In a Facebook group discussing Zion, a participant posted this comment which illustrates the problem pointed out in the title of this blog post:
“I am all for increased spirituality. I keep thinking of John Pontius’ book regarding Zion. I feel I still have so much to learn and so far to go. I too love the concept, but boy, I am certainly not as worthy as so many others, yet. I’m striving to be prepared in the manner the Spirit has directed me in. It’s getting difficult emotionally and mentally. Lots of judgmental naysayers. I am trying to love anyway. If I can’t do that, I will never be a Zion person.”
I responded…
“See, that’s what disappointed me about Pontius’ book — reading it gives us the impression we have to be perfect, or nearly-so, to participate in Zion, and that can’t possibly be true! It took Enoch 365 years to get his people from where they started to being taken into heaven. My guess, though I don’t know you at all, is that anyone who is driven to prepare spiritually and temporally IS ready.”
Then someone else posted, “John’s Pontius point was that we need to be sanctified rather than perfect to abide God’s glory in our future Zion cities.”
Doesn’t that support my point? Who do you know that is “sanctified”? Are you?
Let’s go to the source. From page 3 of Pontius’ book “The Triumph of Zion”, we read:
“As we continue to explore Zion throughout this book, it will become apparent that to be a participant in Zion is to be pure, to be endowed with the fullest priesthood power, to rise above the mortal sphere, to be endowed with power that transcends life and death, to have authority in heaven and on earth, and to quite literally dwell with God.”
After reading THAT, don’t you think to yourself, “Well, guess I can’t live there!”?
Then 3 paragraphs later John makes my point for me:
“Such a Zion lifestyle so powerfully exceeds our present paradigm that it becomes inconceivable–not in the perception of Zion someday being like this for someone, but in the perception of Zion being like this in our day, for you and me. We can’t conceptually place ourselves in that Zion.”!
And therefore, why try?
Then, in the very next sentence, he identifies the problem he and other authors help to create by setting the bar so high with his definition of Zion:
“In other words, we don’t believe what our faith actually tells us [about Zion]. Thus we have ceased to strive for the very thing which would bring our greatest triumph in mortality, and our greatest joy.”
Because he and others put the bar for entrance into Zion so very high, It’s no wonder we have “ceased to strive” for Zion!
In contrast, if we use God’s definition of Zion as found in Moses 7, we are empowered and enabled to build Zion in the here and now by applying the three principles into our hearts, homes, and communities:
“And the Lord called his people Zion, because“:
1. “they were of one heart and one mind“, – ie. they were united in purpose and action – all worked for the benefit of all instead of seeking one’s own aggrandizement.
2. “and dwelt in righteousness“; – ie. their lack of pride and their economic equality prevented crime and corruption from even arising.
3. “and there was no poor among them.” – their economic system prevented the division of classes into rich and poor.
You don’t have to be perfect, or nearly-so, to participate in a society like that!
You just have to :
a. be willing to work for the benefit of everyone,
b. be willing to work out issues that create conflict between you and others, and
c. be willing to see and conquer pride using readily-available tools.
This entire encounter shows that how we view Zion matters. If we view Zion as this perfect society with perfect people, we will never lift a finger in the here-and-now to build it — why try? It’s impossible. On the other hand, if we see Zion as a starting point to creating a perfect society out of imperfect people, like Enoch did, then we are empowered and excited to get started now.
Guest
August 19, 2015 @ 3:55 pm
Initial note: I don’t do Facebook, and I rarely read comments on blogs, so I am likely completely oblivious to many things. Having said that, my interest in Zion has also recently been re-awakened. I am currently reading “The Triumph of Zion”, though I am only on page 80. I just wanted to say that I don’t feel discouraged at all by his writing. On page 4, it says, “…that Zion is not beyond our reach. God does not task us with impossible assignments.” What you were quoting, I interpret as his sharing why we might feel overwhelmed to try for Zion. Then I feel greatly encouraged as I read that I can learn to discern, through the Spirit, what my role should be, how I should spend my time, and basically that I can become pure in heart. Just as you describe cooperative efforts to building and laboring in Zion, we each have something to contribute. Each has been given gifts to share, and we can appreciate what others are sharing as they also strive to build Zion; even if their focus is on an aspect that we are not as focused on. So far, I have not discerned any false doctrines in this book, and like I said, feel encouraged and hopeful that the Lord “wants” me too. I would call those feelings fruits of the Spirit. Let us work together in love and unity as we build Zion!
