The
United Firm (Order) did not ultimately work as intended. That is not God’s
fault. It is the fault of free agents. It worked when Saints chose to keep
their covenants and were not overwhelmed by their enemies. When it stopped
working the Lord ended it in 1834 with the revelation in section 104. People
who equate or conflate the law of consecration with the Unite Firm (Order) will
conclude that the Lord ended the law. That is a little like saying that if NASA
ceased operations, the law of rocket propulsion would cease to exist. They
would not. The firm was an organization, not a divine law. It only ever had
eleven members. They were commanded to live the law of consecration, and they
covenanted to do so, but that was no more than what the Saints were expected to
do (see D&C 42:29-35; 70:10). Ending the United Firm did not end the law of
consecration. (Steven C. Harper, Let’s Talk About The Law of Consecration [Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022], 62)
