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Came up in SS yesterday as one of the class members used food storage as an example of things we should do even though it is not a commandment. He was resoundingly corrected by the class members and instructor. I agreed with him. Commandment or not…what is the truth? I would say it is a commandment from the prophets. From the church website, we read:
Quote:“Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to ‘prepare every needful thing’ (see D&C 109:
so that, should adversity come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors, and support bishops as they care for others.”“We encourage members worldwide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings. We ask that you be wise, and do not go to extremes.
They use the word “encourage” but the scripture above seems to be applied to food storage as one thing we are commanded to do.
HOW we do it, and to what level, is up to us, and there doesn’t seem to be a deadline for it. Simply saying…”we are working on it” is keeping the commandment if you are trying.
I’m not sure what other definition of commandment you would be thinking.
That helps, thanks. Maybe it is not spoken of as a commandment so that it is understood that way(?) There must be other commandments that seem like council or revelation to members. A quick search on lds.org got me to this talk and the most I could get out of it was to follow the brethren in this principal: https://www.lds.org/ensign/1976/05/food-storage?lang=eng How foolish we can sometimes be! We have a living prophet; we have God’s living oracles, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles. Let us follow the Brethren and be constant. We need have no fear if we are prepared.
Brothers and sisters, what have we done in our stakes and wards to see that every Latter-day Saint has a year’s reserve of food to sustain life? Let’s not only keep teaching the principle, but let’s also teach our people how.
Follow the prophet. He has counseled us to plant a garden and fruit trees.
In his October 1973 conference address, President Ezra Taft Benson gave some excellent instructions about home storage:
“For the righteous the gospel provides a warning before a calamity, a program for the crises, a refuge for each disaster. …
“The Lord has warned us of famines, but the righteous will have listened to prophets and stored at least a year’s supply of survival food. …
“Brethren and sisters, I know that this welfare program is inspired of God. I have witnessed with my own eyes the ravages of hunger and destitution as, under the direction of the president of the Church, I spent a year in war-torn Europe at the close of World War II, without my family, distributing food, clothing, and bedding to our needy members.
“Thanks be to God for a prophet, for this inspired program, and for Saints who so managed their stewardship that they could provide for their own and still share with others.”
Kipper wrote:
Follow the prophet. He has counseled us to plant a garden and fruit trees.
My problem is not if it is called a commandment or not, but how much pressure people put on themselves to obey “all the commandments”.
Gardens take time.
Home teaching takes time.
Church is 3 hours of block time plus the prep and the cleanup.
WEekly activities for youth.
Early morning seminary.
Saturday night dances.
My tithes and offerings and driving to all of these things.
Trips to the temple 3 hours away.
So…if everything the prophets say are commandments…well…I simply can’t do them all. I don’t have the capacity for it.
I guess you can call food storage a commandment and I understand the wisdom there…but wisdom dictates I do all things in their time and season…and pace myself to not freak out about it, whether a commandment or not.
I’m more focused on the eternities and what will help me progress and develop. Food storage is good…and there are many other good things too. There is time to work on these things in the eternities. Don’t need to pressure myself now.
We had a good discussion of this concept in the following thread. http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2215&hilit=commandment+justifications+wrong In it Elder Oaks in 1988 calls the priesthood ban a commandment but indicates that all the reasons given to help explain the ban were man made and wrong. He left it with a sort of “God’s ways are not our ways” and “God seldom explains why” feel to it.
That thread predated the church essays. The essay on Race and the priesthood indicates that the ban was a product of the time and that the church now “condemns all racism, past or present, in any form.”
https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng In summary,
Prior to 1978 the church taught that the priesthood ban was a commandment and was deeply intertwined with our doctrine.
In 1988, Elder Oaks says that the ban was a commandment but that the reasons behind it had been misunderstood. We should have faith in the command but not in the reasons put forward to attempt to justify the command.
In 2013, The church puts forward an essay that essentially downgrades the priesthood ban to a racist policy that is subsequently disavowed and condemned.
I give this background information to show that what can be considered a commandment can be fluid in the church and there are no set criteria.
However, in a given ward the dominant narrative is probably that everything the Prophet says is a commandment (Such as demonstrated in the 14 fundamentals talk). They will probably not be very welcoming if you disagree with them.
