Moses 7 and the Establishment of Zion

This week our study in the Old Testament in Come, Follow Me points us to Moses 7 in the Pearl of Great Price. There is not another topic that fires one's imagination more than the establishment of the ideals represented in the revelations of God to His prophets, particularly as it relates to Enoch's society and the establishment of the ancient city of Zion that was translated. Even the chapter heading is a fabulous summary for all who desire further light and knowledge:

Enoch teaches, leads the people, and moves mountains—The city of Zion is established—Enoch foresees the coming of the Son of Man, His atoning sacrifice, and the resurrection of the Saints—He foresees the Restoration, the Gathering, the Second Coming, and the return of Zion.

In 1982, I concluded my research in the scriptures by producing a pdf manuscript consisting of every reference to the word "Zion" in all four standard works and the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was a personal quest born out of my inexhaustible curiosity over what the future of the Church might hold for all the faithful saints of the latter-days.

My conclusions all those years ago will follow in this post. My daughter Emily asked me this morning if I had ever gone back to make revisions to the original manuscript, and my answer was, "No." It goes without saying as I now share this link with everyone "out there" that my foresight in 1982, could not possibly have predicted that I would live long enough to see the proliferation of temples worldwide we are witnessing in 2026. That is only one example, but I am certain there are others. 

With that said, please enjoy your study of Enoch's society in Moses 7, and my blessings as you delve deeper into the topic of Zion. Truly, it is the study of a lifetime that will bless you and your families.

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CONCLUSIONS:

There is an inherent weakness in this compilation that might be as obvious to the reader who has waded through the material, as it is to the author. The weakness I speak of is the learning curve. Not only have I learned as I have written, but my awareness of all that I do not know about Zion has increased exponentially. Further, prophetic events in the world seem to fill the headlines each day at an accelerated pace. That which I wrote a year ago is not as complete as it would be if I were writing today, nor is it as comprehensive as it may someday be. Further, as these rapidly unfolding events in the world occur each day, the shrouded prophetic picture of Zion seems to materialize more clearly. Predictions made in yesteryear are more accurate as events shape and focus our future destiny. We are all learning day by day, and I suppose for this reason the wisest authors reserve publishing their views until late in life when they are full of wisdom and knowledge. I do grow older – in that sense I qualify – but make no claim to either wisdom or knowledge. In my ignorance I would nevertheless make the attempt to state my conclusions if for no other reason than to brush a little dust and grime off the portrait of our destiny.

People

Zion is a covenant people, set apart, consecrated, and sanctified from the rest of the world. They are different, they are peculiar and they are pure. They have come out of the world, entered in at the gate of baptism, are born of the Spirit and have taken hold of the iron rod. They reject the clarion voices from amid the mists of darkness, and ignore the taunts and jeers of those in the spacious building of sin. God has purged his people in all the other dispensations of which we have record, and the purification has come as a result of extreme adversity and affliction. Gold is never refined in an air-conditioned chamber. If the covenant people cannot sacrifice and consecrate their lives to God, it has forever been the case that the rest of the world was willing to cast them out, throw them into the lions' den, or stoke up the fiery furnace. Let us never be deluded into thinking we will inherit Zion in any other way, nor be worthy of the company of earlier martyrs at that future wedding feast unless we consecrate.

Place

Zion is two world centers of righteousness and judgment that are ultimately joined together physically. One is Independence, Missouri, the "centerstake," from which “the law” will emanate, the other is Jerusalem, from which “the word” will go forth. Those who love and cherish the Constitution of the United States, it would seem, will rally to Zion and her stakes upon the American Continent. Christ will come to the Earth and sit in his temples in Jerusalem and in Jackson County, from which will go forth his word. They will combine eventually in the Lord's timetable with the heavenly Zion when the earth enters the terrestrial phase of its existence, thus returning to the status it once enjoyed referred to in the 10th Article of Faith as "paradisiacal glory."

This telestial world in which we now live will give way to a terrestrial world that will stand for one thousand years, a period of time referred to as "The Millennium." This is the place at the end of the path in Lehi's vision where the tree of life grows.

Condition

Zion will stand apart from all worldly influences. Men and women of honesty and truth will seek the peace Zion affords, trust their temporal and spiritual welfare to each other, or sink lower and lower with the rest of the world who will be at war. There will be no middle ground -- either total acceptance of God's salvation, or Lucifer's damnable embrace of death and destruction. Zion will be the light on the hill, and so formidable will be her strength and beauty because of God's overshadowing presence that her enemies will shrink at the sight of her. The society will be characterized by people of one heart, one mind, and one objective -- spreading the truth of God's salvation over the face of the earth as with a flood.

Time

Zion will come to pass in the due season of the Lord, and that season is upon us even now. We live at the end of the sixth seal of John's Revelation, meaning the end of the sixth thousand-year period since the Fall. It is called "today" in the scriptures, and it is a day of sacrifice. It is not a day in which to trust in the arm of flesh, seeking security in the carnal pleasures of today's society. Zion's time is not fully ripe until the Bridegroom comes to accept the Bride, as John foresaw. The paradox of Zion's timetable is that she will be nurtured as it were in the bull rushes like Moses, in the midst of unparalleled wickedness and abominations among men. The wheat and tares continue growing together, and the tares keep looking more and more like the weeds they are. And we also see the fig tree putting forth its leaves every day.

The Spirit whispers the truth that Zion will indeed have to be led out of bondage as the children of Israel were led out under Moses. While we are in the midst of spiritual bondage right now, the scriptures are replete with types and shadows of a physical bondage yet to come that will precede the day when all things are fulfilled.

We will not see the establishment of the headquarters of Zion until the temporary landlords who now occupy the sacred sites of the habitations of the New and the Old Jerusalem are swept off. The reclamation of those lands will come in the wake of destruction as foretold by all the prophets who witnessed the promised day, and that time is not far distant. Without an understanding of the impending destruction as the lynch pin to prophecy, the promises of the Lord to Israel that she will ultimately redeem the promised lands of her inheritance seem incomprehensible. One need not read far into The Book of Mormon to discover that this land is not promised to the Gentiles who now occupy it. Rather, it will be given to the scattered remnants of the House of Israel now being gathered, and to those relatively few Gentiles who repent, embrace the gospel and by adoption become Israel. To think otherwise would be to deny the very faith that gave the prophets their utterance. And this despite the obvious evidence that the Gentiles who occupy this Promised Land today have material wealth and military might beyond even the wildest imaginations of the prophets who foresaw their destruction.

Ephraim's descendants will figure prominently in the leadership of the House of Israel in the development of Zion, but it would be a gross error to assume that Zion is the private domain of Ephraim. The scriptures speak plainly of ALL the tribes coming to their inheritances in their various lands. We are witnessing the emergence of all these long-lost cousins in Israel in our day, as adversity, lawlessness, and political upheavals continue to drive them to our borders of freedom.

They come because of wars, famines, diseases, natural disasters, and the love of freedom, but whatever the reasons, they are coming to claim their promised blessings at the hands of Ephraim. Let us never be so surfeited by the things of this world that we cannot embrace them, when they come with little more than the clothes on their backs.

There is not a clear road map to Zion, a "checklist" if you will, that will land us unerringly at the gates of the Holy City. To come to Zion requires clean hands, a pure heart, and pure faith. To be a consecrated saint is to hearken to the voice of the Lord by the power of the Holy Ghost, to receive revelation upon revelation, and to possess a submissive heart that endures all that the Lord sees fit to inflict upon us. All the inhabitants of Zion are as little children, full of faith, and eager to do the will of the Father in all things.

We are not worthy of Zion's society in our present state. The institution of the Church that has served us so well to this point in the dispensation will be of little worth in the wilderness that still must be traversed by Zion's caravan. Programs, like scaffolding, must be dismantled, institutional thinking, like jetsam, must be thrown overboard as the caravan rolls onward. Those who cling steadfastly to their institutional faith, never risking the failure of individual responsibility for their decisions will sink in the depths of forgotten dust with the discarded baggage. We cannot endure the journey to Zion on borrowed light, nor will we find the oil of the Spirit to buy at midnight.

We must beware of repeating the patterns of old. The institution of the Church today can easily be discerned of bearing all the earmarks of the institution of the Jews in Christ's day. Despite the law of Moses designed by the Lord himself to prepare them for his kingdom, they tripped on form, on organizational neatness and perfection, on vain practices, and on outward works of professed righteousness for all men to see. In reality they were nothing but whited sepulchers having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. There is a tendency among us toward this same condition today. The liability of institutions is they tend to produce the undesirable qualities of self-righteousness and they miss the mark. Satan loves a parade, but Zion is a caravan of strangers and foreigners seeking a city built without hands. It is to be expected that the "corporate" Church would have difficulty implementing the celestial principles upon which Zion will be built. That reality does not make the Church's doctrines any less true.

This is an important point that cannot be glossed over. The Church’s compromise with Babylon in 2002 is nearly complete. In a forthcoming day there will be an entire separation of the righteous from the wicked. Babylon is slated for destruction. That fact is a well-documented scriptural reality, and so is the establishment of Zion. We are in the world as never before in our history, and we are more of the world too. We have a long and well-established history in the twentieth century of trying to have it both ways. We had to give away our “weird” history to convince the world we are no longer “weird.” 

President Gordon B. Hinckley has made the point well in his unprecedented outreach to the mass media on the world’s stage. In order to fulfill our mandate to take the gospel, even the least part of the gospel – that salvation is in Christ – to the world we had to make peace with our past. From the days of Brigham Young whose mission was to separate the saints from the world by leading them to these remote valleys of the Mountain West, to the administration of Gordon B. Hinckley who has welcomed the world with the red carpet, we have come full circle. Living prophets lead the way.

But the caravan is on course, never fear, though there will always be those among us who cling to the past fiercely, as though we are going to return somehow to the purity and simplicity of an earlier time. These somehow wish they could live in the days before the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and started rolling downhill. We are picking up speed as the little stone rolls forward. But let us not be smug. We are no better than our earlier counterparts in Israel who sinned against the covenant. 

President Ezra Taft Benson made a convincing case that the Church was still under condemnation for treating lightly The Book of Mormon. God will cut short the work in this last dispensation of the fulness of times. The Bride may have grown weary while waiting and defiled herself with the world, but this time there will be a wedding with the Bridegroom and the Church will become the Bride of Christ. The best course we can take is individual repentance and to let the rest of the Church and the world who fail to repent go their merry way to destruction.

As midnight draws nigh there will be fewer opportunities to obtain oil to light our little lamps of faith. Unconsecrated material possessions in that hour will be a poor store of value, ancient prophets used the word “slippery.” (Helaman 13:31).

Now I offer this final observation. Patience with the unfolding timetable of the Lord is indispensable to the true disciple. Many, knowing what the scriptures reveal concerning conditions in a Zion society, and observing these circumstances do not now exist in the Church, and thinking they have somehow been "called" to lead the way, have made unwise and premature decisions to move out in front of the caravan. Like the ancient Rechabites of Jeremiah’s day they prefer the separatist life to the heat of the day in the kingdom with all its paradoxes, contradictions and ironies. They are never wise stewards, and seem to lack the faith they proclaim. The keys of the priesthood reside with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those keys and this kingdom will never again be taken from the earth. The path to Zion is first discovered deep within the hearts of men and women, and they gravitate to others who have made a similar discovery, all of whom are subject to the Lord's mouthpiece. That man, the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, like Moses who stood at the head of another caravan, will lead Israel out of whatever form of bondage awaits us.

Until that promised day comes, it is enough to hear the Lord whisper again, "Be still, and know that I am God." His promises will never fail, and the gates of the Heavenly City await us.

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Jesus Christ will come again in the last days.

Enoch’s vision, especially what’s recorded in Moses 7:59–67, is one of history’s first prophecies of the Savior’s Second Coming. What impresses you about the way these verses describe the last days? For example, consider how you feel the prophecies from verse 62 are being fulfilled. What do these phrases teach you about God’s work in the latter days?

Enoch was a true prophet whose entire city of the faithful saints was translated:

And Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the midst of Zion; and it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, Zion is Fled.

Two Modern Parables You've Never Heard

PARABLE OF THE SCREWDRIVER

Unto what shall we liken the current attempts in Utah to pray and fast for more snow this winter? Behold, we will liken it to the parable of the screwdriver on this wise:

There was a propane tank at the end of the Pine Valley Road that ran dry and needed refilling. The propane delivery man is on the speed dial of the homeowner. He was summoned at 5:30 a.m., and when informed of his customer's plight, promised to come as his first delivery of the day. It's a 1,000 gallon tank that supplies the needed fuel for the boiler, and he filled it with dispatch.

However, the boiler in the basement of the home failed to ignite, and for two days and nights the home remained cold, forcing the homeowner to add two heavy comforters to his bed, move a space heater into the bedroom, and close the door to retain at least that much heat.

On the morning of the third day, the homeowner called for a technician to aid him in starting the boiler once again. He arranged to come as soon as his other calls would permit and within the hour knocked on the front door, equipped only with a screwdriver. The homeowner admitted him and escorted the technician to the crawl space where the boiler resided.

The technician removed the front panels with the screwdriver, exposing the inner workings of the boiler. Then he tapped three times on the side of the pilot light housing. In an instant the auto-pilot fired off and lit up the burners as the boiler suddenly sprang to life once again after having been dead as a doornail. 

The homeowner was amazed, and asked, "So what was the problem?" The technician smiled and said simply, "Well, I thought when I came in I could probably solve it with my screwdriver. The propane line between the tank and the boiler had a small air bubble in it, and all it needed was a slight tap to dislodge the bubble." Total elapsed time was five minutes.

As it is with seemingly difficult problems, when the Master Technician of the pilot light is summoned, and applies his superior knowledge to the situation, all is well. 

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." (Alma 37:6).

PARABLE OF THE LIVER

There was a certain old man, who visits his doctor on an annual basis for a checkup. Recently, he consulted with his doctor about his health profile, since brain surgery six years ago to remove a meningioma tumor, and he was feeling better than ever. 

The doctor ran through his battery of testing with his patient, including a cognitive analysis and a question, "Do you have any fears about death?" To which the old man responded, "Not now, knowing my beloved companion is waiting for me in the spirit world." 

Then the collection of bodily fluids ensued, including blood and urine samples for further analysis.

Two days later the results came back, showing normal results with only one exception - the liver function was "borderline." When the doctor's nurse called to review the findings, the ONLY item on the "list of horribles" that could be questioned was the liver function. Blood pressure, heart function, cholesterol and diabetes markers and other possible complications were ALL normal and showed improvement from previous visits. The elderly patient was also down to near his weight in his high school years, another marker that had shown improvement.

She explained the doctor's recommendation was, "Drink more water." Of all the remedies available to the doctor, this was the most sagacious wisdom he had for the patient.

“With men [it] is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). 

“With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). 

Is ANYTHING too hard for the Lord, who is the Master Technician of the liver?

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This weekend is a fast Sunday. Governor Spencer Cox of Utah has invited all the citizens in our drought-infested state to fast and to pray for more snow. So far this winter, I do not remember a year that has been this dry, and I've lived here since 1976. This is the view currently off my back deck.

I have shared these two parables for a specific purpose this morning. It is through small and simple things that great things are brought to pass. We may pray to our Father in Heaven on a host of topics for anything we desire. The only requirement is to invest our faith simultaneously.

The Master Technician of the universe is certainly our Savior Jesus Christ. My faith in both of Them multiplies within me each time I stand in sacred precincts. The other day I stood before the outstretched hands of my Savior, who I believe is eager to bless me.

I testify with all my heart this morning as I write that They are anxious to bless us with the miracles we need to effect the answers to our fervent petitions for more snow.

For Them it may be no more difficult than using a simple tool like a "celestial screwdriver" to tap the clouds overhead and unleash the needed moisture. 

In The Shadow of My Savior Jesus Christ

Provo City Center Temple

I have a constant companion these days since Patsy died. It is my Savior, symbolically represented here. There are many times since her death that I have longed for her company, even as I am driving to various destinations, but particularly when I attend a temple session without her. Despite that, I still attend the temples in Utah as often as I can, since I draw so much inspiration and peace from the attempts.

Yesterday, I was in the Provo City Center Temple for an endowment session. I was officiating for an ancestor from Derbyshire, England, who was born in 1604. My ancestors emigrated from England, many bearing the scars, the wrath of mobs who smeared their bodies with tar and feathers, and the complete rejection of their company in their neighborhoods because they had joined the Mormons. James Munns, a grandfather in our family, was bent over the rest of his life from the beatings he sustained before leaving England. They emigrated to the empty desert valleys of Utah near what is today Lehi, Utah. They were part of the "sugar beet mission" in those days, barely eking out an existence. Fortunately for me, they survived and we are now thriving because of their sacrifice.

I am blessed with many temples throughout Utah, where I can choose which one to attend week to week. Patsy and I were ordinance workers in the Salt Lake Temple before it closed for renovations. That coincided with the discovery of a meningioma brain tumor that required surgery for removal in March, 2020. Of all the eventualities that could have happened to me, a brain tumor was remote in my thinking back then. 

Following my recovery, we were offered new positions as ordinance workers in the Jordan River Temple. We discussed it and decided together we would rather do the actual ordinance work for our ancestors instead. I have continued to carry on without her in that seminal work of the Restoration. Temple ordinance work was pre-eminent in the earliest days of this seventh dispensation. The Salt Lake Temple construction took 40 years to complete, but the pioneers persisted until it was finished. Such is our heritage in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. I am routinely reminded of the sacrifices of those ancestors who came here under Brigham Young's stewardship to settle these remote mountain valleys. I imagine to myself what their lives must have been like when I contemplate their existence in those formative days in Utah, even before it was accepted as a state into the United States of America. It's what motivates me to accomplish all I can in the temples for their blessing.

Right now, we are in what is all-too-familiar territory for us. We are lacking the critical moisture we need. It is a winter without snow that provides the life-giving water we will need in spring and summer. Our Utah Governor Spencer Cox has invited us to fast and pray this coming weekend for more snow. WHAT? Pray for God to mitigate the weather for our benefit? What a novel idea that is! It might even seem incomprehensible to those who are unfamiliar with our beliefs as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in these last days!

However, we believe we are children of a God who loves us unconditionally, and sent His Beloved Son Jesus Christ as a propitiation for sin by allowing His Atonement to be carried out by the most wicked people in His Son's generation on earth to effect His brutal crucifixion and burial in a borrowed tomb. Let this thought sink in for just a moment. Jesus Christ conquered sins for sinners yet unborn in His voluntary Atonement. All of us living on planet Earth today are in that category, aren't we?

As we have begun our Old Testament studies this year in Come, Follow Me curriculum, I am once again made aware of a long history of faithful followers of the Jehovah who was yet to come. No matter which dispensation in which we live, or have lived, or may yet live, the eternal Atonement of Jesus Christ remains the most obvious reality of God the Father's love for each of us, no matter what our present extremities might represent in suffering. Remember, He descended below them all!!

1 The ends of the earth shall inquire after thy name, and fools shall have thee in derision, and hell shall rage against thee;

2 While the pure in heart, and the wise, and the noble, and the virtuous, shall seek counsel, and authority, and blessings constantly from under thy hand.

3 And thy people shall never be turned against thee by the testimony of traitors.

4 And although their influence shall cast thee into trouble, and into bars and walls, thou shalt be had in honor; and but for a small moment and thy voice shall be more terrible in the midst of thine enemies than the fierce lion, because of thy righteousness; and thy God shall stand by thee forever and ever.

5 If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;

6 If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever. (D&C 122, from the Prophet Joseph's revelation in Liberty Jail as he sought comfort for himself and the suffering saints).

Yes, it is true we are in a drought this winter in Utah. I treasure the memory of Joseph Smith, who was suffering in Liberty Jail as few of us ever will through a torturous winter under different circumstances. It helps me to put into perspective what we are experiencing in our sequestered mountain home. 

Home Fireplace Always Works

Recently, my propane tank supplying fuel for my boiler ran empty and I had it refilled. Sadly, the boiler was not firing again after two cold nights. Fortunately, my home storage includes an ample supply of firewood for just such emergencies. I called for a technician to come and see if he could get it going again. He came in armed only with a screwdriver, and I escorted him into the crawl space where the boiler is located. He removed the front panels, then gently tapped the side of the housing for the pilot light with his screwdriver, and amazingly, the boiler fired off on its auto-ignition. As he had suspected, there was an air bubble that had developed in the line from the propane tank that was blocking the fuel from flowing into the boiler. Problem solved. His comment with a smile was, "I thought I might be able to solve it with my screwdriver." And he did! He was the master of the pilot light. I needed his help. Similarly, we worship the Master of the Weather and all of the Universe, and we need His help.

Dear Readers of this poor page, now hear this: The God of the Universe has made ample provisions for all of us, unworthy as we may be. When we exercise our faith, offer our prayers and fasting to Him, do not believe for one second that our appeals for help fall on deaf ears. 

I testify of the reality and the divinity of our Father in Heaven, His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, and the direction of the Holy Ghost, all three separate and distinct Beings anxious to bless and deliver all those who come and partake at the banquet table of Their offerings for us. . .

Even those humble Goates beet farmers from England who settled in Utah County near Lehi, Utah.

"Where Will This Lead?"

President Dallin H. Oaks

These days I come home from Church on a Sunday to an empty and this morning a very cold one. I long for our post-Woodland Ward Sunday chats together. Now I have no one to talk to, so once again I take up my “pen” to share with all of you.

I’ve been pondering a talk that provides my chapter heading. It was given by President Dallin H. Oaks at the General Priesthood Meeting in April 2019. He could not possibly have known then what I am presently contemplating as I undertake my estate planning venture. However, when I returned home just now, I was compelled to find that talk and share it with all of you. He said:

“Our present and our future will be happier if we are always conscious of the future. As we make current decisions, we should always be asking, ‘Where will this lead?’

“Some decisions are choices between doing something or doing nothing…

“The decisions I have just described involve choices between taking some action or taking no action at all. More common are those choices between one action or another. These include choices between good or evil, but more frequently they are choices between two goods. Here too it is desirable to ask where this will lead. We make many choices between two goods, often involving how we will spend our time. There is nothing bad about playing video games or texting or watching TV or talking on a cell phone. But each of these involves what is called ‘opportunity cost,’ meaning that if we spend time doing one thing, we lose the opportunity to do another. I am sure you can see that we need to measure thoughtfully what we are losing by the time we spend on one activity, even if it is perfectly good in itself…

“Take the long view. What is the effect on our future of the decisions we make in the present? Remember the importance of getting an education, studying the gospel, renewing our covenants by partaking of the sacrament, and attending the temple.

“‘Where will this lead?’ is also important in choosing how we label or think of ourselves. Most important, each of us is a child of God with a potential destiny of eternal life. Every other label, even including occupation, race, physical characteristics, or honors, is temporary or trivial in eternal terms. Don’t choose to label yourselves or think of yourselves in terms that put a limit on a goal for which you might strive.

“My brethren, and my sisters who may view or read what I say here, I hope you know why your leaders give the teachings and counsel we give. We love you, and our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, love you. Their plan for us is the ‘great plan of happiness’ (Alma 42:8). That plan and Their commandments and ordinances and covenants lead us to the greatest happiness and joy in this life and in the life to come. As servants of the Father and the Son, we teach and counsel as They have directed us by the Holy Ghost. We have no desire other than to speak what is true and to encourage you to do what They have outlined as the pathway to eternal life, ‘the greatest of all the gifts of God’ (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7)…

“Brethren, we make countless choices in life, some large and some seemingly small. Looking back, we can see what a great difference some of our choices made in our lives. We make better choices and decisions if we look at the alternatives and ponder where they will lead. As we do, we will be following President Russell M. Nelson’s counsel to begin with the end in mind. For us, the end is always on the covenant path through the temple to eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God.

“I testify of Jesus Christ and of the effects of His Atonement and the other truths of His everlasting gospel in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/35oaks?lang=eng) (emphasis mine).

I am constantly reminded that my life today is the sum total of all the choices I made as I believe they were prompted by the Holy Ghost. There is nothing I can do today about those decisions of yesterday, and there are too many to count. But for each of you with many more years ahead of you than behind you, my counsel is to seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost in all you are doing. The decision-making process accelerates dramatically once you have graduated from high school. Please remember there is no calendar, deadline, or timetable for any of us. Be patient.

My One and Only True Love

My son Jeff asked me the other day why I hadn’t started my estate planning process many, many years ago instead of waiting so long. I didn’t have an immediate answer for him then, but maybe it’s because I am “ponderous” in my approach. (I’m being generous). Maybe I just procrastinated. The time for imminent decisions is now upon me, ready or not. Whatever the reasons for delay, I am now undertaking the process once again with a prayer in my heart that I will be guided by revelation from heaven.

I looked again the other night at the picture that was snapped at our wedding reception on December 19, 1969. I was reminded forcefully that all the people pictured except me are ministering spirits, now living in the spirit world as ministering angels. Then the realization hit me that Patsy may be the best of them all to influence my thinking and my choices going forward from here. I am the only one in that picture who is left still living in the flesh on earth. It’s humbling to me, beyond your imagination. I am writing my benediction to all I held dear and sacred for a lifetime, and I earnestly hope my efforts will be met with the best possible outcomes for all of us.

Certainly, the question looming before me is, “Where will this lead?”

My Attempts at Estate Planning These Days. . .

I am now an old man at age 78, when planning for the future has now led me to possibilities I never had to consider until now. While I am still in a reasonable facsimile of mental competence without any concerns about what anybody else thinks about it, I offer the following as a transparent glimpse into my priorities these days. Perhaps it will be helpful to someone "out there" who may be in a similar state of their lives.

The Law of Consecration

There has been a gradual distillation process at work within my soul for many years in my attempts to understand the law of consecration (yes, I am slow). Here are some conclusions: 1) Consecration is the making of a sacred covenant with God to freely give and dedicate oneself and possessions for God’s work here on earth, and it is a fundamental law of the Church dating back to 1831, that has never been rescinded; 2) Attempts by the Prophet Joseph to introduce economic systems among the Saints to implement the law of consecration are not the “real” law of consecration, but should be looked upon as the evolutionary process taking place in the Prophet’s own mind in preparation for the covenant we now make in the full temple endowment ceremony, which was not given until 1842; and 3) The Saints in our day can and should already be living our individual economic lives in such a way that our covenant to consecrate is in full implementation right now instead of waiting to live this covenant at some future date. To do otherwise is to succumb to a pervasive satanic deception.

History of the Law of Consecration

Let me refine the foregoing material with a comparison of the various “programs” introduced by the Prophet Joseph, and illustrate the conclusions I have cited above. The “when,” and the “why,” and the “how” questions about the law of consecration, are answered by personal revelation from the Holy Ghost, and we can know that we are pleasing God in pursuit of our faith here and now. Ironically, it sometimes seems those with the least to give readily understand the principle (if they can overcome their envy of the wealthy), while those with spacious barns to hold their worldly possessions wrest the scriptures and our early history to delay their gifts to the undeserving poor (as they suppose in their self-righteous judgments). Thus, both the poor and the wealthy are challenged in the implementation of this lofty, even supernal and eternal principle of consecration.

The first attempt to implement a communal system for consecration among the Saints was made in 1831, in Kirtland, Ohio. Newly baptized Sidney Rigdon had been involved in other communal experiments that were common in that day, and was no doubt a catalyst influencing Joseph’s inquiries to the Lord regarding the matter. Section 38 of The Doctrine and Covenants really lays the foundation in gospel principles for that which was to follow about a month later in Section 42, the first attempt to put in writing a plan of consecration. It was rigid, requiring that all property be deeded to the bishop and then a stewardship returned as an equal portion to all other stewards. All surplus profits derived were to be reconsecrated each year, then new lines of equality drawn by the bishop. The plan was tried in Kirtland first, then in Jackson County, but it failed, because there was no private ownership of anything. It was doomed to fail because of the Saints’ poverty. They simply consumed more than they produced.

By 1833, the Prophet had modified his views and concluded that private ownership of the stewardship was essential to avoid putting the bishop at odds with the people in determining the size of equal stewardships, and only surplus property was consecrated by deed to the bishop’s storehouse.

Here again, there was a possibility for failure on the part of the steward to declare or disclose what was surplus, but it was made clear to the bishops that they were not to judge in the matter. (See HC, 1:364-65).  It was during this period of modification of the law of consecration in 1833 that the enemies of the Saints in Missouri organized against them. These events left the implementation of the program in shambles, some having dedicated property to the Church, others retaining individual ownership, and many merely clinging on to life itself.

Zion’s Camp

As I write this afternoon, I am dressed in my ZION sweatshirt. It’s a gift from Melanie, an acknowledgment by her of my deep dive into this topic of Zion. D&C Section 105 outlines the Lord’s implicit instructions in June 1834, after the failure of Zion’s Camp to return the consecrated property of Jackson County to the Saints and orders that “her law be executed and fulfilled after her redemption” (speaking of the land of Zion). Many have supposed this was the end of consecration in the Church, but, the careful reading of this and other revelations will document that consecration and stewardship were still and always have been required of the Lord by the Saints.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

See for example the Sixth Lecture on Faith, published for the first time in Kirtland in 1835, especially, verses 7-8. Go to the temple and listen carefully to the instructions given in relation to the last covenant. There is no reference to suspending the observance of the law of consecration until some undefined future day of fulfillment. Here and now is the requirement. In General Priesthood Meeting on March 31, 2001, President Gordon B. Hinckley announced the establishment of the “Perpetual Education Fund” designed as a way for the saints to consecrate for the benefit of the impoverished returned missionaries among us so they could be educated in their lands of origin for the benefit of their people. He said, “I believe the Lord does not wish to see His people condemned to live in poverty. I believe He would have the faithful enjoy the good things of the earth. He would have us do these things to help them. And He will bless us as we do so. For the success of this undertaking I humbly pray, while soliciting your interest, your faith, your prayers, your concerns on its behalf.” [See May 2001 Ensign, 51]. In my opinion, this is evidence the observation of the law of consecration is an individual covenant based upon an invitation to make free will offerings, rather than a Church mandated program to compel compliance as in the past.

Other experiments with consecration continued in Kirtland in the form of the “Literary Firm,” and the “United Firm,” a full account of which can be obtained in Lyndon Cook’s excellent compilation titled, Joseph Smith and the Law of Consecration, (Grandin Book Company: Provo, Utah), 1985.

It is interesting how often we read over the few verses of Section 119, and completely miss their significance. Given in 1838, rather than the introduction of a “lesser law,” the law of tithing is one further modification and refinement on the ongoing theme of consecration, and is to “be a standing law unto the Church forever.” (See D&C 119:4).  Think what the condition of the Church might be today if we observed the law of tithing by consecrating all our surplus property and then donating a tenth of our annual increase thereafter! We would be equal in all things, and it would all be a voluntary and cooperative society. Instead, however, we see social classes among us that are completely repugnant to the Lord, and one of the earmarks of Israel in apostasy. (See, for example, 3 Nephi 11:15).

The next step in Joseph’s continuing education concerning consecration came in 1842, when he introduced the full endowment to his brethren in Nauvoo. He said on that occasion:

“I spent the day in the upper part of the store… instructing them in the principles and order of the Priesthood, attending to washings, anointings, endowments, and the communication of keys pertaining to the Aaronic Priesthood, and so on to the highest order of the Melchizedek Priesthood, setting forth the order pertaining to the Ancient of Days, and all those plans and principles by which any one is enabled to secure the fullness of those blessings which have been prepared for the Church of the Firstborn, and come up and abide in the presence of the Eloheim in the eternal worlds…” (TPJS, 237).

What did he communicate concerning consecration? It is the crowning covenant, the last covenant we make with God in the temple endowment. The crowning key to exaltation is consecration. To obtain all that the Father has, we must give all that we possess. It is one of the simplest statements God ever gave man, and even the least and weakest Saint is capable, of comprehending what is required. Voluntary compliance, however, is always subject to overcoming the natural man.

In 1831, Joseph must have believed that rigidity and management control by the bishop was the key to implementing consecration among the Saints. By his death in 1844, he had concluded that individual expressions of faith and consecration entered into by temple covenant were more desirable. He had moved from the letter to the spirit of the law, but in both extremes, the total commitment of the member was required — that much has never changed.

