Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Steven C. Harper on the Failure of the United Firm (Order)

  

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)