“The main purpose of the Doctrine and Covenants, you will find, is to implement the law of consecration....This law, the consummation of the laws of obedience and sacrifice, is the threshold of the celestial kingdom, the last and hardest requirement made of men [and women] in this life."
-Hugh Nibley
I think the LDS church is the only church that has a plan for how to live exactly how God would want us to if we were all converted fully to the Lord in our hearts. It would be Zion. The land of milk and honey and everyone would work but everyone would have. There would be no Haves and Have-nots. All would have and all would be fully nourished both physically and spiritually. This way of living is decidedly outlined in Doctrine and Covenants as well as all the scriptures (if taken to a logical step). In the Book of Mormon, the people are constantly commanded to repent for their pride and love of money. They're told to feed the hungry and clothe the naked with their riches. They're told to impart of their substance to all of God's children, that being the reason for having an abundance (Jacob 2:16-17).
But, the Christian Right in our politics today has hijacked the Christian message and turned it into Ayn Rand's message of "virtuous" selfishness. Many of our brethren in the LDS church are converted to the hatred of immigrants for wanting a better life, persecution of Muslims right to freedom of religion, many of our brethren think healthcare should only be for the rich, and that taxes in general should be done away with despite the need to keep schools and police in effect.
As the Savior said "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." We can't hate our brethren or love them on certain conditions (American, Republican, white, rich, straight, etc.) Its commanded for us to love all men and women. All are worthy of our love. Not just those that think or act the way we do.
Homosexuals have been outraged at our church. We have been under fire for our beliefs and if you ask them they'll say the same thing, that they have been under fire for their beliefs. Both sides see it as one side picking on the other. Thats no excuse for hating them. We must accept all but reject the sin. Mormons have always believed in homosexual tendencies to be out of step with God's will. Its a very complicated issue but the law is clear; its not permitted to act on gay tendencies and its especially not permitted to persecute or make fun of anyone for being different.
Before we can live in the Celestial Kingdom we must live the Celestial laws. But, before we can live that law we must be willing to live the lower laws. We are not commanded to live by the United Order which says that we give all our goods to the Bishop Storehouse and then are allotted certain things depending on our needs. That is not commanded of us. Yet we still have the Law of Consecration which means that we are to give of our time and talent to the building up of the kingdom of God on the Earth. How do we keep this law? By keeping the commandments. Serving what we can, when we can, where we can and however we can. In other words, loving God will all our heart, might, mind and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves. That is what is required of us. The Lord promises that those who keep the commandments will prosper. He will take care of us, if we sacrifice our lives to Him. The word sacrifice means literally “to make sacred,” or “to render sacred.”
Just as the righteous kept the law of Moses before Christ, "they did look forward to the coming of Christ, considering that the law of Moses was a type of his coming, and believing that they must keep those outward performances until the time that he should be revealed unto them." (Alma 15:15). We too must keep the commandments looking forward to the higher law that Christ will reveal to us when we're prepared to keep it. He won't give us something we can't keep and He will keep whatever we give Him.
"The law of sacrifice provides an opportunity for us to prove to the Lord that we love Him more than any other thing. As a result, the course sometimes becomes difficult since this is the process of perfection that prepares us for the celestial kingdom to '"dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever"' (D&C 76:62). -Elder M. Russell Ballard
“Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; … it is through the medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth’s sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do his will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will not seek his face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life”
-Joseph Smith
“Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed!”
-Elder Neal A. Maxwell