Today I go to the temples frequently, as you may have observed. The verbal covenant expressed in the temple endowment is a higher commitment to consecration than the first written deeds and covenants of 1831. To think we will someday return to a “Law of Moses”-style program of consecration seems unlikely to me, though anything is possible with living prophets among us to interpret the will of the Lord for the Church. We must always allow for whatever revisions the living Oracles may make. However, we do not seem to be far from living the full law of consecration right now. All that is necessary, then as now, is the willingness of the Latter-day Saints to truly love the Lord and our neighbor enough to consecrate without holding back anything. One can only speculate on the macroglobal conditions that might have to be thrust upon the world to bring about such a universal change of heart, but what of our micropersonal commitment to living the law of consecration?

I believe a father and mother who keep their temple covenants in today’s society, dominated as it is by divorce, infidelity, and every moral degradation foreseen by the ancient prophets, are well along the path toward truly living the law of consecration. They give all they have by wearing out their souls in service to the Lord and in sacrifice for their children.

Consider a husband and father who toils in the workplace day after day to provide the essentials of life for his wife and children, every nickel devoted to their well-being. Consider a wife and mother on duty at the crossroads of her home nurturing her children with their endless lists of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs, every waking moment consecrated to preparing a new generation of faithful and worthwhile saints. All their labor is done with an eye single to God’s glory, and the anticipation of an eventual crowning of their efforts by those cherished words of acceptance, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

How, then, do we live the law of consecration today? Not by waiting for some “program” to appear on the horizon, but by daily becoming a covenant father, mother, or child through the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. It is truly a work that demands all that you possess, your time, talents, everything with which the Lord has blessed you or with which he may bless you. It is a consecrated gift we give to God in return for all he promises. If I had to pick one verse of scripture to summarize the law of consecration it would be these words,

“And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.” (Omni 1:26).

Helen and Brent Goates

That passage defined my parents.  It was so with them, and it can likewise be true of all the mothers and fathers in Zion in these last days.

Her Time Had Come

Now let me be bold and restate that Patsy was always at my side as we were studying Zion together. We were infused with the idealism represented in the doctrines I have outlined above. Others might characterize our conclusions as "too altruistic," or "impossible to achieve," but I have persisted in creating Zion in my own family even if I do not live long enough to see the Second Coming. I memorialized our vision for our family property in Book 2 of the Story Worth series (chapter 15), I’ve been publishing, so I will simply refer you family members to that volume.

Out of her lips came these words: “So, this [the refinance of the mortgage] really was the miracle I had been praying for. When this idea was first presented to us, I thought we could never let Rich and Shauna make that kind of sacrifice and take on that burden. They would be taking on all the financial burden of the mortgage, with only the knowledge that our family would continue to have the home as a gathering place shared by all. But as Rich expressed that they had received a witness from the spirit that this was a good option to bless all our lives indefinitely and to also free us from some of our stress, I felt assured that it was certainly the answer to my prayers for a miracle. He has acted in the spirit of stewardship rather than ownership. I want everyone to ponder that difference because it is significant.”

Inherent in the concept of stewardship is the law of consecration. Hers was always and forever an INVITATION to each of us to climb higher to the consecrated life of discipleship embodied in these words of President Russell M. Nelson: 1) That we are each a child of God, 2) A child of the covenant, and 3) A disciple of Jesus Christ.

Let us be united in the belief that this is all voluntary with no coercion whatsoever, otherwise we defeat the lofty principles involved in consecration as defined above. Rich and Shauna had that vision along with us when they put themselves forward and took an enormous risk by putting Rich on the mortgage, on the title to the home, and as the personal representative for medical decisions in an advanced care power of attorney.

In meeting with Andrew and Steve last night in preparation for our meeting with the estate planning attorney, I was completely satisfied of Andrew’s sincere and genuine concerns about Rich’s potential exposure, that I had never considered before. As I have stated before many times, I am not one to cower in the face of the “list of horribles” over which I have no control, but as a doctor he must and he does take into account every possible negative outcome he might encounter as a surgeon. He apologized to me and Steve last night that his diagnostic process has at times been seen as adversarial, but nevertheless his sincerity in pursuing the best structure available to us is likewise consecrated and well-intentioned in the highest way possible. What may have seemed adversarial to each of us throughout this latest “uprising” will now only be viewed in the rearview mirror as a necessary and very meaningful step forward into our shared vision.

I believe in all of us as chosen and magnificent spirits of our Father in Heaven. He did not send us into this chaotic mortal world to fail or to be divided in animosity, distrust, or accusatory adversity. That was, and continues to be, Satan’s aim.

Instead, I am opting for the belief that we will land in the right place after all the solutions are fully explored and digested with the help of our estate planner.

It’s my new favorite word: PRONOIA, the polar opposite of “paranoia.”