‘Thoughts on Zion’ newspaper column

By Zion author Jesse Fisher Where Are You Standing? As LDS people, we are under covenant with God to establish Zion, and under divine direction to “flee Babylon”. Let’s say you need to journey from point A to point B. Before you can successfully navigate between them, you need to determine two things. One, where […]

Although it doesn’t appear to have helped my career much, studying Mathematics at BYU did actually benefit me — I learned deductive reasoning. “If all frogs are green” and “Johnny has a frog”, then we can deduce “Johnny’s frog must be green”. Simple logic. Now let’s apply the same deductive reasoning to the topic of […]

There are several statements by members of the Seventy and by one apostle that all indicate that Zion is to be built by the Saints before Christ returns. Here is one: “The establishment of Zion should be the aim of every member of this Church…. Latter-day Saints conscientiously strive to bring forth Zion… preparatory to […]

Some in the _____ Utah Stake may wonder if our stake president has overstepped his bounds by taking up the task of establishing Zion*. Last year, in the stake mission statement, President _____** wrote, “We are under covenant to establish Zion – to prepare the earth for for the Lord’s second coming; not simply to […]

Over the last eight columns, we’ve reviewed teachings of the early LDS leaders regarding Babylon, Zion’s “antithesis and antagonist”. They taught: We live in Babylon, both spiritually and economically. Though the Saints left Babylon to build a Zion in Utah, they unfortunately brought Babylonian values, practices, and traditions with them. Babylon is “the false organization […]

Early LDS leaders taught that the Saints had brought Babylon’s follies with them to Utah and that, in order to build the prophesied latter-day Zion, those traditions had to be replaced. In June of 1877, Apostle Erastus Snow stated, “Now the Latter-day Saints are gathering from all nations and tongues, with divers customs and habits […]

During the early 1870s, LDS leaders spoke about how the Saints left ‘Babylon’ for Utah. Have we left Babylon behind us? “We are living in that eventful time, and the Lord has set his hand to gather his people. He has called them forth out of Babylon…. that they receive not of her plagues and […]

LDS leaders during the 1870s were teaching the Saints that they could never reach their goal of establishing Zion in the Utah Territory if they kept “clinging to Babylon”. One leader hinted that God himself may yank us away from Babylon. In 1877, Elder Erastus Snow said, “One thing is certain, that if God accomplishes […]

Last time we saw from quotes given by early LDS leaders that Babylon is the false organization of society. Let’s look now at those same Brethren’s teachings about Babylon’s fateful future. For the three decades of the 1850s through the 1870s, the Mormon Church leaders taught what John the Revelator saw happening in vision as […]

In the April 1873 General Conference, President Brigham Young pointed out another value of Babylon, Zion’s opposite, that the Saints have yet to overcome – avarice, the insatiable desire for wealth or gain. He said, “Babylon is in the hearts of the people, that is to say, there is too much of it. What did […]

Admitting to ourselves that we live in a Babylon-style society allows us to see that our day-to-day environment is saturated with Babylon’s pride-based values, and more importantly, that they are rubbing off on us, and, leading society in the opposite direction of Zion. One such pride-based value early LDS leaders tried to teach the Saints […]

Got a BIG kick out of Tanner Gilliland‘s blog post on MillenialMormons.com.  It’s title was “NEWSFLASH: YOU ARE LIVING IN BABYLON!”  [He he he.  Love it!] Why is this important to understand? If we don’t realize we are living in Babylon, we will be blind to its influence on us.  Not realizing we live in […]