The United Order and The Law of Consecration

My friend John, who is the Gospel Doctrine teacher in his ward, and I were chatting about the lesson he was soon to give on The Law of Consecration and the United Order. Among other things, we came to the conclusion that there were simply too many misconceptions, even among the members of the Church, being taught simply due to some “traditional” ways of thinking. These misconceptions can only be cleared up by teaching correct principles and doctrine on the subject.

I have been fascinated with the Celestial Law, meaning the Law of Consecration, since the first time I was privileged to teach it in Seminary. I remember asking my students to go home and ask their parents to share with them what they knew about the Law of Consecration. Some of the responses they returned with are similar to the ones that I found in an incredible post by Bryce Haymond on his Blog Temple Study.

“Some day we will live the law of consecration again, but until then we must be ‘willing’ to live it.”

“It is Church doctrine that the full Law of Consecration was suspended by the Lord through the Prophet in 1834.”

“My belief is that things will get progressively worse until the actual Second Coming when Christ will institute the law of consecration.”

These are simply common myths that can only be cleared up by correct teachings.

Rather than “re-invent the wheel” I have decided to give you the links to two posts in the Temple Study Blog that do a wonderful job teaching and addressing this issue in depth. Please visit this post and this post, and let me know what you think!