Even though I have been interested in Zion since my youth, and had read Nibley’s Approaching Zion and other books on the topic, I was rather surprised to discover some remarkable teachings by our early church leaders.
After gathering well over 700 quotes by early LDS leaders on the topic of establishing Zion, I categorized and sub-categorized them by topic. I’ve written a book titled, “Champions for Zion” where I review all those teachings repeatedly taught by those early apostles and prophets.
And we’re not talking about obscure apostles you’ve never heard of like Charles C. Rich and Albert Carrington. We’re talking the core of the leaders of the LDS Church, specifically: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, George Q. Cannon, and Erastus Snow.
To give you a taste, here are summaries of some of the surprising things revealed by the quotes gathered from early LDS leaders about the building of Zion in these last days:
- Early LDS missionaries were teaching their investigators how the Saints were building Zion in fulfillment of Old and New Testament prophecy.
- Building Zion was considered a central part of the Gospel and the mission of the Church.
- Building a Zion society in Utah was a central focus of the leaders of the LDS Church.
- Receiving the priesthood obligates us to build Zion.
- The whole point of even having the priesthood is to build Zion.
Remarkable, eh?
The book is also available for the Amazon Kindle: