LATTER-DAY SINNERS, Chapter 16 of United Order

LATTER-DAY SINNERS, Chapter 16 of United Order 

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Pages 233 to 251

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. (Isa. 24:5-6) <Note: Joseph Fielding Smith declared that it is the Latter-day Saints who have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant. Des. News, Church Section, Oct. 17, 1936>

Two principal sins are related to wealth–the love of money (1 Tim.6:10) and the inequality of riches (D. & C. 49:20). For the past 150 years the Saints have been guilty of both evils. The question now arises what happened to cause this failure. Orson Pratt contended that the Saints were guilty of these sins over a century ago:

Anything short of a perfect equality in temporal things is a sin; hence, the Lord says, “It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore, the world lieth in sin.” Is this law now enforced upon the Saints? Do they have all things in common? Do they all possess the same? No; they have not become righteous enough to obey this law. Covetousness has taken such deep root in their hearts, through the wicked tradition of their Gentile fathers, that this law remains unheeded. (The Seer, O. Pratt, p. 291)