Sunday, January 09, 2005
Tithing Thoughts
Scripture 1 Nephi 21: 14-15
Consecration Obedience Salvation Service Covenant of Gathering Atonement Love Coming unto Christ Abide in the Covenant
- Have you been saved? (Come unto Christ?)
- If you haven’t, how do you come unto Christ, practically speaking?
1.Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
2.Repentance
3.Baptism by Immersion
4.Gift of the Holy Ghost
What is that? It’s baptism! It’s coming unto Christ! For most of us, we’ve already accepted Christ and are currently in a covenant relationship with Him, meaning the strait gate is behind us, and we are currently on the narrow road, we’re in the
Before we talk about the lesser law, it’s important to understand the higher law.
What is the higher law of tithing?
The law of consecration has been in force in many dispensations including (but not limited to) Enoch, Melchizedek, Peter.
It was alluded to very early in church history. D&C 38:32 Where are they? (
But before it was officially introduced, it was already being attempted in Kirtland. But it wasn’t unique in just Kirtland, for it flourished in Utopian societies of the day. It was called “common stock”, taken from the phrase “all things in common” from Acts 4:32. It didn’t work for several reasons. (Illustrate by having someone put there keys on the ground and go from there.) People took things without permission and without giving it back and that led to a lack of faith and uneasy feeling about it before it even had started.
It was finally introduced in D&C 42 (read verse summary)
Summarize versus 30-39 and or have someone try to explain what the Law of consecration actually was or how it worked.
- Give all property to the church (31)
- Shall be given what is sufficient for his family (32)
- Give the rest that you don’t need to the bishop and it will be distributed to those as needed.
D&C 78: 6 is the gist of what the law of consecration is all about. The law of consecration was designed to make everyone equal.
- Why does the Lord require equality? Why is that important?
C. S. Lewis: "Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone."
If we are all equal the destructive pride that cost the Nephite Nation its existence is avoided.
- Why were the Saints driven from there lands to
D&C 105: 3-6
Both disobedience and Satan caused the Saints to be driven. At this time the law of consecration was suspended for a time. (This is in 1834)
Law of Tithing
Like the law of consecration, the law of tithing is not new. Early mentions of tithing include;
Genesis 14:20
Genesis 28: 20-22
Leviticus 27:30-34
- What year is this revelation? (1831)
This was actually given when the saints were still under the law of consecration, it has a different meaning, historically speaking.
One of the reasons the church was in such bad financial straits was because of the failure of the Kirkland bank. It was a time when each branch of the government was learning how to walk for the first time, so unlike now there weren’t a lot of regulations in any aspect, especially financial institutions. It was decided that it the power to create financial institutions was not a responsibility of the federal government, so many people tried to start there own banks. There turned out to be a lot of fraud through out the country and the faith in these institutions collapsed. Most of the
- What should they do? They had no money, no assets, and they were in debt. On top of that they were now commanded to build the Nauvu temple. How were they supposed to do it?
Read intro and all verses for D&C 119
Most people don’t realize, that the law of tithing was actually harder for the saints then the law of consecration. In the law of consecration, they gave there property to the bishop, received land and were only required to give the leftovers for what ever they had.
Now the law of tithing demanded them to give to the church before there expenses.
