Chapter 3

 The issue of financial classes in the church

The recognized danger of creating doctrinally-required financial classes within the church

A review of the Scriptures and of church history for all available time periods seems to tell us that every time a dispensation of the gospel fails, as all previous ones have failed, and as the current one is failing, it is apparently always for the same reason: the adoption of a paid ministry by the church itself. That inevitably results in the corrupting and paralyzing of the main source of good in the world and gives Satan free reign, uncontested by any vigorously competing group or organization promoting classic Christianity.

1. The church which Christ restored in Jerusalem existed for about 300 years before the twin visible corrupting features of tithing and a paid ministry largely finished off and corrupted that initial restoration.

2. In the New World, the Scriptures tell us that the church lasted about 320 years before falling apart, most likely after adopting the tithing/paid ministry heresy.

3. In our day, it was only 66 years after the church was organized that the tithing/paid ministry heresy was brought in to neutralize and paralyze the church. It took a few more years for that heresy to establish a complete grip on the church, and it has been all downhill since then.

The concept of creating classes among the people is always an issue in the falling away process. And the main way which the church itself participates in this class-creating process, and thus encourages other class-creating processes concerning other aspects of the society, is to bring in the tithing/paid ministry heresy. If the church has adopted this corrupt class-creating process itself, you can be sure that every other Satan-inspired, freedom-weakening government centralization process will be essentially approved by the church and thus greatly accelerated, to the great detriment of the entire society.

It is easy to see the effects of the class system that was the inherent nature of the law of Moses system that later invaded the Christ-restored Jerusalem church which ended up producing the highly political, heavily bureaucratic monarchical Roman Catholic Church, which invented all manner of paid positions and policies and practices which have no justification in the scriptures. It is easy to see the class system which has been created in the modern-day LDS church, where an enormous and wasteful central bureaucracy lives off the tithing the church now demands before anyone can use the temples. The old "freely ye have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8) counsel concerning all priesthood blessings and ordinances has been completely overridden concerning all the higher ordinances, essentially monetizing all those religiously valuable higher ordinances.

It is not quite so easy to verify that that is what happened in the New World church that was created after Christ's resurrection. However, I think we can infer that the exact same process occurred and produced the exact same results. I think we can call this essentially a nearly inevitable religious law of degradation. The scriptures in 4 Nephi tell us that classes were created among the people. That is the definition of adopting the tithing/paid ministry heresy. We might recall that King Mosiah (who gave up his kingship and ended kings among his people, consciously adopting a democratic system) had carefully ended all "paid ministries," whether they were religious or governmental. Those unusually wise people of Mosiah called themselves "Christians" while apparently essentially abolishing nearly all aspects of the law of Moses, almost certainly ending anything that looked like the tithing/paid ministry heresy.

This all seems to suggest a very specific way to purify a restoration and keep it pure, allowing it to have the effect on the world that was intended. The most important thing an organization needs to do is to make sure that it never adopts the tithing/paid ministry heresy, which is the "pathway drug" which leads to all other deviations and heresies, all introduced to make life even easier for a paid ministry which has gained control of the church. The entire point of a paid ministry is to achieve wealth and ease with nothing more than a skill with ideology and rhetoric. Actual valuable service is not required, but only the feigning of it.

Although Christ did everything in his power to make it clear that the law of Moses tithing/paid ministry heresy was to be ended with his act of atonement, the natural man and the greed factor, with constant cheerleading from Satan, is relentless in trying to reestablish that heresy in every possible situation. We need to make it clear that the temptations of Christ, where he refused to accept any of the temptations Satan set before him concerning wealth and fame and power, are all critical prerequisites for the gospel to remain uncorrupted. The number of ordinary men is extremely small who are similarly willing to pass the same temptation tests and deny themselves wealth and fame and power even though they have been given important gospel authorities which give them innumerable opportunities to fail those temptation tests. Giving men the opportunity to profit from religious leadership almost inevitably dooms them to be corrupted by that opportunity. Only by permanently obliterating that opportunity is there a chance that men will remain pure.

In our own time, we can see exactly how that process played out, as Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor faithfully followed the principles and practices of Christ, and consistently resisted all the same temptations that Christ resisted, but when Wilford Woodruff became the president of the church, he and all his associates and successors quickly failed that set of temptations and started the church on the standard downward spiral. Once one person in leadership makes that choice, apparently no succeeding leader can ever understand the long-term problem that has been created, or has the grit and determination to undo what was wrongly done. Apparently, once one is called a "prophet," it is just too embarrassing, inconvenient, and unthinkable to "prophesy" that a previous prophet made a serious doctrinal and practical error concerning church finance that needs to be rectified. This seems to create a one-way ratchet downward, where no one in the leadership sequence dares interfere with the very process that gave them their existing power and authority, however illegitimate it may be when compared with original principles.

