As a people interested in fleeing Babylon and building Zion, we need to thoroughly understand the similarities and differences between pride, the foundation of Babylon, and humility, which leads society to Zion. Pondering President Benson’s landmark talk, “Beware of Pride“, it became clear that both pride and humility have two faces: how we relate to […]
Posts by John Taylor Wilford Woodruff:
Thoughts on Zion 8: The Two Faces of Pride
If we are truly interested in fleeing Babylon and then building Zion, we need to thoroughly understand the similarities and differences between pride, which moves society towards Babylon, and humility, which leads us to Zion. Pondering President Benson’s landmark talk, “Beware of Pride“, it becomes clear that both pride and humility have two main components: […]
Utah History Gives Us Plenty to Do Now to Prepare Ourselves for Zion
A response to Larry Barkdull’s article, “What Admonishments have the Prophets Given about Our becoming Zion?” Thanks, Larry, for reminding us of the goal! On President Snow’s last quote you mentioned, it points to a whole avenue of here-and-now activity in which we can participate today in preparation for building Zion – no waiting necessary. […]
Pride, Gain & Glory – And Their Disasterous Consequences
Following an inspiration one morning to study all the instances of the word “gain” in the Book of Mormon, a pattern opened up to me that helps us see how pride is literally the steppingstone to Babylon and a precursor to disastrous consequences for society. As I pondered those various verses mentioning “gain”, a step […]
How Pride & Humility Affect Our Hearts & Lives
In the previous post in this thread, The Two Faces of Pride & Humility, we saw how being prideful discourages us from doing God’s will and entices us to follow our own will, to walk in our own way, instead of the straight and narrow one. In a word, pride separates us from God and […]
The Two Faces of Pride & Humility
Before we explore the effects of pride and humility on the human heart and society at large, let’s take a closer look at pride and humility themselves. Pondering President Benson’s landmark talk, “Beware of Pride“, it became clear to me that both pride and humility have two main components, how we relate to God, and […]
Thoughts on Zion 7: Rooting Out Pride
Along our journey here, we came to conclude that: 1. “Babylon” is any culture that has incorporated pride-based beliefs and customs into its social organizations, such as families, schools, businesses, and government, 2. “Zion” is any culture that institutionalizes humility-based beliefs and customs into its social organizations, and 3. If we want to ‘flee Babylon’ […]
Where is the dividing line between Zion and Babylon?
Crossing Over Couple of years back I began pondering the location of the line dividing Babylon and Zion. As Elder Christofferson pointed out, Babylon and Zion are the antitheses and antagonists of each other. We LDS have been commanded by God to flee Babylon and have covenanted to establish Zion through His church. I think […]
Thoughts on Zion 6: Zion has a Culture!
The ideas shared here opened my eyes to see Babylon and Zion much more clearly and helped me better understand how to move from the former to the latter. In his General Conference talk in April 2006, Elder David R. Stone of Second Quorum of the Seventy took a good portion of his talk to […]
Thoughts on Zion 5: How Humility Leads to Zion
Before we explore something both Babylon and Zion have in common, let’s take a closer look at two conclusions we came to in a previous column: “Pride is the steppingstone to Babylon” and “Humility is the steppingstone to Zion”. How can pride lead to Babylon and humility to Zion? Imagine wearing a pair of glasses. […]
“If they labor for money, they shall perish”?!
Second Nephi, chapter 26 has a verse that has perplexed me for decades. Verse 31 states, “But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish.” “Wait! Doesn’t EVERYONE labor for money? Does that mean we’ll all perish? If we all stop laboring for money, what will […]