In the aftermath of the significant 1837 failure of the Church’s banking business in Kirtland, Ohio and the subsequent fallout with several Church leaders—including death threats—Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon fled Ohio to be with Church members in Far West, Missouri. Shortly thereafter, in April 1838, the Lord commanded the saints to build the Far West temple, but charged them not to go into more debt to do so. Church leaders were then already steeped in debts from Kirtland as it was. So in response to Joseph’s prayerful plea in July of that year as to how to fund the various needs of the Church, the Lord revealed what we now know as the law of tithing.  

In this episode of Church History Matters we discuss several of the fascinating details from this history and grapple with a few fundamental and slightly controversial questions about tithing.

For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/