 | This article uses texts from within a religion or faith system without referring to secondary sources that critically analyze them.(December 2010) |
 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2010) |
The law of consecration is a commandment in the Latter Day Saint movement in which adherents promise to dedicate their lives and material substance to the church. It was first referred to in 1831 by Joseph Smith.
On February 4, 1831, Smith received a revelation calling Edward Partridge to be the first bishop of the church. [1] Five days later, on February 9, 1831, Smith received another revelation detailing the law of consecration. [2]
As practiced by the Latter Day Saints in Smith's day, the law of consecration was for the support of the poor and to ensure that all members would be "equal according to his family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs." [3] Adherents were asked to voluntarily deed, or consecrate, their property to the Church of Christ, and the church then would assign to each member a "stewardship" of property "as much as is sufficient for himself and family." [4] If consecrated property became more than was sufficient for the assigned steward, the "residue" was "to be consecrated unto the bishop" kept for the benefit of "those who have not, from time to time, that every man who has need may be amply supplied and receive according to his wants." [5]
Under Smith, members attempted to implement the law of consecration through the establishment of the United Order, but it was never fully instituted due to conflict and disagreements.
During the 1850s, Brigham Young, leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), attempted to revive the law of consecration. The US Congress used this practice to delay granting land ownership to Utah Territory. Under scrutiny from the national press and facing advancing federal troops, the church dropped the plan in 1857 in favor of the law of tithing. [6] Since that time, the LDS Church has not asked its members to give all of their property to the church: leaders of the church have taught that members "are not now required to live the law of consecration". [7] However, adherents covenant with God to accept the law of consecration as part of the temple endowment ceremony.
In the 1970s, LDS Church apostle Bruce R. McConkie stated that "[t]he law of consecration is that we consecrate our time, our talents, and our money and property to the cause of the Church: such are to be available to the extent they are needed to further the Lord's interests on earth." [8]
Rather than fully living the United Order to keep the law of consecration, members are asked to tithe their income to support the church, to pay a generous monthly fast offering to care for the poor, and to donate their time and talents in assisting in the operation of the church.
Adherents believe that the law of consecration will be fully practiced in the future, including during the thousand-year millennium after the Second Coming of Jesus. [9]
In some Mormon fundamentalist sects, including the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Apostolic United Brethren, adherents live the law of consecration by deeding their homes and other personal property to the church, which then administers it to the members as needed.
The history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has three main periods, described generally as:
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several groups following different leaders; the majority followed Brigham Young, while smaller groups followed Joseph Smith III, Sidney Rigdon, and James Strang. Most of these smaller groups eventually merged into the Community of Christ, and the term Mormon typically refers to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as today, this branch is far larger than all the others combined. People who identify as Mormons may also be independently religious, secular, and non-practicing or belong to other denominations. Since 2018, the LDS Church has emphasized a desire for its members be referred to as "members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", or more simply as "Latter-day Saints".
The word Mormon most colloquially denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism in restorationist Christianity. Mormon also commonly refers, specifically, to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is often colloquially, but imprecisely, referred to as the Mormon Church. In addition, the term Mormon may refer to any of the relatively small sects of Mormon fundamentalism, and any branch of the Latter Day Saint movement that recognizes Brigham Young as the successor to founder Joseph Smith. The term Mormon applies to the religion of Mormonism, as well as its culture, texts, and art.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the term ordinance is used to refer to sacred rites and ceremonies that have spiritual and symbolic meanings and act as a means of conveying divine grace. Ordinances are physical acts which signify or symbolize an underlying spiritual act; for some ordinances, the spiritual act is the finalization of a covenant between the ordinance recipient and God.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the President of the Church is generally considered to be the highest office of the church. It was the office held by Joseph Smith, founder of the movement, and the office assumed by many of Smith's claimed successors, such as Brigham Young, Joseph Smith III, Sidney Rigdon, and James Strang. Several other titles have been associated with this office, including First Elder of the church, Presiding High Priest, President of the High Priesthood, Trustee-in-Trust for the church, Prophet, Seer, Revelator, and Translator. Joseph Smith was known by all of these titles in his lifetime.
The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has several unique teachings about Judaism and the House of Israel. The largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, the LDS Church, teaches the belief that the Jewish people are God's chosen people and it also teaches the belief that its members share a common and literal Israelite ancestry with the Jewish people.
