CREATING ZION

 

“Too many of the people of the world have come to resemble the Babylon of old by walking in their own ways and following a god ‘whose image is in the likeness of the world’ (D&C 1:16).

“One of the greatest challenges we will face is to be able to live in that world but somehow not be of that world. We have to create Zion in the midst of Babylon….

“My involvement with the building of the Manhattan Temple gave me the opportunity to be in the temple quite often prior to the dedication. It was wonderful to sit in the celestial room and be there in perfect silence, without a single sound to be heard coming from the busy New York streets outside. How was it possible that the temple could be so reverently silent when the hustle and bustle of the metropolis was just a few yards away?

“The answer was in the construction of the temple. The temple was built within the walls of an existing building, and the inner walls of the temple were connected to the outer walls at only a very few junction points. That is how the temple (Zion) limited the effects of Babylon, or the world outside.

“There may be a lesson here for us. We can create the real Zion among us by limiting the extent to which Babylon will influence our lives…..

“Wherever we are, whatever city we may live in, we can build our own Zion by the principles of the celestial kingdom and ever seek to become the pure in heart….

“We do not need to become as puppets in the hands of the culture of the place and time. We can be courageous and can walk in the Lord’s paths and follow His footsteps.”

-          Elder David R. Stone, in CR April 2006, 94-97; or Ensign May 2006, 90-93)

I remember talking to one of the sisters in the Church years ago. She said she had gone to the department store to buy some needed dinner plates and she encountered beautiful expensive china there. She inspected it and her concluding thought was: “This is so Babylon”. She decided against buying that china and settled for something more serviceable and less valuable. I was a young and relatively new member of the Church back then and I was in awe of her because she happened to have the financial means to own anything I deemed expensive. I had never forgotten that.

 Now when I see some popular fashions and expensive ware, I remember this sister and think to myself: “This is so Babylon”….. This one thought has over the years taken away all my inclination to follow world trends and seek after the things that are passing and of no spiritual value.

It must be my age but the older I get, the less appeal Babylon has for me. I cannot bear swearing in movies so I have given up on watching them. The novels I used to love getting lost in now speak nothing to me but the voices and values of the world so I have stopped reading them. The shows I used to love watching on streaming services lost their appeal too once I realized most of them centered on crime and murder. I decided I could do without that energy in my life too. The less influence of the world I have in my life, the greater my spirituality and thirst for eternal life.

I want to live in Zion and I want to live with the nobles of heaven one day. Babylon the Great will fall. Nothing in it is permanent and lasting. The world will be done away with but the kingdom of God will go on forever.

Remember, there is no iron rod to the great and spacious building….

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)