Chapter XLI. The Theme of Zion

Christ bringing Zion from all his Creations. Mount Zion Celestialized. The One Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand Saviours. God Dwelleth in Eternal Burnings. The "Sea of Glass."

And in this connection let us also listen to Joseph's expounding of the theme of Zion. In the Book of Enoch he reveals that "The Lord came and dwelt with his people, and they dwelt in righteousness. * * And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness ; and there was no poor among them. * * But lo Zion in process of time was taken up into heaven ! And the Lord said unto Enoch, behold my abode forever."

Thus it appears that Zion was set up by Enoch in the early ages of the earth, and the Lord came and dwelt with him and his people. During this partial millennium they learned the laws of celestial science, and by them became translated — a type of what is to be done under the reign of Christ in the grand millennium.

But concerning what the King of Zion had already done before Enoch's day, hear what Enoch says:

" You have taken Zion to your own bosom from all your creations, from all eternity to all eternity."

Then hear what the King of Zion said he would do in the last days, when the " times of the restitution of all things" should come in :

" And righteousness will I send down out of heaven : and truth will I send forth out of the earth to bear testimony of my Only Begotten ; his resurrection from the dead ; yea, and also the resurrection of all men ; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out my own elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare; a Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming ; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem. And the Lord said unto Enoch, then shall you and all your city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us ; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other; and there shall be my abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made ; and for the space of a thousand years shall the earth rest."

So, according to the above, it is indeed true, as presented in the foregoing chapter, that Christ brings with him Zion from all his creations, to meet Adam and Enoch and all the Ancients of Days, to reign a thousand years in the earth's sphere. He shall bring all his holy angels with him ! A grand jubilee of worlds this, to welcome earth into their celestial sphere, — and the Ancients of worlds come

down to accomplish her deliverance by their heavenly powers, — to give to her the new celestial birth, and baptize her with fire and the Holy Ghost. Then will the poet's exultant strain be realized :

" He will come down with heavenly power To carry us above ! "

Qnce afterwards, on the American Continent, according to the Book of Mormon, there was something like a Zion established. And now, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, when Jesus is to bring Zion from all his creations, Joseph has been sent to re-establish the earthly Zion in America, that a people may be prepared by the ministration of angels and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, to meet Messiah.

At first, as we have seen, the saints looked upon Kirtland as Zion. But Joseph told them it was but one of her stakes. Then Jackson Co., Missouri, was looked upon as their Zion. But again he enlightened them by declaring that it was not Zion, but her centre stake. Then they wanted Zion to be established at Nauvoo. And then it was he proclaimed that All America was Zion. Messiah shall reiofn over all America first, as the initial of the glorious consummation. This was the burden of Joseph's prophecies from the beginning.

And the crowning prophecies of the Hebrew prophets, concerning Zion of the last days, Joseph applies to America. His universal theology, it will be remembered, makes the patriarchs of this continent to be the highest inspiring geniuses of their descendants — the Hebrew prophets. For instance,

Michael, or Adam, whom Gabriel told Daniel was the Prince of his people, or the chief Archangel of the Hebrews; Gabriel, or Noah, being himself one of their Archangels, and Enoch, to whom Jude refers, another. Joseph also makes Zion, or America, the vast theatre of the gathering of the Israel of which we have treated, namely, those nations who have, in the preparatory work of Jehovah, manifested the spirit of an Israel; while Jerusalem, during the millennium, becomes the theatre of action for the Jews.

From some of the Hebrew prophecies catch we here a glimpse of the future grandeur of the American civilization — the work of the Lord in this Promised Land :

" Arise and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. * *

" And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

"And they shall call thee, The City of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. * *

" Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh ; behold his reward is with him, and his work before him.

" And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord : and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken."

That the Jewish prophets applied the subject of their inspirations specially to Jerusalem of Palestine, there can be no doubt ; but Joseph, giving the spirit of the broader view of Israel, swept their themes

over to America, where Messiah was going to reign. Yet is the restoration of the Jews contemplated in his view, and Jerusalem rises again after the glory of the Lord has risen on Zion. Nations other than the Jews have come of Abraham, and all are to be gathered in the last days. This cannot be accomplished in little Palestine. The subject was too vast for the comprehension of the Jewish prophets. It remained for Joseph to reveal the whole Israel of God, and designate their gathering place.

Michael's prophecy is finely illustrative of the subject :

" But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills ; and many people shall flow unto it.

" And many nations shall come, and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

"And he shall judge among many people; and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This can never be fulfilled by a little nation restored to Palestine; but the very hope of this age is that all of it and more will be the result of American civilization when that reiirn of righteousness

shall be brought in. For this Washington and his brethren established American independence ; and to make straight the way for this reign of righteousness, it may be added, Joseph was sent by Messiah, — for this his blood was shed as the testament of his Messianic mission.

But see how the vision of Zion is enlarged when the Ancient of Days and Jesus — holding the keys of the universe — come down with celestial hosts to take part with mortals in the millennial action, with America as the literal Zion of earth in the last days.

And that we may clearly understand what the reign of Messiah and his celestial hosts over the earth during a millennium signifies, let us return to Joseph's exposition :

" Christ and the resurrected saints will reign over the earth during the thousand years. They will not probably dwell upon the earth, but will visit it, when they please, or when it is necessary, to govern it. There will be wicked men on the earth during the thousand years. The heathen nations who will not come up to worship will be visited with the judgments of God, and must eventually be destroyed from the earth."

This seems clear enough for all to understand the millennium ; and we make bold to say that Joseph never revealed the millennial reign of Christ in any different light.

And there is sound reason at the foundation of this view; for how could the reign of Christ for a thousand years, with his "resurrected saints? be other than according to this revealing ? Were

millions of Archangels — celestial empires of them — with their universal Messiah to come down upon the earth in their glory, they would consume all flesh. Even the earth herself would melt in their presence.

True, such is to be the consummation, after the millennium, but then shall the earth be translated, or celestialized, and the celestial saints shall dwell in everlasting burnings, in the presence of God, forever and ever. Therefore is it well said by Joseph that those nations who, during the millennium, have not been prepared for this great change, " must eventually be destroyed from the earth."

John the Revelator says : " I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

Joseph also has seen this, and has revealed what Enoch saw. 'Tis the vision of John enlarged. Zion is coming down from all the creations of God.

The heavenly Zion, then, is approaching the earth — coming down from God out of heaven — and it is drawing as near to the Zion of mortals — America— as is yet possible for Messiah to come. For " who may abide the day of his coming ? and who shall stand when he appeareth ? " Joseph was incarnated in America expressly to prepare for the day of his coming. He saw Messiah in the temple at Kirtland, and at other times "when in the spirit," when baptized with the Holy Ghost.

Joseph very nearly declared, as plain as language could speak, that the Ancient of Days is even now sitting with his grand council in his heavenly Zion.

What else does Joseph's mission mean? Has not the Ancient of Days, and even the King of the Universe, visited the earth for the purposes of the millennium? Hear what the Prophet says at a date later than the revelation on the Ancient of Days :

" The sound saluted my ears, We are come unto Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the First Born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant."

Let us remember, also, in connection with this, Joseph's practical talk while in Liberty jail, concerning a congress of angels at that time in session over the earth !

The Ancients of Days shall sit — not only the ancients of this earth, but also the ancients from all Messiah's creations — and they shall meet " Enoch and his band," according to the covenant, to spend with Adam and his resurrected sons and daughters a millennial era.

And the earth will feel their celestial influence. Is not this the meaning of the wondrous developments of this age ? Truly the Ancients<are at times among us, and the church of the First Born, the King of Zion, is beginning his reign over the earth!

During the millennium the East is also to be resuscitated and Jerusalem restored. Joseph has prophesied that Great Britain will be greatly instrumental in this. Orson Hyde has also thus

prophesied. But the Jews will not receive their Messiah till after the thousand years. Says Joseph :

11 The battle of Gog and Magog will be after the millennium. The remnant of all nations that fight against Jerusalem were commanded to go up to Jerusalem to worship in the millennium."

It is at that battle that Messiah shall come and deliver them. "And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son." "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thy hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends."

" And I will bring the third part through the fire [the rest are destroyed], and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them : I will say, It is my people : and they shall say, The Lord is my God."

Then also will the prophetic words be realized : "The Lord shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem before his Ancients gloriously."

With this let us now also consider the view which Joseph gives of this earth celestialized:

"This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal, and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifested to those who dwell on it."

Of Mount Zion celestialized he says: " There will be one hundred and forty-four thousand Saviours on Mount Zion, and with them an innumerable host

that no man can number." And in the same connection he says : " God Almighty himself dwells in eternal fire ; flesh and blood cannot dwell there, for all corruption is devoured by the fire. Our God is a consuming fire. When our flesh is quickened by the Spirit there will be no blood in the tabernacle. Immortality dwells in everlasting burnings. * * All men who are immortal dwell in everlasting burnings."

True, Joseph taught his disciples that this earth is the home of the race of Adam, and that the Saints would possess it for their eternal abode ; that the tabernacle of God would be in their midst ; that he would dwell with them upon the earth, and that they should reign upon the earth as kings and Priests to God and the Lamb forever and forever. But that will be when the Saints and the earth are immortalized. The millennial reign is to bring the earth into this condition, and the "last great change" consummates the transformation ; and thus the Saints, prepared by the powers of an endless life, will not be consumed by the grand revealing of the glory of that God who " dwells in everlasting burnings."

The elders also apply the following from Isaiah : " And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:

"When the Lord shall have washed away the filth from the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.

" And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a naming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence."

But Joseph, as previously seen, has placed this event of the purging of Jerusalem by the "spirit of burning " after the battle of Go and Mago«\ at the end of the millennium, when the Jews shall have been delivered by their Messiah and he has made himself known unto them.

At that time the earth will be rapidly passing into her great celestial change, through the wondrous development of celestial science, on her face and within her sphere, applied by the powers of that Zion which has been cominof down out of heaven to meet the Zion of the earth. Here is the view of that final meeting, as given in the Doctrine and Covenants :

" The Lord hath redeemed his people,

" And Satan is bound and time is no longer :

" The Lord hath gathered all things in one :

" The Lord hath brought down Zion from above:

"The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath:

" The earth hath travailed and brought forth her strength : " And truth is established in her bowels : " And the heavens have smiled upon her : " And she is clothed with the glory of God : " For he stands in the midst of his people."

Thus are immortals to celebrate the earth's celestialization. Thus is earth to become as the Sea of Glass — as a vast Urim and Tkummim — no longer in need of a borrowed light !

And this is Zion in all her glory !