Failure of Zion

Section 101 explains why Zion failed. The reason is because the people failed to obey the commands of God to build a temple. The temple provides spiritual protection against sin through sanctification. Had the people been more sanctified through the temple, the LDS people probably would have gotten along with their neighbors better and not resulted in the Mormon War and the Extermination order. It takes two to tango, and in war both sides are wicked. One side may be less wicked than the other.

BUt, If we were righteous, then God would help us avert war, and would fight our battle for us like what God did for the Southern Kingdom of Judah during the time of Isaiah. When someone is rude or mean to you and you are rude and mean back, that gives them justification in their mind for the initial rudeness and worse behavior in the future. Pretty soon noone can remember who was mean first.

Anyways, it is actually prophesied that Zion would not be realized on the first try. This goes back to Able being killed by Cain, and then with the birth of Seth. Another allegory goes to the flood and God starting over with Noah and his family. Another allegory is Solomon building the temple instead of David because David was a man of war. Another allegory is the 2 attempts to build the Temple of Zerrubabbel. Isaiah said in the Last Days the temple would be built in the top of the mountains. Utah means "top of the mountains, or high place" in the Ute language. Mormons wanted to name the State "Deseret,' but the governor of the territory at the time decided otherwise. And Abraham blessed Joseph who was sold into Egypt that his future seed in the Last Days: " The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.”(Gen.49:22-26).

The best prophecy is the account by John in Revelations about the woman (Zion) getting ready to give birth to child (Theocracy) and the dragon devouring the child just as it is born and sending a flood against the woman. Then John says the woman was carried away into the dessert and nurished there and the Earth helps the woman until she is ready to return but this time wearing her beautiful white robes. Zion is the LDS church, the dragon and the flood represent the persecution. The child being devoured represents how Joseph Smith was martyred right after declaring his candidacy for president of the United States. The woman going into the wilderness represents the LDS church going to Utah. The Earth helping the woman represents the Book of Mormon which came from the Earth and out of the Earth.

But the prophecy will still be fulfilled. LDS still plan to build the city of Zion. But it will wait for a future day during the tribulation and before the rapture and the wrath when all governments collapse and a center gathering place is needed to protect the LDS people from the ensuing anarchy. However, right at the moment, Independence MO is a suburb of Kansas City, so there are no immediate plans to do anything. There is one troublesome prophecy concerning Independence which Joseph gave to General Doniphan while meeting with him and a 3rd person entered the room and offered to pay a dept to Doniphans business firm with land from Independence. Joseph warned Doniphan to not accept the land. This prophecy was fulfilled during the Civil War when Colossians W. R. Penick burned Jackson County to the ground in 1863 in response to General Order No. 11 by Union General Thomas Ewing, Jr. and again in 1864 when the area of Independence was ravaged by war again by Confederate Sterling Price who launched Price's Raid through the area culminating with the Battle of Westport.

"'Doniphan, I advise you not to take that Jackson county land in payment of the debt. God's wrath hangs over Jackson county. God's people have been ruthlessly driven from it, and you will live to see the day when it will be visited by fire and sword. The Lord of Hosts will sweep it with the besom of destruction. The fields and farms and houses will be destroyed, and only the chimneys will be left to mark the desolation.'

In reality, Joseph Smith prophesied and knew all along that the LDS people would end up in Utah. It is documented that Joseph Smith prophesied that the Saints would become a great people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. There is some debate about this prophecy mainly because Brigham Young preferred Vancouver Island to the Salt Lake Valley, but a record by Oliver H Olney verifies the prophecy.

"I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains, many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors or lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, and some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains." Documentary History of the Church (DHC) 5:85 August 1842

"As a company is now a forming / In to the wilderness to go / As far west as the Rocky mountains. . . . If this was not the secret whispering / Amongst certain ones of the Church of L.D.S. / And could be easily proven If man could speak." [Oliver H. Olney Papers, Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.] July 2, 1842