Ed Week Consecration Notes (raw)

I missed the first day. We receive and give by consecration. Acquistion is very dominant in our culture.

D&C 42 would be the strategy and D&C 51 would be the tactics.

We need to awaken! Consecration makes sense. We offer the rest to others. This is called surplus.

Wants and needs in 1832 edition of Webster's Dictionary are more like our needs in these days. Personal tastes are okay.

D&C 59 - The Lord has aesethics - gladden the heart and please the eye.
D&C 42:32 - We are to have sufficient for himself and his family.
D&C 48:4 - Putting aside for retirement okay. Must be obtained in righteousness and saved in righteousness. After one has enough it becomes surplus. Saving for the the future is part of the plan. Idler will not eat the bread of the working man. D&C 104 talks about going into debt just this once.

D&C 42:35 - Purposes of the Law of C.
v. 55 - We decide what is more than we need.

The Lord's storehouse is the time, talents, resources of the Latter Day Saints!
D&C 51 - Implemntation of the Law of C.

People are free agents with their stewardships. No one tells you what to do. You are not to be micro managed.

D&C 52 - talks about deeds to Titus Billings and deeds from Titus Billings. Most property was deeded to the Bishop and deeded right back to same person. Billings said, "I want to spend and be spent in the cause of my blessed masters."

Three legs of the Law of C.
1. Free will, free agency
2. Stewardship, owner one moment and the Lord's the next moment. Nothing changes.
3. ?

Thursday

The United Firm (order)

No one will ever make you live the Law of C. It is beyond the culture in which we live. You account to God for you stewardship.

History of the Church 1:364-365 - JS to Partridge.

You can opt in or our. It always will be this way. What do you do with circumventors?
D&C 85 - Those who don't obey....
D&C 42 and D&C 51 - keep track of the people who choose to live the law of the Lord.

Pres. Hinckley speaking to Salem, UT members: "what do you think you're doing living in these homes?

We should ask ourselves, how will we explain it to God (the use of our stewardship)?

D&C 70 - "Literary firm",just a corporation to bind the scriptures and sale them.
v. 1 men (touble & benefits to the men)
v. 7 more than needful - then give it to the storehouse.
v. 10 none are exempt

D&C 72 - 2nd Bishop - Newell K Whitney - he has assets, a big thriving store.
he is an excellent manager, can handle properties, loves God, without guile, business sense, never exploits others. JS didn't have all these. JS was weak in temporal things. We need the same type of people in our day.

D&c 78:9 Call for a meeting. Ohio and Missouri about economics.

The manuscripts were purposefully ofuscated. Like any business, they don't want everyone to know about the churches liabilities. The Whitney store were the assets and the Misouri land to be purchase were the liabilities and the literary firm. The assets were to be funneled to the church's liabilities.

D&C 82:11 a group of men are named to belong to a united firm or order. It was a corporation that was created to amass assets. 1832-1834 - United Firm (Order).

D&C 104:4 - the covenant was broken. Using the Lord's assets (Whitney) to fund the Lord's liablities (Partrige in MI). It was a beautiful idea. It is happening today.

v.13-v.19 - the three legs of the Law of Consecration:
1. Steward - the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness there of. He uses Mine and my to show this.
2. Agency. Voluntary consecration of those who have. Agency is given to the steward.
3. Accountability

v. 16 the ancedent 'it' - must be done in the Lord's way.
v.18 - the idea is counter cultural. its 'mine'. This idea that it is mine is rejected by King Benjamin and by the Lord.
Luke 16:23 - Lazarus and Dives
D&C 104 - Dives was used when first written down. Dives mean riches or rich man. Early christians gave the rich man a name. JS later changed it 'the wicked'. But 104 does tie to the story of Lazurus and the rich man.

You don't end the law of C. In order to be part of the Celestial Kingdom, one must live the law. The United Order ended but not Consecration.

D&C 105:34 - suspends the moving to Missouri. this doesn't suspend the law of Consecration. The Lord doesn't give laws that the Saints can't keep.

Wilford Woodruff on consecration.
- nothing changed hands
-outward forms don't change. The attitude or heard changes.
-everything is the Lord's
-to become a lawful heir of the Kingdom of God, we live this law.

Friday

Amply supplied and then one returns the surplus to the church.
Titing - We pay first and then we are blessed.

1838 - Missouri - JS moves
D&C 119 - 'all their surplus' (this is consecration)
v.3 - This is the beginning
v.4 - 'tithed' after paying surplus properties
v.5 - After that, you pay 10%
This is a standing law forever
v.5 - surplus + tithing
v.6 - IF....don't keep covenants, Zion won't be a land of Zion unto you.
Do the IFs... When will Zion be established? Just as soon as we are ready to live the law of Consecration.

Impass - we think going to Zion is going the MI, but the Lord says 'whenever the Saints want it".

Introduction to D&C 119

The introduction blurred the line between Consecration and the United Order. The United Firm was a very specifice group of elders. D&C 42 is for all saints. D&C 82 is the United Order. D&C 104 nullifies the United Order.

"many' - who is the writer talking about?
Introduction is not accurate. 104 only nullfied the United Order, not the law of consecration.

Read the book,"Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants" by Steven Harper
"instead" = bad sentence. D&C 119 is not instead of D&C 42. D&C 82 is a handful of men accordingto the Lord.

'own free will' in D&C 42. The Lord will never force us to live the law of C.
Feb 9,1831 - The Lord has commanded us.

President Hinckley in General Conference: "The law of Consecration not rescinded, never was"
JS- "Let them judge themselves regarding what is surplus property"
"When will we be willing to keep the covenants will Zion be a Zion unto you"

Why haven't the prophets told us" They have to their great frustration.

"We can do as much as we want" - Marion G Romney

Nibley, Approaching Zion, p. 390, p. 173.
"Observe the Law, what is there to stop me?"

Clark V. Johnson - Doctrine of Exaltation, p. 112

If you ask what is the minimum, you don't get it. We should as ourselves, what is all that I have to offer? The Lord is not asking you to take a vow of poverty but we will have to explain our actions to Him.

The change is a change of heart - willing and obedient. The Lord is measuring the heart.

consecrate is to make sacred. JS told the saints in Iowa not to consecrate. What he meant was to that they had been kicked out, exterminated and needed to regroup and put in your crops as soon as they could. They were to go back to work.

Some people use what JS said to these saints as proof that the law of consecration was rescinded. But this is a lie.

To some the law of C. is difficult. This is because of our human nature. We live in a consumer culture and the culture is repressive. Read Maxwell in April 2002 Conference.