It's interesting when reading back through time on this subject. It is a topic that was once spoken about obsessively; preparing for a Zion society.
We know because of Article of Faith 10 and a myriad of scriptures that we are to prepare for it and look forward to it, but sadly it's almost like a forgotten language.
However in the April Liahona last year it was shared that the 4 future comings of the Saviour are to be..
Adam-Ondi-Ahman
Redemption of Zion in New Jerusalem
Mount of Olives in Jerusalem
Great and Dreadful day/ Second Coming
Pres Nelson is trying to get us to prepare for something. Even if you're asleep and not taking any notice of what he is trying to say, I bet everyone knows he is trying to move us into action for something. Just in Oct last year he said, "It is now time that we each implement extraordinary measures—perhaps measures we have never taken before—to strengthen our personal spiritual foundations. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures".
What if it is the RoZ he is trying to prepare us for?
The Lord has told us that Zion will need to be redeemed but how do we see that playing out?
A Zion society requires Zion individuals who are prepared temporally and spiritually for the days ahead. Just like church was taken away from us suddenly in March of 2020 (spiritually), we could have food or other necessities taken away from us just as suddenly.
There has not been many GC talks of late on food storage but in Oct 2020 Elder Bednar gave a most powerful talk reminding us of the need for this preparation. His example of looking for concerts of clarity will be forever etched in my brain. He said, "The consistency of prophetic counsel over time creates a powerful concert of clarity and a warning volume far louder than solo performances can ever produce."
Just like food storage, when we look back through the corridors of time, the redemption of Zion is a major concert of clarity.
Joseph Smith said The building up of Zion is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age. And a man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 231, 217)
Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself. (D&C 105:5)
The law of the celestial kingdom is celestial law and includes the laws of obedience, sacrifice, gospel, chastity and consecration.
What knowledge do you have about these laws? If we are saved no faster than our knowledge and if we want to be a part of the Lord's kingdom then we need to understand these laws and live them as they are currently revealed and be prepared for further restoration when the keys turn the lock and open the door.
Pres Nelson also recently stated that while salvation is an individual matter, exaltation is a family matter.
In the Jan 2022 Liahona Elder Cook speaks to this topic as he shares some thoughts from his own grandfather...
He (grandpa) explained that his grandfather Heber C. Kimball and other pioneer ancestors had faced arduous physical challenges. Grandpa said the pioneers quickly learned that to survive, they had to work together and love and serve each other.
“This is one of the great legacies they left to you!” he said as tears began to roll down his cheeks.
“In my calling as a patriarch and as your grandfather, when I look down the corridors of time, … my heart aches for you,” he said. “You will face emotional and spiritual challenges that most of your pioneer ancestors could never have imagined.”
Unless the younger generation honors the pioneers’ great legacy of love and service, he added, “many of you will fail because you will not be able to survive on your own.”
Then, with a spirit-to-spirit connection, Grandpa Kimball concluded: “We need each other. In addition to sharing our testimonies of the gospel with one another, our duty is to love and serve and strengthen and nourish and support and sustain each other, … especially in our family. Please remember that in the last days, your very survival may depend on your willingness to work together and to love and serve each other.
Pres Kimball in 1978 GC talk Becoming the Pure in Heart spoke of 3 fundamental things we must do if we are to bring again Zion.
Eliminate the individual tendency to selfishness that snares the soul, shrinks the heart and darkens the mind. He quoted Marion G Romney speaking of the tragic cycle of seeking for power and gain.
We must cooperate completely and work in harmony with the other D&C 38:27
Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.
We must lay on the alter and sacrifice whatever is required by the Lord
Competition and comparison is Satan's tactic to ensnare us to greed and discontentment. Are we striving to build up the kingdom of God and establish the redemption of Zion so the Lord can come or are we more focussed on our love of money and the gain of Babylon?
Are we willing to ask the Lord what lack I yet and learn what more we need to do?(Matthew 19:20)
Let us remember the covenants we have made to bear one another's burdens and to succour each according to his/her need.
Marion G Romney in 1981 also said
When we reach the state of having the “pure love of Christ,” our desire to serve one another will have grown to the point where we will be living fully the law of consecration. Living the law of consecration exalts the poor and humbles the rich. In the process, both are sanctified. The poor, released from the bondage and humiliating limitations of poverty, are enabled as free men to rise to their full potential, both temporally and spiritually. The rich, by consecration and the imparting of their surplus for the benefit of the poor, not by constraint, but willingly as an act of free will, evidence that charity for their fellowmen characterized by Mormon as “the pure love of Christ.” (Moro. 7:47.) This will bring both the giver and receiver to the common ground on which the Spirit of God can meet them.
