlights :)
|
February
1831 |
Doctrine
and Covenants 42 |
Lord’s law
revealed—the basic charter of the law of consecration administered under the
united order. |
|
May 1831 |
Doctrine
and Covenants 51 |
Edward Partridge
called as bishop to ‘appoint unto this people their portions’ (Doctrine and
Covenants 51:3) |
|
March 1832 |
Doctrine
and Covenants 78 |
Saints
instructed to organize for ‘regulating and establishing the affairs of the
storehouse for the poor of my people, both in this place (Kirtland) and in
the land of Zion’ (Doctrine and Covenants 78:3) Additional instructions about
the law of consecration given. |
|
April 1832 |
Doctrine
and Covenants 82 |
Certain
brethren specified to be ‘ . . . bound together by a bond and covenant . . .
to manage the affairs of the poor . . . both in the land of Shinehah
(Kirtland)’ (Doctrine and Covenants 82:11-12) Responsibility of those unto
whom much is given, the sacredness of covenants, and the principle of
equality emphasized. |
|
April 1832 |
Doctrine
and Covenants 83 |
The Lord clarifies
the place of children, widows, and orphans in the united order. |
|
November
1832 |
Doctrine
and Covenants 85 |
A careful
report to be kept ‘of all those who consecrate properties, and receive
inheritances’ (Doctrine and Covenants 85:1) |
“In the
latter part of 1832 and the early part of 1833, several letters were sent by
the Prophet Joseph to the brethren in Zion clarifying some of the principles
and practices relating to the united order.
|
March 1833 |
Doctrine
and Covenants 92 |
Frederick
G. Williams to be included as ‘a lively member’ in the united order (Doctrine
and Covenants 92:2) |
“In the
summer and fall of 1833 serious conflicts with the enemies of the Church in
Missouri and the ‘jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, and
lustful and covetous desires’ (Doctrines and Covenants 101:6) among the Saints
resulted in their failure to live the law of consecration in November, 1833,
the Saints were driven from Jackson County.
|
April 1834 |
Doctrine
and Covenants 104 |
Instructions
concerning those who had broken the covenants of the order. Basic principle
of stewardship repeated. Individual stewardships identified. United order in
Kirtland to be separate from united order in Zion.” |
“The Zion’s
Camp experience of May and June, 1832, did not result in returning the Saints
to their lands in Zion. The Camp was disbanded by revelation (see Doctrines and
Covenants 105) in the latter part of June 1834. IN the same revelation the Lord
said: ‘And let those commandments which I have given concerning Zion and her
law be executed and fulfilled, after her redemption’. (Doctrine and Covenants
105:34)” (Doctrine and Covenants-Gospel doctrine teacher’s supplement, The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1978, pp.
163-164)
Concerning the withdrawal of the requirement to live in the united
order, President J. Reuben Clark said:
“It was under these circumstances, with the Saints scattered and
sometimes hunted like wild animals, with their property gone, their
organization largely broken up, wounded in mind and spirit, with the
condemnation of the Lord pronounced upon their heads because of their
unfaithfulness, not to say wickedness, with ‘Zion’ to all intents and purposes
destroyed, that the Lord commanded them, in the great revelation given at
Fishing River:
“’And let those commandments which I have given concerning Zion
and her law be executed and fulfilled, after her redemption’. (105:34)
“It is interesting to note that after this pronouncement, the Lord
practically never referred to the United Order in His revelations to the
Prophet. The people had had their opportunity and failed. He then gave them the
law of tithing in a revelation given in Missouri itself, in Zion. (July 8, 1838,
Section 119), which is still in full force and in effect.
“As hereinbefore stated, the Lord had already, before Fishing
River, dissolved the relationship between the Order in Zion and in Kirtland
(Section 104) and gave directions as to setting up the Order in Kirtland. But
apparently before any real progress was made to this end, serious troubles
broke out there, which finally compelled the Brethren in Kirtland to flee in
late 1837 and early 1838 to Missouri.
“Then followed the evacuation of Missouri, under the compulsion of
the mob, supported by the State authorities, and their removal to Illinois.
“During the Illinois period, the Saints in Iowa undertook to
establish the United Order there. The minutes of the High Council meeting held
March 6, 1840, at Montrose, Iowa, contains the following entry:
“’President Joseph Smith Jun., addressed the Council on various
subjects, and in particular the consecration law; stating that the affairs now
before Congress was the only thing that ought to interest the Saints at
present; and till it was ascertained how it would terminate, no person to be
brought to account before the constituted authorities of the Church for any
offense whatever; and (he) was determined that no man should be brought before
the Council in Nauvoo till the time, etc., etc. The law of consecration could
not be kept here, and that it was the will of the Lord that we should desist
from trying to keep it; and if persisted in, it would produce a perfect defeat
of its object, and that he assumed the whole responsibility of not keeping it
until proposed y himself.’ (Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, Volume 4, p. 93)
“Thus the Lord directed that the law he had given regarding the
setting up of the United Order in Zion was to be ‘executed and fulfilled’ after
the redemption of Zion, that is, in the meaning in which the Lord was then
using the word Zion, the ‘redemption,; the reestablishment of the people in
Missouri. This has not yet been accomplished.” (“The United Order and Law of
Consecration as Set out in the Revelations of the Lord,” Church News, 15
September, 1945, p. 9)
Concerning the verses quoted from Sections 82 and 104:
a. The cannot be understood without reading the entire section in
which they are contained.
b. Related sections of the Doctrine and Covenants must be read to
find out what happened and what the Lord did after the revelations were given.
c. In Section 82, the last part of Verse 20 is the key:
“This order have I (the Lord) appointed to be an everlasting order
unto you, and unto your successors, inasmuch as you sin not.”
“The Order here referred to would have been permanent, if the
Saints had lived up to it, and would have made them capable of practicing the higher,
or celestial, Order. But it was not accepted and practiced with an eye single
to the glory of God. In 1839, the Prophet Joseph wrote to the Saints: ‘We would
suggest to the brethren that there be no organization of large bodied upon
common stock principles, until the Lord shall signify it in a proper manner, as
it opens such a field for the avaricious, the indolent, and the corrupt-hearted,
to pray upon the virtuous, the industrious, and the honest We have reason to
believe that many things were introduced among the Saints, before God had signified
the time, and notwithstanding the principles and the plains may have been good,
yet aspiring men, who had the form of Godliness, but not the substance, by
their aspiring notions brought trouble both upon themselves and the Saints at
large. However, the time is coming when God will signify many things which are
expected, for the well-being of the Saints.’ (Millennial Star, Volume V, p.
71). This letter was written in Liberty Jail. It was signed by Joseph Smith, Jr.,
Hyrum Smith, Lyman Wright, Caleb Baldwin, and Alexander McRay, and parts of it
are embodied in the Revelations contained in Sections 121 and 123.” (Doctrine
and Covenants Commentary, Revised Edition, pp. 493-494).
d. Concerning Verse 1 of Section 104:
“The Lord established the United Order, or the Order of Enoch,
when it had been demonstrated that the Saints were not able to practice the
celestial law of consecration. This Order was to be permanent, but when the
Saints also proved themselves unequal to its requirements, the Lord again
released them, temporarily, and gave them the law of tithing.” (Doctrine and
Covenants Commentary, Revised Edition, pp. 668-669).
e. Verse 32 of Section 104 pertains to Frederick G. Williams and
Oliver Cowdery only. In Verse 29 they were given stewardship over the printing
office. Verse 31 says that they would receive blessings inasmuch as they are
faithful (to their stewardship). Both were excommunicated from the Church at
different times for different transgressions.
f. Verses 69-70 of Section 104 pertained to a treasury (V. 67) for
those named in Section 104 to cast all monies received from their stewardships
by improving upon the properties given to them (V. 68). These monies could then
be drawn out by those participating to help whoever it was in his stewardship
(V. 73) as long as he was in full fellowship and wise in his stewardship V.
75). (Thomas S. Medford, “A Response to Eight False Prophecies of Joseph
Smith,” January 6, 1980, M230.9 M488re 1980, Church History Library)
Further Reading: