Chapter 17—Modern Gentiles' Provocation 1
Before we criticize ancient Israel too heavily for their stubbornness and rebellion, today’s Gentiles should examine their own sphere and consider if those to whom the covenant is offered in the latter days have fared any better. Increasing calamities—many caused by man’s selfish or short-sighted choices—declare that creation is in disorder today because we have provoked God. To provoke is to call forth or incite the Lord to action because of our rebellion. While the whole world lies in sin, God is most provoked by the sins of those who covenant with Him. The Book of Mormon describes four underlying sins that provoke God: (1) our hearts stay hardened, (2) we do not seek or hearken to the Lord’s voice, (3) we do not do what we covenant to do, and (4) we refuse to come to Christ, take His name, “suffer His cross, and bear the shame of the world.” These sins deter us from living the first ordinances of His gospel and prevent us from receiving our endowment.
Satan ensnares us with nets that go undetected as we justify our actions as righteousness. Because the same temptations exist anciently as today, former rebukes against these sins still apply. Holy prophets relentlessly warn, hoping we will “liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Nephi 19:23).
Even Pharisees that realized Jesus “had spoken the parable against them” (Mark 12:12), but today most do not believe scripture is for us because it is about us. The reality is, today’s Gentiles have provoked God just like ancient Israel and other civilizations did.
Provocation One—Idolatry
Love of riches, unbridled anger or lust, disobedience, pride, idolatry, lack of compassion, neglecting the needy, or any sin increases the distance between God and man, keeping His spirit from us. Idolatry assumes so many forms that we may not realize some of our actions are iniquitous.
Idolatry, which includes anything that diverts us from doing the will of the Lord, reflects a serious breach of the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Jesus elaborated, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). The commandment to have “no other gods before me” means ‘in my presence’ in Hebrew. We cannot stand worthily in His presence if our heart is elsewhere. Whatever we trust in or set our heart on is our god. If our heart, might, mind, and strength are not fixed on the living God, we are idolatrous.
Nothing should take precedence over God. His will should supersede ours, and all that we do should help bring honor and glory to Him. We should acknowledge Him with gratitude and reverence, doing unto others as He would have us do. This is the essence of the first commandment. But because it is easier to rely on what we can see, touch, and possess now instead of patiently exercising faith, many trust in material things, “gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know” (Daniel 5:23). They “maketh a god and worshippeth it . . . and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god” (Isaiah 44:17). “All of them [are] vanity and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses. They see not nor know,” having formed gods that are “profitable for nothing” eternally (Isaiah 44:9–10).
Cain, the first idolator named in scripture, “loved Satan more than God” (Moses 5:13). Abraham’s nephew Lot was also tempted by idolatry. Only with divine persuasion was Lot spared before Sodom’s destruction but his wife, whose heart still belonged to the world, was destroyed.
The gods of Babylon—power, prestige, popularity, and prosperity—are demanding. Erring beliefs or ideologies are idolatrous too. Worshipping images or idols requires a lot of time, resources, and energy. Idols can be cars, homes, recreational toys, property, social networks, degrees/titles, materialism, sports, or any indulgence that competes for our attention or distracts us from the path to godliness. To seek these things gives them power over us.
Many idolize living gods like business, religious, or political leaders or celebrities in entertainment and sports. Many public idols promote agendas that vilify God and blaspheme His laws. Some are so bold as to openly defy or mock the sacred, while others discretely sell their souls for the glory or riches of this world. Few endure the pressure of stardom without adopting liberal views. Ideologies that dismiss God’s commandments soothe our conscience but they are the mark of Babylon.
Such attitudes have intensified dramatically in recent years. We must reject all forms of idolatry. Although God said, “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles” (Jeremiah 10:2, Jubilee 2000), many “mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works. They served their idols which became a snare to them” (Psalm 106:35–36, NKJV).
Even the most devout Christians are susceptible to influences that disrupt the conditions needed for Zion. Several decades ago, LDS president Spencer Kimball delivered a powerful warning to the church, saying, “We are, on the whole, an idolatrous people.” A century before Brigham Young said the same: “Whether you see it or not, I know that this people are more or less prone to idolatry; for I see that spirit manifested every day . . . The Latter-day Saints are drifting as fast as they can into idolatry, drifting into the spirit of the world and into pride and vanity.”
they have strayed from mine ordinances and have broken mine everlasting covenant. They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall. (D&C 1:15–16)
Nephi observed the same among his people: “They do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them. Notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide” (Helaman 12:5–6).
Worshipping Idols: Follow the Prophet
Bullinger wisely observed, “In the so-called Christian religion, men today do not make their gods out of wood, or metal, or stone; but of something far worse than these: they make him out of their own heads . . . Man’s mind is fallen and corrupt, and the imaginations of his heart are only evil continually. Corruption . . . [is the] new theology.”
Jesus said, “I am the light which ye shall hold up” (3 Nephi 18:24) but leaders ‘set themselves up for a light’ (2 Nephi 26:29–30), which is priestcraft. Relying on a priest, teacher, or leader instead of God is idolatry.
Some have gone so far as to declare, God “will not permit the men who preside over his Church to lead the people into error, but he will sustain them with his almighty power.” Such doctrine contradicts His gospel, but the promise of security without sacrifice puts many at ease. Desiring a prophet to absolve us of our spiritual responsibility to develop an experiential relationship with God repeats the children of Israel’s provocation at Sinai, but the LDS choose to believe otherwise: “The Lord has given some marvelous guarantees without any disclaimers. And this is one of them: He will choose the prophet and He will never let that man lead us astray.”
This damning precedent of trusting leaders to decide for us existed in the the days of Jesus as well. When Jesus exorcised a ‘dumb’ demon (a miraculous act Jewish theology reserved only for the Messiah), some wondered if He could be the One they awaited.
This message was proclaimed boldly and often in the earliest years of the Restored church. Young knew it was possible for a leader “to give way to the spirit of the enemy and leave the spirit of the Gospel.” Should it occur, and “you were not prepared to judge between the voice of the Good Shepherd and the voice of the stranger, I could lead you to ruin . . . My caution and counsel to the Latter-day Saints, and to all the inhabitants of the earth is—‘live so that you will know truth from error’.”
To do it, we must be spiritually prepared and know the voice of God. Personal revelation is absolutely essential to having the kingdom of God on earth but complacency or greed keep us from it. “God had often sealed up the heavens because of covetousness in the Church,” Joseph said.
Nephi knew that leaders would justify such actions as their prerogative (2 Nephi 28:5). Believing that a church or leader cannot stray contradicts scripture. “To claim that the true Church is immune to corruption no matter how much it changes is to hold all the warnings of the Lord and the apostles in contempt. They felt no such confidence: ‘For if God spared not the angels,’ what guarantee of immunity can men expect?” We are plainly told that if a prophet dares place himself between people and God, God will let him “be deceived” then “cut him off” (Ezekiel 14:8–9). Not coming to Christ leaves us vulnerable and deceived.
This 1600’s medallion of Clement VIII at the beginning of the Jubilee shows their ritual of the Pope at the Vatican, preparing to lead his sheep into God’s presence. The Pope comes off his throne and knocks three times with a golden hammer to open the Holy Door for his entrance, as well as his clergy and followers. We must knock at the veil or door individually.
Relying on a church or its leaders “relieve[s] us of all responsibility for seeking knowledge beyond a certain point” and stifles our ability to question or discern error. “There is no other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ . . . whereby man can be saved” (2 Nephi 25:20). “There is no Saviour beside me” (Hosea 13:4). “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). How quickly we forget that true “Sons of Heaven . . . have spoken to Thee and not to a mediator.”
Although God commands us to only follow the Savior and not rely wholly on a prophet, the LDS now emphatically encourage all to “follow the prophet.” It took time for this precept to take hold, but its premise was decades in the making. Automatically calling an LDS church president ‘prophet’ began in the 1950s then gained momentum.
Veneration includes members standing when an apostle or prophet enters a room but holy ones refuse it, saying, “Do you not see that I am your fellow servant? . . . Worship God” (Revelation 7:10). “Excessive attachment or veneration . . . that borders on adoration” is the definition of idolatry. “No more boasting about human leaders!” (1 Corinthians 3:21, NIV). True prophets are rejected, not adored (John 5:43).
Today leaders increasingly deliver emotional and flattering public tributes to the ‘prophet.’ “This adoration of the living LDS president coincided with an increased emphasis on the dictum of ‘Follow the Brethren’,” not just the ‘prophet’. “We need loyalty to our leader,” future LDS president Gordon Hinckley said. God took the Holy Priesthood away when people wanted to rely on leaders instead of going to Him.
While God judges according to how true and faithful we are to Him, President Harold Lee said, “The absolute test of the divinity of the calling of any officer in the Church is this: is he in harmony with the brethren?” Being one of ‘the brethren’ is no guarantee. Judas was numbered among the Twelve. Apostles in recent church history committed serious sins too. Some elders “have no right to be [in the temple]. They are as corrupt in their hearts as they can be, and we take them by the hand and call them brother.” Jesus defines it differently. “Whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother” (Matthew 12:50).
Reaching consensus among the ‘brethren’ is not always easy. Accounts of discord and disharmony are many. First Presidency member J. Reuben Clark knew that “‘compliance’ was not ‘unity’.” Per ‘policy,’ authorities are pressured to go along with the majority. The children of Israel provoked God by relying on a majority of twelve leaders instead of believing a good report. Encouraging conformity over revelation makes “their understanding of God’s will secondary to their obligation to support the quorum . . . Harmony and unanimity became so important to the twentieth century hierarchy that some authorities have even assented to what they regarded as violations of God’s will. Seventy’s president J. Golden Kimball wrote in 1904, ‘Decadence is taking place in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and innovations are creeping in which annul the word of God to us’,” but pressure has only increased. Kimball explained “he had to ‘go right along with the authority, ask no question and await the results’ or else ‘be under the ban’.” In 1967 apostle Richards admitted, “I always say I am not half as much concerned about pleasing the Lord as I am about pleasing all of the Brethren.”
Decisions based on consensus instead of revelation greatly influence the direction of a church. First Presidency member Hugh B. Brown described the general process—an idea “is submitted to the First Presidency and Twelve, thrashed out, discussed and rediscussed until it seems right. Then, kneeling together in a circle in the temple, they seek divine guidance and the president says, ‘I feel to say this is the will of the Lord.’ That becomes a revelation . . . this is the way it happens.”
A few raised a voice of warning to no avail. In 1905 the LDS were told, “You should depend more upon [Christ] and less than some of us do upon those who constitute the authorities of the church.” But this contradicts leaders who tell us to keep our eyes “on the leaders of the Church . . . We will not and . . . cannot lead [you] astray . . . Teach your missionaries to focus their eyes on us.”
Counsel to “follow the prophet” to avoid apostasy may have begun in 1874 when Young declared, “I have never given counsel that is wrong.” A century later, doctrine of the church president’s infallibility was cemented by a talk given at BYU.
Leaders or priests may think they hold God’s power, but feeding their own interests only ensures God’s wrath. Priesthood cannot exist alongside pride, deception, compulsion, or greed, so admonition comes: “Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock . . . Be shepherds of the church of God” (Acts 20:28, Berean) “which he hath purchased with his own blood” (KJV). God is provoked when the “great and true Shepherd” (Helaman 15:13) is replaced by shepherd leaders who become ‘idols’ of the people. Their followers “made them . . . idols” (Hosea 13:2). With their own interests at heart, they have little to offer when it comes to salvation. Idol shepherds position themselves before God, encouraging people to adore and turn to them. Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but [My] sheep did not listen to them” (John 10:7–8, ESV).
“Woe to the idol shepherd” (Zechariah 11:17), blind to truth and whose power is lacking. “The idols have spoken vanity . . . They comfort in vain . . . Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds” (Zechariah 10:2–3). They “sought not” God and are “not sent” by Him, “yet they prophesied” (Jeremiah 10:21, 23:21).
Enoch spoke of end times when both shepherds and sheep stray. A generation of lambs would come who “began to open their eyes and to see and to cry out to the sheep. But they did not listen to them, nor attend to their words, but they were extremely deaf and their eyes were extremely and excessively blinded” (1 Enoch 90:6–7). God cannot approve our works if we blindly trust leaders instead of turning to Him. “Cursed is he that putteth trust in man or maketh flesh his arm” (2 Nephi 4:34), because “no man shall save thee” (Deuteronomy 28:29). “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29, NLT). His sheep know His voice and follow Him.
“The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep” (Jeremiah 23:1, Net Bible) but “your shepherds are asleep” (Nahum 3:18, NLT). “They have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:1, NLT).
“Instead of caring for my flock and leading them to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction. Now I will pour out judgment on you for the evil you have done to them” (Jeremiah 23:2, NLT).
The Love of Money: Follow the Profit
We provoke God by idolizing men, being consumed with wealth, or worshipping works of our hands.
Business and wealth also distracted people and priests at the time of Christ. The priesthood “derived considerable profit from” pilgrimages to the temple and its offerings. “Of course, not the ordinary priests who came up in their ‘orders’ to minister in the temple, but the permanent priestly officials, the resident leaders of the priesthood, and especially the High Priestly family” profited most.
Only a few months after Joseph and Hyrum Smith’s martyrdoms in 1844, the Twelve apostles required members “to immediately pay ‘a tenth of all their property and money . . . Then let them continue to pay in a tenth of their income from that time forth’.” In January 1845, leaders “reemphasized ‘the duty of all saints to tithe themselves of all they possess when they enter into the new and everlasting covenant: and then one-tenth of their interest, or income, yearly afterwards.’ However, only two weeks later the Twelve voted to exempt themselves, the two general bishops . . . and the Nauvoo Temple Committee from any obligation to pay tithing.” A special conference “voted to accept ex-communication as punishment for non-payment of tithing” in 1851, although violations were not fully enforced. At this time “the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles established a fixed compensation for church leaders.” “The priests ‘misinterpret’ the Law (MT: ‘have done violence’ to the Law). This complaint may allude to the priests’ interpretation of Lev. 6:23, whereby they excused themselves from paying the Temple tax and to Deut. 14:22–23, whereby they excused themselves from paying tithes.”
President Young boldly told members to “not forget their God and their religion in trying to get rich,” but he too spent energy accumulating wealth—a hypocritical act that did not escape notice. Regardless of what Young preached, the lure of wealth in the Salt Lake Valley was a great temptation for many, including Brigham, who had endured significant hardships for years. Only a decade after arriving in Salt Lake City, Young’s six-figure net worth was almost equal to that of the entire church. Two years before his death, Young “estimated his personal wealth at about $600,000 in a legal deposition,” but research found his net worth to be $1,626,000, a stunning figure equivalent to $35 million today. In spite of his tremendous wealth, just before his death in 1877 Young “obtained a cancellation of his debts . . . extending back to 1849.”
Brigham’s annual income was $111,081 in 1870 (2010 equivalent of $1,911,000). In 1866, Brigham’s ‘apostle’ son Joseph reaped exceptional reward for his labor, the only leader to receive compensation near that of his father’s. All others were paid exponentially less. In 1877 Brigham’s ‘counselor’ son John was compensated by tithing funds today’s equivalent of $344,000 a year. Soon after Brigham died the Twelve drastically reduced John’s excessive salary by 88% to today’s equivalent of $43,000.
In 1878, apostle George Q. Cannon was concerned that “the funds of the church have been used with a freedom not warranted by the authority which [Young] held.” But after “a large amount of tithing was consumed in what appeared to be fixed salaries attached to the several offices” of Brigham and John W. Young, President Taylor “established a fixed allowance to the Apostles” and other church officers.
In 1884 stake presidents were limited to keeping no more than 2%, and bishops up to 8%, of tithing collected but “as late as 1910, local officers continued to receive 10% of locally collected tithing,” a practice since discontinued. Paying salaries to local and hierarchal leaders was the norm until the turn of the century, when local leaders no longer received salaries. While tithing was the original source of funding, now investment earnings originating from tithing funds are utilized to give LDS hierarchy six-figure ‘living allowances’ with many perks and benefits.
For decades, prominent church members were able to take personal and business loans directly from tithing funds. A threat of bankruptcy from overspending and mismanagement of funds and investments challenged the LDS church into the 20th-century. Growing an empire economically, instead of spiritually, had ramifications in the way business was done. For example,
In 1912, LDS leaders vehemently denied their involvement in commercial endeavors. “The Church is charged with commercialism. There is not the least semblance of it, in truth. The Church is neither buying nor selling goods . . . It is not engaged in merchandizing of any description and never has been. And there could not well be a more false and groundless statement made against the Church than to charge it with commercialism.” This denial is surprising given that the church-owned ZCMI, ‘America’s first department store,’ was established in 1868 for wholesale and retail merchandising. Quinn explains, “In April 1912 that was only one of the church’s fully owned businesses that ‘engaged in merchandizing.’ In [Joseph F. Smith’s] view, Mormons were not selling products at religious meetings or going door-to-door to sell products under direct ecclesiastical management, so the church was not a front for accumulating money.” By “1964 the church’s commercial income accounted for about 40–45% of its total revenue,” a statistic First Presidency counselor N. Eldon Tanner confirmed in 1976 when he disclosed that church businesses contributed nearly half of the church’s income.
For many decades church-owned businesses engaged in commercial endeavors—and they continue to do so—although they recently denied the profits funnel into the Church. “There is no money in the Church except what our members offer,” apostle Jeffrey Holland said in 2011.
When President Hinckley received BYU’s International Executive of the Year award in 1998, he said “the church’s business is salvation” but admitted their businesses are “expected to make a profit.” The church’s heavy focus on profit is not new. In 1909 it was taught “through obedience to the law of tithing, we become the financial elect of God.” A 1920 youth manual described God’s ancient “business covenant with Israel.” In 1929 General Conference, apostle Stephen Richards admitted, “I like to think of the Lord as a partner, because the essence of partnership is a sharing of profit.” Presiding Bishopric counselor Marvin Ashton told the priesthood in 1942, “We brethren assembled here tonight are the directors of this great Church corporation.” Others said,
Embracing a golden calf will destroy us, and none are immune from temptation. Moses withstood Satan’s temptation, but Aaron fell for the golden calf. Satan tempted Jesus with power, position, glory, and wealth in this world also, but He resisted the sinister offer with an exemplary response: “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Luke 4:8).
The LDS endowment warns initiates that Satan’s master plan encourages all to seek money or power. ‘Do you have any money?’ he asks because you can buy anything (and almost anyone) in this world with it.
Many are taught by example or precept to consider the world’s resources and creatures as opportunities to be converted into cash or property. Nibley calls exchanging life for property the ‘Mahan principle.’
When generating profit becomes a major focus of a church, wisdom departs and man fares “according to his genius” (Alma 30:17). Some ‘genius’ ways to increase profits is to outsource work to struggling countries that must accept low wages or to use volunteer missionaries as employees. Many devout LDS dutifully agree to work without wages and pay their own expenses for 6-24 month assignments. Recently there is a steep rise in specialized ‘missions’ that more closely resemble corporate labor. Entry-level to highly-skilled positions are sought. In 2010, 20,813 volunteers saved the church “a billion dollars in salaries and benefits.” Where does that profit go?
Similar events happened in 12th century a.d., a time of great apostasy. The devout “contributed to the multiplication of religious edifices by their bodily labors, cheerfully performed the services that beasts of burden are usually employed in . . . and expected to obtain eternal salvation by these voluntary and painful efforts of misguided zeal.” The Lord has something to say about it: “Woe to him who . . . mak[es] his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor” (Jeremiah 22:13, NIV).
While missionaries and volunteers pay to labor and the poor struggle to pay required contributions on very meager earnings, the LDS church offers generous financial contributions to select businesses and organizations. Economics and local business interests were a major focus when Brigham’s companies entered the Salt Lake Valley. The School of the Prophets, originally organized in 1833 by divine command to lead men into the presence of God, the school went into disuse for many years. Brigham revitalized it in 1867 but with an emphasis on economic planning and politics, not spiritual ascension.
In 2016 the LDS church was the third highest donor to a brand new $100 million Eccles’ Theater, one of many projects the LDS helped fund to improve downtown Salt Lake City. But not everyone agrees it was an improvement. Eccles’ Theater ran a sordid assortment of plays its opening season, including Dirty Dancing, Kinky Boots, and most shockingly, the anti-Mormon, anti-God play The Book of Mormon—a vile, offensive, “biting satirical musical that mocks Mormons” and blasphemes God. That the LDS generously donated to an organization that made viewing this monstrosity possible in their city offends many, including God.
Extravagance is also seen in “Downtown Rising,” a Salt Lake City redevelopment project that cost a staggering $5 billion. Its conceptual design was presented by LDS presiding bishop H. David Burton. One of Downtown Rising’s most notable projects is City Creek Center, a high-end shopping mall built directly across from the Salt Lake Temple. While they justify such actions to beautify downtown, a decade earlier Burton proclaimed the real motive behind the expensive projects: “The Church should seek to do a better job parlaying Temple Square visitors into downtown cash.”
What better way to gain than to encourage shopping, our nation’s favorite pastime. This trillion-dollar hobby is so prevalent that one author cleverly calls the U.S. One Nation Under Goods, not God. Finding enduring happiness through acquiring things is impossible, yet billions of the LDS church’s money is invested in projects that encourage consumerism. At City Creek Center’s dedication in 2012, dignitaries including First Presidency members Monson, Eyring, and Uchtdorf shouted, in unison, on a count of three: “Let’s go shopping!” City Creek’s ads appeal to the world, sometimes depicting people holding what appears to be alcoholic beverages, or wearing clothing not compliant with LDS standards. Perhaps they must let the world in to recover the $1.5 billion spent on this mall alone.
Jesus ran moneychangers out of the temple, but today we bring them ever so near. The Lord gave a parable of priests who “consulted for a long time, saying among themselves” that it was “a time of peace. Might not this money be given to the exchangers? . . . They became very slothful and hearkened not unto the commandments of their lord” (D&C 101:48–50).
Beware of Speculation. Some are justifiably concerned by the church’s substantial business investments while so many are poor and remain in need. LDS apologetic arm FAIR responded to criticism noncommittally: “Church funds are best managed not by sitting in a bank account but through prudent investment. Investment in land and real estate development is often a wise and ultimately profitable investment approach” that eventually, if all goes well, could “make money that could be further dedicated to the Church’s religious and humanitarian goals.”
Scripture warns against speculation: “Be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God” (1 Timothy 6:17). Like Joseph, Brigham knew speculation was a real threat to spirituality.
Instead of building God’s kingdom, many “leading brethren had given their time and talent to speculation and were absorbed in schemes detrimental to their religious standing.” The impact was subtle but serious. “Their financial speculations brought on a spirit of self-sufficiency, and that spirit made them wise in their own conceit. The affairs of the Church were put to the test of ‘wisdom’—wisdom as they understood it. Such wisdom, however, was undermining their integrity.”
History proves that speculation does not always pay off, even for the Church. Speculative optimism crept into the Restored church with disastrous results. “The spirit of speculation in lands and property of all kinds which was so prevalent through the whole nation was taking deep root in the church,” a problem that could “overthrow the Church.”
Within only a few years, “a spirit of optimism began to fill Kirtland after the temple dedication, as ambitious Church members”1 became “guilty of wild speculation and visionary dreams of wealth and worldly grandeur, as if gold and silver were their gods, and houses, farms, and merchandise their only bliss or their passport to it.” Misinterpreting the reason for their prosperity, many took on debt and turned to speculation, believing that “the starting up, as if by magic, of buildings in every direction around us, were evidence to us . . . that the set time of the Lord to favor Zion had come.” In 1836 Heber Kimball returned from a mission and was shocked how quickly this attitude had taken hold of saints and leaders, who forsook their duties to seek speculative opportunities.
Joseph chastised “those who begin to spread out buying up all the land they are able to do, to the exclusion of the poorer ones who are not so much blessed with this world’s goods, thinking to lay foundations for themselves” or their families. “I want to tell you, Zion cannot be built up in any such way.” Only fools “believe your wealth will buy security, putting your family’s nest beyond the reach of danger.” It is not so. “What sorrow awaits you who build big houses with money gained dishonestly!” (Habakkuk 2:9, NLT). It will not end well: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses” (Isaiah 5:9, ESV).
Joseph was alarmed by the selfishness and covetousness found in the hearts of those professing to be saints. A form of idolatry, coveting is “more injurious to this people than all hell outside of our borders” because it causes the Lord to withhold revelation.
Penalties would come. Severe strife and apostasy afflicted the church when easy riches came to an abrupt end in a sudden, harsh financial crash in 1836. Banks, businesses, and speculators felt the pains of greed. But many who experienced devastating losses quickly forgot and again sought wealth a decade later in the Salt Lake Valley. Day and night, elders’ “minds are upon speculation, and they lay awake at night to calculate how they are going to speculate . . . caus[ing] them to have but little spiritual strength.” Young confided to his son, “There is a coldness in the minds of the people, a total indifference to the gospel and its glorious truths and the whole sum of their inquiries [is] how and where we can make the most money.” The end result of these works is chilling:
“Wherever you begin to make great expenditures of money, there is always some lack of wisdom, sometimes a lack of foresight, and occasionally, oh so occasionally in this Church, a lack of integrity,” Clark said. By 1963, “the LDS church was teetering on the edge of a crisis” with a $32 million (and growing) deficit, alongside a potential inability to meet payroll.
Building their kingdom. The LDS church spent over half a billion dollars to acquire 2% of Florida, with plans to develop a luxury resort town near Disneyland. In 2003, they owned large farms in at least 39 U.S. states and many countries. More recent LDS real estate deals include condominiums at the Regent and 99 West and a towering skyscraper at 111 Main, to name a few. In 2019, there was talk of purchasing a $129 million building in London. The LDS real estate arm was involved in bringing a World Trade Center to Salt Lake City. It is alarming that near the Salt Lake Temple they built a tower with the same name as that which fell on 11 September 2001.
Primitive Christianity became distracted by such things also. “The Christians excused themselves with the explanation that more urgent business had priority” over “the only education that counted—that which prepared the young for the next life . . . They had no time for such things. Why not, if the church was to continue? And why should a permanent and growing church refuse to invest in lands and buildings? For a long time eminent churchmen endorsed the old Christian prejudice against the construction of sorely needed church buildings. But what could have been the original objection to anything as innocent and salutary as the building of a church? The early Christians tell us: the church cannot own real estate (they explain) because it is only here temporarily, and must never be allowed to forget that fact.” Nephi prophesied it for today.
Increasing buildings and unholy temples is a dead and vain work. “Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin. They have become altars of sinning for him” (Hosea 8:11, NASB). It was prophesied: “around the property of your forefathers a palace will be built, a temple in the name of your God and the God of your fathers, and in the provocations of your children it will become deserted” (Ladder of Jacob 5:8–9). God told Abraham that it happens because they “continually provoke me” and commit sin “in the temple of jealousy” (Apocalypse of Abraham 27:7). Jealousy likely referring “to the priestly aristocrats vying for office and power.”
When asked how he receives revelation, LDS President Gordon Hinckley described “an impression” to build an extravagant building. Built in 2000, this Conference Center hosts the church’s semi-annual conferences. With an estimated $250-350 million price tag, it boasts elegance as “a magnificent house of worship” that is also “fully equipped for theatrical productions or concerts.” Its 21,000 seat auditorium has large red cushioned chairs with arm rests and an elaborate podium. King Noah, a wicked Nephite ruler with his quorum of high priests, also undertook many extravagant building projects.
The LDS church has become a corporation. A maxim says a church must separate from being Christ’s church to become a corporation. We “cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Waterman explains that if a church “wants to operate as a business, then it can [exchange] its sovereignty for special privileges granted by the government, which is what the President of what used to be the LDS church did in 1923.” The Corporation of the President was created “as the supreme organization of LDS finance,” essentially giving sole ownership of the church’s assets to the ruling church President. How did this happen?
In late 19th century, the church was growing stronger economically and politically. Because they practiced polygamy, in 1887 the Edmunds-Tucker Act gave the federal government power to disincorporate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and seize all of its assets (including tithing money, the Salt Lake Temple, and Temple Square). In that moment the incorporated LDS church no longer existed, at least on paper. Desperate to regain their assets, Mormonism dramatically changed and the church “eventually made peace with Babylon.”
By 1898, just days before his death, President Wilford Woodruff met with financial power brokers to remedy the church’s financial problems. Later President Heber Grant consulted power brokers as well then took out a $30 million loan ($374 million equivalent today) by offering the Salt Lake Temple as collateral. “The tabernacle, the lands, the Salt Lake Temple, Deseret Gymnasium, the Beehive House and everything in between was mortgaged to the hilt in order to finance various ‘business ventures.’ And it was a mortgage that lasted into the 1970s.”
Hierarchal leaders, who also may serve simultaneously on boards of directors or other corporate management positions, are more heavily engaged in managing businesses, profits, and investments than preaching the doctrine of Christ. Social programs, acquiring more land, or developing real estate projects are distractions that take considerable time and resources. A clever ploy of Satan, distraction keeps us from obtaining divine knowledge. Trying to simultaneously oversee a global church and a powerful earthly kingdom of assets and corporations takes a toll on one’s time. LDS president Hinckley “routinely lamented that he needed more time to think, ponder, and study, and only on rare weekends at home could he indulge in such reflection. For the most part, however, he raced from one assignment, appointment, committee meeting, or board meeting to another,” a lifestyle more like Martha than Mary—one that will keep us from “that good part” (Luke 10:42).
With the world coming apart at the seams, is the time of prophet or priest best spent on acquisitions or business deals? We must be cautious in assuming any power we have is true priesthood, for the endowment teaches that Satan retains some emblems of power. Priests who truly hold God’s power have an eye single to His work and do not tolerate distraction or deviation. From the beginning, “priests were to be wholly devoted to their ministry, not diverted from it, or disturbed in it, by worldly care or business . . . that they might be examples of living by faith, not only in God’s providence, but in his ordinances.”
Should those who claim priesthood exert their energies elevating the spiritual condition of the people instead of enlarging a corporate empire, Zion would be a reality. Distracted Nephites fell for the trap of riches and were warned that God will not justify it. “He condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things, his judgments must speedily come unto you” (Jacob 2:14). “Wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world” (Mosiah 4:23). Riches increase pride, leaving perpetrators empty-handed in the world to come.
The line between what is sacred and profane is not always easy to distinguish. God seeks wise stewards over His house, not great buildings or spacious malls, but many justify, even defend, their decision to spend billions on worldly endeavors as wise stewardship, saying, “Critics also overlook the fact that if money is spent to feed the needy, that money is gone. On the other hand, if the Church reinvests in Salt Lake City’s downtown core, this provides jobs and economic stimulus.” Nowhere in scripture does the Lord command His people to concern themselves with stimulating the economy, but He does declare that caring for the poor is an absolute requirement of Zion.
A Zadokite fragment denounces all who cast out seekers of God, alter ordinances, and “amass money and wealth” at the expense of the poor. When we lust for treasures of this world, gain is our god. Priestcraft relies on people having unyielding loyalty to leaders, whose time is occupied by business or wealth. They “devise iniquity” as they strategize day and night to build their kingdom (Micah 2:1). “They carry it out because it is in their power to do it” (NIV).
Wealth and power can transform people, churches, or nations into friends of key political, financial, and religious leaders, giving them everything needed for success in this world. Remember, “I give not unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world” (D&C 95:13). “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:4).
“If, then, you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust you with true riches?” (Luke 16:11, Berean). If we sincerely study His word, we will come to know that we have provoked God. We must leave the world behind to live a higher law.
Recognizing “gathering riches” and “profiteering from the spoils of the people” as snares, the wise “separate from the uncleanness of the temple treasure.” Pharisees “preferred the gold before the temple and the gift before the altar,” encouraging donations. Offerings are meant to bring us to God. To use or misuse tithes or offerings robs God of His glory.
Wickedness for wealth. In the early 1960s, massive construction projects were undertaken at great expense and “justified in the hope of increasing the tithing of the Church to cover the deficit.” First Presidency counselor Henry Moyle had a solution: his speculative “financial program was fundamentally linked with his missionary program. First, he expected a major increase of tithing revenues from a significant rise in convert baptisms. Second, he was convinced that massive increases in church membership meant there would be a thousand Mormons in towns and cities where a year before there had been only a few dozen. Therefore, Moyle ordered the church building program to construct meetinghouses for projected growth rather than for current needs.” But just because they built it didn’t mean people would come. “To get more convert baptisms from LDS missions he visited, Moyle ‘interviewed, encouraged, challenged, cajoled, and scolded the missionaries as he felt the situation warranted’.” Some high-ranking leaders were “gravely concerned about the pressures being put on missionaries to baptize to fill a quota,” but intense pressure to increase baptisms and tithing continued, creating a shocking program that became known as an era of ‘baseball baptisms.’
Europe especially claimed an astounding number of youth converts, who often were baptized without proper understanding or parental consent. “Some missionaries told the young Brits that there was a special initiation ceremony for the sports club. Often baptized at the local YMCA, these British boys thought they had simply joined an American baseball club . . . With little or no gospel instruction, pre-adolescent and teenage boys were joining the LDS church by tens of thousands annually throughout the world.” A few zealous missionaries falsified birth dates, names, or addresses to increase statistics, perhaps to avoid being chastised or penalized. “Missionaries who baptized fewer than the required goals were treated as faithless, as rebellious, as lazy, or as non-persons by British Mission headquarters,” so many “just succumbed to the pressure and were corrupted by this race for numbers.” Instead of teaching people how to pray, the priesthood preyed on people.
In 1961 Counselor Clark cautioned, “We should not become too engrossed in the number of baptisms to the expense of actual converts.” Apostle Marion Hanks sought to place “the real emphasis not on baptism as such as a goal, but on that conversion of life which is a longer term process.” As distressing details about the controversial baptisms continued to surface, President McKay instructed leaders “to discontinue such things and bring the missions back to a normal proselyting program.”
The impact was not easily remedied. With tens of thousands of unknown or disinterested ‘members,’ inflated mission statistics, many expensive buildings under construction, and members believing the phenomenal growth was legitimate, the church was in a dilemma. At this time, LDS policy did not allow voluntary resignation, so thousands of new converts who did not want church membership or even know they joined had no recourse but to endure a painful process of excommunication.
Although ‘baseball baptisms’ stopped, a focus on quotas or revenue continues today. One LDS leader recently counseled, “Every one of you go become millionaires. The church needs your tithing money!” How quickly we forget “that whenever you multiply millionaires, tribulation comes to someone.” Rationalizing our quest to get rich because we give a portion to a church is ‘familiar sophistry,’ a devilish tactic. Only “a man with an evil eye hastens after wealth” (Proverbs 28:22, NASB).
Some believe seeking wealth is justified as long as they remain active in, or financially contribute to, a church but it is not so. Monetary tithes have built their kingdom with their underlying desire for gain. Warning is given: “Be not thou found holding out thy hands to receive and drawing them in to give . . . Remember the day of judgment night and day” (Barnabas 19:10). Their “storehouses are filled with robbed goods” and God is not pleased. “I hate robbery for burnt offering” (Isaiah 61:8).
Remember, “businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of my Father” (Gospel of Thomas 64:12). Secular business is not the way of heaven. Do we really believe we will receive a celestial inheritance if we only live a telestial law? “No one supposes for one moment that in heaven the angels are speculating, that they are building railroads and factories, taking advantage one of another, gathering up the substance there is in heaven to aggrandize themselves, and that they live on the same principle that we are in the habit of doing.” So why do we believe it is justified on earth?
Satan leads us to believe that the only way to live is to enter the rat race, pursue profits, gain advantage, and dedicate our lives to obtaining the comforts of life. Believing ‘there is no other way’ puts us firmly in his power. We cannot take more than our share, ignore the afflicted, oppress others, or perpetrate greedy schemes, “setting traps even for their own brothers” (Micah 7:2, NLT). Even if attitudes of greed, oppression, or ‘everyone for themselves’ is the norm, God cannot excuse it. We must “seek to build up the kingdom of God and to establish his righteousness” instead of desiring “things the Gentiles seek” (Matthew 6:33, 32).
We forget that Christ and His apostles left everything behind, not needing wealth or security to preach His gospel. They had no property, no income, and no investments to distract their minds from higher things. When a beggar asked for money Peter had none—but he did possess something of far greater worth: power in priesthood to heal (Acts 3:6). Money cannot buy priesthood power or spiritual gifts.
Do we have as much spiritual gifts or priesthood power as wealth? Ignorant of their true standing, men think material prosperity is a sign of divine favor. To believe we can avoid financial trials or prosper more by being loyal to a church is dangerous. This line of thinking implies that our actions put God in our debt—that He is obligated to bless us materially. Blessings depend on obedience to certain laws, but presuming wealth is a sign of His favor, or that poverty is a sign of disfavor, keeps us ignorant of His ways. This is the sin of Ephraim who says, “I am become rich . . . in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me” (Hosea 12:8), but God sees it differently. “Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols that they may be cut off” (Hosea 8:4).
According to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the faithful must “observe to do according to the interpretation of the Law . . . [and] separate from the wealth of wickedness which is contaminated by a vow and curse and from the wealth of the sanctuary.” The rich are commanded to “sell all that you have and distribute to the poor” (Luke 18:22, ESV), not to obtain greater possessions at the expense of the poor. God’s people must emulate His character to bear His name. The temple’s rites and funds were to act as His agent on earth, so they must do His works. If “full of extortion, excess,” and “uncleanness” (Matthew 23:25, 27), our works will witness against us. “Woe to you who work iniquity and give aid to unrighteousness . . . Ye have gone astray from the deeds of holiness.”
Some justify the actions because the LDS church gives humanitarian aid. From 1985–2010 this amounted to $1.4 billion, about $52 million a year. In the last few decades, the church increased properties, building projects, and investments, but has humanitarian aid been given the same proportion or priority? Only a fraction of their enormous wealth directly helps the poor. “When you compare that to the $5 billion dollars we have spent [just] on one shopping mall, luxurious condominiums, and office buildings in an already affluent city . . . it makes you wonder what we love more.” Having seen our day, Moroni knew the answer:
Love of money increases the temptation to “deal treacherously” with others (Isaiah 33:1).Tragically, oppressing others for gain is considered savvy or strategic business. Instead of working for a common good, men gain at others’ expense. The antiChrist Korihor embraced this philosophy that “every man prospered according to his genius and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime” (Alma 30:17). “Men of injustice . . . are zealous for wealth.”
“An important part of the course was to overcome moral scruples . . . It’s a dog-eat-dog world, says the entrepreneur who comforts his ruined investors . . . We see it at work from the professional hit man and the impartial arms merchant down to profit-boosting, life-shortening additives in the supermarket.” Pharmaceuticals, genetically-modified food, and pesticides harm for profit’s sake. Experts warn, “In less than 60 years . . . growing of food will become next to impossible” because of topsoil degradation. It is done “for the sake of getting gain” (Moses 5:50).
The endowment exposes Satan as the creator of money and all it can buy, so to whom is a business dedicated? Again, “no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24, Berean). We think, and work hard to ensure, that both can coexist—but Christ and Babylon cannot be friends.
It is “great evil” to set our hearts on riches (Mosiah 12:29). God cannot accept hearts polluted by idolatry, unbelief, vanity, pride, or greed. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36, ESV). “For a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15).
With all their prosperity, they did not build God’s house or kingdom. They proclaim it is His kingdom, but in so doing they take His name in vain. “Let all men beware how they take my name in their lips—for behold, verily I say, that many there be who are under this condemnation, who use the name of the Lord and use it in vain, having not authority. Wherefore, let the church repent of their sins, and I, the Lord, will own them; otherwise they shall be cut off.” (D&C 63:61–63). They do not observe His gospel because there are still poor among them. Instead of offering themselves, people and priest fed themselves with indulgences.
Follow the prophet. Follow the profit. Both are forms of modern idolatry that provoke God. Trading spiritual tokens of the true God for those things offered by “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) provokes God, as does choosing to receive our comfort in the form of material goods instead of spiritual comfort. Exchanging treasures of heaven for that which cannot save is how we sell our sacred signs and tokens. Exchangers were cast out of the temple. “The more priests there are, the more they sin against me. They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols” (Hosea 4:7, NLT).
Consecration: “If Ye are Not One, Ye are Not Mine”
In April 1829, God announced “a great and marvelous work is about to come forth” then gave the first commandment of this dispensation: “Seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion; seek not for riches but for wisdom” and the mysteries of eternal life (D&C 6:6–7).
With enormous wealth at their disposal, many who prosper choose to accumulate riches instead of alleviating the needs of the poor. Those who covenant to live the law of consecration must give freely and fully to those in need, a law necessary to establish Zion, which has “no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). Many ignore its necessity, believing their responsibilities will, if ever, come at a future time—but the consecrative law has no conditional clauses that absolve us of doing its works now. Faithfully consecrating our time, talents, and possessions keeps our heart on the Lord, but many believe consecration is no longer relevant, or that it is observed by following leaders “without actually having to give up our own personal income and resources” but this is error. Others, including some apostles, believe it is not time yet, but this is foolish.
The irony is, what we think we possess in this life really is the Lord’s. “Your substance . . . doth not belong to you, but to God” (Mosiah 4:22). “I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine. And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must be done in mine own way,” not ours (D&C 104:14–16). Because the earth and its wealth are His, God has the right to distribute it how He chooses—and His way is to share sufficient to alleviate deprivation.
The world’s way—selfishness and greed—will never work, so a willingness to part with our possessions is essential. A telestial world will never understand but “I give not unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world” (D&C 95:13). Because this consecrative law is given so many times in ancient and modern scripture, covenant makers have no excuse for not understanding or observing it. Without living this law, we only profess to be saints but remain unprepared for Zion and the judgment.
Many seek a compromise, saying in their hearts, ‘we will do certain works’ but we “will keep our moneys” (D&C 105:8). Others dismiss their duty to fully live the law by donating to a church, but our responsibility to have no poor among us is not absolved simply by writing a check—especially if those funds are not used to alleviate needs of the poor.
To grudgingly give, or to hold back any part of, what we covenant to consecrate—which is all we possess or may possess—is sin. True disciples ‘forsake all to follow’ Him (Matthew 19:27). In 1842 Joseph “prophesied that if the merchants of the city and the rich did not open their hearts and contribute to the poor, they would be cursed by the hand of God and cut off from the land of the living.”
Enoch warns us against feeling secure if we “have acquired wealth and procured properties, have been successful, and are in a position to do whatever we please.” “Ye err, for your wealth shall not abide, but it shall go from you quickly . . . and ye shall be given over to a great curse.” “Like water, your lie will flow away, for your riches will not stay with you.”
Those who hoard wealth or increase possessions when others stand in need have “great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.” King Benjamin proclaimed our duty “to render to every man according to that which is his due . . . Impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath . . . both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants” (Mosiah 4:18, 13, 26). It is required to see His face.
When a homeless man spoke at a Utah city council meeting to encourage support for building a shelter, hundreds of citizens protested and booed as he “called for compassion for homeless residents.”
In spite of our other works, not consecrating will leave us short of an eternal crown, being “hypocrites who do deny the faith” (Alma 34:28). Paul agrees, “If any provide not for his own . . . he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel” who is damned “because they have cast off their first faith” (1 Timothy 5:8, 12). Brigham put it bluntly: “If we do not wake up and cease to long after the things of this earth, we will find that we as individuals will go down to hell.” Holding onto temporal possessions has serious spiritual consequences. Joseph explained,
Neglecting the needy contributed to a swift destruction of the once-affluent city of Sodom. Sodom’s people were prosperous businessmen, “the wealthy men of the world,” but greed took hold. “This is what your sister Sodom has done wrong . . . They had plenty of food and had peace and security. They didn’t help the poor and the needy” (Ezekiel 16:49, God’s Word). Sodom sunk to such wickedness that, even though they had abundance of “all the produce of the earth,” benevolence became “a capital crime.” Should it seem irrelevant today, in 2018 in the name of public safety some were arrested for feeding the homeless, “criminalizing and stigmatizing the most neediest members of our society.”
Without consecration, we cannot fulfill covenant obligations so we will have no celestial reward. Christ’s gospel prepares us for His millennial reign so His laws must be honored before He comes in glory. “Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.” For “if ye are not one, ye are not mine” (D&C 105:5, 38:27). Revelation, spiritual gifts, truth, cooperation, and having one heart and one mind are possible, but “this is Zion whom no man seeketh after” (Jeremiah 30:17).
The great duty that rested upon the Saints is to put in operation God’s purposes with regard to the United Order, by the consecration of the private wealth to the common good of the people.
The United Order, a communal execution of the law of consecration, was part of the Restoration. The saints attempted to comply with it under Joseph then again in the Salt Lake Valley. “Within five years of the death of Brigham Young, the church had changed significantly its position in regard to the United Order and other forms of cooperative enterprise. Except for the institution of Zion’s Board of Trade in 1879, the church increasingly gave its sanction to economic individualism restrained only by a proper respect for the rights and welfare of others. Business practices opposed by the church president in the early 1860s were not only tolerated, but approved by his successors two decades later.” This shift in position brought the decline and demise of the United Order, which the church has yet to reinstate again, although they covenant to live it now.
Ancient Israel, like the Nephites, were rebuked then cursed because “their whole law had become a law of ordinances and performances; they had left the spirit out.” Eventually, because of the “legalistic movement of” succeeding leaders, they “did not walk any more after the performances and ordinances” as God revealed (4 Nephi 1:12). Penalties are severe for covenant breakers. If any in the order
“There is no point in arguing which other system comes closest to the law of consecration, since I excluded all other systems when I opted for the real thing.” It is “the Gentile Dilemma . . . the easy illusion that I am choosing between good and evil, when in reality two or more evils by their rivalry distract my attention from the real issue.” And what is the real issue? We are to “go on to perfection, and search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness,” but “how we shy off from those things today! There is to be no discussion in the temple. When we leave the [temple], we leave one world, usually with a sigh of relief, feeling quite satisfied with ourselves to return to the other [world] where we feel more at home. Which is the real world? That is the question.” After all, “being damned” is nothing less than keeping “within the safe and familiar boundaries of the world as we know it.”
In 1873 apostle Lorenzo Snow said people are “not justified in anticipating the privilege of returning to build up the center stake of Zion until we have shown obedience to the law of consecration.” None can enter “till our hearts are prepared to honor this law and we become sanctified through the practice of the truth.” Living the law of consecration is required to receive our full endowment.
If we think it is impossible to alleviate the needs of the poor in this nation, we should think again. A U.S. economist calculated, “Before the 1974–75 mini-depression, all financial poverty could have been eliminated at a modest shift of $10–15 billion to the poor from the rest of the community.” To put in perspective, “$15 billion is less than 1.5% of the GNP, about the size of one of the cheaper weapon systems.” Or just a couple of downtown building projects. Eliminating poverty is within our reach—but are we willing? If not, we are caught in the net of riches. Until consecration is observed, division and apostasy will remain and Satan will rule. Though current teachings differ, self-reliance and materialism keep us in apostasy. “For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things” (D&C 78:6). Those given temporary, conditional custody of this world believe the earth is theirs. To be wise stewards of His earth, there is no room for greed. “For the earth is full and there is enough and to spare. Yea, I prepared all things and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves” (D&C 104:17).
Consecration is a mindset that leads to godliness as we lay aside things of the world. We must be willing to give something before we can give all. One of the easiest ways to start living this law is to give our excess to those in need. To sell what we no longer want or need limits the truly needy from receiving it. Having no poor among us begins by choosing to not seek more than we need and freely distributing excess to the needy.
The righteous distance themselves from this prevailing culture of coveting and corruption. A faithful, pure heart cures idolatry. “This is Zion—The Pure in Heart.” Zion will “rejoice while all the wicked” mourn (D&C 97:21). Levi prophesied that in the last days “priests will come who are idolators, contentious, lovers of money, arrogant, lawless” toward God’s commandments” so “priesthood will fail” (Testament of Levi 17:11, 18:1). They “have only provoked [Him] to anger with the work of their hands” (Jeremiah 32:30). “I will show unto them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I know all their works” (2 Nephi 27:27).
The “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27, NIV). “By making idols for themselves . . . they have brought about their own destruction” (Hosea 8:4, NLT). Idolatry has left them “destitute of the truth . . . from such withdraw thyself” (1 Timothy 6:5).
Satan ensnares us with nets that go undetected as we justify our actions as righteousness. Because the same temptations exist anciently as today, former rebukes against these sins still apply. Holy prophets relentlessly warn, hoping we will “liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Nephi 19:23).
Even Pharisees that realized Jesus “had spoken the parable against them” (Mark 12:12), but today most do not believe scripture is for us because it is about us. The reality is, today’s Gentiles have provoked God just like ancient Israel and other civilizations did.
Provocation One—Idolatry
Love of riches, unbridled anger or lust, disobedience, pride, idolatry, lack of compassion, neglecting the needy, or any sin increases the distance between God and man, keeping His spirit from us. Idolatry assumes so many forms that we may not realize some of our actions are iniquitous.
Idolatry, which includes anything that diverts us from doing the will of the Lord, reflects a serious breach of the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Jesus elaborated, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). The commandment to have “no other gods before me” means ‘in my presence’ in Hebrew. We cannot stand worthily in His presence if our heart is elsewhere. Whatever we trust in or set our heart on is our god. If our heart, might, mind, and strength are not fixed on the living God, we are idolatrous.
Nothing should take precedence over God. His will should supersede ours, and all that we do should help bring honor and glory to Him. We should acknowledge Him with gratitude and reverence, doing unto others as He would have us do. This is the essence of the first commandment. But because it is easier to rely on what we can see, touch, and possess now instead of patiently exercising faith, many trust in material things, “gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know” (Daniel 5:23). They “maketh a god and worshippeth it . . . and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god” (Isaiah 44:17). “All of them [are] vanity and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses. They see not nor know,” having formed gods that are “profitable for nothing” eternally (Isaiah 44:9–10).
Cain, the first idolator named in scripture, “loved Satan more than God” (Moses 5:13). Abraham’s nephew Lot was also tempted by idolatry. Only with divine persuasion was Lot spared before Sodom’s destruction but his wife, whose heart still belonged to the world, was destroyed.
The gods of Babylon—power, prestige, popularity, and prosperity—are demanding. Erring beliefs or ideologies are idolatrous too. Worshipping images or idols requires a lot of time, resources, and energy. Idols can be cars, homes, recreational toys, property, social networks, degrees/titles, materialism, sports, or any indulgence that competes for our attention or distracts us from the path to godliness. To seek these things gives them power over us.
Many idolize living gods like business, religious, or political leaders or celebrities in entertainment and sports. Many public idols promote agendas that vilify God and blaspheme His laws. Some are so bold as to openly defy or mock the sacred, while others discretely sell their souls for the glory or riches of this world. Few endure the pressure of stardom without adopting liberal views. Ideologies that dismiss God’s commandments soothe our conscience but they are the mark of Babylon.
Such attitudes have intensified dramatically in recent years. We must reject all forms of idolatry. Although God said, “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles” (Jeremiah 10:2, Jubilee 2000), many “mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works. They served their idols which became a snare to them” (Psalm 106:35–36, NKJV).
Even the most devout Christians are susceptible to influences that disrupt the conditions needed for Zion. Several decades ago, LDS president Spencer Kimball delivered a powerful warning to the church, saying, “We are, on the whole, an idolatrous people.” A century before Brigham Young said the same: “Whether you see it or not, I know that this people are more or less prone to idolatry; for I see that spirit manifested every day . . . The Latter-day Saints are drifting as fast as they can into idolatry, drifting into the spirit of the world and into pride and vanity.”
Every dispensation entered on its pathway to apostasy when the people compromised the worship of God with the conventions of men . . . The Gentiles—all people except Israel—the scriptures from the beginning mark as idolators. Among them worship of the true God was either nonexistent or they perverted it so as to render it ineffectual.
In pointing to parallels between the Lord’s people anciently and today, we must not presume that men worship the false gods exclusively. Among the Lord’s people, worship of the true God is rarely done away. Rather, as a rule people worship the true God alongside the false gods . . . This happy medium enables people to satisfy both their carnal instincts and their spiritual aspirations . . . Ironically, appearances of true worship persist in every stage of apostasy.Rituals meant to worship God can actually distance us if our hearts are not fully on Him. “Behold, thus saith the Lord unto my people—you have many things to do and to repent of; for behold, your sins have come up unto me and are not pardoned because you seek to counsel in your own ways” (D&C 56:14). By taking “strength unto themselves” (Jacob 5:48),
they have strayed from mine ordinances and have broken mine everlasting covenant. They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall. (D&C 1:15–16)
Nephi observed the same among his people: “They do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them. Notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide” (Helaman 12:5–6).
Worshipping Idols: Follow the Prophet
Bullinger wisely observed, “In the so-called Christian religion, men today do not make their gods out of wood, or metal, or stone; but of something far worse than these: they make him out of their own heads . . . Man’s mind is fallen and corrupt, and the imaginations of his heart are only evil continually. Corruption . . . [is the] new theology.”
The lineal descendants of Abraham were rejected of God because of their unbelief. They did not bring forth the fruits of the kingdom of God, therefore the kingdom was taken from them and given to another people according as Jesus had predicted. Now, why was all this? . . .
I answer, it was not only the wickedness of their rulers and the corruption and hypocrisy of their priests, but of the whole people, priests and rulers included . . . The people had lifted themselves up in pride. They loved gold and silver and precious things, and set up gods whom they might adore. If they did not actually set up graven images and gods of wood and stone, they set up teachers and priests like unto themselves . . . They sought honor one of another and sought not honor which comes from God alone.“Ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us” (1 Samuel 10:19). Desiring religious or political kings, even symbolically, puts our faith elsewhere. “They have appointed leaders but without My approval” (Hosea 8:4, HCSB). They “have strayed from my worship which had been the cause of my bestowing goodness on them . . . They have made kings but not through my [name]. They have made princes but not according to my will, . . . abandoned the worship of his maker, and built temples for idols.” Having a temple ‘for idols’ does not require literal statues or graven images. Idol, elil (H457), means insufficient. Only God is capable of granting eternal life so idolizing people, including priests or leaders, provokes Him.
Jesus said, “I am the light which ye shall hold up” (3 Nephi 18:24) but leaders ‘set themselves up for a light’ (2 Nephi 26:29–30), which is priestcraft. Relying on a priest, teacher, or leader instead of God is idolatry.
These men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be enquired of at all by them? . . . Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him . . . Repent and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For every one . . . which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the Lord will answer him by myself: and I will set my face against that man . . . (Ezekiel 14:3–4, 6–8)After quoting these verses, Joseph specifically warned against going to another, including a prophet, for knowledge or salvation.
The Lord had declared by the prophet that the people should each one stand for himself and depend on no man or men in that state of corruption of the Jewish church—that righteous persons could only deliver their own souls—applied it to the present state of the Church of Latter-day Saints—said if the people departed from the Lord, they must fall—that they were depending on the prophet, hence were darkened in their minds in consequence of neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves.Darkness comes from following a leader instead of receiving our own testimony from God of the truthfulness of all things. Joseph was rightfully concerned that this abomination would creep into the restored church, for later LDS presidents have encouraged members to trust in, and turn to, their leadership, promising security if they did so.