In order to maintain a good reason for the church's existence, the church members and affiliated organizations should work hard to END the class-infected society, NOT contribute to classes for self-interest's sake, like everyone else is doing.

The church leaders first deplored and then created financial classes

In the 1800s, numerous church leaders worried about the problem of social and economic classes forming among the church members. It is somewhat ironic that a little bit later, very specifically beginning in 1896 at the instigation of Wilford Woodruff (who seems not to have spoken out publicly on this issue), it was the church leaders themselves who invented a class system based upon the church leaders living on the religious contributions of the members.

As a curiosity, of those who spoke in public on this topic, it may be that only George Q. Cannon lived to see the church invent its own version of a class society with church leaders being supported by the labor of the members.

Here are a few rhetorical text samples from the Journal of Discourses:

JD 15:209, George Q. Cannon, October 8, 1872

Before co-operation started, you doubtless saw and deplored the increase of wealth in some few hands.  There was rapidly growing in our midst a class of monetary men composing an aristocracy of wealth. Our

community was menaced by serious dangers through this, because if a community is separated into two

classes, one poor and the other rich, their interests are diverse. Poverty and wealth do no[t] work together well − one lords it over the other; one becomes the prey of the other. This is apt to be the case in all societies, in ours as well as others; probably not to so great an extent, but still it was sufficiently serious to menace us as a people with danger. God inspired his servant to counsel the people to enter into co-operation, and it has now been practiced for some years in our midst with the best results. Those who have put in a little means have had that more than doubled since Z. C. M. I. started − three years last March. And so it is with co-operative herds, co-operative factories, and co-operative institutions of all kinds which have been established in our midst, and all the people can partake of the benefits of this system. You can see the effect of co-operation on the people. But this is only a limited system, it does not extend as far as needed, although it required faith to enter into this; yet it will require more to enter upon the other of which I have spoken.

JD 15:335, Orson Pratt, January 26, 1873

The Lord means what he says, He has told us in one of the first revelations published in this book, that though the heavens and the earth should pass away, not one of the prophecies and predictions contained in these revelations should go unfulfilled; therefore if Zion sin, if her people suffer pride to arise in their hearts, and follow after the foolish fashions of the Gentiles who come into their midst, and are lifted up one above another, the rich and wealthy looking down upon the poor with scorn and derision because they cannot clothe themselves in the same costly apparel as the rich, and begin to make distinctions of classes among themselves, behold the Lord will visit Zion according to all her works, and he will purge her and pour forth his judgments upon her, according to that which he has spoken.

I hope that we shall take a course to prevent these things coming upon us. It is better to be chastened and

receive judgment in this world, even if it be sword, pestilence, famine and the flame of a devouring fire, if we can be brought to repentance thereby, than to remain unchastised and go down swiftly to the pit. If we,

because of our sins, need chastising by the Almighty, let the chastisement come while we are in the flesh, that we may repent; and I would say still further, and pray in the name of the Lord, "Oh Lord, if chastisement must come, may it come from thine hands." When the Lord through the Prophet gave David the choice of one of three terrible judgments − first to fall into the hands of his enemies, and for the people of Israel to be afflicted many years; second, a lengthy famine, and third, three days' pestilence, he chose the three days' pestilence, for he said it was better to fall into the hands of the Lord, who was full of tender mercy, and who might repent and withdraw the chastisement, than to fall into the hands of the wicked who have no mercy. I would say the same so far as my feelings are concerned, and if it be needful let the Lord chasten those who need it, and not suffer us to continue in our sin, and to grow and flourish like the green bay tree, as the wicked do until we are cut off finally from the earth and cast away in the eternal worlds. It is better for us to be saved there if we are punished here.

Here are a few more similar references in the Journal of Discourses:

JD 15:210 1872 GQC --class distinctions;

15:335 OP 1873 --make distinctions of classes among themselves

15:358 OP 1873 --distinctions of classes arise

16:7 OP 1873 --may prove the overthrow of many

16:19-20 1873 BY --distinctions will cease

16:57 OP 1873 --different classes

16:117 GQC 1873 --puffed up in pride

17:31 OP 1874 --classes introduced

21:6-7 JT 1879 --treat all men alike

25:352 JT 1884 --desperate classes

26:186 GQC 1884 --divide humanity into classes

Life spans of speakers:

GQC Lived: Jan 11, 1827 - Apr 12, 1901 (age 74)

OP Lived: September 19, 1811 - October 3, 1881 (aged 70)

BY Lived June 1, 1801 - August 29, 1877 (aged 76)

JT Lived: November 1, 1808 - July 25, 1887 (aged 78)

Abbreviations: GQC George Q. Cannon, OP Orson Pratt, BY Brigham Young, JT John Taylor