Law of Consecration

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Law of Consecration

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Doctrine and CovenantsSection 42- History
Question How would you describe the Law of
Consecration, as lived by the early Saints, to
someone investigating the church?

• February 9, 1831, after the Church had
  removed to Kirtland and had been augmented by
  many converts from among the Disciples, or
  followers of the Campbells and Sidney Rigdon, who
  were living in Kirtland and its vicinity, the
  Lord gave to the Church this revelation (Sec. 42)
  as a law.
• In this revelation many commandments given from
  the very beginning and reiterated in the days of
  Moses were again proclaimed as being in force for
  the government of the Church in these latter
  days.
• By grave and solemn proclamation the members of
  the Church were commanded to observe all these
  laws and others which were yet future but would
  be given for the establishment of the City of
  ZionNew Jerusalemwhich was to be built by the
  law of consecration and obedience to the fulness
  of the Gospel. (Joseph Fielding Smith
  in Church History and Modern Revelation, 1168)

How is that different from From each according
to his ability, to each according to his
need (Karl Marx)
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Prophet Joseph Smith

• "The building up of Zion is a cause that
  has interested the people of God in every
  age
• it is a theme upon which prophets, priests
  and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight
• they have looked forward with joyful anticipation
  to the day in which we live
• and fired with heavenly and joyful anticipations
  they have sung and written and prophesied of this
  our day but they died without the sight
• we are the favored people that God has made
  choice of to bring about the Latter-day glory"
  (Teachings of Presidents of the Church
  Joseph Smith 186).

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DC 1337 (Read)
Zion
Babylon
Travel Towards
Palmyra, harmony, Fayette
Kirtland
Travel Towards
The Ohio
Zion (Missouri)
Travel Towards
Modern Babylon
??
Travel Towards
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Question

• What is the difference between being a steward
  as opposed to being an owner of the Lords
  resources?

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Elder Neal A. Maxwell

• "The many other things we 'give' are actually
  the things He has already given or loaned to us. 
• However, when you and I finally submit ourselves,
  by letting our individual wills be swallowed up
  in God's will, then we are really giving
  something to Him! It is the only possession which
  is truly ours to give!"
• (Ensign, Nov 1995, p24)

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Elder D. Todd ChristoffersonOctober Conference

• At the end of July this year, young single
  adults from several countries in eastern
  Europe gathered outside Budapest, Hungary,
  for a conference. Among this group were 20
  young men and women from Moldova who had
  spent days obtaining passports and visas and
  over 30 hours traveling by bus to get there.
• The conference program included some 15
  workshops. Each person needed to select the
  two or three that he or she most wanted to
  attend.
• Rather than focus exclusively on their own
  interests, these Moldovan young adults got
  together and made plans so that at least one of
  their group would be in each class and take
  copious notes.
• Then they would share what they had learned with
  each other and later with the young adults in
  Moldova who could not attend. In its simplest
  form, this exemplifies the unity and love for one
  another that, multiplied thousands of times in
  different ways, will "bring again Zion"

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Elder John H. Groberg

• (This note was included with a check for
  1000 to the presiding Bishop from Elder
  Groberg)
• Recently, while visiting one of the far distant
  islands that is very difficult to get to, I went
  late in the day to the home of one of the good
  widow sisters there.
• When I first approached her hut the sun was
  still quite bright and I could not help but
  notice the stark poverty of her surroundings. It
  had been raining earlier. The mud and decay and
  the ever-present smell of drying fish were at
  first repulsive. But the warmth of meeting with a
  fellow Church memberespecially after years of
  separationtogether with tears of appreciation
  for the long-awaited visit, soon pushed the
  unpleasantness of the surroundings temporarily
  into the background.
• As we conversed in her fluid native tongue and
  she told of her love for and faith in the Church
  and of all the blessings she had received, I
  could not help but think about her apparently
  miserable circumstances. All sorts of ideas
  went through my mind, and I must have let my
  thoughts wander as I suddenly became aware that
  somewhere between phrases about blessings and
  poverty and service she had gone to her hut and
  was now returning with a small knotted rag.

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Threepence

• Suddenly my mind seemed to fill with light,
  and the words fast offerings flooded in. I
  was so excited with the idea that had come so
  suddenly and so clearly, that you can imagine
  my utter amazement and unpreparedness when she
  took a threepence (a coin worth about 3) from
  her rag and said softly, Here is my fast
  offering to help the poor.
• I wanted to explain that fast offering was to
  help her, not for her to help others. The
  explanation never came, for as I looked through
  misty eyes, first at the threepence then back at
  the good sister, the whole scene changed.
• The hut was a glowing mansion and the mud was
  gold. The world seemed to stand still for a
  moment. All of nature seemed to stop and listen
  as from the heavens the whole universe seemed
  filled with the reassuring words Blessed are
  the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• As the setting sun signaled the end of the day,
  so it also told of the approaching end of her
  beautiful life of service.
• I took the threepence, and as I write this check
  the whole experience once again fills my mind and
  I wonder,
• How many threepences to make a thousand
  dollars?