Some have gone so far as to declare, God “will not permit the men who preside over his Church to lead the people into error, but he will sustain them with his almighty power.” Such doctrine contradicts His gospel, but the promise of security without sacrifice puts many at ease. Desiring a prophet to absolve us of our spiritual responsibility to develop an experiential relationship with God repeats the children of Israel’s provocation at Sinai, but the LDS choose to believe otherwise: “The Lord has given some marvelous guarantees without any disclaimers. And this is one of them: He will choose the prophet and He will never let that man lead us astray.”
This damning precedent of trusting leaders to decide for us existed in the the days of Jesus as well. When Jesus exorcised a ‘dumb’ demon (a miraculous act Jewish theology reserved only for the Messiah), some wondered if He could be the One they awaited.
However, the people were not willing to come to a decision by themselves but were looking to their religious leaders, the Pharisees, to reach a verdict for them. . . In verse 24 the Pharisees made their choice. They refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah because He did not fit the Pharisaic mold of what Messiah was supposed to say and do . . . This was the leaven of the Pharisees that Jesus would warn His disciples against.Today’s erring but prevalent doctrine that a church hierarchy cannot lead us astray is considered scripture. Its modern resurgence may have gained traction as excerpts of LDS president Wilford Woodruff’s 1890 address on polygamy were canonized in 1908 as Official Declaration–1:
The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the program. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty.Woodruff was paraphrasing words Brigham Young had spoken years before but, unlike Young, Woodruff did not mention their conditional nature. Young had referred not to a prophet but to God as the only guarantee and gave a condition: “The Lord Almighty leads this Church, and He will never suffer you to be led astray if you are found doing your duty” to obtain personal revelation and come to Him. He warned, “How easy it would be for your leaders to lead you to destruction unless you actually know the mind and will of the spirit yourselves.”
This message was proclaimed boldly and often in the earliest years of the Restored church. Young knew it was possible for a leader “to give way to the spirit of the enemy and leave the spirit of the Gospel.” Should it occur, and “you were not prepared to judge between the voice of the Good Shepherd and the voice of the stranger, I could lead you to ruin . . . My caution and counsel to the Latter-day Saints, and to all the inhabitants of the earth is—‘live so that you will know truth from error’.”
To do it, we must be spiritually prepared and know the voice of God. Personal revelation is absolutely essential to having the kingdom of God on earth but complacency or greed keep us from it. “God had often sealed up the heavens because of covetousness in the Church,” Joseph said.
All they who receive the oracles of God, let them beware how they hold them lest they are accounted as a light thing and are brought under condemnation thereby, and stumble and fall when the storms descend, and the winds blow, and the rains descend, and beat upon their house. (D&C 90:5)Revelation is so important that Paul referred to Christ’s doctrine as “the first principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:12). The last revelation recorded in LDS scripture canon was a over a century ago in 1918.
If we do not get revelations, we do not have the oracles of God; and if they have not the oracles of God, they are not the people of God . . . Where the oracles are not, there the kingdom of God is not. Where there is no kingdom of God there is no salvation. What constitutes the kingdom of God? Where there is a prophet, a priest, or a righteous man unto whom God gives His oracles.Like Joseph, Young knew there is no guarantee. “I told the people that if they would not believe the revelations that God had given, He would suffer the devil to give revelation that they—priest and people—would follow after. Have I seen this fulfilled? I have. I told the people that as true as God lived, if they would not have truth, they would have error sent unto them and they would believe it.”
If He should suffer [their prophet] to lead the people astray, it would be because they ought to be led astray . . . It would be because they deserved it.LDS historian Arrington cautioned, “However noble the organization and its aspirations may be, the encounter with the Infinite is ultimately the responsibility of the individual and not the organization.”
Nephi knew that leaders would justify such actions as their prerogative (2 Nephi 28:5). Believing that a church or leader cannot stray contradicts scripture. “To claim that the true Church is immune to corruption no matter how much it changes is to hold all the warnings of the Lord and the apostles in contempt. They felt no such confidence: ‘For if God spared not the angels,’ what guarantee of immunity can men expect?” We are plainly told that if a prophet dares place himself between people and God, God will let him “be deceived” then “cut him off” (Ezekiel 14:8–9). Not coming to Christ leaves us vulnerable and deceived.
We, as a Church, must be under His guidance if we are prospered, preserved, and sustained. Our only confidence can be in God; our only wisdom obtained from Him; and He alone must be our protector and safeguard, spiritually and temporally, or we fall.Following a prophet while neglecting a personal and direct relationship with Him is idolatry. To blindly follow anyone denies Christ His proper role in our lives. Christ, who is the only way to the Father, implores us to “knock, seek, and ask” Him for knowledge. He does not relinquish His role, employing “no servant there” when it comes to our salvation (2 Nephi 9:41). But we let others ask and knock for us. “Therefore ye are not brought into the light but must perish in the dark” (2 Nephi 32:4).
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| Medallion of Clement VIII in Herbert Thurston, The Holy Year of Jubilee, 99. |
This 1600’s medallion of Clement VIII at the beginning of the Jubilee shows their ritual of the Pope at the Vatican, preparing to lead his sheep into God’s presence. The Pope comes off his throne and knocks three times with a golden hammer to open the Holy Door for his entrance, as well as his clergy and followers. We must knock at the veil or door individually.
Relying on a church or its leaders “relieve[s] us of all responsibility for seeking knowledge beyond a certain point” and stifles our ability to question or discern error. “There is no other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ . . . whereby man can be saved” (2 Nephi 25:20). “There is no Saviour beside me” (Hosea 13:4). “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). How quickly we forget that true “Sons of Heaven . . . have spoken to Thee and not to a mediator.”
Although God commands us to only follow the Savior and not rely wholly on a prophet, the LDS now emphatically encourage all to “follow the prophet.” It took time for this precept to take hold, but its premise was decades in the making. Automatically calling an LDS church president ‘prophet’ began in the 1950s then gained momentum.
The hierarchy and church publications encouraged an unprecedented adoration of church president David O. McKay. His ‘graceful, witty manner, his imposing physical appearance, his deep warmth, all made people see him as the prophet, to be classed with Joseph Smith’ . . . That changing devotional status of the LDS president can be dated precisely through the official Church News . . . During [1931–1955] no headline referred to the living LDS president as ‘prophet,’ and that term was used exclusively to refer to Joseph Smith or to prophets of the Bible and Book of Mormon.Changing the President’s title to ‘Prophet’ was not an easy sell. Although a First Presidency secretary admitted President McKay liked his ‘celebrity status’, church publications and many administrators were not comfortable with the bold change and refused to adopt it quickly. But persistence prevailed and a decade later, McKay was regularly referred to as a ‘beloved prophet’ and ‘prophet, seer, and revelator.’ The appointment of McKay’s successor, Joseph Fielding Smith, was announced as ‘Another Prophet Is Sent,’ a title that continued during his administration and only “intensified for his successors.” After Smith’s death, “recently sustained president Harold B. Lee complained in 1972 about this ‘almost worshipful attitude, which I am trying earnestly to play down to a respectful and appropriate loyalty to their Church leaders’.” Lee’s brief tenure was not enough “to reverse the accelerating adoration by the rank-and-file. One secretary to the First Presidency said, ‘The devotion of some Mormons ‘bordered on worship’ for Spencer W. Kimball’.”
Veneration includes members standing when an apostle or prophet enters a room but holy ones refuse it, saying, “Do you not see that I am your fellow servant? . . . Worship God” (Revelation 7:10). “Excessive attachment or veneration . . . that borders on adoration” is the definition of idolatry. “No more boasting about human leaders!” (1 Corinthians 3:21, NIV). True prophets are rejected, not adored (John 5:43).
Today leaders increasingly deliver emotional and flattering public tributes to the ‘prophet.’ “This adoration of the living LDS president coincided with an increased emphasis on the dictum of ‘Follow the Brethren’,” not just the ‘prophet’. “We need loyalty to our leader,” future LDS president Gordon Hinckley said. God took the Holy Priesthood away when people wanted to rely on leaders instead of going to Him.
While God judges according to how true and faithful we are to Him, President Harold Lee said, “The absolute test of the divinity of the calling of any officer in the Church is this: is he in harmony with the brethren?” Being one of ‘the brethren’ is no guarantee. Judas was numbered among the Twelve. Apostles in recent church history committed serious sins too. Some elders “have no right to be [in the temple]. They are as corrupt in their hearts as they can be, and we take them by the hand and call them brother.” Jesus defines it differently. “Whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother” (Matthew 12:50).
Reaching consensus among the ‘brethren’ is not always easy. Accounts of discord and disharmony are many. First Presidency member J. Reuben Clark knew that “‘compliance’ was not ‘unity’.” Per ‘policy,’ authorities are pressured to go along with the majority. The children of Israel provoked God by relying on a majority of twelve leaders instead of believing a good report. Encouraging conformity over revelation makes “their understanding of God’s will secondary to their obligation to support the quorum . . . Harmony and unanimity became so important to the twentieth century hierarchy that some authorities have even assented to what they regarded as violations of God’s will. Seventy’s president J. Golden Kimball wrote in 1904, ‘Decadence is taking place in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and innovations are creeping in which annul the word of God to us’,” but pressure has only increased. Kimball explained “he had to ‘go right along with the authority, ask no question and await the results’ or else ‘be under the ban’.” In 1967 apostle Richards admitted, “I always say I am not half as much concerned about pleasing the Lord as I am about pleasing all of the Brethren.”
Decisions based on consensus instead of revelation greatly influence the direction of a church. First Presidency member Hugh B. Brown described the general process—an idea “is submitted to the First Presidency and Twelve, thrashed out, discussed and rediscussed until it seems right. Then, kneeling together in a circle in the temple, they seek divine guidance and the president says, ‘I feel to say this is the will of the Lord.’ That becomes a revelation . . . this is the way it happens.”
A few raised a voice of warning to no avail. In 1905 the LDS were told, “You should depend more upon [Christ] and less than some of us do upon those who constitute the authorities of the church.” But this contradicts leaders who tell us to keep our eyes “on the leaders of the Church . . . We will not and . . . cannot lead [you] astray . . . Teach your missionaries to focus their eyes on us.”
They say unto the people, Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept . . . for God hath given His power to men. (2 Nephi 28:4–5)Worshipping leaders or a church itself, depending “on it as the spiritual component in their lives,” keeps us in darkness and delusion. In 1992 apostle Richard G. Scott shared his concern that many are more loyal to the church and its leaders than the Savior.
Do not put yourself between Christ and one of His children so that you block the path. And do not put the church in the place of Christ! . . . We have a serious problem in the church. We have been teaching each other to come unto church when we should have been teaching each other to come unto Christ.Severe judgments will “come in a day when there shall be churches built up that shall say, Come unto me and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins” and declared worthy. “O ye wicked and perverse and stiffnecked people, why have ye built up churches unto yourselves to get gain?” (Mormon 8:33). Paul warns of leaders who “are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive” (Romans 16:18, ESV).
Counsel to “follow the prophet” to avoid apostasy may have begun in 1874 when Young declared, “I have never given counsel that is wrong.” A century later, doctrine of the church president’s infallibility was cemented by a talk given at BYU.
President Benson told his audience of 25,000 that the ‘grand key’ to being crowned with God’s glory and being ‘victorious in spite of Satan’s fury’ was to ‘follow the prophet.’ President Benson then broke this one ‘grand key’ down into fourteen ‘aspects’ which he summarized at the end of his speech . . . adding that ‘our salvation depends on them.”Some of Benson’s aspects included that the prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything; a living prophet is more vital to us than scripture; the prophet will never lead the church astray; and those who follow the living prophet and the First Presidency will “be blessed; reject them and suffer.” Smooth words are effective tools of the devil, who “flatters us that we are very righteous” and only have to heed what the ‘prophet’ says without coming to God ourselves.
Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. (Ephesians 5:6–7)Discernment is crucial. Impostors abound. “Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Wolf, lukos (G3074), shares the base of leukos, (G3022), to be white, shining, or brilliant. Shepherds who appear as white and bid us to follow them are wolves—but their high positions, countenance, and charisma can deceive us. “In the last days, false prophets and corrupters will be plenty and the sheep will be turned into wolves” (Didache 16:3). The transformation is so subtle that wolves do not realize they are no longer sheep, having merely “a form of godliness but denying the power” thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). Going through the motions can bring positions of power, but it can never bring priesthood with power.
Savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:29–30, Berean)First Presidency member J. Reuben Clark knew, “Ravening wolves are among us from our own membership. And they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing because they wear the habiliments of the priesthood.” Though they appear white and holy, Nibley knew that many instead wore “the black robes of a false priesthood” and worship worldly honors and riches instead. True disciples know that deceivers are among them, claiming His name and authority and causing many to stray from truth. “Already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come” (1 John 2:18, NLT).
Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying—‘I am Christ’—and shall deceive many . . . Many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that remaineth steadfast and is not overcome, the same shall be saved. (JST Matthew 24:5–6, 9–11)An essential part of Satan’s plan is to convince us that he is a repulsive creature, not a sophisticated charmer among us. Appearing different from what we expect allows him to “operate with devastating effectiveness as a very proper gentleman, a handsome and persuasive salesman.” He whispers, “I am no devil” while appearing as “an angel of light” (2 Nephi 28:22, 9:9). So admonition comes, “Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).
Leaders or priests may think they hold God’s power, but feeding their own interests only ensures God’s wrath. Priesthood cannot exist alongside pride, deception, compulsion, or greed, so admonition comes: “Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock . . . Be shepherds of the church of God” (Acts 20:28, Berean) “which he hath purchased with his own blood” (KJV). God is provoked when the “great and true Shepherd” (Helaman 15:13) is replaced by shepherd leaders who become ‘idols’ of the people. Their followers “made them . . . idols” (Hosea 13:2). With their own interests at heart, they have little to offer when it comes to salvation. Idol shepherds position themselves before God, encouraging people to adore and turn to them. Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but [My] sheep did not listen to them” (John 10:7–8, ESV).
“Woe to the idol shepherd” (Zechariah 11:17), blind to truth and whose power is lacking. “The idols have spoken vanity . . . They comfort in vain . . . Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds” (Zechariah 10:2–3). They “sought not” God and are “not sent” by Him, “yet they prophesied” (Jeremiah 10:21, 23:21).
Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them . . .
My shepherds did not search for my flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock. Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock. Neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. (Ezekiel 34:2–10, NASB)God curses a “shepherd and idol that forsaketh the flock” (Zechariah 11:17, Douay-Rheims). “My people[’s] shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away” from seeking God (Jeremiah 50:6).
Enoch spoke of end times when both shepherds and sheep stray. A generation of lambs would come who “began to open their eyes and to see and to cry out to the sheep. But they did not listen to them, nor attend to their words, but they were extremely deaf and their eyes were extremely and excessively blinded” (1 Enoch 90:6–7). God cannot approve our works if we blindly trust leaders instead of turning to Him. “Cursed is he that putteth trust in man or maketh flesh his arm” (2 Nephi 4:34), because “no man shall save thee” (Deuteronomy 28:29). “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29, NLT). His sheep know His voice and follow Him.
The good shepherd doth call you. Yea, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of Christ; and if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd, to the name by which ye are called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd. And now if ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd, of what fold are ye? Behold, I say unto you, that the devil is your shepherd, and ye are of his fold; and now, who can deny this? . . . Whosoever denieth this is a liar and a child of the devil. (Alma 5:38–40)It is naive to believe priestcraft cannot exist in an ‘unpaid’ ministry. It exists every time men are idolized and gain honor or praise of men. “Woe unto you, ye who cause errors, and by your false deeds gain honor and glory.” God “commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion . . . The Lord hath forbidden this thing” (2 Nephi 26:29–30).
“The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep” (Jeremiah 23:1, Net Bible) but “your shepherds are asleep” (Nahum 3:18, NLT). “They have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:1, NLT).
Even those who preach among them, on whom the name of the Lord was called, in the headship over their brethren and in the offices of the Church, will be disturbers and self-exalting persons and haters of one another: lovers of money and destroyers of order who do not keep the commandments.
But they will not love their flocks, and in their days, men will appear as sheep who are ravening wolves, and they will eat up the labour of the orphans, and the sustenance of the widows, and every ruler shall pervert justice, and their eyes shall be blinded by bribery, and they shall love vainglory, and because of all these evils that are performed by them, they shall call upon the Lord, and there will be none to answer them, and there will be no Saviour for them; because evils are multiplied on the earth, and they have corrupted their ways before the Father in Heaven.Overcomers receive the fruit of the tree of life, but those who are overcome are not His, having “eaten the fruit of lies” (Hosea 10:13). God tells us how to discern: “He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple; and he that saith he receiveth it and doeth it not, the same is not my disciple” (D&C 41:5).
“Instead of caring for my flock and leading them to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction. Now I will pour out judgment on you for the evil you have done to them” (Jeremiah 23:2, NLT).
And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him. (Ezekiel 14:10)
The Love of Money: Follow the Profit
We provoke God by idolizing men, being consumed with wealth, or worshipping works of our hands.
The essence of this sort of idol worship is not that people really believed the idols to be gods, but that their manufacture, promotion, and sale provided them with a living . . . Manufacturing the works of men’s hands yielded income but constituted idolatry because what so many people worked at, oriented their lives around, was ultimately not productive. The work of idols did not sustain itself, but demanded to be sustained . . . Idols represented something socially acceptable into which people might pour time and money. The prestige the idols furnished made people protective of the system.Perhaps this is why Abraham’s father Terah, a man “led away by their idolatry” (Abraham 1:27), was angry when Abraham denounced Terah’s idolatrous business. It also may explain Terah’s fear of speaking against the system, knowing that people “will kill me because their souls cleave to [their worldly possessions and idols] that they might worship them and praise them.” But “no one can serve two masters . . . You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24, NIV).
Business and wealth also distracted people and priests at the time of Christ. The priesthood “derived considerable profit from” pilgrimages to the temple and its offerings. “Of course, not the ordinary priests who came up in their ‘orders’ to minister in the temple, but the permanent priestly officials, the resident leaders of the priesthood, and especially the High Priestly family” profited most.
