The following is an adaption of the preface and first chapter of Let’s Talk about the Law of Consecration by Steven Harper. Harper’s book teaches what things about consecration that have stayed the same since the beginning and other aspects of the law that have changed over time. As we study the revelations to the early Saints and “seek, receive, and act on the Lord’s revelations to [us] personally,” we will know how to live according to the law of consecration today.
On my parents’ thirty-sixth wedding anniversary, they took me to the temple to be endowed with power. Today the Church’s website says of the endowment experience, “You will be invited to make specific covenants with God.” The website then lists these covenants: the law of obedience, the law of sacrifice, the law of the gospel, the law of chastity, and the law of consecration.1 But there was no Church website when I went to be endowed. Even if there had been, I probably would not have read what it said. But if I had, I would have been surprised to see the law of consecration on the list. That’s because I knew, as I assumed everyone did, that the Lord had revealed the law of consecration to the early Saints. They couldn’t live it, so the Lord revoked the higher law, gave the lower law of tithing, and would someday give the higher law again.
I thought everyone knew that, though if someone had asked me how I knew it, I would have had no answer. I had not paid attention to what the scriptures said about the law of consecration. I didn’t need to. I thought I pretty much knew everything about it. So my temple experience was jarring. I came out of the temple quite concerned that what I thought I knew was wrong. I had just made a solemn covenant sincerely but ignorantly. I determined to study the Doctrine and Covenants as an antidote to my ignorance. As I did, I discovered a much different version of the story than the one I’d taken with me to the temple.
I have been chipping away at my ignorance for a few decades now. I have read the Doctrine and Covenants again and again and again. I have studied the earliest manuscripts of the Lord’s revelations and the context in which they were revealed. It turns out that what I thought I knew is not what the revelations say—not even close. What I thought I knew is a narrative. Some scholars call it a “folk doctrine.” The Lord did not reveal it; Latter-day Saints invented it. But why would Saints make up such a story?
It turns out that what I thought I knew is not what the revelations say—not even close.
Perhaps an answer lies in two aspects of the story. First, it simplifies something complex. It is a simple, memorable, and easy explanation for why things are the way they are. Second, it excuses us. It puts the blame for failing to live the law of consecration on the early Saints, and it puts the responsibility for living the law of consecration onto future Saints. The story we tell seems to, conveniently, absolve me, here and now, from confronting the law of consecration and keeping my covenant. …
Understanding your responsibility to keep the law of consecration may cause discomfort, but it also may be just what you need. “The conscientious among us,” Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “experience divine discontent because of progression mixed with procrastination.”2 I know just how that feels.
Apparently, many other people do too. One conscientious covenant keeper emailed me recently about a dilemma I knew well: “I had it as my paradigm that the law of consecration was the higher law that was replaced by the law of tithing (lower law),” he wrote. “This confused me, however, when I went through the temple and made covenants.” My covenant-keeping friend confessed, “I guess I’m a little confused about how the law of consecration is applied in the twenty-first century, from a practical standpoint.”3
I have received many similar messages over the years. The confusion these individuals express is common. The desire they have to keep ancient covenants in the modern world is deeply heartfelt. If you share these questions, confusion, concerns, or desires, please read on. …
“To Spend and Be Spent”
When the restored Church of Jesus Christ was less than a year old, its only leaders were two presiding elders. Then, out of the blue, the Lord called a bishop, a hatmaker in his late thirties named Edward Partridge. The call was “to leave his merchandise and to spend all his time in the labors of the church.” The same revelation said that the Lord would soon reveal His law—including the law of consecration—and that Edward’s job would be to “see to” it, meaning to carry out the law (Doctrine and Covenant 41:9–10). Understandably, Edward needed more revelation to learn what the law of consecration was and how to act on it.
Revelations came when Bishop Partridge needed them, especially when new problems arose or circumstances changed. After accepting the call, Edward’s first problem was how to provide for his own family. The Lord’s next revelation resolved that problem for those, like Edward, who were called to serve full-time. “Their families,” the Lord said, should be “supported out of the property which is consecrated to the bishop, for the good of the poor, and for other purposes” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:71). The Lord’s law says that those who served the Saints full time “are to receive a just remuneration for all their services, either a stewardship or otherwise, as may be thought best or decided by the counselors and bishop. And the bishop, also, shall receive his support, or a just remuneration for all his services in the church” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:72–73).
Much remains the same since the Lord revealed His law in 1831. And much has changed. Bishops no longer serve full-time and do not typically receive temporal remuneration. The Lord organized His First Presidency after the revelation of His law, and its members do serve full-time. Today the First Presidency is composed of an internationally renowned heart surgeon, an eminent jurist, and former Utah Supreme Court justice, and a Harvard-educated, former business professor at Stanford University. Each left his prestigious and prosperous career decades ago when called by the Savior to spend all his time in the labors of the Church. Each gave up millions of dollars and has ever since received “a just remuneration for all [their] services,” as the Lord directed (D&C 42:72).
A few years ago, some records were obtained unethically and published online. The records showed how much one member of the First Presidency received for his services. The amount was “sufficient for himself and [his] family,” as the Lord’s law specifies (Doctrine and Covenants 42:32). It was a small sum, however, compared to his market value.5
If you are the least bit surprised to learn that the Lord’s law provides for the remuneration of his full-time servants, keep reading. There are many other little-known details in the law of consecration and even more in later revelations that explain what the law means and how it applies to changing circumstances. Many people who have covenanted to keep the revealed law of consecration, however, are not aware of what these revelations say. Some people similarly do not know that what they have been told about the law is tradition or misinformation—not revelation.
Be fairly warned. … “Many ignore consecration because it seems too abstract or too daunting,” Elder Neal A. Maxwell said.6 Be advised that the Lord’s law of consecration may challenge some of your assumptions or favorite political and economic beliefs. What will you do then? The easiest route will be to rationalize your views, justify your position, uncritically repeat folk doctrine you may have heard but never examined, or simply return to ignoring the law. Ignoring, however, will be hard if you are a covenant keeper, or want to be. …
[There are] things about consecration that have stayed the same since the beginning and other things that have changed over time. One of the things that remains the same is the whole-hearted consecration of those who are called to leave their nets and spend all their time in the Lord’s service. Bishop Partridge said, as today’s prophets could just as well say, “I feel willing to spend and be spent, in the cause of my blessed Master.”7
Read more in ‘Let’s Talk about the Law of Consecration’
Notes
1. “About the Temple Endowment,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accessed May 18, 2021, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/temples/what-is-temple-endowment?lang=eng.
2. Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” general conference, April 2002, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2002/04/consecrate-thy-performance?lang=eng.
4. Email to the author, October 18, 2021.
5. See D. Michael 1. See D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth and Corporate Power (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2017), 34–37.
6. Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” general conference, April 2002, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2002/04/consecrate-thy-performance?lang=eng.
7. Edward Partridge to “Dear Friends and Neighbors,” August 31, 1833, in Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate 1, no. 4 (January 1835): 61, https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/7045.
Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth and Corporate Power (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2017), 34–37.
