Religious Studies Center

The law of consecration found in the Doctrine and Covenants can be envisioned as a three-legged stool, where the legs are agency, stewardship, and accountability. Agency is the power we have to act independently on the law, regardless of what anyone else thinks, says, or does. Once we know the law, we can keep or reject it, procrastinate or obey, ignore or observe, offer all or keep back part. No one will ever be forced to comply with the law of consecration. Note how this worked in the early 1830s: "Thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken. And inasmuch as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will do it unto me; and they shall be laid before the bishop of my church and his counselors, two of the elders, or high priests, such as he shall appoint or has appointed and set apart for that purpose" (D&C 42:30-31).

A few early Saints consecrated their property to the poor with both a covenant and a deed, according to details explained in a May 1831 revelation to Joseph Smith (see D&C 51). Bishop Edward Partridge, as the revelation said, was to appoint unto this people their portions, every man equal according to his family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs.

And let my servant Edward Partridge, when he shall appoint a man his portion, give unto him a writing that shall secure unto him his portion, that he shall hold it, even this right and this inheritance in the church, until he transgresses and is not accounted worthy by the voice of the church, according to the laws and covenants of the church, to belong to the church.

And if he shall transgress and is not accounted worthy to belong to the church, he shall not have power to claim that portion which he has consecrated unto the bishop for the poor and the needy of my church; therefore, he shall not retain the gift, but shall only have claim on that portion that is deeded unto him.

And thus all things shall be made sure, according to the laws of the land. (D&C 51:3-6)

Joseph wrote Bishop Partridge his "views concerning consecration, property, [and] giving inheritances," highlighting the fundamental principle of agency:

The law of the Lord, binds you to receive, whatsoever property is consecrated, by deed, The consecrated property, is considered the residue kept for the Lords store house, and it is given for this consideration, for to purchase inheritaces for the poor, this, any man has a right to do, agreeable to the laws of our country, to donate, give or consecrate all that he feels disposed to give, and it is your duty, to see that whatsoever is given, is given legally, therefore, it must be given for the consideration of the poor saints.[7]

The Prophet continued to teach Bishop Partridge the law of consecration, reminding him always to preserve agency in individuals: "Concerning inheritances, you are bound by the law of the Lord to give a deed, secureing to him who receives inheritances, his inheritance for an everlasting inheritance, or in other words, to be his individual property, his private stewardship."[8]

The deeds Bishop Partridge used in the early 1830s to receive consecrations and give inheritances illustrate the principles of agency, stewardship, and accountability. Less than a dozen of these deeds are known to exist. One that does exist belongs to Levi Jackman, a carpenter who lived in Portage County, Ohio. In 1831, Levi Jackman met Joseph Smith, read the Book of Mormon, and converted. He and other converts gathered to Zion in Jackson County, Missouri. There he deeded his property to Bishop Partridge, on behalf of the Church, "of [his] own free will." It was not much-"sundry articles of furniture valued thirty seven dollars, also two beds, bedding, and feathers valued forty four dollars fifty cents, also three axes and other tools valued eleven dollars and twenty five cents"-but it was all he possessed. In return, Brother Jackman received a parcel of land in present-day Kansas City and "sundry articles of furniture ... two beds bedding and feathers ... also three axes and other tools."[9] Brother Jackman offered the Lord all he had. The Lord returned his meager offering and added a handsome farm. For Levi Jackman, obedience to the law of consecration was no vow of poverty; it was a wise investment both spiritually and temporally-a willing exchange based on obedience to the first great commandment to love God with all he had and to receive in return all of God's love.

Though the personal property Jackman received from the bishop was exactly what he consecrated, the exchange represents more than a technicality. By consecrating his possessions to the Lord, Jackman had placed himself in the capacity of a steward rather than an owner. Note how the Lord highlights stewardship in this passage from the law:

And it shall come to pass, that after they [properties] are laid before the bishop of my church, and after that he has received these testimonies concerning the consecration of the properties of my church, that they cannot be taken from the church, agreeable to my commandments, every man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward over his own property, or that which he has received by consecration, as much as is sufficient for himself and family.

And again, if there shall be properties in the hands of the church, or any individuals of it, more than is necessary for their support after this first consecration, which is a residue to be consecrated unto the bishop, it shall be kept to administer to those who have not, from time to time, that every man who has need may be amply supplied and receive according to his wants. (D&C 42:32-33)

An owner is accountable to no one. A steward is a free agent empowered to act independently but accountable to the actual owner for all actions. For this reason, the law is often and accurately referred to as both consecration and stewardship. It commands: "Thou shalt stand in the place of thy stewardship" (D&C 42:53), and further revelations elaborate: "An account of this stewardship will I require of them in the day of judgment" (D&C 70:4), "and he that is a faithful and wise steward shall inherit all things" (D&C 78:22).