Only a few months after Joseph and Hyrum Smith’s martyrdoms in 1844, the Twelve apostles required members “to immediately pay ‘a tenth of all their property and money . . . Then let them continue to pay in a tenth of their income from that time forth’.” In January 1845, leaders “reemphasized ‘the duty of all saints to tithe themselves of all they possess when they enter into the new and everlasting covenant: and then one-tenth of their interest, or income, yearly afterwards.’ However, only two weeks later the Twelve voted to exempt themselves, the two general bishops . . . and the Nauvoo Temple Committee from any obligation to pay tithing.” A special conference “voted to accept ex-communication as punishment for non-payment of tithing” in 1851, although violations were not fully enforced. At this time “the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles established a fixed compensation for church leaders.” “The priests ‘misinterpret’ the Law (MT: ‘have done violence’ to the Law). This complaint may allude to the priests’ interpretation of Lev. 6:23, whereby they excused themselves from paying the Temple tax and to Deut. 14:22–23, whereby they excused themselves from paying tithes.”
President Young boldly told members to “not forget their God and their religion in trying to get rich,” but he too spent energy accumulating wealth—a hypocritical act that did not escape notice. Regardless of what Young preached, the lure of wealth in the Salt Lake Valley was a great temptation for many, including Brigham, who had endured significant hardships for years. Only a decade after arriving in Salt Lake City, Young’s six-figure net worth was almost equal to that of the entire church. Two years before his death, Young “estimated his personal wealth at about $600,000 in a legal deposition,” but research found his net worth to be $1,626,000, a stunning figure equivalent to $35 million today. In spite of his tremendous wealth, just before his death in 1877 Young “obtained a cancellation of his debts . . . extending back to 1849.”
Brigham’s annual income was $111,081 in 1870 (2010 equivalent of $1,911,000). In 1866, Brigham’s ‘apostle’ son Joseph reaped exceptional reward for his labor, the only leader to receive compensation near that of his father’s. All others were paid exponentially less. In 1877 Brigham’s ‘counselor’ son John was compensated by tithing funds today’s equivalent of $344,000 a year. Soon after Brigham died the Twelve drastically reduced John’s excessive salary by 88% to today’s equivalent of $43,000.
In 1878, apostle George Q. Cannon was concerned that “the funds of the church have been used with a freedom not warranted by the authority which [Young] held.” But after “a large amount of tithing was consumed in what appeared to be fixed salaries attached to the several offices” of Brigham and John W. Young, President Taylor “established a fixed allowance to the Apostles” and other church officers.
In 1884 stake presidents were limited to keeping no more than 2%, and bishops up to 8%, of tithing collected but “as late as 1910, local officers continued to receive 10% of locally collected tithing,” a practice since discontinued. Paying salaries to local and hierarchal leaders was the norm until the turn of the century, when local leaders no longer received salaries. While tithing was the original source of funding, now investment earnings originating from tithing funds are utilized to give LDS hierarchy six-figure ‘living allowances’ with many perks and benefits.
For decades, prominent church members were able to take personal and business loans directly from tithing funds. A threat of bankruptcy from overspending and mismanagement of funds and investments challenged the LDS church into the 20th-century. Growing an empire economically, instead of spiritually, had ramifications in the way business was done. For example,
‘Mormon economic practices in regard to the salt industry more closely resembled the monopolistic practices of the day than they did the nineteenth-century utopian idealism of Joseph Smith.’ Likewise in the production of sugar during the same period, a recent historian has documented how the LDS Church’s efforts to corner the local market sometimes involved ruthless competition, shifting the balance between altruism and control toward the latter. A former-bishop-turned-critic, Heber Bennion, also wrote in 1920: ‘Our Sugar Company has made millions by pinching the beet growers on one hand and the sugar consumers, making sugar the highest price in the world in a sugar center where it ought to be the cheapest.’Ezekiel warns, “Your leaders are like wolves who . . . destroy people to make excessive profits” (Ezekiel 22:27, God’s Word). So it was anciently: “Commercialism seems to be the point behind subtle changes in Targum Jeremiah 14:18, as ‘both scribe and priest devote themselves to trade’.”
In 1912, LDS leaders vehemently denied their involvement in commercial endeavors. “The Church is charged with commercialism. There is not the least semblance of it, in truth. The Church is neither buying nor selling goods . . . It is not engaged in merchandizing of any description and never has been. And there could not well be a more false and groundless statement made against the Church than to charge it with commercialism.” This denial is surprising given that the church-owned ZCMI, ‘America’s first department store,’ was established in 1868 for wholesale and retail merchandising. Quinn explains, “In April 1912 that was only one of the church’s fully owned businesses that ‘engaged in merchandizing.’ In [Joseph F. Smith’s] view, Mormons were not selling products at religious meetings or going door-to-door to sell products under direct ecclesiastical management, so the church was not a front for accumulating money.” By “1964 the church’s commercial income accounted for about 40–45% of its total revenue,” a statistic First Presidency counselor N. Eldon Tanner confirmed in 1976 when he disclosed that church businesses contributed nearly half of the church’s income.
For many decades church-owned businesses engaged in commercial endeavors—and they continue to do so—although they recently denied the profits funnel into the Church. “There is no money in the Church except what our members offer,” apostle Jeffrey Holland said in 2011.
When President Hinckley received BYU’s International Executive of the Year award in 1998, he said “the church’s business is salvation” but admitted their businesses are “expected to make a profit.” The church’s heavy focus on profit is not new. In 1909 it was taught “through obedience to the law of tithing, we become the financial elect of God.” A 1920 youth manual described God’s ancient “business covenant with Israel.” In 1929 General Conference, apostle Stephen Richards admitted, “I like to think of the Lord as a partner, because the essence of partnership is a sharing of profit.” Presiding Bishopric counselor Marvin Ashton told the priesthood in 1942, “We brethren assembled here tonight are the directors of this great Church corporation.” Others said,
We are not merely clients or stockholders in the corporate Church. We are part of the family of the Church—the community of God on earth. As the ultimate expression of corporate Mormonism’s view of the cosmos, Hugh B. Brown informed the general conference in 1962 that ‘the vital and dynamic message of Mormonism is that there is a personal God in the heavens . . . We bear witness that his chief executive officer in the creation and direction of this and other worlds is Jesus the Lord, the Redeemer of the World, the Son of the Father.’ Thus this counselor in the First Presidency used a corporate term to describe Deity.Seeing the church as a corporation that expects profit leads priests to focus on accumulating wealth. “Show some of the Elders . . . a dollar on one side and eternal life on the other, and I fear they would choose the dollar,” Brigham had said. The love of money has only intensified.
Embracing a golden calf will destroy us, and none are immune from temptation. Moses withstood Satan’s temptation, but Aaron fell for the golden calf. Satan tempted Jesus with power, position, glory, and wealth in this world also, but He resisted the sinister offer with an exemplary response: “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Luke 4:8).
The LDS endowment warns initiates that Satan’s master plan encourages all to seek money or power. ‘Do you have any money?’ he asks because you can buy anything (and almost anyone) in this world with it.
‘Working in the service of a self-image that includes sufficient money, stocks, bonds, investment portfolios, property, credit cards, furnishings, automobiles, and the like to guarantee carnal security throughout, it is hoped, a long and happy life’ . . . has given us a mindset that is firmly grounded in Satan’s first article of faith: ‘You can have anything in this world for money’ . . . making men competitive in a big way.
[When Satan asked Peter if he had money, Peter knew he had sufficient for his needs.] “‘We have enough,’ Peter replied—the apostles were living the law of consecration. Enough was enough; more than enough was more than enough. No more was necessary . . . Satan had different ideas: ‘Oh no, that is not enough. Everything in this world has a price, and with money you can buy it. You can have it all.’ It is the big money that traps people. That is why the law was rejected.Satan tempts us not only with worldly goods, but with premature assumptions of eternal life. Corruption in the priesthood became so great in 16th century a.d. that, with money, people could purchase what they believed to be absolution from punishment for their sins in the hereafter. These ‘indulgences’ were a rationalized attempt to secure favorable judgment, exchanging money of this world for glory in the next. Today, requiring financial contributions to determine personal worthiness or granting positions based on worldly power or wealth is not much different. Pursuing wealth and power is Satan’s most effective temptation.
Now just consider what a magnificent effector of change Satan possesses in an instrument that will get you anything in this world. [Money] can change the most obvious realities, all moral values—black to white, making foul fair and wrong right; it can reverse priestly devotion and personal loyalty . . . It can sanctify the damned and damn the sacred . . .
The scriptures also speak of money as . . . a deadly cancer which, once started, cannot be stopped (James 5:3; Mormon 8:38). It is called filthy and nasty in the letter to Titus (Titus 1:7, 11). In 1 Timothy it is called the great deceiver whose deceptions lead always to ruin (1 Timothy 5:6). Repeatedly in the Book of Mormon we are told that when people ‘set their hearts upon riches,’ their doom is sealed.The world, by definition, has always sought for such pleasures but the priesthood must separate from it. True disciples proclaim, “We have hated the world and all that is therein.”
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world . . . is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:15–16)Satan “claimed all of God’s earth ‘most glorious and beautiful’ from end to end for his own; then he put up everything in it for sale to anyone who had the money; and finally he revealed the source of power and dominion under his system: it all rested on possession of the treasures of the earth, with which one can buy any military and political power necessary to rule, or rather misrule, among the children of men.” But we must realize, “Satan never owned the earth; he never made a particle of it; his labor is not to create but to destroy.” He offers all “the chance of a lifetime to buy in on a scheme that would give him anything he wanted in this world. It was an ingenious and simple self-financing operation in which one would buy power with wealth and then more wealth with the power, until one might end up owning and controlling everything. The initial capital? It was right under their feet! You begin by taking the treasures of the earth and converting them to cash, gold, and silver; by exchanging them for the services of important people in key positions, you end up running everything your way.”
Many are taught by example or precept to consider the world’s resources and creatures as opportunities to be converted into cash or property. Nibley calls exchanging life for property the ‘Mahan principle.’
[Satan] taught Cain the basic principles of business . . . How to get rich . . . Cain wanted his brother’s flocks (all the oldest words for money simply mean flocks; our words fee and pecuniary mean flocks) . . . [Satan taught Cain how to get gain and Cain] excused himself to God: ‘Satan tempted me because of my brother’s flocks’ (Moses 5:38), and having gotten the best of his brother in competition, Cain ‘gloried in that which he had done,’ rejoicing in the rhetoric of wealth: ‘I am free; surely the flocks of my brother falleth into my hands’ (Moses 5:33). He felt no guilt since this was fair competition. Abel could take care of himself: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (Moses 5:34).
It was all free competitive enterprise . . . the world’s economy is based on the exchange of life for property [and possessions] . . . The fearful processes of industry shorten and impoverish life at every level, from forced labor to poisonous air and water. This is the world’s economy [and] Satan is ‘the prince of this world’ (John 12:31, 14:30).Joseph warns, “Priests too should not be idle.” An idler gains at the expense of the laborer, seeks worldly riches instead of eternal ones, and stays busy but doesn’t establish Zion. Idle priests do things that seem worthwhile but do not sanctify. “I, the Lord, am not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there are idlers among them . . . [who] seek not earnestly the riches of eternity but their eyes are full of greediness” (D&C 68:31). Zion cannot be established if worldly desires rule our heart. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and dust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal . . . For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19, 21).
Labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish. (2 Nephi 26:31)“Tens of billions” in annual revenue come from the LDS church’s businesses, investments, real estate, and tithing. Quinn estimates the church received $33 billion in tithing income just in 2010. A 2019 whistleblower claimed the church collects about $7 billion a year in contributions intended for charitable purposes, but stockpiled $100 billion by transferring it to their investment portfolio. Even with astronomical wealth in just one account, when leaders in the greatly impoverished Zimbabwe asked for help to get clean water wells in remote areas in 2018, an LDS apostle responded, “We want to help in every way we can” but “we are not a wealthy people but we are good people and we share what we have.” The hypocrisy is real and so is their condemnation.
When generating profit becomes a major focus of a church, wisdom departs and man fares “according to his genius” (Alma 30:17). Some ‘genius’ ways to increase profits is to outsource work to struggling countries that must accept low wages or to use volunteer missionaries as employees. Many devout LDS dutifully agree to work without wages and pay their own expenses for 6-24 month assignments. Recently there is a steep rise in specialized ‘missions’ that more closely resemble corporate labor. Entry-level to highly-skilled positions are sought. In 2010, 20,813 volunteers saved the church “a billion dollars in salaries and benefits.” Where does that profit go?
Similar events happened in 12th century a.d., a time of great apostasy. The devout “contributed to the multiplication of religious edifices by their bodily labors, cheerfully performed the services that beasts of burden are usually employed in . . . and expected to obtain eternal salvation by these voluntary and painful efforts of misguided zeal.” The Lord has something to say about it: “Woe to him who . . . mak[es] his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor” (Jeremiah 22:13, NIV).
While missionaries and volunteers pay to labor and the poor struggle to pay required contributions on very meager earnings, the LDS church offers generous financial contributions to select businesses and organizations. Economics and local business interests were a major focus when Brigham’s companies entered the Salt Lake Valley. The School of the Prophets, originally organized in 1833 by divine command to lead men into the presence of God, the school went into disuse for many years. Brigham revitalized it in 1867 but with an emphasis on economic planning and politics, not spiritual ascension.
In 2016 the LDS church was the third highest donor to a brand new $100 million Eccles’ Theater, one of many projects the LDS helped fund to improve downtown Salt Lake City. But not everyone agrees it was an improvement. Eccles’ Theater ran a sordid assortment of plays its opening season, including Dirty Dancing, Kinky Boots, and most shockingly, the anti-Mormon, anti-God play The Book of Mormon—a vile, offensive, “biting satirical musical that mocks Mormons” and blasphemes God. That the LDS generously donated to an organization that made viewing this monstrosity possible in their city offends many, including God.
Extravagance is also seen in “Downtown Rising,” a Salt Lake City redevelopment project that cost a staggering $5 billion. Its conceptual design was presented by LDS presiding bishop H. David Burton. One of Downtown Rising’s most notable projects is City Creek Center, a high-end shopping mall built directly across from the Salt Lake Temple. While they justify such actions to beautify downtown, a decade earlier Burton proclaimed the real motive behind the expensive projects: “The Church should seek to do a better job parlaying Temple Square visitors into downtown cash.”
What better way to gain than to encourage shopping, our nation’s favorite pastime. This trillion-dollar hobby is so prevalent that one author cleverly calls the U.S. One Nation Under Goods, not God. Finding enduring happiness through acquiring things is impossible, yet billions of the LDS church’s money is invested in projects that encourage consumerism. At City Creek Center’s dedication in 2012, dignitaries including First Presidency members Monson, Eyring, and Uchtdorf shouted, in unison, on a count of three: “Let’s go shopping!” City Creek’s ads appeal to the world, sometimes depicting people holding what appears to be alcoholic beverages, or wearing clothing not compliant with LDS standards. Perhaps they must let the world in to recover the $1.5 billion spent on this mall alone.
Jesus ran moneychangers out of the temple, but today we bring them ever so near. The Lord gave a parable of priests who “consulted for a long time, saying among themselves” that it was “a time of peace. Might not this money be given to the exchangers? . . . They became very slothful and hearkened not unto the commandments of their lord” (D&C 101:48–50).
Businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of my Father. (Gospel of Thomas 64:12)
Beware of Speculation. Some are justifiably concerned by the church’s substantial business investments while so many are poor and remain in need. LDS apologetic arm FAIR responded to criticism noncommittally: “Church funds are best managed not by sitting in a bank account but through prudent investment. Investment in land and real estate development is often a wise and ultimately profitable investment approach” that eventually, if all goes well, could “make money that could be further dedicated to the Church’s religious and humanitarian goals.”
Scripture warns against speculation: “Be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God” (1 Timothy 6:17). Like Joseph, Brigham knew speculation was a real threat to spirituality.
If the Lord ever revealed anything to me, he has shown me that the Elders of Israel must let speculation alone and attend to the duties of their calling; otherwise they will have little or no power in their missions.In 1868 First Presidency counselor Heber Kimball warned, “A spirit of speculation and extravagance will take possession of the Saints and the results will be financial bondage.” In 1899, apostle Lorenzo Snow said God was “displeased” because of the church’s speculative investments.
Instead of building God’s kingdom, many “leading brethren had given their time and talent to speculation and were absorbed in schemes detrimental to their religious standing.” The impact was subtle but serious. “Their financial speculations brought on a spirit of self-sufficiency, and that spirit made them wise in their own conceit. The affairs of the Church were put to the test of ‘wisdom’—wisdom as they understood it. Such wisdom, however, was undermining their integrity.”
History proves that speculation does not always pay off, even for the Church. Speculative optimism crept into the Restored church with disastrous results. “The spirit of speculation in lands and property of all kinds which was so prevalent through the whole nation was taking deep root in the church,” a problem that could “overthrow the Church.”
Within only a few years, “a spirit of optimism began to fill Kirtland after the temple dedication, as ambitious Church members”1 became “guilty of wild speculation and visionary dreams of wealth and worldly grandeur, as if gold and silver were their gods, and houses, farms, and merchandise their only bliss or their passport to it.” Misinterpreting the reason for their prosperity, many took on debt and turned to speculation, believing that “the starting up, as if by magic, of buildings in every direction around us, were evidence to us . . . that the set time of the Lord to favor Zion had come.” In 1836 Heber Kimball returned from a mission and was shocked how quickly this attitude had taken hold of saints and leaders, who forsook their duties to seek speculative opportunities.
A grievous change had come over the Church in Kirtland. The greed of gain, the spirit of speculation was abroad in the land. Mammon had reared his altars on consecrated ground. The love of the things of earth had usurped, in many hearts, the love of the things of heaven, and comparatively few were free from the soul-destroying influence of idolatry. Idolatry? Yes; the bowing down to the modern Baal, the worship of wealth.
When we left Kirtland a city lot was worth about $150; but on our return, to our astonishment, the same lot was said to be worth from $500 to $1,000, according to location; and some men, who, when I left, could hardly get food to eat, I found on my return to be men of supposed great wealth; in fact everything in the place seemed to be moving in great prosperity and all seemed determined to become rich.
This appearance of prosperity led many of the Saints to believe that the time had arrived for the Lord to enrich them with the treasures of the earth, and believing so, it stimulated them to great exertions . . . My heart sickened to see the awful extent that things were getting to. [Many] entered into combinations to obtain wealth by fraud and every means that was evil.Massive land grabs were prohibited anciently. “In Israel, every man received a plot of ground, assigned by lot, as his inalienable ‘inheritance’—it was his lunch and could never be taken from him, even because of debt. It was only as much land as he could ‘quicken’ by his personal labor and loving attention, no more. This rule was observed in the settling the Salt Lake Valley when no man was allowed to buy and sell land or take more than he could cultivate,” but greed quickly took hold. “Woe unto them that join house to house, that attach the field obtained by oppression to their fields, that say, Until we possess every place!”
