Here’s a short history of tithing and how it has been implemented over the years since the gospel was restored with the formation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:ġ837 – The Presiding bishop defined tithing as two percent of one’s net worth, after deducting debts. God is in all of these things, and yet they are clay. This principle applies to scripture, expectations of prophets, as well as our loved ones. See: Clay and Gold- Inspiration and Incarnation. This is evidence that the Church is both human and divine, a delicate dance between the blessings and will of the Lord as implemented by his fallen children in a fallen world.
We see this throughout scripture and Church history. This is something we see throughout his dealings with his children: he gives commands, but leaves mortals up to figure out how to do his will. The Lord commanded that we live this law, but once again, he did not give a blueprint on how we should implement his will. Cook, Joseph Smith and the Law of Consecration, 1985, 77.Īs the Church grew and went west, the Saints came to learn to live the law of tithing as currently constituted. When this revelation was received, Church members saw the law of tithing not as an inferior commandment to the law of consecration but as another iteration of it. Doctrine and Covenants 119 shows that tithing is not to be a temporary replacement for the law of consecration but a “standing law unto them forever” (D&C 119:4). Ostler, Revelations of the Restoration, 2000, 936. As one commentator has pointed out, “the great difference between the law of tithing is that it requires the Saints to pay a tenth of their income before their expenses are met, not from their surplus after their needs have been satisfied.” Joseph Fielding McConkie and Craig J. Tithing is a subset of the law of consecration.
It is important to understand that at the time the revelation known as Doctrine and Covenants 64 was given (1831), the Lord was speaking of those saints who were willing to offer their properties as part of The Law of Consecration, not the practice of tithing as currently lived today in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For many decades, saints have interpreted this passage to refer to tithing as we understand it in our time. The early Saints in 1831 (see D&C 64:23) understood the word tithing differently that we (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) do today.
The Lord instructed the Saints to pay tithing in the early years of Restoration, but he did not fill out a specific procedure on how to do this.
0 kommentar(er)