[The law of consecration is actually higher when its extended beyond just the temporal D&C 105:3-5]
Brigham Young documents some of the initial problems:
“The brethren wished me to go among the Churches, and find out what surplus property the people had, with which to forward the building of the
Then I replied, ‘I will go and ask them for their surplus property;’ and I did so; I found the people said they were willing to do about as they were counseled, but, upon asking them about their surplus property, most of the men who owned land and cattle would say, ‘I have got so many hundred acres of land, and I have got so many boys, and I want each one of them to have eighty acres, therefore this is not surplus property.’ Again, ‘I have got so many girls, and I do not believe I shall be able to give them more than forty acres each.’ ‘Well, you have got two or three hundred acres left.’ ‘Yes, but I have a brother-in-law coming on, and he will depend on me for a living; my wife’s nephew is also coming on, he is poor, and I shall have to furnish him a farm after he arrives here.’ I would go on to the next one, and he would have more land and cattle then he could make use of to advantage. It is a laughable idea but is nevertheless true, men would tell me they were young and beginning the world, and would say, ‘We have no children, but our prospects are good, and we think we shall have a family of children, and if we do, we want to give them eighty acres of farm land each we have no surplus property,’ ‘How many cattle have you?’ ‘So many.’ ‘How many horses, &c?’ ‘So many, but I have made provisions for all these, and I have use for everything I have got.’
“Some were disposed to do right with their surplus property, and once in a whole you would find a man who had a cow which he considered surplus, but generally she was the class that would kick a person’s hat off, or eyes out, or the wolves had eaten off her teats. You would once in a while find a man who had a horse that he considered surplus, but at the same time he had the ringbone, was broken-winded, spavined in both legs, had the pole evil at one end of the neck and a fistula at the others and both knees sprung.” (Journal of Discourses, 2:306-7)
There are some mini controversies even today. Some of our off-shoot groups (RLDS) interpret interest to mean what ever is left over after expenses. But the general authorities of the church have declared that interest means income.
- Where does the tithing go to?(Page 209 of Gospel Principle book)
Other areas of Offering
Fast Offerings
Missionary funds
Service
- What blessings do we receive through paying tithing and offerings? Malachi 3:8-12
-Rebuke the devourer is similar to the word of wisdom’s “destroying angel shall pass you by” and the similarities do not stop there
Word of Wisdom
- Genesis 9:3- everybody
- Leviticus 11- Covenant
- Leviticus 17- The Lord’s Law
Tithing
- D&C 19:5- non-covenant
- D&C 119:4 Covenant
- D&C 78:6 Lord’s Law
Joseph F. Smith
Most discussions about tithing revolve around its uses—building temples and meetinghouses, supporting missionary work, financing the day-to-day operations of the Church, and so forth. But the first thing we need to understand about tithing is the Lord doesn’t need our money. This whole earth and countless others are His. If He wanted to, He could finance His work in some other way. He could, for instance, turn the pebbles along the road into diamonds and have the deacons collect them. He could send Church leaders fishing and have them catch fish with valuable coins in their mouths (see Matt. 17:27). Or He could simply make it so the Church’s resources never run out (see 1 Kgs. 17:8-16). He could—but He doesn’t—which means the law of tithing must have a greater purpose than merely financing the Lord’s work.
What is this greater purpose? As many of our readers explain in their answers, the law of tithing is given not so much to benefit the Church financially as to bless individual tithe payers spiritually. Tithing is about faith, not just money. The Lord is not interested in how many doorknobs or hymnbooks your 10 percent can purchase. He is interested in the condition of your heart and your willingness to do His will.
Tithing is a pivotal commandment, one on which other larger issues turn. Only those Church members who pay a full tithing can receive temple ordinances. And the Lord tells us that those who pay tithing will not be burned at His Second Coming (see D&C 64:23).
Paying tithing seems to be a spiritual measure of a person’s commitment to the Lord. This law, said President Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918), tests the loyalty of Latter-day Saints: “By this principle it shall be known who is for the
At the end of the 1800s, the Church faced a staggering financial debt, exceeding one million dollars. This financial obligation weighed heavily on Joseph F. Smith’s mind. At the October 1899 general conference he said: “We have had much valuable instruction in relation to our duties as Latter-day Saints, not only concerning the law of tithing, but also in reference to other things, which are as important in their place as the law of tithing. There is nothing, however, of greater importance to the welfare of the Church at present than the consideration of this law, by which means will be placed in the storehouse of the Lord, to meet the necessities of the people.”
(Bruce R Mckonkie “There are no part tithe payers”)
