{"id":41591,"date":"2021-03-25T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=41591"},"modified":"2021-03-28T20:53:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T01:53:12","slug":"the-gathering-of-mine-elect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2021\/03\/the-gathering-of-mine-elect\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe gathering of mine Elect\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Change and continuity create an interesting tension in the Church.\u00a0 I explored this in a previous post<\/a> as the tension of believing in an everlasting, unchanging gospel that we have had restored to us and the belief in ongoing revelation and changes to adapt and evolve the Church to our current circumstances.\u00a0 Changes can be disconcerting with the first of those two beliefs in mind because it demonstrates that the Church\u2019s beliefs and practices are not unchanging and static.\u00a0 One of the ways we minimize the perception of change, however, is to continue to use terminology that was important\u2014words and phrases that were previously used\u2014but to collectively change what we mean when we use that terminology.\u00a0 The concept of gathering the Elect to Zion is a case study in the process of shifting use of terminology.<\/p>\n

The September 1830 revelation that we are studying this week (now Section 29) demonstrates how gathering was understood in the earliest days of the Church.\u00a0 The revelation opens with an announcement that Jesus Christ \u201cwill gether his People even as a hen gethereth her\u00a0Chickens under her wings even as many as will hearken\u00a0to my voice & humble themselves before me & call upon\u00a0me in mighty prayer.\u201d\u00a0 It discusses missionary work and prayer, then states that the elders the revelation is addressing \u201care called to bring to pass the\u00a0gethering\u00a0of\u00a0mine Elect \u2026 wherefore the decree hath gone forth\u00a0from the father that they shall be gethered in unto one\u00a0place upon the the face of this land to prepare their Hearts & be prepared in all things against the day of tribulation\u00a0& desolation is sent forth upon the wicked.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Gathering, as discussed here was focused first on missionary work to seek out the \u201cElect\u201d who \u201cwill hearken\u201d to the Lord\u2019s voice and then to gather them \u201cin unto one place upon the face of this land\u201d to prepare for the dramatic and violent destruction of the wicked associated with the return of Jesus Christ prior to a millennium of peace.<\/p>\n

That premillennial belief in an imminent return of Jesus Christ with a time of destruction beforehand was a driving force behind the idea of gathering to a physical location.\u00a0 The September 1830 revelation goes on to describe in great detail a variety of graphic destructions to be poured upon the wicked, including hailstorms, flies eating the flesh of the wicked, and the wicked being devoured by \u201cthe Beasts of the forest\u00a0& the fowls of the air,\u201d then affirming that while these things have not yet come to pass, they \u201cshurely must as I live for abominations shall not reign.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 There is also a lot of mentions of trumps sounding (which hopefully has more to do with the language of the Revelation of St. John than with a certain forthcoming social media platform).\u00a0 The focal point for the gathering became known as Zion or the New Jerusalem (drawing on terminology from the Book of Mormon and the New Translation of the Old Testament that we have in the Book of Moses).\u00a0 A March 1831 revelation (now Section 45), for example, drew on this theme, stating that in the end days: \u201cMy Deciples shall stand in Holy places & shall not be moved but among the wicked men shall lift up their voices & curse God & die.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 After discussing the themes in greater detail, that revelation instructed the Saints to gather riches to purchase land in the place that \u201cshall be called the\u00a0New Jerusalem\u00a0a land\u00a0of peace a City of refuge a place of safety for the saints of The most high God,\u201d then goes on to state that: \u201cIt shall be called\u00a0Zion\u00a0& it shall come to pass among the wicked that\u00a0evry man that will not take his sword against his\u00a0Neighbour must needs flee unto Zion for safety.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Zion was designated as a place of safety in the great and terrible day of the Lord.<\/p>\n

While revelations initially indicated that this Zion was one specific location, the idea gradually began to expand.\u00a0 The revelation that is now Section 29 designated \u201cthat they shall be gethered in unto one<\/em>\u00a0place,\u201d[5]<\/a> which a revelation the following summer indicated was \u201cthe land of Missorie,\u201d specifically \u201cthe place which is now called Independence.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 An April 1832 revelation, however, gave a more expansive definition to Zion beyond the focal point in Missouri.\u00a0 It stated that: \u201cI\u00a0have\u00a0consecrated\u00a0the land of\u00a0Kirtland\u00a0in mine own due\u00a0time for the benefits<\/span>\u00a0of the Saints of the most high\u00a0God<\/span>\u00a0& for a\u00a0stake\u00a0to\u00a0Zion[.]\u00a0for Zion must increase in beauty\u00a0& in holy-ness her borders must\u00a0increase<\/span>\u00a0be enlarged.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Drawing on the imagery of Isaiah 54, the revelation implied that Zion was like a great tent, with a central city or post of Zion in Missouri and outposts or satellite sites of Zion, including Kirtland, securing its curtains like tent stakes.\u00a0 Hence, Zion was no longer one single location, but became more elastic in concept, including other places where the Saints lived under divine law as extensions of Zion.<\/p>\n

Even with that modification, there was a focus on creating a physical city of Zion.\u00a0 Joseph Smith laid out a plat for the city of Zion in 1833, giving an ideal for how the holy city should be built.\u00a0 He designated space for \u201cpublick buildings\u201d in the center (including \u201cstore houses for[r] [the] Bishop\u201d and a series of temples for use by the various quorums of the priesthood as \u201chouses of worship [and] schools\u201d) and houses for living in the surrounding city and then barns, stables, and farmland outside of the city in \u201ca sufficient quanty of land to supply the whole plot.\u201d\u00a0 Once filled, copies of the city would be built next to it \u201cand so fill up the world in these last days and let every man live in the City for this is the City of Zion.\u201d[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Stakes of Zion and subsequent city-building efforts would attempt to follow this plan (though expansion was often too rapid and resources too limited to effectively do so).\u00a0 By late 1833, however, the Saints had been driven out of Independence and every attempt to return failed. \u00a0Kirtland\u2014designated as a stake of Zion\u2014became the primary focus of Joseph\u2019s efforts over the next several years, but in 1838, the Church leaders and many of the Kirtland Saints fled to Far West, Missouri. \u00a0Far West was spoken of in a revelation as \u201ca holy and consecrated land,\u201d possibly implying that it was to replace the Zion in Independence.[9]<\/a> \u00a0Within a year, however, they were forced to leave their land again, shattering their dreams once more. \u00a0This time, they settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. \u00a0Nauvoo was set up as a stake of Zion, not the Holy City itself, while the Saints looked to return to their promised land.<\/p>\n

After Joseph Smith\u2019s death in 1844, Church leadership passed to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles under Brigham Young, who carried out plans to move to the Great Basin region of the American West. \u00a0Many comparisons were made between these pioneers as a modern \u201ccamp of Israel\u201d on an Egypt-like exodus to settle a promised land \u201cin the top of the mountains\u201d that \u201call nations would flow unto\u201d and where \u201cout of Zion [would] go forth the law.\u201d[10]<\/a> \u00a0While they looked to return to Missouri as their eventual inheritance, the land of Deseret or Utah was seen as a land of Zion to which they should gather.\u00a0 For example, hymns from that era proclaimed things like: \u201cCome to Zion, \/ For your coming Lord is nigh,\u201d[11]<\/a> or \u201cO Zion! dear Zion! home of the free: \/ My own mountain home now to thee I have come; \/ All my fond hopes are centered in thee,\u201d[12]<\/a> or warned converts to: \u201cThink not, when you gather to Zion, \/ Your troubles and trials are through\u2014 \/ That nothing but comfort and pleasure \/ Are waiting in Zion for you.\u201d[13]<\/a>\u00a0 It should be apparent from calls to gather and references to mountains that the authors of these hymns saw Utah as Zion.\u00a0 As a result of the calls to gather, tens of thousands of Saints from across America, Europe, and (to a lesser degree) the Pacific Islands immigrated to the western United States and established over 500 colonies in an area reaching across much of the American West and into Mexico and Canada in an effort to build Zion.<\/p>\n

The concept of Zion utilized in these colonies was rooted in the ideals of Joseph Smith\u2019s work and focused on a few central points of belief.\u00a0 These included the gathering of the Saints to a central area, living in the Mormon village with its roots in Joseph\u2019s Zion plat, property as stewardship from God rather than purely personal possessions, frugality and economic independence, unity and cooperation under Church direction, and redeeming the earth from the curse of the Fall of Adam and Eve through working the land.[14]<\/a>\u00a0 The imminence of the millennium in the Mormon mindset continued to be a driving factor, with rhetoric about the Second Coming remaining a frequent part of sermons.\u00a0 And, among other things, temples were used to draw people to the Great Basin region for the gathering. Only four temples were constructed during this period, and were all in Utah. This geographical limitation was intentional: Brigham Young taught that it was necessary to restrict the performance of endowment ceremonies to Utah, believing that to do otherwise would \u201cdestroy the object of the gathering.\u201d[15]<\/a>\u00a0 In many ways, the approach to Zion during the mid- to late-nineteenth century was rooted in Joseph Smith\u2019s idea of gathering to specific locations and building communities, just on a larger scale and in a different location than originally planned.<\/p>\n

Increased pressure from the contemporary American society around the turn of the twentieth century led to changes in the concept of Zion and the practice of gathering. \u00a0For example, in 1898, President George Q. Cannon counseled against Saints being anxious to gather to Zion and other leaders, such as President Lorenzo Snow, followed suite within the next decade.[16]<\/a> \u00a0Part of this was due to Utah becoming increasingly overpopulated, resulting in limiting economic opportunities for newly-gathered Saints.[17]<\/a>\u00a0 Attacks by the federal government intended to end the practice of polygamy, which included dissolving the Perpetual Emigration Fund, also limited the Church\u2019s ability to finance and oversee emigration to Utah.<\/p>\n