In July 1831, the Lord made William Phelps a free agent. He had power to act independently, and in Doctrine and Covenants section 55, the Lord gave him a commandment to act upon. He was to assist Oliver Cowdery as a steward over the Church's printing press and publication efforts, tasks he carried out with a paper and a press purchased with consecrated resources (see D&C 55:4). With the power to act, talents and property to act upon, and a commandment from the Lord, Phelps was accountable to the Lord for what he did with what the Lord had given him: agency, talent, time, a printing press, ink, and paper. In March 1834, Joseph wrote to William Phelps from Kirtland to correct an errant sense of ownership: "Bro. William-You say 'my press, my types, &c.' W[h]ere, our brethren ask, did you get them, & how came they to be 'yours?' No hardness, but a caution, for you know that it is, We, not I, and all things are the Lord's, and he opened the hearts of his Church to furnish these things, or we should not have been privileged with using them."[10]

Moses had to issue the same reminder to the wandering Israelites, who seemed to forget as easily as we do: "Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:18). How easy it is to remember what we have earned or are owed. How easy to forget or fail to recognize how much we take, literally, for granted. Hugh Nibley worked hard to debunk the notion that there is no free lunch. Lunch is free in the sense that matters most. So, said Father Lehi, is salvation (see 2 Nephi 2:4). As King Benjamin profoundly taught, we neither earn nor own anything except in terms of earthly agreements that evaporate "when men are dead" (D&C 132:7; see also Mosiah 2:21-25). When we see things as they really are and will be, we see ourselves as stewards of the Lord's bounty.

The law of consecration and stewardship makes free agents of stewards by appointing them their "own property" without giving a false sense of ownership (D&C 42:32). The underlying doctrines here are agency and accountability. The false doctrine is ownership, which implies unaccountability.[11] Perhaps because our culture of ownership so deeply conditions us to the concept of "mine," actually acting as if we were simply accountable stewards is difficult, even countercultural. President Brigham Young taught that "no revelation that was ever given is more easy of comprehension than that on the law of consecration... . Yet, when the Lord spoke to Joseph, instructing him to counsel the people to consecrate their possessions, and deed them over to the Church in a covenant that cannot be broken, would the people listen to it? No, but they began to find out they were mistaken, and had only acknowledged with their mouths that the things which they possessed were the Lord's." President Young continued, "What have you to consecrate that is actually your own? Nothing."[12]

The Lord is adamant about the connections between agency, stewardship, and accountability. Because He has empowered us to act independently with His property, we will be held accountable. He repeats this point clearly throughout the Doctrine and Covenants, including in section 104: "Organize yourselves and appoint every man his stewardship; that every man may give an account unto me of the stewardship which is appointed unto him. For it is expedient that I, the Lord, should make every man accountable, as a steward over earthly blessings, which I have made and prepared for my creatures" (vv. 11-13). As if to emphasize that last point about the real ownership of the earth and its contents, the Lord continues emphatically: "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... . I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves." The implication? "Therefore, 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 the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment" (D&C 104:14-15, 17-18).

This potent passage draws on the New Testament story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16. The earliest manuscripts of section 104 link the Lord's point even more closely with that passage in the gospel of Luke. The Kirtland Revelation Book, for example, says that if one does not share according to the Lord's law "he shall with Dives lift up his eyes <in hell> being in torment."[13] Dives is the Latin word for rich and, drawing on Latin translations of the Bible, was adopted as the name of the rich man in Christ's story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. In the account recorded in Luke, the rich man "fared sumptuously" (v. 19) in life while a "beggar named Lazarus" (v. 20) waited in vain for some of his table scraps. When the two men died, angels carried Lazarus into Abraham's bosom while the rich man went to hell. "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments" (v. 23), ironically begging Lazarus to relieve his suffering. Doctrine and Covenants 104:18 evokes that story and applies it to Latter-day Saints. When the Church published this revelation as section 98 in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, the name Dives was changed to "the wicked," perhaps because the name is not found in the New Testament but comes from later lore, or perhaps because the meaning of Dives may not have been well known among Latter-day Saints. Even so, the presence of Dives in the earliest manuscripts makes the essential meaning of this passage unmistakable, namely that stewards of the Lord's abundance who do not impart to the poor of the substance they possess will, like the rich man in Christ's story, someday regret that use of their agency.

This is one of the Lord's main points in section 104. He emphasizes, "Again, a commandment I give unto you concerning your stewardship which I have appointed unto you. Behold, all these properties are mine, or else your faith is vain, and ye are found hypocrites, and the covenants which ye have made unto me are broken" (D&C 104:54-55).

The Lord claims ownership of "the earth" and "all things therein," including "all these properties" and compels us to choose. Either He is the omnipotent Creator and owner of the earth and everything in it or else He is something less and therefore incapable of rewarding our faith. If we acknowledge Him as Lord of all and yet fail to consecrate per His command, we are hypocrites. To acknowledge God is to grant that He is well within His divine prerogative to redistribute His own wealth according to His own will. Thus the revelations do not apologize for such radical notions as one of the law's stated purposes: "I will consecrate of the riches of those who embrace my gospel among the Gentiles unto the poor of my people who are of the house of Israel" (D&C 42:39), or the Lord's decree "that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low" (D&C 104:16; see also 58:8-12). Indeed, the revelations give stewards no right to keep or use the Lord's things for any other purposes than His. "It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another," the Lord told Joseph in May 1831, "wherefore the world lieth in sin" (D&C 49:20).