Jonathan Gardner
October 7, 2015 @ 9:55 am
A couple thoughts on people who feel discouraged that we’re not building Zion or that it’s taking too long, or rather, thoughts on those feelings.
We have two pretty good accounts of people who actually built Zion, or came ridiculously close. We know of more, of course, but the two we have the most detailed info on seem to be the people in the Americas in 4th Nephi, and the first Christians in Judea after Jesus’ resurrection.
Well, actually, we have a third: The early saints in our dispensation.
As we were talking about the building of Zion in Gospel Doctrine not long ago in our ward, there was the impression that came to me from the scriptural account of the early Christians. That is, that all they really had was the Holy Ghost and Christ’s Grace. They really didn’t know much. They had very little in the way of scriptures and guidance. The apostles were frequently far away and they were busy being locked up in prison or being killed. Yet somehow, they managed to arrange their affairs. It wasn’t because they were smart or educated, it was because they simply followed the Holy Ghost.
So was the same for the Americas and the early Saints. The people who made up Zion in those groups were uneducated, unexperienced, oftentimes, brand new converts. How is it that they get to build Zion but we’re stuck out here forced to trudge away our time in Babylon, when we have mountains of words and the spirit and everything else? Because they followed the spirit. No matter what we have, we’re nothing without the spirit.
In that classroom that day, I wasn’t the only one who felt that that was the key. We also felt that Zion was being built, right here, right now. Some of us were already experiencing it and living it, and we don’t even realize it.The vast majority of us catch glimpses from time to time. But some of our homes were already Zion homes. I can testify that it seems strange to me that in this current generation, so many families are raising kids who don’t stray. I remember things being much more difficult when I was young, but now it’s rare to see a kid not go on a mission and not come back to build a family. I can only think that’s because we’re actually building Zion and it’s actually working. Because the change has been so mild and so gradual, we’re having a hard time seeing it, but all you need to do is step outside of the church and visit with people who truly are stuck in Babylon and you’ll see the huge difference.
See, we get so caught up on the physical Zion that we forget that there is a spiritual Zion. (At least, from our perspective. The Lord doesn’t see things that way.) The spiritual comes first, then the physical naturally follows. It’s the way the gospel is intended to work. We’re not supposed to force ourselves to keep the commandments and expect to make it to the Celestial Kingdom that way. No, we keep the commandments hoping that our hearts can be changed so that we will always want to keep the commandments.Thus, the spirit needs refinement before the physical can be refined.
This brings me to the point I wanted to make: The spirit that discourages us, that says Zion is far away, that there are insurmountable challenges, that the Brethren are holding us back, we’re not worthy, etc (I hear these things too, as do we all) — this is not from the Lord. These are deceptions that we need point out and put down. Section 50 points out how there are evil spirits among us, and some of us are caught up in them, and this ought not to be, because the priesthood power is the power to control spirits, good or bad. All we have to do as priesthood brethren is identify the false spirits and then speak out against them. This is how we drive them out of the church so that we can have Zion in our hearts, homes, and chapels.
Jesse
October 7, 2015 @ 5:20 pm
Thanks for your thoughts, Jonathan.
Guess I really have a different perspective. When you wrote, “we get so caught up on the physical Zion that we forget that there is a spiritual Zion”, I thought, “Wow, I really want to live in this guy’s ward!”. In our stake, it feels to me that we TALK a LOT about building Zion spiritually, but no one, as far as I know, realizes that there is a physical side to Zion that must be built. Maybe I’m way off but it feels to me that we’re avoiding doing the labor it requires to build a physical Zion because we’re focused on the (nebulous) goal of building Zion spiritually. In other words, if we TALK about how we must build Zion spiritually FIRST, then we won’t have to actually build it, physically. And, then, we get to continue enjoying our summer cottages in Babylon.