It is the mission of the Church of this last dispensation to develop another people who shall live the gospel in its fulness. This people are to become “pure in heart,” and they shall flourish and be blessed upon the mountains and upon the high places. They shall be the Lord’s people. They shall walk with God because they shall be of one heart and one mind, and they shall dwell in righteousness, and there shall be no poor among them" close quote
Just recently Pres Nelson emphasized lazy learners and lax disciples will always struggle to muster even a particle of faith. How can we have faith in something we know little about?
He also said that the Lord loves effort because effort brings rewards that can't come without it. What if that reward is to become a Zion society and prepare to receive our King.
Pres Eyering in his GC talk said to the sisters in 2020 "you will play a crucial part in the grand times ahead. We know that the Savior will come to a people who have been gathered and prepared to live as the people did in the city of Enoch"
You sisters, your daughters, your granddaughters, and the women you have nurtured will be at the heart of creating that society of people who will join in glorious association with the Savior. You will be an essential force in the gathering of Israel and in the creation of a Zion people who will dwell in peace in the New Jerusalem.
The Lord has, through His prophets, made a promise to you. In the early days of the Relief Society, the Prophet Joseph Smith said to the sisters, “If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.”
That marvelous potential lies within you, and you are being prepared for it." Close quote
In Oct 2020 Elder Christofferson's spoke about how the great patriarch and Prophet Enoch preached righteousness and built a city that was called the city of holiness, even Zion. The Lord called his people Zion, because they were one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness and there was no poor among them.
He also spoke about the people in 4 Nephi (1:12,16) following the resurrected Savior’s remarkable ministry among them, “they did walk after the commandments which they had received from their Lord and their God, continuing in fasting and prayer, and in meeting together oft both to pray and to hear the word of the Lord. …
“And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.”
These 2 examples were sustained by the blessings of heaven growing out of their exemplary devotion to the two great commandments 'Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" and "thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself".
Unfortunately our 2nd example didn't last.
In this case, yielding to the temptations of the devil, the people “began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ.
Elder Christofferson goes on to say, quote
I think it safe to say that when people turn from a sense of accountability to God and begin to trust instead in the “arm of flesh,” disaster lurks. Trusting in the arm of flesh is to ignore the divine Author of human rights and human dignity and to give highest priority to riches, power, and the praise of the world (while often mocking and persecuting those who follow a different standard). Meanwhile, those in sustainable societies are seeking, as King Benjamin said, to “grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created [them], or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.” close quote
Being a Saviour on Mount Zion is often referred to as helping our families through saving ordinances and enabling those who have not received the opportunity to receive exaltation, to receive this blessing, however what if it's more than that?
What if it also entails helping one another as we strive to redeem Zion together? The Saviour cannot come until we redeem Zion. Are we destined to fail and never experience this prophecy? If so the world would be wasted and God would cease to be God.
What if turning our hearts to our fathers and the fathers hearts to their children also includes remembering the promises made to the fathers. The promises our righteous ancestors and Holy men of God received to inherit the blessings and requirements to build Zion and help that dream -that promise come alive again so we can actually achieve it this time.
D&C 58 3-12
Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.
4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.
6 Behold, verily I say unto you, for this cause I have sent you—that you might be obedient, and that your hearts might be prepared to bear testimony of the things which are to come;
7 And also that you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand;
11 And after that cometh the day of my power; then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come.
12 Behold, I, the Lord, have spoken it.
The tribulations are coming because they are prophesied. Pres Nelson is warning us. The Lord has told us through the scriptures.(D&C 45:24-38)
Are the scriptures in particular the BOM and D&C just great history books we have been encouraged to study or are they books of prophecy written for our time telling us what is coming and how to prepare?
Have we been actively living the laws of God and doing all that the Prophets and apostles have urged us to do so we can be prepared both temporally and spiritually?
As we strive to be self-reliant as an Individual, family, ward and stake, let's all do our part so we can be unified and a blessing to one another. Then we can be prepared to gather as a Zion people when called to do so.
Pray and ask what "lack I yet" so you can know what you need to do for yourself and for your family so that when the time comes we are all prepared to create a Zion society here together as we await further instructions from the Lord.
I have spent the last 16 months studying this topic and asking the Lord to help me know what I need to do to prepare. I have read much from our dispensation head Joseph Smith Jnr, I have studied much from our current and past Prophets. I have gained much knowledge. I have had much to repent of, some repentance has required much humbling and sacrifice. But the Lord has blessed me much more than I could imagine. I prayed a few months back and asked the Lord what I was to pray for, I was told to ask specifically to RECEIVE Zion. I know those of us who qualify will be called to redeem Zion. I pray that it might be you and I in the name of JC amen
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