Keywords

Law of Consecration, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Nauvoo

Abstract

Since the earliest days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there has been an ongoing discussion on the law of consecration and stewardship, the Church's earliest attempt to establish what Joseph Smith's revelations called Zion, a society unified in heart and mind and void of both poverty and materialism. Within a decade of Joseph Smith's death Orson Pratt, and other Church leaders, taught said doctrine as though Joseph had revoked or rescinded the law sometime in the 1830s and that it was no longer necessary for the Saints to practice the principles contained therein. This ideology has led to at least one assumption held by historians today; that is, the law of consecration was not practiced in Nauvoo nor did Joseph Smith ever try to implement it after the saints' forced removal from Missouri in 1838.