Brian Johnson said the following from the earlier thread:
Quote:After spending so much time looking at this and other issues, I find very little difference between ideas we label commandments, revelations, inspiration, policy, doctrine, and teachings. Yes. I believe there are cultural and semantic differences. Some ideas receive a formal stamp of approval while going through a canonization process. Most do not.
My take is that it used to be a commandment during the cold war but is more of an cultural relic now that has rightfully evolved into self-reliance. There is an (apocryphal??) story about President Kimball asking the congregation during a stake conference how many members had a 2 year food storage. A small number raised their hand and he said something like why should I talk to you if you don’t listen to what I say? I have pretty strong feelings about this, having had a bad experience with it. Part of it was my fault and part of it was well-intended but poorly informed local leaders. I won’t go into detail except to say that the lists ward specialists used to send around list x number of pounds of flour per person, y pounds of sugar per person, etc, are terrible ways to store food. At one point during the peak of my TBM belief – at nearing 1999 – I wasted thousands of dollars on food storage and have only used a small fraction.
A logical way to plan for emergencies seems to be the Dave Ramsey method of saving 3-6 months of take home pay. I believe if the world is in such terrible shape that the currency is worthless, you’re probably more worried about surviving the week.
The concept of Food Storage was first posited by J Reuben Clark, Jr well into the Depression. It came more than seven years after the stock market collapse. Here’s what he had to say: Quote:Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds.
This has often struck me as sound, but somewhat obvious advice, given the times. It’d be a bit analogous to going to the Carribean next spring and saying that people should prepare for hurricanes. Commandment? I think it grew into a commandment from this pragmatic method of self-management… which is a very Mormon thing to do.Whether a “commandment” or sound advice, it is probably a very good idea. There are a slew of senarios where we’d be very grateful we had it; war, geomagnetic storm, supervolcano, pandemic, infastructure collapse… all the way down to unexpected job loss, or helping someone else in need. But it is not something every member can reasonably do; specifically those in impoversh countries who can barely make enough for their “daily bread”. For me, the genie is out of the bottle. If it ain’t canonized by the body of the Church, it ain’t a commandment. dande48 wrote:
those in impoversh countries who can barely make enough for their “daily bread”.
Food storage used to be in the new member discussions. When I taught this during my mission (early 90s) to a Guatemalan family that had just been baptized they literally laughed out loud. They were lucky all their children had shoes.
Fuel storage for a year is not possible for almost anyone unless you live in rural United States and can stockpile 40 cords of wood.
Heber13 wrote:
My problem is not if it is called a commandment or not, but how much pressure people put on themselves to obey “all the commandments”.
Yes, There is wisdom in this. To the most black and white thinkers, that what is inscribed on stone tablets by the finger of God and that which comes out of the mouth of the Prophet are the same.
Therefore, discussions about what is and what is not technically a commandment is probably counter productive.
Better to surrender the point that it is all commandments but that you are using your discretion and judgment in prioritizing it all into your life.
“See that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength” (Mosiah 4:27).
“Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end” (D&C 10:4).
Willhewonder wrote:
For me, the genie is out of the bottle. If it ain’t canonized by the body of the Church, it ain’t a commandment.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: Me too. If it’s not a core principle of the gospel I have little time for it. Good advice? Probably. Thus saith the Lord? No way.
From my point of view, in addition to that stated above, the church has backed off quite a bit on the year supply thing. https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage?lang=enghttps://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage?lang=eng” class=”bbcode_url”> A shorter term supply makes sense, is less daunting, and one as described in the link is far better than barrels of wheat we don’t really know how to use and would tire of long before a year passed. I think they really only reference longer supplies for tradition’s sake and so as not to make those who have the barrels of wheat feel as though their effort was wasted.
Heber13 wrote:
I would say it is a commandment from the prophets.From the church website, we read:
Quote:“Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to ‘prepare every needful thing’ (see D&C 109:
so that, should adversity come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors, and support bishops as they care for others.”“We encourage members worldwide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings. We ask that you be wise, and do not go to extremes.
They use the word “encourage” but the scripture above seems to be applied to food storage as one thing we are commanded to do.
HOW we do it, and to what level, is up to us, and there doesn’t seem to be a deadline for it. Simply saying…”we are working on it” is keeping the commandment if you are trying.
I’m not sure what other definition of commandment you would be thinking.
After reading the prayer in D&C 109 it seems a stretch to say ‘prepare every needful thing’ means “…should adversity come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors, and support bishops as they care for others.” Maybe I’m trying too hard not to see it.
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