Joseph Smith Translation – Genesis 9:21
Joseph Smith taught, “We ought to have the building up of
Zion as our greatest object. … The time is soon coming, when no man will have
any peace but in Zion and her stakes” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 160–61).
Elder Alexander B. Morrison wrote: "The dream of a better world is as old
as mankind. From time immemorial, men and women of faith and hope have dreamed
of a Holy City, whose king is the Lord God Omnipotent; a place of refuge for
the righteous fleeing the storms of a wicked world; an abode where peace is in
every heart, where there is no fear nor want and all people are brothers and
sisters, where faith and purity shine in every face. That place, in
Judeo-Christian parlance, is called Zion."
Reading 1 – Doctrine and Covenants 97:21
Reading 2 – Doctrine and Covenants 82:14
Reading 3 – Moses 7:18-19
Reading 4 – The 10th Article of Faith
Reading 5 – Hebrews 12:22-23
Joseph Smith taught: "The building up of Zion is a
cause that has interested the people of God in every age; it is a theme upon
which prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have
looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live."
(TPJS, p231)
Reading 6 - Elder Orson F. Whitney taught: "Yet it is none the less significant:
for as the mountain towers above the plain, as the great peaks of these ranges
lift their heads above the valleys where we dwell, so must the Zion of God, the
pure in heart, be lifted up, not in pride and vanity, but by their purity and
righteousness above the level of the rest of mankind. Therefore, Zion, in its
temporal and in its spiritual significance, means something high and lifted up,
and it is in this sense that the prophets of old used it when speaking of Mount
Zion, meaning not only that little hill in the city of Jerusalem, but in its
grander and broader significance, the people of God, the pure in heart, who
were to rise above and become superior to the rest of mankind." (Collected
Discourses, vol 1)
Mosiah 4:16-21
Reading 7 - Elder James E. Talmage wrote: "The Church in this day teaches that the
New Jerusalem seen by John and by the prophet Ether, as descending from the
heavens in glory, is the return of exalted Enoch and his righteous people; and
that the people or Zion of Enoch, and the modern Zion, or the gathered saints
on the western continent, will become one people." (Articles of Faith,
p318)
Doctrine and Covenants 101:6-8
Doctrine and Covenants 105:5
Doctrine and Covenants 105:9
Reading 8 - President Harold B. Lee said: “The borders of
Zion, where the righteous and pure in heart may dwell, must now begin to be
enlarged. The stakes of Zion must be strengthened. All this so that Zion may
arise and shine by becoming increasingly diligent in carrying out the plan of
salvation throughout the world” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1973, 5; or Ensign,
July 1973, 3)
Doctrine and Covenants 82:14-15
Moroni 7:47-48
Reading 9 – Doctrine and Covenants 38:27
Reading 10 – Doctrine and Covenants 97:10, 13, 15-16
Reading 11 – Doctrine and Covenants 133:8-9
Doctrine and Covenants 97:18-25
Reading 12 - President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “I see a
wonderful future in a very uncertain world. If we will cling to our values, if
we will build on our inheritance, if we will walk in obedience before the Lord,
if we will simply live the gospel, we will be blessed in a magnificent and
wonderful way. We will be looked upon as a peculiar people who have found the
key to a peculiar happiness.
“‘And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go
up to the mountain of the Lord … : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 2:3).
“Great has been our past, wonderful is our present, glorious
can be our future” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1997, 94; or Ensign, Nov. 1997,
69).
President Thomas S. Monsen said: “The future is as bright as
your faith.”
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