Within the Latter Day Saint movement, Zion is often used to connote an association of the righteous. This association would practice a form of communitarian economics, called the United Order, which were meant to ensure that all members maintained an acceptable quality of life, class distinctions were minimized, and group unity achieved.
While Zion has often been linked with theocracy, the concept of Zion did not theoretically require such a governmental system. In this way, Zion must be distinguished from the ideal political system called theodemocracy, which Latter Day Saints believed would be adopted upon Christ's Second Coming. However, "Zion" maintains several possible meanings within the Latter Day Saint lexicon.
Latter Day Saints also believe in the construction of a New Jerusalem on the American continent, which is also referred to as Zion. Latter Day Saints believe the New Jerusalem will be built in Jackson County, Missouri by a remnant of the house of Joseph, assisted by repentant Gentiles.
Latter Day Saint usage of "Zion" Depending on context, "Zion" can have multiple meanings in the Latter Day Saint movement. Examples include:
Zion retains its Biblical meaning and refers to Jerusalem. (See Zion) Zion is the name of a physical city founded by the prophet Enoch, also known as the City of Enoch. Zion refers to the New Jerusalem, a physical, Millennial city expected to be located in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. Zion metaphorically refers to any group of people that are unified and "pure in heart". The City of Enoch is one example of "a Zion people", and the people described in Fourth Nephi is another. For Zion to be fully realized, the society must be willing to live the law of consecration based on mutual feelings of charity, which is the pure love of Christ. Zion is the central physical location to which Latter Day Saints have gathered. The term has been applied to: Kirtland, Ohio; Jackson County, Missouri; Nauvoo, Illinois; and the Salt Lake Valley. Zion National Park includes Zion Canyon, which was named by LDS settlers in the 1850s and designated as a national park in 1919. Zion is also, according to Joseph Smith, the entirety of the Americas. Smith stated that "the whole of America is Zion itself from north to south". Zion is a metaphor for a unified society of Latter Day Saints, metaphorically gathered as members of the Church of Christ. In this sense any stake of the church may be referred to as a "stake of Zion".The name "stake" comes from a passage in Isaiah that compares Zion to a tent that will enlarge as new stakes are planted. See and .
Discussion
In one interpretation, Zion refers to a specific location to which members of the millennial church are to be gathered together to live. Stipulated by what is believed by the Latter-day Saints to be the revelation of Joseph Smith (D&C 57:1–5, LDS Church ed.), this is said to be located in Jackson County, Missouri, and its county seat, Independence. The Latter Day Saints were expelled from Jackson County in 1833. The region of Kansas City Metropolitan Area remains important today in the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and Community of Christ, as well as many smaller branches and offshoots of the Latter Day Saint movement, who view it as having a crucial role to play in their Christian Millennialist theology.
In its broadest sense, Zion is regarded by Latter Day Saints as an association of the "pure in heart". Central to Zion's philosophical underpinnings was a sense of community cohesiveness and unity, a concept which seemed to be unraveling in the world of Jacksonian Democracy. Smith taught that the people of Zion would have all things in common (see United Order), and would not allow others in their community to suffer because of the principles of love, unselfishness, and work for the common good which would be imbued in the individuals capable of maintaining such a society. Zion therefore stands in contrast to proverbial Babylon, where wickedness, disunity, and poverty prevail.
The word "Zion" appears 53 times in the Book of Mormon, a key part of the Latter Day Saint canon, and 268 times in the LDS Church's version of the Doctrine and Covenants, a part of its canon consisting of what members believe to be modern-day revelation and written down by Smith mostly in the 19th century. Following the disappointments and strife which took place in Missouri during initial attempts to establish a "City of the Saints" in the region, the concept of Zion evolved to encompass a less geographically specific idea similar to the orthodox Christian concept of the "ekklesia" (See Ecclesia (Church)) or community of believers regardless of location. This concept is hinted at in such scriptural passages as the following: "Therefore, verily, thus saith the Lord, let Zion rejoice, for this is Zion—THE PURE IN HEART; therefore, let Zion rejoice, while all the wicked shall mourn."D&C 97:21 (LDS Church ed.).
Esoterically considered, "Zion" as used in this context is a dualistic term connoting a sanctified group of people living according to the commandments and ordinances as revealed to them. Latter Day Saints use the name to signify a group of God's followers, or any location pertaining to where they live. As well as signifying a group and place it is also applied to more than one situation and may be fulfilled at more than one time. Thus, "Zion" has several related but not necessarily synonymous applications. These applications make reference to the following: 1) The Jerusalem of Judah; 2) The New Jerusalem in America; and 3) The Lord's people and their gathering places around the world.
