D&C Section One Hundred Four

One United Order had been established in Missouri and then another one had been established in Kirtland.  With all that was happening in both places, the church was getting into difficult financial conditions making it hard for it to accomplish its spiritual purposes.  In this section, the Lord dissolves the United Orders and re-establishes one in Kirtland and give instructions as to how the church is to handle its debt.  Much of the church's welfare system today is based on the principles that are taught in this revelation.  Here, the Lord promises that the church and its members will eventually have abundance, but it must be done in his way, not the world's.  It's interesting to me because the Lord's way promises that everyone will have abundance.  The poor will not just be provided for, but there is enough in the Lord's creations for everyone and more.  President Kimball said, "The Lord's way builds individual self-esteem and develops and heals the dignity of the individual, whereas the world's way depresses the individual's view of himself and causes deep resentment...  The Lord's way causes the individual to hasten his efforts to become economically independent again.  The world's way deepens the individual's dependency on welfare programs and tends to make him demand more rather than encouraging him to return to economic independence."

This is why I hate the government welfare program.  Vast numbers now depend on and live off the government.  They not only expect the government to provide for them, but feel it is their right to demand that the government take care of them.  Of course it is everyone's responsibility to come in and help each other in times of distress and disaster, but it is also the responsibility of those who suffer to do something too.  The government's program has not only brought dependence, but has brought laziness, broken homes, drugs, prostitution and crime.  Politicians pander to these people by making promises to get themselves elected, but do not keep them and do nothing to raise the individual out of the situation they are in.  It is a terrible game they play.  They keep the people's perception that they are being helped when in actuality, they are being depressed, so the politicians can further their careers, wealth and power while professing to help them.

In this section, the Lord wants everyone to contribute to society, to stand on their own feet and be prosperous.  He says he will provide for the saints, "but it must needs be done in my way."  That and what he says in verse 17 are the key to the whole program, "For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves."  He wants all of us to be independent, to be able to determine our own futures, not dependent on someone to determine it for us