Joseph chastised “those who begin to spread out buying up all the land they are able to do, to the exclusion of the poorer ones who are not so much blessed with this world’s goods, thinking to lay foundations for themselves” or their families. “I want to tell you, Zion cannot be built up in any such way.” Only fools “believe your wealth will buy security, putting your family’s nest beyond the reach of danger.” It is not so. “What sorrow awaits you who build big houses with money gained dishonestly!” (Habakkuk 2:9, NLT). It will not end well: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses” (Isaiah 5:9, ESV).
Joseph was alarmed by the selfishness and covetousness found in the hearts of those professing to be saints. A form of idolatry, coveting is “more injurious to this people than all hell outside of our borders” because it causes the Lord to withhold revelation.
Where jealousy and self-interest exist, there will be disorder and every evil thing. (James 3:16, Berean)Joseph also grieved, “Speculative schemes are being introduced. This is the way of the world—Babylon indeed, and I tell you in the name of the God of Israel, if there is not repentance . . . and a turning from such ungodliness, covetous, and self-will, you will be broken up and scattered from this choice land to the four winds of heaven.”
Penalties would come. Severe strife and apostasy afflicted the church when easy riches came to an abrupt end in a sudden, harsh financial crash in 1836. Banks, businesses, and speculators felt the pains of greed. But many who experienced devastating losses quickly forgot and again sought wealth a decade later in the Salt Lake Valley. Day and night, elders’ “minds are upon speculation, and they lay awake at night to calculate how they are going to speculate . . . caus[ing] them to have but little spiritual strength.” Young confided to his son, “There is a coldness in the minds of the people, a total indifference to the gospel and its glorious truths and the whole sum of their inquiries [is] how and where we can make the most money.” The end result of these works is chilling:
Latter-day Saints who turn their attention to money-making soon become cold in their feelings toward the ordinances of the house of God.Speculation proved troublesome again in later years. “Despite a national economic depression that began in 1893, the First Presidency used nearly $217,000 in tithing funds in 1894 to establish the Sterling Mining and Milling Company. Within four years, they lost their entire investment in this speculative venture. The loss equals nearly $5.9 million in 2010 purchasing power.” Investing tithing money in business ventures continued for decades thereafter. Counselor J. Reuben Clark “said that church enterprises should not make too much money because that would be profiteering at the expense of typical Latter-day Saints whom the ventures sought to benefit.” He was vocal about the church having “no right to spend the tithing of the people” this way. However, in 1956 the Presidency still approved “a contract to set aside two-thirds of tithing income for continued investment despite the recent losses.”
“Wherever you begin to make great expenditures of money, there is always some lack of wisdom, sometimes a lack of foresight, and occasionally, oh so occasionally in this Church, a lack of integrity,” Clark said. By 1963, “the LDS church was teetering on the edge of a crisis” with a $32 million (and growing) deficit, alongside a potential inability to meet payroll.
Building their kingdom. The LDS church spent over half a billion dollars to acquire 2% of Florida, with plans to develop a luxury resort town near Disneyland. In 2003, they owned large farms in at least 39 U.S. states and many countries. More recent LDS real estate deals include condominiums at the Regent and 99 West and a towering skyscraper at 111 Main, to name a few. In 2019, there was talk of purchasing a $129 million building in London. The LDS real estate arm was involved in bringing a World Trade Center to Salt Lake City. It is alarming that near the Salt Lake Temple they built a tower with the same name as that which fell on 11 September 2001.
Primitive Christianity became distracted by such things also. “The Christians excused themselves with the explanation that more urgent business had priority” over “the only education that counted—that which prepared the young for the next life . . . They had no time for such things. Why not, if the church was to continue? And why should a permanent and growing church refuse to invest in lands and buildings? For a long time eminent churchmen endorsed the old Christian prejudice against the construction of sorely needed church buildings. But what could have been the original objection to anything as innocent and salutary as the building of a church? The early Christians tell us: the church cannot own real estate (they explain) because it is only here temporarily, and must never be allowed to forget that fact.” Nephi prophesied it for today.
Increasing buildings and unholy temples is a dead and vain work. “Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin. They have become altars of sinning for him” (Hosea 8:11, NASB). It was prophesied: “around the property of your forefathers a palace will be built, a temple in the name of your God and the God of your fathers, and in the provocations of your children it will become deserted” (Ladder of Jacob 5:8–9). God told Abraham that it happens because they “continually provoke me” and commit sin “in the temple of jealousy” (Apocalypse of Abraham 27:7). Jealousy likely referring “to the priestly aristocrats vying for office and power.”
When asked how he receives revelation, LDS President Gordon Hinckley described “an impression” to build an extravagant building. Built in 2000, this Conference Center hosts the church’s semi-annual conferences. With an estimated $250-350 million price tag, it boasts elegance as “a magnificent house of worship” that is also “fully equipped for theatrical productions or concerts.” Its 21,000 seat auditorium has large red cushioned chairs with arm rests and an elaborate podium. King Noah, a wicked Nephite ruler with his quorum of high priests, also undertook many extravagant building projects.
King Noah built many elegant and spacious buildings; and he ornamented them with fine work . . . And he also built him a spacious palace, and a throne in the midst thereof, all of which was of fine wood and was ornamented with gold and silver and with precious things . . . And the seats which were set apart for the high priests, which were above all the other seats, he did ornament with pure gold; and he caused a breastwork to be built before them, that they might rest their bodies and their arms upon while they should speak lying and vain words to his people.
And it came to pass that he built a tower near the temple; yea, a very high tower, even so high that he could stand upon the top thereof and overlook . . . all the land round about. And it came to pass that he caused many buildings to be built in the land . . . and thus he did do with the riches which he obtained by the taxation of his people. (Mosiah 11:8–9, 11–13)Parallels between King Noah and modern rule are many. Leaders “appointed from among themselves priests” of similar mind. Their priests “served their own gods” (2 Kings 17:32–33, NASB), having a stronger allegiance to the brethren than God’s laws. Alma, a high priest in Noah’s quorum, realized, “I myself was caught in a snare and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord” (Mosiah 23:9). Funded by the people’s money, King Noah and his priesthood “were supported in their laziness, and in their idolatry, and in their whoredoms . . . Thus did the people labor exceedingly to support iniquity. Yea and they also became idolatrous because they were deceived by the vain and flattering words of the king and priests” (Mosiah 11:6–7). This was “the means of bringing many souls down to destruction” (Alma 30:47).
Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’ So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red. Does it make you a king to have more and more? (Jeremiah 22:13–15, NIV)Many think their prophet-priest is a ‘king’ who rules the kingdom of God on earth but their priesthood’s priority for business separates them from God. “The sins of many people have been caused by the iniquities of their kings” (Mosiah 29:31). Aspiring leaders who seek “power and authority” (Alma 51:8) or demand followers sustain them with “an oath-like indication” and “recognize their calling as a prophet to be legitimate and binding” must repent. Claiming His kingdom, they “anoint themselves” (Amos 6:6) and believe God accepts it. Sometimes leaders claim priesthood kingship when they have only an earthly one.
[God] set the kingship beneath the priesthood . . . As heaven is higher than the earth, so is the priesthood of God higher than the kingship on the earth unless it falls away from the Lord through sin and is dominated by earthly kingship. (Testament of Judah 21:2–4)The Dead Sea Scrolls tell of a Wicked Priest who “forsook God and betrayed the precepts for the sake of riches.” He “heaps up what is not his own” and “amassed the wealth of men . . . adding to himself iniquity and guilt.” A thirst for wealth brings delusion and drunkenness. They knew that a Wicked Priest and “judgments of wickedness” would again come in the last days. Priestcraft lets us believe we can merge the two—a kingdom of our making and the kingdom of God, an executive president and a spiritual priest-king. To be accepted by God, kings must rule wisely with His power, keeping His order, “constantly prompting and instructing and acting with grace. To reign is from the same root . . . to be righteous and truthful . . . You are king only to the degree to which you are just and true.”
The LDS church has become a corporation. A maxim says a church must separate from being Christ’s church to become a corporation. We “cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Waterman explains that if a church “wants to operate as a business, then it can [exchange] its sovereignty for special privileges granted by the government, which is what the President of what used to be the LDS church did in 1923.” The Corporation of the President was created “as the supreme organization of LDS finance,” essentially giving sole ownership of the church’s assets to the ruling church President. How did this happen?
In late 19th century, the church was growing stronger economically and politically. Because they practiced polygamy, in 1887 the Edmunds-Tucker Act gave the federal government power to disincorporate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and seize all of its assets (including tithing money, the Salt Lake Temple, and Temple Square). In that moment the incorporated LDS church no longer existed, at least on paper. Desperate to regain their assets, Mormonism dramatically changed and the church “eventually made peace with Babylon.”
Sometime around 1900, the office of Trustee-in-Trust was reformed, then a few years later the financial interests of the ‘Church’ were protected under the ‘Corporation of the Presiding Bishop.’ Finally, in 1923 church lawyers found the Holy Grail: a rare, little known, and hardly ever used mode of incorporation known as The Corporation Sole.
Virtually unknown in America, and tracing its origins to ancient Roman law, the corporation sole was the way the vast riches of the Holy Catholic Church had been protected under Emperor Constantine. All financial power was vested in one man—in their case the pope, in [this] case, as he was named in the corporate charter, ‘the [LDS] President.’ Under the corporation sole . . . the president of the corporation needs no authorization from any mere member of the Lord's church. No show of hands, no vote, no ‘all in favor, please manifest.’ Like the Pope, his power is absolute. He is the Sole Brother.
Also written into the charter of the Corporation of the President as amended was how the line of succession was to operate within the Church. In order for there to be no question as to who[m] held the purse strings following the death of the president (the ‘Sole’ in a ‘Sole Corporation’), the Senior Apostle automatically becomes the next president of the Corporation . . . The line of succession is outlined in the state approved charter. God’s will isn’t mentioned anywhere in it.Leaders claimed revelation for many of their economic investments but their speculation and business ventures sometimes put the church in dire financial predicaments. Putting profit first had noticeable effects organizationally and financially. Brigham Young Jr. was concerned “there is too much time given to corporations, stocks, bonds, policies, etc. by our leaders . . . We are in all kinds of business interests. Even the members of the Twelve represent businesses which are jealous of each other and almost ready to fight each other.” The Lord prophesied that while exchangers or watchmen were “at variance one with another” and distracted from spiritual duties, the enemy would destroy their works.
By 1898, just days before his death, President Wilford Woodruff met with financial power brokers to remedy the church’s financial problems. Later President Heber Grant consulted power brokers as well then took out a $30 million loan ($374 million equivalent today) by offering the Salt Lake Temple as collateral. “The tabernacle, the lands, the Salt Lake Temple, Deseret Gymnasium, the Beehive House and everything in between was mortgaged to the hilt in order to finance various ‘business ventures.’ And it was a mortgage that lasted into the 1970s.”
Hierarchal leaders, who also may serve simultaneously on boards of directors or other corporate management positions, are more heavily engaged in managing businesses, profits, and investments than preaching the doctrine of Christ. Social programs, acquiring more land, or developing real estate projects are distractions that take considerable time and resources. A clever ploy of Satan, distraction keeps us from obtaining divine knowledge. Trying to simultaneously oversee a global church and a powerful earthly kingdom of assets and corporations takes a toll on one’s time. LDS president Hinckley “routinely lamented that he needed more time to think, ponder, and study, and only on rare weekends at home could he indulge in such reflection. For the most part, however, he raced from one assignment, appointment, committee meeting, or board meeting to another,” a lifestyle more like Martha than Mary—one that will keep us from “that good part” (Luke 10:42).
With the world coming apart at the seams, is the time of prophet or priest best spent on acquisitions or business deals? We must be cautious in assuming any power we have is true priesthood, for the endowment teaches that Satan retains some emblems of power. Priests who truly hold God’s power have an eye single to His work and do not tolerate distraction or deviation. From the beginning, “priests were to be wholly devoted to their ministry, not diverted from it, or disturbed in it, by worldly care or business . . . that they might be examples of living by faith, not only in God’s providence, but in his ordinances.”
Should those who claim priesthood exert their energies elevating the spiritual condition of the people instead of enlarging a corporate empire, Zion would be a reality. Distracted Nephites fell for the trap of riches and were warned that God will not justify it. “He condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things, his judgments must speedily come unto you” (Jacob 2:14). “Wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world” (Mosiah 4:23). Riches increase pride, leaving perpetrators empty-handed in the world to come.
You can tell what’s informed the society by the size of the tallest building in the place . . . [In] a medieval town, the cathedral’s the tallest thing in the place. When you approach a 17th century city, it’s the political palace that’s the tallest thing in the place. And when you approach a modern city, it’s office buildings and dwellings that are the tallest things in the place.
And if you go to Salt Lake City, you’ll see the whole thing illustrated right in front of your face. First, the temple was built. The temple was built right in the center of the city. I mean, this was the proper organization, that’s the spiritual center from which all flows in all directions. And then the capitol was built right beside the temple, and it’s bigger than the temple. And now the biggest thing is the office building that takes care of the affairs of both the temple and the political building.Though LDS mega-projects admittedly “come at an extremely high cost,” some justify exchanging spiritually-based works in favor of revenue-based projects to create a “wow factor” they think is needed to “bring the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints out of obscurity (necessary to take the gospel to the whole world).” God does not build His kingdom this way. Truth and light bring the willing to His kingdom.
The line between what is sacred and profane is not always easy to distinguish. God seeks wise stewards over His house, not great buildings or spacious malls, but many justify, even defend, their decision to spend billions on worldly endeavors as wise stewardship, saying, “Critics also overlook the fact that if money is spent to feed the needy, that money is gone. On the other hand, if the Church reinvests in Salt Lake City’s downtown core, this provides jobs and economic stimulus.” Nowhere in scripture does the Lord command His people to concern themselves with stimulating the economy, but He does declare that caring for the poor is an absolute requirement of Zion.
A Zadokite fragment denounces all who cast out seekers of God, alter ordinances, and “amass money and wealth” at the expense of the poor. When we lust for treasures of this world, gain is our god. Priestcraft relies on people having unyielding loyalty to leaders, whose time is occupied by business or wealth. They “devise iniquity” as they strategize day and night to build their kingdom (Micah 2:1). “They carry it out because it is in their power to do it” (NIV).
Elders of Israel are greedy after the things of this world. If you ask them if they are ready to build up the kingdom of God, their answer is prompt—‘Why, to be sure we are, with our whole souls; but we want first to get so much gold, speculate and get rich, and then we can help the church considerably . . . then we can do a great deal for Israel!’Satan is the author of this attitude. Some leaders set their hearts on the temple’s treasury. In spite of exorbitant wealth, the LDS are required, among other criteria, to pay ten percent of their income to enter the temple. It is not negotiable. Fulfilling covenant obligations is less a priority than paying money into the temple treasury, for their kingdom is built on investments and business. Speaking to BYU graduates, Nibley said that “the economy, once the most important thing in our materialistic lives has become the only thing. We have been swept up in a total dedication to ‘the economy’ which . . . [is] engulfing and suffocating everything.”
Wealth and power can transform people, churches, or nations into friends of key political, financial, and religious leaders, giving them everything needed for success in this world. Remember, “I give not unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world” (D&C 95:13). “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” (James 4:4).
“If, then, you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust you with true riches?” (Luke 16:11, Berean). If we sincerely study His word, we will come to know that we have provoked God. We must leave the world behind to live a higher law.
When I see this people grow and spread and prosper, I feel there is more danger than when they are in poverty. Being driven from city to city is nothing compared to the danger of becoming rich and being hailed by outsiders as a first-class community.The 1830s brought severe persecution to the restored church but by 2011, the LDS attained such national approval that President Thomas Monson was named in the “top 10 most admired men” in the USA Today/Gallup poll. “Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). True prophets are cast out, ostracized, misunderstood, disregarded, overlooked, silenced, or accused of apostasy. They are not thrust into powerful positions or rewarded with popularity. Paul knew that “if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). During Christianity’s apostasy, “the Saints had a greater number of worshippers than the Supreme Being and the Savior of mankind.” Remember, “the church ‘could not be Christ’s unless the world hated it.’ The disciples, following the example and precept of their Master, made no effort to win public sympathy and support.”
If ‘ease’ and ‘exceedingly great prosperity’ are certain to cause people to ‘forget the Lord their God,’ then the Church is in deep trouble because seldom, if ever, has any group been as prosperous as it is today . . . After 140 years of growth, membership numbers in the millions, persecution has largely vanished, and instead of ostracism, members are, for the most part accepted and respected . . . To fail to consider the possibility that the members of the church are again ‘falling away’ would be to ignore one of the most thoroughly documented lessons of history.The historian Josephus describes “the opulence of the Temple and the incredible wealth of its treasure” at the time of Christ. “He further reports that ‘no one need wonder that there was so much wealth in our Temple, for all the Jews throughout the habitable world, and those who worshipped God, even those from Asia and Europe, had been contributing to it for a very long time’.”
Recognizing “gathering riches” and “profiteering from the spoils of the people” as snares, the wise “separate from the uncleanness of the temple treasure.” Pharisees “preferred the gold before the temple and the gift before the altar,” encouraging donations. Offerings are meant to bring us to God. To use or misuse tithes or offerings robs God of His glory.
Wickedness for wealth. In the early 1960s, massive construction projects were undertaken at great expense and “justified in the hope of increasing the tithing of the Church to cover the deficit.” First Presidency counselor Henry Moyle had a solution: his speculative “financial program was fundamentally linked with his missionary program. First, he expected a major increase of tithing revenues from a significant rise in convert baptisms. Second, he was convinced that massive increases in church membership meant there would be a thousand Mormons in towns and cities where a year before there had been only a few dozen. Therefore, Moyle ordered the church building program to construct meetinghouses for projected growth rather than for current needs.” But just because they built it didn’t mean people would come. “To get more convert baptisms from LDS missions he visited, Moyle ‘interviewed, encouraged, challenged, cajoled, and scolded the missionaries as he felt the situation warranted’.” Some high-ranking leaders were “gravely concerned about the pressures being put on missionaries to baptize to fill a quota,” but intense pressure to increase baptisms and tithing continued, creating a shocking program that became known as an era of ‘baseball baptisms.’
