Zion

Throughout the scriptures there are a few different definitions of what Zion is, including specific places and a spiritual state.  Moses 7:19 teaches us that the city of Enoch was “called the City of Holiness, even Zion.” This Zion “in the process of time, was taken up into heaven.”  This was the very first Zion and is the city that one day is to come down from heaven again to meet the latter-day Zion that we build up (Moses 7:63).  In the Old Testament we read of how David took Jerusalem from the Jebusites: “Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David” (2 Samuel 5:7).  So Zion was the city that David established at what is now Jerusalem.  In D&C 84:2-3 we read of the gathering of the Saints “to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem.  Which city shall be built, beginning at the temple lot… in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri.” So Zion is also the New Jerusalem to be built in the last days in Jackson County Missouri.  In D&C 82:14 we learn that “Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened.”  This seems to imply that the stakes of the Church make up Zion.  Perhaps the most important definition for us is D&C 97:21, which tells us, “For this is Zion—THE PURE IN HEART.”  To be pure in heart we can be a part of Zion no matter where we are gathered.