One Year to Zion
Jan 5th, 2010 by larrybarkdull
Frustrated with the Saints’ apathy towards becoming Zion people, Brigham Young said, [We] have been praying to the Lord for…years for that which we might have received in one year.” Was the prophet exaggerating, throwing out a figure on a whim? Do prophets stoop to such tactics when exhorting their people? Were it not for the account in 3rd Nephi, we might discount President Young’s preparatory “year” as optimistic at best.
In the beginning of the 34th year of the Nephite calendar, a terrible destruction occurred. According to Mormon, on the fourth day of the first month of the year, the Nephite nation was visited with cataclysms on the scale of the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah. To the survivors, the voice of the resurrected Christ pierced the strangling darkness with both a rebuke and an invitation. We are obligated to consider these canonized words, because Mormon handpicked them as a way for us to prepare for and receive the resurrected Christ and his Zion.
O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?
How do we prepare to receive Christ and his Zion? Return, repent, and be converted. And what is the promise? Complete healing.
Mormon zeroed in on an exhortation that Jesus made when he later appeared to the Nephites. As we shall see, this exhortation helped to prepare the people for Zion:
And there shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been. For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away (3 Nephi 11:28-30).
In other words, stop arguing; stop fighting. Quit competing, gossiping, judging, and saying and doing hurtful things to each other. All of these things come of pride and selfishness. So stop thinking so much about yourself and start thinking more about others.
The Preparatory Year
We note with interest that Jesus’ voice was heard in the beginning of the thirty-fourth year. Then Mormon lets the record goes silent, as silent as the weighty silence that shrouded the earth after the Savior’s first pronouncements. When Mormon picks up the account again, he announces that we are “in the ending of the thirty and fourth year,” nearly one year later.
What happened in the lives of the surviving Nephites during those twelve months? Mormon gives us the answer in 4th Nephi, and these verses provide us a key to likewise qualify to come into the presence of the Lord and become a Zion people.
And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year, the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another.
And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift….
And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.
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.
Clearly, the people had done as Jesus had directed one year earlier. In the subsequent twelve months, they had managed to return to him with full purpose of heart; they had repented; they had become converted. Then, as promised, when the Lord came, he healed them. Moreover, after Jesus came, and perhaps most importantly, the people had purged themselves of disputations and contentions. Now they were ready to become a Zion people, among the happiest “people who had been created by the hand of God.”
Is Zion that close? Could we, too, qualify for the supernal blessings enjoyed by the Nephites by practicing the same principles and eliminating the same vices?
Brigham Young said, “[Zion] commences in the heart of each person.” “The length of time required ‘to accomplish all things pertaining to Zion’ is strictly up to us and how we live.”
The Problem with Contention
Contentions and disputations had always been the common denominators of Nephite decline, apostasy and war. Contentions had also brought down the Jaredite civilization, and later contention had nearly destroyed the Nephites after the birth of Christ. We are not exempt. Mormon seemed to take a prophetic view of our day and single out a significant barrier that would stand between us and Zion. Quoting Jesus, Mormon reminds and warns us about the dangers of contention and disputation, then commands us to abandon such behavior once and for all.
A cursing is pronounced upon those who contend, and prophets and great leaders have sought to teach unifying principles to avoid the possibility of contention. King Benjamin warned, “But, O my people, beware lest there shall arise contentions among you, and ye list to obey the evil spirit…. For behold, there is a wo pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit; for if he listeth to obey him, and remaineth and dieth in his sins, the same drinketh damnation to his own soul; for he receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment, having transgressed the law of God contrary to his own knowledge.”
Later, Alma commanded the members of the Church “that there should be no contention one with another, but that…their hearts [should be] knit together in unity and in love one towards another.” Looking out across the generations of his children, Nephi prophesied that contention would define his people’s history and eventually cause their downfall: “For behold, I say unto you that I have beheld that many generations shall pass away, and there shall be great wars and contentions among my people.”
When the resurrected Jesus appeared to the Nephites, he commanded them to never again contend or dispute with each other. If they would obey this command, they would also impede to a great degree envy, strife, tumult, sexual sins, lying, murder, lasciviousness, secret combinations and economic and social distinctions.
We might conjecture that if we would diligently strive to come unto Christ with full purpose of heart, repent, become converted, and rid our lives of contentions and disputations, we too might qualify in a short period of time, even in as little as one year, as the Nephite record and Brigham Young suggest, for the Lord to come to us and establish us as individual Zion people, Zion marriages, Zion families, Zion wards and stakes, and a Zion church.
“It is high time to establish Zion”
Could becoming Zion people be that simple? If we were to really believe what we have been taught and really live what we have been given, could we also become Zion people in as little as one year? Joseph Smith said, “So long as unrighteous acts are suffered in the Church, it cannot be sanctified, neither can Zion be redeemed.” Our responsibility is to act now and embrace the principles of Zion, “or else,” the Lord warns, our “faith is vain.”
An editorial written by Bishop Newel K. Whitney and his counselors in the Messenger and the Advocate sums up the urgency: “Whatever is glorious. Whatever is desirable-Whatever pertains to salvation, either temporal or spiritual. Our hopes, our expectations, our glory and our reward, all depend on our building up Zion according to the testimony of the prophets. For unless Zion is built: our hopes perish, our expectations fail, our prospects are blasted, our salvation withers, and God will come and smite the whole earth with a curse.”
President Spencer W. Kimball taught, “Zion can be built up only among those who are the pure in heart, not a people torn by covetousness or greed, but a pure and selfless people. Not a people who are pure in appearance, rather a people who are pure in heart. Zion is to be in the world and not of the world, not dulled by a sense of carnal security, nor paralyzed by materialism. No, Zion is not things of the lower, but of the higher order, things that exalt the mind and sanctify the heart.”
Finally, President Lorenzo Snow exhorted, “It is high time to establish Zion. Let us try to build up Zion. Zion is the pure in heart. Zion cannot be built up except on the principles of union required by the celestial law. It is high time for us to enter into these things.”
A Challenge for the New Year
Let us adopt a challenge to become more Zionlike during the coming year. Write this goal on paper and attach it to the refrigerator:
Zion in One Year!
Come unto Christ
Repent
Be converted
No more contention
As simple as this goal might appear, it is nevertheless scriptural and proven among a people very much like us.
Author’s Note
This article was adapted from my new book, The Three Pillars of Zion. Click here to receive a free sample.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 11:300.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 9:284.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 9:283.
See 1 Nephi 9:4; 12:3; 19:4; 2 Nephi 26:2, 32; 28:4; Omni 1:17; Words of Mormon 1:12; Mosiah 9:13; Alma 2:5; 4:9;50:25; 51:9; Helaman 16:22; 3 Nephi 2:11.
Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, vol. 2:146.
N. K. Whitney & R. Cahoon. V. Knight, Messenger and Advocate, vol. 3 (October 1836-September 1837), Vol. 3 September, 1837 No. 36 p.563.
Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 363.
Lorenzo Snow, The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, p.181.