Mormon fundamentalism is a belief in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century, particularly during the administrations of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor, the first three presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon fundamentalists seek to uphold tenets and practices no longer held by mainstream Mormons. The principle most often associated with Mormon fundamentalism is plural marriage, a form of polygyny first taught in the Latter Day Saint movement by the movement's founder, Smith. A second and closely associated principle is that of the United Order, a form of egalitarian communalism. Mormon fundamentalists believe that these and other principles were wrongly abandoned or changed by the LDS Church in its efforts to become reconciled with mainstream American society. Today, the LDS Church excommunicates any of its members who practice plural marriage or who otherwise closely associate themselves with Mormon fundamentalist practices.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the United Order was one of several 19th-century church collectivist programs. Early versions of the Order beginning in 1831 attempted to fully implement the law of consecration, a form of Christian communism or communalism, modeled after the New Testament church which had "all things in common". These early versions ended after a few years. Later versions within Mormonism, primarily in the Utah Territory, implemented less-ambitious cooperative programs, many of which were very successful. The Order's full name invoked the city of Enoch, described in Latter Day Saint scripture as having such a virtuous and pure-hearted people that God had taken it to heaven.
Blood atonement is a disputed doctrine in the history of Mormonism, under which the atonement of Jesus does not redeem an eternal sin. To atone for an eternal sin, the sinner should be killed in a way that allows his blood to be shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering, so he does not become a son of perdition. The largest Mormon denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has denied the validity of the doctrine since 1889 with early church leaders referring to it as a "fiction" and later church leaders referring to it as a "theoretical principle" that had never been implemented in the LDS Church.
Celestial marriage is a doctrine that marriage can last forever in heaven. This is a unique teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and branches of Mormon fundamentalism.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that Adam and Eve were the first man and the first woman to live on the earth and that their fall was an essential step in the plan of salvation. Adam in particular is a central figure in Mormon cosmology. Robert L. Millet, a Latter-day Saint author, wrote of the church's perspective:
Few persons in all eternity have been more directly involved in the plan of salvation—the creation, the fall, and the ultimate redemption of the children of God—than the man Adam. His ministry among the sons and daughters of earth stretches from the distant past of premortality to the distant future of resurrection, judgment, and beyond.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, a covenant is a promise made between God and a person or a group of people. God sets the conditions of the covenant, and as the conditions are met, he blesses the person who entered into and kept the covenant. If the covenant is violated, blessings are withheld and in some cases a penalty or punishment is inflicted.
Community of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are two denominations that share a common heritage in the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. Since Smith's death in 1844, they have evolved separately in belief and practices. The LDS Church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and claims more than 17 million members worldwide; Community of Christ is headquartered in Independence, Missouri, and reports a worldwide membership of approximately 250,000.
The Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a priesthood calling with church-wide authority. The Presiding Bishop is the highest leadership position within the church's Aaronic priesthood, although most of the work in this area is delegated to the church's Young Men general presidency.
John Murdock Jr. was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement and was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mentioned twice in the Doctrine and Covenants, he devoted most of his life to full-time missionary service for the LDS Church. He was the first mission president for the LDS Church in Australia where he oversaw the official organization of the church in the country and its early growth. A compatriot of Joseph Smith, Murdock attended School of the Prophets and participated in Zion's Camp. After the death of his first wife in childbirth, Joseph and Emma Smith adopted his infant twins. Julia Murdock Smith, who survived to adulthood, was the eldest child and only daughter of the Smiths.
A bishop's storehouse in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints usually refers to a commodity resource center that is used by bishops of the church to provide goods to needy individuals. The storehouses stock basic foods and essential household items. The term can also be used figuratively to refer to all of the time, talents, skills, materials, compassion, and financial means of the members of the church that are available to be applied in the service of the needy.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints focuses its doctrine and teaching on Jesus Christ; that he was the Son of God, born of Mary, lived a perfect life, performed miracles, bled from every pore in the Garden of Gethsemane, died on the cross, rose on the third day, appeared again to his disciples, and now resides, authoritatively, on the right hand side of God. In brief, some beliefs are in common with Catholics, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. However, teachings of the LDS Church differ significantly in other ways and encompass a broad set of doctrines, so that the above-mentioned denominations usually place the LDS Church outside the bounds of orthodox Christian teaching as summarized in the Nicene Creed.
Tithing is a commandment accepted by various churches in the Latter Day Saint movement. In practicing tithing, adherents make willing tithe donations, usually ten percent of their income, to their church. It is based on both the biblical practice of paying tithes and modern revelation given to Joseph Smith and his accepted successors. For many of these churches, the law of tithing replaced or supplemented the law of consecration. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emphasized tithing in the 1900s and 1960s to assist in paying church debts.