Zion

Tomorrow we are heading out on a family vacation, so even though I might have internet access while we're gone, I'm not planning on blogging for the next week+, so I'll be back on Monday April 30th. 

While I'm gone I plan to have time at the beach or in the car to read.  I plan on reading the scriptures, studying this talk "Becoming the Pure in Heart" by President Kimball, and on reading The Triumph of Zion.  I read this review of the book, thought it was excellent and wanted to share this part of it here:


What exactly *does* the word Zion mean to you?  What do you think of when someone mentions a Zion world, a Zion society, to you?

John M. Pontius, the author of this sturdy and enduring study, has some ideas on the subject.  He begins his second chapter with the following thoughts:

“To clearly understand Zion is to change the paradigm of our existence, because we will begin to see who we are and how our life fits into the mosaic of the last days.  Once we see who we are, we will see for the first time what our potential is, where we should be going, and how to get there.  Our worldview will change.” (p. 22)

If he is right, then perhaps members of the Church need to be looking at the whole Zionic idea in a new and exciting way.  Pontius seems to be saying that being a Zion people means, in essence, changing ourselves, standing outside ourselves, studying where we are, reconsidering who we want to be and where we want to go.  What a challenge!

Of course, Pontius isn’t the first one to write about these things.  The late Hugh Nibley’s “Approaching Zion” is a very good study on just what it means to begin moving in a Zionic direction.  It challenges us to reconsider our life’s priorities, to sweep away the comfortable assumptions that we’ve come to depend on so much.  Not an easy task, but it’s what God expects of us.

Pontius’ work is saturated with the idea that the blessings and privileges of the past are still active today, but are not so manifest because of our non-Zion condition.  The visitation of angels, seeing God, and other blessings, so evident in the scriptures and in the lives of the early Mormon church, are available to those today who choose to align their lives with the godly plan of the Zionic community.  So few are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make these blessings possible.  But, Pontius insists, we can still move forward and lay claim to these blessings if we would just decide to embark on such a wonderful and challenging journey.

The challenge of this book is a weighty one.  Notice these words in the chapter titled “Obtaining Zion”:

"We have spent generation after generation with the belief that we *are* Zion, not that we must become Zion – let alone a Zion that includes perfect righteousness and sanctification sufficient to bring us into the realms of Enoch’s Zion and translation.” (p. 217) Yes, you read it correctly – Zion is to be populated by beings worthy of translation, even as the Three Nephites were given this extraordinary gift.  How many of us measure up to this standard?

If, indeed, the Church isn’t Zion today, then what must it do to move in that direction?  How much repentance and renewal are needed to uproot this mega-monolith of a religious organization and get it moving in a Zionic direction?  Staggering thought.  But one that occupies the minds of some as they mourn what they view the spiritual poverty of the Church.

Pontius reflects on this spiritual poverty in words too plain to be misunderstood.  Consider the following, also from the chapter “Obtaining Zion”:

“In the beginning our minds are like a beautiful white wall beside a busy road.  Things get splashed on them by careless drivers, especially during rain storms and adversity.  We only become impure when the mud sticks.  We aren’t only becoming impure by sin, but also through the unavoidable processes of mortal existence.  To embrace the dirt as being a part of our structure is to not understand our true identity as spirit beings, or our true potential.  To be able to view these smudges as pollution that is foreign to our most intrinsic goodness is to strip them of their power and to coat our souls with spiritual Teflon.” (p. 310)

And this is his challenge: cast off the mud and line our souls with goodness and purity.  This, after all, is what being a Christian is all about.  This is what Jesus challenges us to do in the Sermon on the Mount.  And even today, modern prophets spare nothing in directing Latter-day Saints to pursue the good, to “choose the right.”

But how many see that all of this counsel, rather than being an end in itself, is, in fact, a means to an end?  And if that end is citizenship in Zion, in fellowship with Heavenly Father and with Jesus Christ, then all the sacrifice is certainly worthwhile.

As with the writings of Nibley and others, this book may be a bit heavy for those not accustomed to serious, non-fluff Mormon studies.  Pontius has put his all into this book.  Exploring every aspect of what it means to be a Zion Society, and not a bit reluctant to address those aspects of Zion that are hardly ever discussed in Mormon circles, this book becomes a virtual training manual for those desiring entrance into Zion.
 
This is a very fine work, meriting reading by scholars and laypeople alike.
 
Jeffrey Needle
Association for Mormon Letters

(ps - you should read this book and let's talk about it!)


~ Signing off, see you in 10 days! ~