In addition, President Joseph F. Smith, who became president of the Church in 1901, had observed some of the difficulties gathering had on outlying regions of the Church while serving as a missionary in Hawaii.\u00a0 While adapting to laws that prevented native Hawaiians from immigrating, the Church there worked to create their own gathering place by calling Hawaiian Latter-day Saints to build a community on the island of Lanai.\u00a0 As historian R. Lanier Britsch wrote: \u201cEven as a young man [Joseph F.] Smith \u2026 perceived the mission\u2019s most serious problem\u2014that the Lanai colony benefitted those who gathered there, but weakened the branches elsewhere.\u201d[18]<\/a> \u00a0It is possible that President Smith carried this experience with him throughout life, realizing that the gathering to the Great Basin was weakening the Church in England and elsewhere, and may have been part of why he came to repeatedly counsel Saints to \u201cremain in their native lands and form congregations of a permanent character.\u201d[19]<\/a> \u00a0He also initiated the process of constructing temples outside of Utah, with the Cardston, Alberta Temple in Canada and the Laie, Hawaii Temple (the first temple to be built in an area that did not yet have a stake).\u00a0 With these beginnings at the turn of the century, the idea of gathering to Utah began to be discouraged within the Church.<\/p>\n

That being said, the doctrine of gathering continued to be both an official and unofficial belief while being semi-officially discouraged for several decades until official modification to the doctrine occurred in the early 1970\u2019s.\u00a0 In 1971, at the first regional conference in England, regional representative Derek A. Cuthbert stated, \u201cThere is no longer a need for British Church members to leave their homeland to partake of the blessings of Church membership.\u201d[20]<\/a> A similar conference was held in Mexico City the following year. At this conference, Elder Bruce R. McConkie enunciated the new doctrine of gathering:<\/p>\n

The place of gathering for the Mexican Saints is in Mexico; the place of gathering for the Guatemalan Saints is in Guatemala; the place of gathering for the Brazilian Saints is in Brazil; and so it goes throughout the length and breadth of the whole earth. Japan is for the Japanese; Korea is for the Koreans; Australia is for the Australians; every nation is the gathering place for its own people.[21]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These statements mark an official shift in doctrine that ended the idea of gathering to a physical location of Zion. \u00a0Previous efforts to discourage emigration to the American West were done with a belief that Utah was Zion (at least until Missouri could be reclaimed). \u00a0Now, things had changed\u2014Zion was officially no longer a specific location, but a worldwide effort centered on the Church, families, and individuals. \u00a0The future gathering to Missouri is still a part of the Mormon millennial eschatology,[22]<\/a> but anywhere the Church is established can be a gathering place for the Saints by this definition.<\/p>\n

By and large, the rhetoric of general authorities has followed this line of reasoning in discussing the concept of gathering to Zion.\u00a0 In September 2012, for example, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland stated that: \u201cIn these last days, in this our dispensation\u2026 Zion would be everywhere\u2014wherever the Church is. And with that change \u2026 we no longer think of Zion as where<\/em>\u00a0we are going to live; we think of it as\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0we are going to live.\u201d[23]<\/a> \u00a0One result of this shift is that Zion has, more or less, come to be defined as the Church as an institution rather than a physical location.\u00a0 Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught that: \u201cToday the Lord\u2019s people are gathering \u2018out from among the nations\u2019 as they gather into the congregations and stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that are scattered throughout the nations.\u201d[24]<\/a> \u00a0And President Russell M. Nelson recently defined the gathering of Israel as simply \u201cmissionary, temple, and family history work.\u201d[25]<\/a> \u00a0To fit the needs of the time, today the focus of Zion is on the Church as a spiritual institution rather than a specific geographical location.<\/p>\n

Now, to cycle back through the evolution of gathering to Zion, in the early days of the Church, it was rooted in the concept of building a city that would be a place of safety and refuge during the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The term was expanded to allow for outposts to the holy city, called stakes. \u00a0After church leadership passed to Brigham Young, the Church moved to the Great Basin and sought to create an entire region of Zion colonies as a kingdom of God in the American west. \u00a0After intense social pressures necessitated change, the Church entered an era of transition that resulted in a reshaping of the Zion ideal. \u00a0The belief in a physical gathering to a specific location was discouraged beginning around the turn of the twentieth century and would later be replaced by a spiritual, figurative gathering into the Church itself, wherever it is found.\u00a0 Zion was shifted from a utopian city to a community represented in families, church association, and individual purity and righteousness while gathering was changed from relocating to physical locations to joining a worldwide community. \u00a0Throughout the process of change and adaptation, the language of gathering the Elect and building Zion has been used within the Church, keeping a form of continuity from the 1830 revelations, though the way in which we use that terminology has changed and been repurposed to match the reality of what is being done in the Church today.<\/p>\n

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Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n