Rejoicing During Failing

by Autumn Dickson

We are in an interesting section of church history here. This portion of history is often very difficult for some people because it calls Joseph’s prophetic calling into question…again. While the Saints were living in Kirtland, Ohio, Joseph encouraged the Saints to invest in the Kirtland Safety Society. The Kirtland Safety Society was meant to be a bank, but the state of Ohio rejected the Saints charter to form one. Instead, they utilized a loophole and made it a joint-stock company. You don’t really have to understand economics or legalities to understand that it failed. Many people lost a lot, and when we consider the fact that there are many people who don’t have a lot already, it can be easy to wonder how Joseph got it so wrong.

Why didn’t the Lord help the Saints with this? Or, at the very least, why didn’t the Lord warn Joseph against forming the Kirtland Safety Society? People listened to him because he’s the prophet, and they got burned. In fact, this is one of the reasons many Saints (including members of the twelve apostles) apostasized.

Interestingly enough, very shortly after the Saints fled Kirtland, Joseph was praying about the church’s difficult financial situation. Here is one of the verses in the revelations he received.

Doctrine and Covenants 119:1, 4

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord, I require all their surplus property to be put into the hands of the bishop of my church in Zion,

4 And after that, those who have thus been tithed shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood, saith the Lord.

So the Kirtland Safety Society failed, and then Joseph received a revelation that the Saints needed to give more. Again.

If this is the Lord’s church, why isn’t He enabling them to do what they need to do? LIke build Zion? Or build temples? If He has all of these expensive things that He desires of His Saints, why does He keep taking away? Or, at the very least, why is He allowing it all to be taken away?

I’ve got a theory.

My theory calls upon a story found in the New Testament, specifically in John 6. Christ feeds the 5,000 with a couple loaves of bread and fish. In modern times, we revere this beautiful miracle and use it to teach all sorts of lessons, but the story gets even more interesting. The people did not take all of the spiritual lessons that we often pull from it. Instead, they try to force Christ to be their king. He departs, and they find Him again, presumably to look for more free bread. I presume this because they don’t really like it when He refuses to make more bread. Many disciples leave and walk no more with Him.

Despite the gigantic miracle that did take place, we find a bunch of murmuring people who start to get mad at Christ. The second that Christ takes away the free bread, the people essentially start saying, “Who is this guy? He is just the son of Joseph and Mary.”

The parallels with the people who apostasized during this period in church history is astounding. Anyway.

Christ had to take away the bread in order to provide an opportunity for people to follow after Him for spiritual reasons. Otherwise, they would have followed Him for eternity continually receiving the bread but never actually finding the joy that was meant to be theirs. They never would have found it. They were too distracted by bread.

The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of t