Exoterically (mundanely) considered, a gathering place in the modern Latter Day Saint organizational context refers to wards (basic congregational units), stakes (groups of several wards), and homes or communities where believers are striving to live what is referred to as "the fulness of the gospel" in righteousness. It is a worldwide movement in which the faithful work towards becoming a pure people, willing to serve God. The community of such faithful church members are referred to metonymically as "the pure in heart" in their scriptures.
The ancient people of Enoch sum it up by saying "the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them".Moses 7:18
In the Mormon fundamentalism movement, a more literal interpretation of Zion as a specific geographical location is held to more strongly and a more stringent emphasis is placed upon individual and community lifestyle requirements that are considered, to be necessary prerequisites to establishing such a community. These requirements are often referred to as "the fulness of the gospel" and as "ordinances", specific commandments which have long set this movement apart from mainstream Christianity. The two most frequently noted requirements are the United Order (a form of agrarian communalism) and plural marriage, both of which are de-emphasized in the mainstream LDS Church and, in the case of plural marriage, expressly prohibited and denounced.
A modern-day proponent of the Mormon fundamentalist movement, Ogden Kraut, summarized the fundamentalist/dissident position on "Zion" as follows:
The Saints failed to live the higher laws in the center stake of Zion in Missouri so they were expelled. During the four years at Nauvoo, there was not even an attempt to live the United Order, for example, so they were again driven out. They became like the children of Israel in the desert with only the hope of keeping Zion's laws. But here in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains we have done worse than in Missouri and Illinois. For a few years after the pioneers arrived, an attempt was made to live the United Order and plural marriage, but both leaders and members failed to continue those important laws. Thus, the Church has gone astray from keeping all the laws of Zion, and the redemption of Zion is seldom even mentioned.
History Joseph Smith wrote of Zion even before the organization of the Latter Day Saint church. In April 1829, he dictated a revelation which urged him and his scribe, Oliver Cowdery, to "seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion." The attempt to reach that goal became a driving force in early Latter Day Saint history, and remains a powerful influence among Latter Day Saints today.
In March 1830, the Book of Mormon was published. The Book of Mormon prophet Ether taught that a remnant of the house of Joseph would build a holy city in the Americas. Afterwards, there would be a New Jerusalem that would come down from heaven where the remnant would live. Latter Day Saints believe that this refers to the City of Enoch, and that it will return to the earth from heaven at the Second Coming. Later in the Book of Mormon timeline, Jesus visited the Nephites in the Americas and taught that they were a remnant of the house of Joseph. After they were brought to the knowledge of the Lord, they would be given the Americas as their inheritance. Repentant Gentiles will assist them in building the New Jerusalem. Early Latter Day Saints interpreted these scriptures to mean that there would be a sudden and dramatic conversion of the American Indians to Mormonism. They viewed themselves as repentant Gentiles that would assist the American Indians in building the New Jerusalem, They warned Americans who did not repent would be destroyed by the American Indians to make way for the New Jerusalem, based on a scripture in the Book of Mormon that warns the Gentiles to repent, "lest a remnant of the seed of Jacob shall go forth among you as a lion, and tear you in pieces, and there is none to deliver."
In January 1831, Parley P. Pratt took these teachings to the Lenape, a mission which many Mormons expected to be very successful and dominated Latter Day Saint thought in Kirtland. Pratt taught the Delaware Indians that they were descendants of the Book of Mormon people, and that according to the Book of Mormon, they would recover their ancestral lands. However, by February 1831, the mission was cut short when the missionaries didn't have the correct permits.
Also around this time, the Book of Moses started being published in the church newspapers Evening and Morning Star and Times and Seasons, which would later be canonized in the Pearl of Great Price. According to the narrative, Enoch, the son of Jared, founds a city for the righteous descendants of Adam, except for the descendants of Cain, who were black and had no place among them. This city became so righteous and pure that it was translated (taken) from the presence of the earth and brought into the presence of God, leaving behind on earth only Methuselah and his family (including Noah) to repopulate the earth with righteous people. It was described as populated by an organization of people who are common owners of the property and none being richer or poorer.
After Pratt's unsuccessful mission, the concept of the New Jerusalem started being reinterpreted and integrated with the teaching of Zion. Instead of being built by the Native Americans, the New Jerusalem was to be built by white Latter Day Saints. Instead of seeing themselves as repentant Gentiles, they began seeing themselves as also being a remnant of the house of Joseph, through Ephraim. Instead of building New Jerusalem together with the Native Americans, they began seeing it as two different places, with Zion being built upon the hills and the Lamanites in the wilderness.