Europe especially claimed an astounding number of youth converts, who often were baptized without proper understanding or parental consent. “Some missionaries told the young Brits that there was a special initiation ceremony for the sports club. Often baptized at the local YMCA, these British boys thought they had simply joined an American baseball club . . . With little or no gospel instruction, pre-adolescent and teenage boys were joining the LDS church by tens of thousands annually throughout the world.” A few zealous missionaries falsified birth dates, names, or addresses to increase statistics, perhaps to avoid being chastised or penalized. “Missionaries who baptized fewer than the required goals were treated as faithless, as rebellious, as lazy, or as non-persons by British Mission headquarters,” so many “just succumbed to the pressure and were corrupted by this race for numbers.” Instead of teaching people how to pray, the priesthood preyed on people.
In 1961 Counselor Clark cautioned, “We should not become too engrossed in the number of baptisms to the expense of actual converts.” Apostle Marion Hanks sought to place “the real emphasis not on baptism as such as a goal, but on that conversion of life which is a longer term process.” As distressing details about the controversial baptisms continued to surface, President McKay instructed leaders “to discontinue such things and bring the missions back to a normal proselyting program.”
The impact was not easily remedied. With tens of thousands of unknown or disinterested ‘members,’ inflated mission statistics, many expensive buildings under construction, and members believing the phenomenal growth was legitimate, the church was in a dilemma. At this time, LDS policy did not allow voluntary resignation, so thousands of new converts who did not want church membership or even know they joined had no recourse but to endure a painful process of excommunication.
Although ‘baseball baptisms’ stopped, a focus on quotas or revenue continues today. One LDS leader recently counseled, “Every one of you go become millionaires. The church needs your tithing money!” How quickly we forget “that whenever you multiply millionaires, tribulation comes to someone.” Rationalizing our quest to get rich because we give a portion to a church is ‘familiar sophistry,’ a devilish tactic. Only “a man with an evil eye hastens after wealth” (Proverbs 28:22, NASB).
Some believe seeking wealth is justified as long as they remain active in, or financially contribute to, a church but it is not so. Monetary tithes have built their kingdom with their underlying desire for gain. Warning is given: “Be not thou found holding out thy hands to receive and drawing them in to give . . . Remember the day of judgment night and day” (Barnabas 19:10). Their “storehouses are filled with robbed goods” and God is not pleased. “I hate robbery for burnt offering” (Isaiah 61:8).
Yet it is no new thing for the show and form of godliness to be made a cloak to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety will be reckoned double iniquity. They were very busy to turn souls to be of their party. Not for the glory of God and the good of souls, but that they might have the credit and advantage of making converts.
Corrupt church-guides make things to be sin or not sin as it serves their purposes, and lay a much greater stress on that which concerns their own gain than on that which is for God’s glory and the good of souls. Gain being their godliness . . . they made religion give way to their worldly interests.Paying tithing has other social benefits beyond temple admittance. LDS historian Leonard Arrington was frustrated by the church “appointing the highest tithe payers to positions of leadership rather than the most capable or worthy. In choosing stake leaders, the General Authority comes with a list of the 15 or 20 highest tithe payers and starts down the list to choose a stake president and high council.” Rewarding the wealthy with church positions is not new to this generation. At the time of Jesus, men could also ‘buy’ priesthood leadership positions with money or favors. Centuries later, “The opulent, whose circumstances enabled them” to make large financial contributions to the church “were considered the most intimate friends of the Most High.”
Remember, “businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of my Father” (Gospel of Thomas 64:12). Secular business is not the way of heaven. Do we really believe we will receive a celestial inheritance if we only live a telestial law? “No one supposes for one moment that in heaven the angels are speculating, that they are building railroads and factories, taking advantage one of another, gathering up the substance there is in heaven to aggrandize themselves, and that they live on the same principle that we are in the habit of doing.” So why do we believe it is justified on earth?
Satan leads us to believe that the only way to live is to enter the rat race, pursue profits, gain advantage, and dedicate our lives to obtaining the comforts of life. Believing ‘there is no other way’ puts us firmly in his power. We cannot take more than our share, ignore the afflicted, oppress others, or perpetrate greedy schemes, “setting traps even for their own brothers” (Micah 7:2, NLT). Even if attitudes of greed, oppression, or ‘everyone for themselves’ is the norm, God cannot excuse it. We must “seek to build up the kingdom of God and to establish his righteousness” instead of desiring “things the Gentiles seek” (Matthew 6:33, 32).
Remember your Creator, you who are caught up in the daily round, losing sight of eternal truth. You are wasting your years in vain pursuits that neither profit nor save. Look closely at yourselves. Improve your ways and your deeds. Abandon your evil ways, your unworthy schemes!Jesus commands us to “seek not the things of this world” and “take no thought” of material things. True disciples are content having sufficient for their needs, which God promises to provide. God can “supply all need[s] according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ” (Philippians 4:19).
We forget that Christ and His apostles left everything behind, not needing wealth or security to preach His gospel. They had no property, no income, and no investments to distract their minds from higher things. When a beggar asked for money Peter had none—but he did possess something of far greater worth: power in priesthood to heal (Acts 3:6). Money cannot buy priesthood power or spiritual gifts.
Do we have as much spiritual gifts or priesthood power as wealth? Ignorant of their true standing, men think material prosperity is a sign of divine favor. To believe we can avoid financial trials or prosper more by being loyal to a church is dangerous. This line of thinking implies that our actions put God in our debt—that He is obligated to bless us materially. Blessings depend on obedience to certain laws, but presuming wealth is a sign of His favor, or that poverty is a sign of disfavor, keeps us ignorant of His ways. This is the sin of Ephraim who says, “I am become rich . . . in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me” (Hosea 12:8), but God sees it differently. “Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols that they may be cut off” (Hosea 8:4).
According to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the faithful must “observe to do according to the interpretation of the Law . . . [and] separate from the wealth of wickedness which is contaminated by a vow and curse and from the wealth of the sanctuary.” The rich are commanded to “sell all that you have and distribute to the poor” (Luke 18:22, ESV), not to obtain greater possessions at the expense of the poor. God’s people must emulate His character to bear His name. The temple’s rites and funds were to act as His agent on earth, so they must do His works. If “full of extortion, excess,” and “uncleanness” (Matthew 23:25, 27), our works will witness against us. “Woe to you who work iniquity and give aid to unrighteousness . . . Ye have gone astray from the deeds of holiness.”
Because of your robbing the poor and oppressing the needy, and taking money of deception from them, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For it is revealed before me how numerous are your rebellious acts and how great is your waywardness. You persecute the innocent in order to take money by deception and pervert the cause of the needy in your synagogues.They seek for more, but when is it enough? As the powerful net of riches takes hold of their heart, Babylon whispers it is never enough. Although the LDS church is projected to have billions in annual revenue, a staggering $40 billion net worth in churches and temples, and more in land, businesses, and investments—there are still many poor among us.
Some justify the actions because the LDS church gives humanitarian aid. From 1985–2010 this amounted to $1.4 billion, about $52 million a year. In the last few decades, the church increased properties, building projects, and investments, but has humanitarian aid been given the same proportion or priority? Only a fraction of their enormous wealth directly helps the poor. “When you compare that to the $5 billion dollars we have spent [just] on one shopping mall, luxurious condominiums, and office buildings in an already affluent city . . . it makes you wonder what we love more.” Having seen our day, Moroni knew the answer:
Your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts. For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. (Mormon 8:36–3)Those who love money “have erred from the faith” (1 Timothy 6:10). The Lord will not tolerate their greed forever. Proud and iniquitous, they neglect the poor and forget the simple commandment: “Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God; for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18)—and He can take it away.
Love of money increases the temptation to “deal treacherously” with others (Isaiah 33:1).Tragically, oppressing others for gain is considered savvy or strategic business. Instead of working for a common good, men gain at others’ expense. The antiChrist Korihor embraced this philosophy that “every man prospered according to his genius and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime” (Alma 30:17). “Men of injustice . . . are zealous for wealth.”
“An important part of the course was to overcome moral scruples . . . It’s a dog-eat-dog world, says the entrepreneur who comforts his ruined investors . . . We see it at work from the professional hit man and the impartial arms merchant down to profit-boosting, life-shortening additives in the supermarket.” Pharmaceuticals, genetically-modified food, and pesticides harm for profit’s sake. Experts warn, “In less than 60 years . . . growing of food will become next to impossible” because of topsoil degradation. It is done “for the sake of getting gain” (Moses 5:50).
The love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. (1 Timothy 6:10–12)All greed is wickedness, yet how easily we believe the dangerous lie that because it is the way business is done, we can join in such behavior and still maintain a favored spiritual standing. There is no middle ground. “Many wanted to unite Babylon and Zion; it is the love of money that hurts them.” They build up Babylon but call it Zion. But the world is the antithesis of Zion, even if Babylon presents herself otherwise. “Zion has been pitted against Babylon and the name of the game has always been money . . . All that is quintessentially Babylon now masquerades as Zion.” By “pasting the lovely label of Zion on all the most typical institutions of Babylon: Zion’s loans, Zion’s real estate, Zion’s securities . . . Zion’s investment, Zion used cars, Zion construction, Zion development, Zion bank . . . The institutions of Mammon are made respectable by the beautiful name of Zion. Zion and Babylon both have their appeal, but . . . we cannot have them both . . . People simply can’t live virtuously and viciously at the same time. Yet they want to be good and rich at the same time and so they reach a compromise called respectability, which is nothing less than Babylon masquerading as Zion . . . The full-fledged citizen of Babylon is an organization man.” Worship of money is also seen in banks, like Zion’s Bank, that have architecture similar to temples.
In our day, as . . . other times in history, the sanctity and the authority of the temple have been preempted in the religion of mammon. For example, our banks are designed after the manner of ancient temples, with imposing fronts, ceremonial gates and courts, the onyx, the marble, the bronze—all are the substances of ancient temples. The sacred hush that prevails, the air of propriety, decorum, and dedication . . . The massive vault door, through which only the initiated may pass, gleams chastely in immaculate metal. The symbol makes the reality of all that is safe and secure—that is, the Holy of Holies.For decades, many LDS church presidents simultaneously served as directors, presidents, or chairmen of Zion’s First National Bank. Their priesthood is used to dedicate new banks. To dedicate is to consecrate to a divine being, to wholly devote one’s efforts, to declare it holy or sacred. Should priests dedicate law offices, banks, office buildings, malls, or other worldly interests? By declaring the profane to be holy, they fail in their priesthood duties to “distinguish between clean and unclean [and] proclaim the difference between holy and profane.”
The endowment exposes Satan as the creator of money and all it can buy, so to whom is a business dedicated? Again, “no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24, Berean). We think, and work hard to ensure, that both can coexist—but Christ and Babylon cannot be friends.
Today, as in the ancient church, those who embrace Babylon in its stark reality do not renounce Zion. They don’t need to. As the Great Apostasy progressed, the Christian world got ever more mileage out of the name of Christianity . . . The farther they fall away from real Christianity, the more loudly they proclaim and the more enthusiastically they display the name and banner of Christ . . . All you had to do to be righteous was to wave the flag of Christianity. As these early church leaders say, the word Christian completely lost its meaning.
Today, the beautiful word Zion, with all its emotional and historical associations, is used as the name Christian was formerly used, to put the stamp of sanctity on whatever men chose to do . . . From the very first, there were Latter-day Saints who thought to promote the cause of Zion by using the methods of Babylon.Zion cannot tolerate ungodly agendas or desire for personal gain. In 1902 President Joseph F. Smith assured, “We feel in our hearts that Zion is prospering and that all is well with the people of God at large.” Over a century later, similar sentiments exist. “Zion is everywhere—wherever the Church is.” We are warned, “Others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell” (2 Nephi 28:21). “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1), for they are in Satan’s power (2 Nephi 28:18–20). “For they love darkness rather than light, and their deeds are evil, and they receive their wages of whom they list to obey” (D&C 29:45).
I say unto you, can ye think of being saved when you have yielded yourselves to become subjects to the devil? (Alma 5:20)Zion’s prosperity is often defined by tithing collected, temples constructed, or property accumulated, but God says, “Zion must increase in beauty and in holiness” (D&C 82:14). There is no provision for massive bank accounts, savvy dealings, or numerous holdings. Expanding portfolios, properties, or possessions with great energy and zeal, their empire built on money, reforms, and injustice will never be God’s kingdom. Instead, “hell hath enlarged herself” by their works (2 Nephi 15:14). There will be “burning instead of beauty” (Isaiah 3:18, 24).
It is “great evil” to set our hearts on riches (Mosiah 12:29). God cannot accept hearts polluted by idolatry, unbelief, vanity, pride, or greed. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36, ESV). “For a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15).
With all their prosperity, they did not build God’s house or kingdom. They proclaim it is His kingdom, but in so doing they take His name in vain. “Let all men beware how they take my name in their lips—for behold, verily I say, that many there be who are under this condemnation, who use the name of the Lord and use it in vain, having not authority. Wherefore, let the church repent of their sins, and I, the Lord, will own them; otherwise they shall be cut off.” (D&C 63:61–63). They do not observe His gospel because there are still poor among them. Instead of offering themselves, people and priest fed themselves with indulgences.
‘Wo unto the rich, who are rich as to the things of the world’ . . . Why does Jacob make this number one in his explicit list of offenses against God? Because it is the number one device among the enticings of ‘that cunning one’ who knows that riches are his most effective weapon in leading men astray.Putting worldly endeavors over a spiritual endowment sets shepherds and their flock on a path that cannot lead to God. Seeking things of the world is worshipping a false god. Exerting energy to obtain money, honors, power, position, fame, favors, or praise of the world—at the expense of becoming sanctified—is sin. “Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people . . . to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world” (3 Nephi 6:15). “Wo unto those that worship idols for the devil of all devils delighteth in them” (2 Nephi 9:37).
Follow the prophet. Follow the profit. Both are forms of modern idolatry that provoke God. Trading spiritual tokens of the true God for those things offered by “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) provokes God, as does choosing to receive our comfort in the form of material goods instead of spiritual comfort. Exchanging treasures of heaven for that which cannot save is how we sell our sacred signs and tokens. Exchangers were cast out of the temple. “The more priests there are, the more they sin against me. They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols” (Hosea 4:7, NLT).
The time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake. They are those who must be brought low in the dust. They are those who must be consumed as stubble. (1 Nephi 22:23)With hearts set on wealth, the “wickedness and idolatry of the people was bringing a curse upon the land” (Ether 7:23). As God begins “to take the curse from off the land,” people “prosper exceedingly” and forget Him (Ether 9:16). A destructive cycle of prosperity and pride is pervasive in scripture. Pride becomes vanity, turns to scorn, and ends in destruction. Curses befall all who worship that “which doth not belong to you, but to God . . . Wo be unto that man for his substance shall perish with him” (Mosiah 4:22–23). Satan gains power simply by convincing the ungodly to rule the land God created for man’s exaltation. We forget, “all things were created by him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). The reality is,
‘Those who insist on ‘clinging to the earth’ as if they owned it have forever disqualified themselves from receiving hereafter’ the powers and dominions of eternity.“Woe to him who increases that which is not his and who enriches himself” (Habakkuk 2:6, WEB). “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness” (Psalm 24:1), having “enough and to spare” for all (D&C 104:17). Man is to exercise righteous dominion, a sacred responsibility that leaves no room for selfishness or sabotage. “The earth’s treasures no longer serve to build God’s garden for all to live in, but they have been made to serve the powers of exploitation and destruction.” Treasures of the earth must further the Lord’s work and relieve others’ burdens, not increase pride and power.
The dominion God gives man is designed to test him, to enable him to show to himself, his fellows, and all the heavens just how he would act if entrusted with God’s own power . . . Adam’s dominion was nothing less than the priesthood, the power to act for God and in his place.Have we handled this dominion in a godly manner? Or have we succumbed to the temptation to rule with our own desires? If we have not acted in righteousness, we remain ensnared.
Let them repent of all their sins and of all their covetous desires . . . for what is property unto me? . . . Your faith is in vain and ye are found hypocrites, and the covenants which ye have made unto me are broken. (D&C 117:4, 104:54–55)
Consecration: “If Ye are Not One, Ye are Not Mine”
In April 1829, God announced “a great and marvelous work is about to come forth” then gave the first commandment of this dispensation: “Seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion; seek not for riches but for wisdom” and the mysteries of eternal life (D&C 6:6–7).
With enormous wealth at their disposal, many who prosper choose to accumulate riches instead of alleviating the needs of the poor. Those who covenant to live the law of consecration must give freely and fully to those in need, a law necessary to establish Zion, which has “no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). Many ignore its necessity, believing their responsibilities will, if ever, come at a future time—but the consecrative law has no conditional clauses that absolve us of doing its works now. Faithfully consecrating our time, talents, and possessions keeps our heart on the Lord, but many believe consecration is no longer relevant, or that it is observed by following leaders “without actually having to give up our own personal income and resources” but this is error. Others, including some apostles, believe it is not time yet, but this is foolish.
Perhaps the most common excuse for holding us back is that the plan is premature. It was restored by Elijah, who brought the temple ordinances, declaring in his opening words to the Prophet Joseph, ‘The time has fully come!’ (D&C 110:14).Others believe we have progressed beyond this law, that we can compromise, or that its implementation is impractical, if not impossible today. The Lord has never discontinued, delayed, or revoked our obligation to consecrate. This law is “for a permanent and everlasting establishment and order unto my church,” and “none are exempt from this law who belong to the church of the living God” (D&C 78:4, 70:10).
The irony is, what we think we possess in this life really is the Lord’s. “Your substance . . . doth not belong to you, but to God” (Mosiah 4:22). “I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine. And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must be done in mine own way,” not ours (D&C 104:14–16). Because the earth and its wealth are His, God has the right to distribute it how He chooses—and His way is to share sufficient to alleviate deprivation.
The world’s way—selfishness and greed—will never work, so a willingness to part with our possessions is essential. A telestial world will never understand but “I give not unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world” (D&C 95:13). Because this consecrative law is given so many times in ancient and modern scripture, covenant makers have no excuse for not understanding or observing it. Without living this law, we only profess to be saints but remain unprepared for Zion and the judgment.
The express purpose of the law of consecration is the building up of Zion . . . We do not wait until Zion is here to observe it. It is rather the means of bringing us nearer to Zion.Founded on the laws of obedience and sacrifice, the law of consecration existed in the days of Adam, Noah, and Enoch, but the children of Israel refused it under Moses. Christ’s apostles (Acts 2, 4:32), the Essenes, Alma’s people (Alma 1:26–29), and the Nephites after His resurrection (4 Nephi 1:3) all practiced voluntary communalism. Consecration was again introduced at the Restoration but failed when there were “too many dishonest men amongst us” who pushed to venture solo into business, to replace cooperative with private enterprise. “They couldn’t tolerate the righteous pace so they were lifted up in pride . . . seeking the fine things of the world.” Choosing competition over cooperation will always fail. No society is stable without consecration. “The greatest temporal and spiritual blessings, which always come from faithfulness and concerted effort, never attended individual exertion or enterprise.” A Utopian work observes, “Where private property rules, where money is the measure of all things for everyone, it is virtually impossible for society to flourish [even] under righteous administration.” Serving our own interests prevents Zion.
Every step in the direction of increasing one’s personal holdings is a step away from Zion.While some offer their talents or time, when it comes to consecrating possessions, far fewer are willing to obey. When a rich young man asked Jesus what he must to do to obtain eternal life, he was told to live the law of consecration, but he refused. “How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:24). “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).
Many seek a compromise, saying in their hearts, ‘we will do certain works’ but we “will keep our moneys” (D&C 105:8). Others dismiss their duty to fully live the law by donating to a church, but our responsibility to have no poor among us is not absolved simply by writing a check—especially if those funds are not used to alleviate needs of the poor.
To grudgingly give, or to hold back any part of, what we covenant to consecrate—which is all we possess or may possess—is sin. True disciples ‘forsake all to follow’ Him (Matthew 19:27). In 1842 Joseph “prophesied that if the merchants of the city and the rich did not open their hearts and contribute to the poor, they would be cursed by the hand of God and cut off from the land of the living.”
Enoch warns us against feeling secure if we “have acquired wealth and procured properties, have been successful, and are in a position to do whatever we please.” “Ye err, for your wealth shall not abide, but it shall go from you quickly . . . and ye shall be given over to a great curse.” “Like water, your lie will flow away, for your riches will not stay with you.”
Those who hoard wealth or increase possessions when others stand in need have “great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.” King Benjamin proclaimed our duty “to render to every man according to that which is his due . . . Impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath . . . both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants” (Mosiah 4:18, 13, 26). It is required to see His face.
Give alms of thy substance . . . and the face of the Lord shall not be turned away from thee . . . If thou hast abundance, give alms accordingly. If thou have but a little, be not afraid to give according to that little for thou layest up a good treasure for thyself against the day of necessity because alms do deliver from death and suffereth not to come into darkness . . . Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life, but they that sin are enemies to their own life. (Tobit 4:7–10, 12:9–10)We must consecrate to “be considered a legal heir to the kingdom of Zion . . . Unless he does this, he cannot be acknowledged before the Lord . . . Every man must be his own judge” as to what to give or receive.
The only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, and amusements, etc. is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them.We are to give all which God has (and may still) bless us. “Impart of their substance, every one according to that which he had. If he have more abundantly he should impart more abundantly; and of him that had but little, but little should be required; and to him that had not should be given . . . of their own free will and good desires toward God . . . to every needy, naked soul” (Mosiah 18:27–28).
When a homeless man spoke at a Utah city council meeting to encourage support for building a shelter, hundreds of citizens protested and booed as he “called for compassion for homeless residents.”
And likewise others shall learn with astonishment that they are rejected because they neglected to show compassion to one of the least of the followers of the Son of Man at his need, and have thus failed to be numbered with those who belong to the Son of Man.Our duty is simply to help those in need. “If ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done . . . Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I . . . will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just . . . [Do] not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain and turn him out to perish,” for all who deny beggars in need have “great cause to repent” (Mosiah 4:16–18, 22).
Without the law of consecration, men have set themselves up as judges of who is worthy to live and have joy on the earth.Jesus said, “Remember the poor, and inasmuch as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will do it unto me” (D&C 42:30–31). Instead, many “rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart because in their pride they are puffed up” (2 Nephi 28:13). They “turn their backs upon the poor and the meek and the humble followers of God” (Helaman 6:39).
In spite of our other works, not consecrating will leave us short of an eternal crown, being “hypocrites who do deny the faith” (Alma 34:28). Paul agrees, “If any provide not for his own . . . he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel” who is damned “because they have cast off their first faith” (1 Timothy 5:8, 12). Brigham put it bluntly: “If we do not wake up and cease to long after the things of this earth, we will find that we as individuals will go down to hell.” Holding onto temporal possessions has serious spiritual consequences. Joseph explained,
Any among you who aspire after their own aggrandizement and seek their own opulence while their brethren are groaning in poverty . . . cannot be benefited by the intercession of the Holy Spirit.“Every man that cometh up to Zion” must be willing to lay aside material things (D&C 72:15). Zion does not seek personal gain or excess. “If thou obtainest more than that which would be for thy support, thou shalt give it into my storehouse” for others to use (D&C 42:55). Property is to be consecrated “to purchase inheritances for the poor.” Men have a duty “to donate, give, or consecrate all that he feels disposed to give . . . for the consideration of the poor saints.” The law of consecration purifies us to receive blessings. We become holy and consecrated by consecrating.
Consecration is the whole of the covenant of Israel. The chosen people themselves are consecrated, qadosh, meaning ‘cut off, set apart,’ the same meaning as saints—sanc-ti, sanctified (cf sanctum, ‘a place set apart’). They are called sigillim, which is translated ‘peculiar’ in our King James Bible, but which means ‘sealed, reserved.’ What is con-secrated is then made sacred, withdrawn from the ordinary economy, dedicated to a particular purpose and to that purpose only. It can never be recalled or used for any other purpose without being de-secrated.When ancient saints failed to consecrate, “the wickedness of the church” became a great stumbling block. “The church began to fail in its progress” (Alma 4:12, 10). Centuries later, when again there was “great inequality in all the land . . . the church began to be broken up” (3 Nephi 6:14). “If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand” (Mark 3:24). “Where there is no kingdom of God, there is no salvation.” That which is divided “is filled with darkness” (Gospel of Thomas 61) but the church remains, albeit without divine favor, leading complacent followers astray and “bringing on the destruction of the people” (Alma 4:11).
Neglecting the needy contributed to a swift destruction of the once-affluent city of Sodom. Sodom’s people were prosperous businessmen, “the wealthy men of the world,” but greed took hold. “This is what your sister Sodom has done wrong . . . They had plenty of food and had peace and security. They didn’t help the poor and the needy” (Ezekiel 16:49, God’s Word). Sodom sunk to such wickedness that, even though they had abundance of “all the produce of the earth,” benevolence became “a capital crime.” Should it seem irrelevant today, in 2018 in the name of public safety some were arrested for feeding the homeless, “criminalizing and stigmatizing the most neediest members of our society.”
The daughter of my people is become cruel . . . The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown as in a moment . . . [By] the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests . . . they polluted themselves. (Lamentations 4:3, 6, 13–14)When His law was given “to consecrate their possessions . . . in a covenant that cannot be broken, would the people listen to it? No, but they began to find out that they were mistaken and had only acknowledged with their mouths that the things which they possessed were the Lord’s.”
[The law of consecration] has been repeatedly presented to the people in the most clear and unequivocal terms—and flatly rejected by them. Not by a show of hands—that would have been perfectly permissible—but by proclaiming by word and deed after leaving meetings that they had no intention of keeping certain parts of the law. Notice how Israel and the Saints of every age, when called to keep the law, are reminded that unless they live up to every point of the agreement, the whole covenant will be nullified—it is the whole law or nothing. The Saints covenanted and promised to observe it with the clear understanding that God is not to be mocked in these things . . . The only alternative to living up to every item of covenants made with him is to be in Satan’s power.“The Lord tested them much” but only those “who love God and do not love gold and silver and all the good things that are in the world” will receive eternal life (1 Enoch 108:9, 8). “They have forgotten the commandments and the covenant and festivals and months and sabbaths and jubilees and all of the judgments” and ordinances. They “lift themselves up for deceit and wealth” and “pronounce the great name but not in truth or righteousness.” “I, the Lord, am not to be mocked in these things” (D&C 104:6).
Without consecration, we cannot fulfill covenant obligations so we will have no celestial reward. Christ’s gospel prepares us for His millennial reign so His laws must be honored before He comes in glory. “Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.” For “if ye are not one, ye are not mine” (D&C 105:5, 38:27). Revelation, spiritual gifts, truth, cooperation, and having one heart and one mind are possible, but “this is Zion whom no man seeketh after” (Jeremiah 30:17).
The great duty that rested upon the Saints is to put in operation God’s purposes with regard to the United Order, by the consecration of the private wealth to the common good of the people.
The United Order, a communal execution of the law of consecration, was part of the Restoration. The saints attempted to comply with it under Joseph then again in the Salt Lake Valley. “Within five years of the death of Brigham Young, the church had changed significantly its position in regard to the United Order and other forms of cooperative enterprise. Except for the institution of Zion’s Board of Trade in 1879, the church increasingly gave its sanction to economic individualism restrained only by a proper respect for the rights and welfare of others. Business practices opposed by the church president in the early 1860s were not only tolerated, but approved by his successors two decades later.” This shift in position brought the decline and demise of the United Order, which the church has yet to reinstate again, although they covenant to live it now.
Ancient Israel, like the Nephites, were rebuked then cursed because “their whole law had become a law of ordinances and performances; they had left the spirit out.” Eventually, because of the “legalistic movement of” succeeding leaders, they “did not walk any more after the performances and ordinances” as God revealed (4 Nephi 1:12). Penalties are severe for covenant breakers. If any in the order
shall break the covenant with which ye are bound, he shall be cursed in his life and shall be trodden down by whom I will . . . If any man shall take of the abundance which I have made and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment. (D&C 104:5, 18)There is no room for reform. Not keeping the whole law breaks the covenant, forfeits our endowment, and brings “a very sore and grievous curse” (D&C 104:4). We cannot be sanctified having wealth on our mind. “Woe to you, sinners, for your riches make you appear to be righteous but your heart convicts you of being sinners” (1 Enoch 96:4).
“There is no point in arguing which other system comes closest to the law of consecration, since I excluded all other systems when I opted for the real thing.” It is “the Gentile Dilemma . . . the easy illusion that I am choosing between good and evil, when in reality two or more evils by their rivalry distract my attention from the real issue.” And what is the real issue? We are to “go on to perfection, and search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness,” but “how we shy off from those things today! There is to be no discussion in the temple. When we leave the [temple], we leave one world, usually with a sigh of relief, feeling quite satisfied with ourselves to return to the other [world] where we feel more at home. Which is the real world? That is the question.” After all, “being damned” is nothing less than keeping “within the safe and familiar boundaries of the world as we know it.”
In 1873 apostle Lorenzo Snow said people are “not justified in anticipating the privilege of returning to build up the center stake of Zion until we have shown obedience to the law of consecration.” None can enter “till our hearts are prepared to honor this law and we become sanctified through the practice of the truth.” Living the law of consecration is required to receive our full endowment.
(1) Do you, first of all, agree to do things his way rather than your way—to follow the law of God? (2) If so, will you be obedient to him, no matter what he asks of you? (3) Will you, specifically, be willing to sacrifice anything he asks you for? (4) Will you at all times behave morally and soberly? (5) Finally, if God asks you to part with your worldly possessions by consecrating them all to his work, will you give his own back to him to be distributed as he sees fit, not as you think wise?
That last test [of consecrating] has been by far the hardest of all, and few indeed have chosen that strait and narrow way. The rich young man was careful and correct in observing every point of the law—up to that one; but that was too much for him, and the Savior, who refused to compromise or make a deal, could only send him off sorrowing, observing to the apostles that passing that test was so difficult to those possessing the things of the world that only a special dispensation from God could get them by.Forgiving debt, a requirement of the Jubilee, “shall not seem hard” to the pure in heart (Deuteronomy 15:18). Observing the Jubilee keeps us from idolatry and cures many of society’s ills. Maintaing a free, fair, and just society is necessary for the spiritual and physical health of both people and land, but defiled works will cause the land to “vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Leviticus 18:28, NIV). Jewish sages recognized that failing to keep the Sabbath and Jubilee was a direct cause of Israel’s exile from the land.
The Jewish law required not only that every seventh day be a Sabbath, but that every seventh year should be a sabbatical year, and likewise, that the year after every seven weeks of years, or every fiftieth year, should be of the same character. The last period, or fiftieth year, was called the jubilee because it was introduced with the sound of trumpets . . .
As a political institution it is unparalleled in the laws of nations. Besides rest for man and beast and field, [the Jubilee] provided a release for all debtors, deliverance of all who were in bondage or imprisonment, and restoration of all alienated inheritances. By these provisions it secured to Hebrew families the shares of Canaan originally allotted them, and enabled them to keep distinct genealogies till the coming of Christ. It discouraged monopoly, restrained [coveting], and checked wild speculation. It prevented overgrown wealth on the one hand and extreme poverty on the other, as it was a practical prohibition of all landed aristocracies and privileged classes, and a security against any part of the Jewish nation falling into a state of hereditary degradation and servility.
It was the divine safeguard of the equality of their social condition. Whatever reverses, disorders, or inequalities happened among them, the fiftieth year, the year of jubilee, brought all back to the original social state as instituted by [the law of] Moses. As [an] ordinance . . . it was an illustrious type of that grand consummation of all things.“Keep all My statutes and ordinances so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out” (Leviticus 20:22). Those who hear and obey will be blessed “with the greatest of all blessings,” but “ye that hear me not will I curse, that have professed my name, with the heaviest of all cursings” (D&C 41:1). We cannot blame others or the times in which we live for not fulfilling our obligation to consecrate. The greatest obstacle to living this law is our own sin of having another god before Him.
The objection to the law of consecration is that it is hard to keep. We want eternal life in the presence of God and the angels, but that is too high a price to pray! God has commanded and we have accepted, but then we have added a proviso: ‘We will gladly observe and keep the law of consecration as soon as conditions make it less trying and more convenient for us to do so.’ And we expect Atonement for that?
To consecrate means to set apart, sanctify, and relinquish our own personal interest in the manner designated in the Doctrine & Covenants. It is the final decisive law and covenant by which we formally accept the Atonement and merit a share in it.The Jubilee provides an opportunity to live these principles, but we need not wait for a Jubilee year or for leaders to announce a program to begin consecrating. Because the Lord “giveth no commandment” that we cannot fulfill (1 Nephi 3:7), there is a way to consecrate now.
If we think it is impossible to alleviate the needs of the poor in this nation, we should think again. A U.S. economist calculated, “Before the 1974–75 mini-depression, all financial poverty could have been eliminated at a modest shift of $10–15 billion to the poor from the rest of the community.” To put in perspective, “$15 billion is less than 1.5% of the GNP, about the size of one of the cheaper weapon systems.” Or just a couple of downtown building projects. Eliminating poverty is within our reach—but are we willing? If not, we are caught in the net of riches. Until consecration is observed, division and apostasy will remain and Satan will rule. Though current teachings differ, self-reliance and materialism keep us in apostasy. “For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things” (D&C 78:6). Those given temporary, conditional custody of this world believe the earth is theirs. To be wise stewards of His earth, there is no room for greed. “For the earth is full and there is enough and to spare. Yea, I prepared all things and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves” (D&C 104:17).
Consecration is a mindset that leads to godliness as we lay aside things of the world. We must be willing to give something before we can give all. One of the easiest ways to start living this law is to give our excess to those in need. To sell what we no longer want or need limits the truly needy from receiving it. Having no poor among us begins by choosing to not seek more than we need and freely distributing excess to the needy.
It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin. (D&C 49:20)We must learn to live without things before we can live righteously with them, a way of life that runs contrary to the indulgence Babylon encourages. As the center of world commerce, she entices many: “kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” (Revelation 18:3). She promises much—riches, luxurious living, status, merchandise, property, power, justified immorality, opportunity to gain—and gives permission to engage in these sins free of conscience. We are asked,
Will you persist in turning your backs upon the poor, and the needy, and in withholding your substance from them? . . . Will ye still persist in the wearing of costly apparel and setting your hearts upon the vain things of the world, upon your riches? Will ye persist in supposing that ye are better one than another; yea, will ye persist in the persecution of your brethren, who humble themselves and do walk after the holy order of God? And finally, all ye that will persist in your wickedness, I say unto you that these are they who shall be hewn down and cast into the fire except they speedily repent . . . except ye repent ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of heaven. (Alma 5:51, 53–54, 56)Those “who live in the world” are commanded to “come out of her . . . that ye be not partakers of her sins” (Revelation 18:4). “Go ye out from Babylon” (D&C 133:14). “Depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch not that which is unclean; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord” (3 Nephi 20:41). “Forsake her” (Jeremiah 51:9), for God “will not spare any that remain in Babylon” (D&C 64:24).
The righteous distance themselves from this prevailing culture of coveting and corruption. A faithful, pure heart cures idolatry. “This is Zion—The Pure in Heart.” Zion will “rejoice while all the wicked” mourn (D&C 97:21). Levi prophesied that in the last days “priests will come who are idolators, contentious, lovers of money, arrogant, lawless” toward God’s commandments” so “priesthood will fail” (Testament of Levi 17:11, 18:1). They “have only provoked [Him] to anger with the work of their hands” (Jeremiah 32:30). “I will show unto them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I know all their works” (2 Nephi 27:27).
Without faith shall not anything be shown forth except desolations upon Babylon. (D&C 35:11)Many expect the final judgment to be a glorious reunion where God grants them eternal life, but without transforming faith they “receive the greater damnation” (Matthew 23:14). Those who “die in their sinful wealth” will “be in great distress, and in darkness, and in a snare and in a flaming fire . . . You will have no peace” (1 Enoch 103:5, 7–8). They “have borne the tabernacle of . . . your god which ye made to yourselves” (Amos 5:26). Their temple is not His house. Their world is not worthy of His presence. God is not with them.
The “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27, NIV). “By making idols for themselves . . . they have brought about their own destruction” (Hosea 8:4, NLT). Idolatry has left them “destitute of the truth . . . from such withdraw thyself” (1 Timothy 6:5).
That power which is an instrument of unrighteousness will justly be brought down and broken. What is got and kept wrongfully will not be kept long. Some are at ease, but there will come a day of visitation, and in that day, all they are proud of, and put confidence in, shall fail them.
God will inquire into the sins of which they have been guilty in their houses, the robbery they have stored up, and the luxury in which they lived. The pomp and pleasantness of men’s houses do not fortify against God’s judgments, but make sufferings the more grievous and vexatious.Idolizing people and seeking position, power, property, or prosperity in the world provokes God because it prohibits us from the one thing that matters most—spiritual conversion through Christ.
If ye will not abide in my covenant, ye are not worthy of me. (D&C 98:15)
For footnotes and references, click HERE.