COME TO ZION PART 1

 

Would it surprise you to know that the prophets, priests and kings of old ‘have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live’? Not only did they look forward to it but they have sung, written and prophesied of it considering us a ‘favoured people’ because God had chosen us to bring about the Latter-day glory. (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 4:609-10)

As early as 1829, a year before the Church was organized in our dispensation, the Lord issued a mandate to the saints to ‘seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion’ (D&C 6:6). This is the Latter-day glory. We are favoured not because we are perfect but because we have a certain work to do and the Father trusted that we would do it.

I spoke to Elder Bruce C. Hafen one day when he was here in Australia in his capacity as the Area President, and he told me that the Church leaders had been given a directive to prepare the members to become a Zion people. That was 30 years ago. Why this preparation? Because without Zion we are not prepared to meet the Bridegroom, who is at the door….

When we think of Zion, the city of Enoch comes to mind more often than not and so it should because this city is the blueprint of what we can become. So glorious was Enoch’s city that it came to be known as the City of Holiness (Moses 7:19). It could only have been called that because the people living in it were holy.

According to ancient writings, both Melchizedek and Abraham sought to join the city of Enoch, as indeed many of the righteous who were ‘caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion’ (Moses 7:27; E. Douglas Clark, “The Blessings of Abraham”, p 152)

This is the definition of Zion: “Zion is a spiritual condition; Zion is people, Zion is the saints of God; Zion is those who have been baptized; Zion is those who have received the Holy Ghost; Zion is those who keep the commandments; Zion is the righteous, or in other words, as our revelation recites: “This is Zion – the pure in heart”(D&C 97:21) (Bruce R. McConkie, “Come: Let Israel Build Zion”, Ensign May 1977, p 117)

Elder McConkie went on to say that it was people only who were taken up into heaven and not brick and mortar and stone, because there are better homes already in heaven. The people constitute a city and Zion is the state of the heart.

Our next question should be, what does it mean to be pure in heart? We are told that Enoch’s citizens were called Zion because they were ‘of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness, and there was no poor among them’ (Moses 7:18). This condition can indeed only come through a pure heart. The operative word here is ‘pure’. Does it remind you of something else being pure?

The citizens of Enoch's City of Holiness not only achieved the blessed state of being of one heart and one mind but they maintained this state of righteousness for 365 years before they were translated (Moses 7:18, 68). Imagine living in a state of brotherhood and love for that long…..without criticism, judgment and intolerance of one another.

This was doable, this was possible, this was achievable only because ‘Enoch and all his people walked with God’ (v 69) in whose heart was the ‘pure’ love of Christ.

Since the people of this city ‘walked’ with God (Moses 7:69), they were ‘true’ followers of Jesus Christ and there is something very important that happens to true followers of Jesus Christ……they become endowed with this ‘pure’ love (Moroni 7:48).

This is a love that we cannot develop on our own. Moroni tells us that we must seek and pray for this love so that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him (Moroni 7:49)….and here’s the reason why: When the Saviour returns, Enoch’s city will return with Him to live with Zion, the New Jerusalem (Moses 7:62). This is us. They will meet us there and “we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other” (Moses 7:63)….it will be a meeting of hearts knit together with the pure love of Christ. The Saviour is at the door….the Millennium imminent. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Divine Companion by Yongsung Kim)