Matthew C. Godfrey
The Interview: Historian Jedediah S. Rogers and Matthew C. Godfrey recently co-edited a collection of essays on Latter-day Saint environmental history entitled The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden. In the volume, contributors explore the relationship between members of the church and the places they settled.
Editor Matthew Godfrey has written extensively about the early years of the church and lends additional light on how these connections were both physical and theological.
In this episode, join us for Matthew Godfrey’s perspective on the early Latter-day Saint quest to obtain and redeem a promised land.
About Our Guest: Matthew C. Godfrey is a general editor and the managing historian of the Joseph Smith Papers. He is also a member of the Church History Department Editorial Board. Matthew holds a PhD in American and public history from Washington State University. Before joining the project, he was president of Historical Research Associates, a historical and archeological consulting firm headquartered in Missoula, Montana.
This podcast is cross-posted with permission of LDS Perspectives Podcast.
Transcript: Go to https://www.ldsperspectives.com/2019/06/12/establishingzion/
Zion, the New Jerusalem
by Dan R Berkabile
Now the Lord revealed that Zion was to be built and surrounding her would be the stakes helping to bind and keep her in place. This figure of speech has almost been lost through the intervening years, but it retains its significance, or beauty. To speak of Zion, the New Jerusalem, or even that section where the city will be built, as a stake of Zion, is a sad mistake. Zion is the tent, the stakes of Zion are the binding pegs that support her. Zion, therefore, cannot be a stake, it would be as improper to call a tent a stake as to apply this term to Zion.
MOUNT ZION
We learn from the scriptures that the city of New Jerusalem will not only be called by the name of “Zion” (D&C 45:66-67, Moses 7:62), but it will be known more specifically as “Mount Zion” (D&C 84:2, 133:56). It was upon Mount Zion in Jerusalem that the temple complex was built and subsequently became known as “the mountain of the Lord’s house” (Isaiah 2:2-3), meaning the mountain upon which the temple stood (D&C 84:31-32).
In some ancient Near Eastern cultures temples were purposefully designed as architectural or artificial mountains that represented the first solid earth that arose from the waters of chaos at the time of creation (see Genesis 1:9-10). This primordial mound was preeminently sacred and equated, by some Hebrews, with the Foundation Stone in the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple. This symbolic stone marked the navel or center of creation.
Because mountaintops were rarely visited by mortals, and because of their location between heaven and earth, they were considered by the ancients to be pristine or holy ground where the veil was thin and one could more easily commune with God. Joseph Smith taught these same principles when he said that Moses received his temple endowment “on the Mountain top” and when he selected men to scout new places of gathering in the West he said: “I want every man that goes to be a king and a priest. When he gets on the mountains, he may want to talk with his God.” The prophets of old were instructed to ascend to these solitary places, or sometimes they were taken there in the spirit, in order to view the visions of eternity or see the Lord face to face.
The land of Missouri That is the land which, in the providence of God, has been appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the Saints. The land of promise To the Latter-day Saints, Missouri is the land of promise. There the City of Zion will be established. There the City of Enoch, coming down from heaven, will meet the City of the Saints and the two will be united and known as the New Jerusalem.
The center place Independence is designated as the center place, and the Temple site is pointed out on “a lot not far from the court house.” Zion, it may be added, has not been removed, though her children have been scattered (D&C 90:36-37; 101:17):
36 But verily I say unto you, that I, the Lord, will contend with Zion, and plead with her strong ones, and chasten her until she overcomes and is clean before me.
37 For she shall not be removed out of her place. I, the Lord, have spoken it. Amen.
17 Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children are scattered.
On the 2nd of August, 1831, the Prophet assisted the Colesville Saints who had just arrived from Thompson, 0hio to lay the first log for a house, as a foundation of Zion in Kaw Township, twelve miles southwest of Independence. The log was carried by twelve men, each representing one of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the land was dedicated by Sidney Rigdon for the gathering of the Saints. On the 3rd day of August the Temple site was dedicated. This sacred act of the holy Priesthood is as binding today as it was then.
Before the Saints were driven out of the State of Missouri, Brigham Young was shown in a vision that they were scattered in all directions, but that they eventually returned to Jackson county, from the west. He says, “When this people return to the Center Stake of Zion, they will go from the west” (Journal. of Discourses Vol. XI., p. 17).
1. Wherefore, it is wisdom that the land should be purchased by the saints, and also every tract lying westward, even unto the line running directly between Jew and Gentile;
2. And also every tract bordering by the prairies, inasmuch as my disciples are enabled to buy lands. Behold, this is wisdom, that they may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance.