Article of Faith

In the tenth article of faith we read -

We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and...that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent..." (Pearl of Great Price Articles of Faith 1:10)

We are a witness of this this past week in our stake in "Our Trek to Zion". The entire focus was in searching out and finding Zion. For four days, I was with a group of young people that truely represented Zion - a people of one heart and one mind, dwelling in righteousness, with no poor among them. President John Taylor said -

"We are here to build up the church of God, the Zion of God, and the kingdom of God, and to be on hand to do whatever God requires—first to purge ourselves from all iniquity, from covetousness and evil of every kind, to forsake sin of every sort, cultivate the Spirit of God, and help to build up his kingdom; to beautify Zion and have pleasant habitations, and pleasant gardens and orchards, until Zion shall be the most beautiful place there is on the earth. . . . Zion shall yet become the praise and the glory of the whole earth." (The Gospel Kingdom, sel. G. Homer Durham [1964], 221)

Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught -

"The stakes of Zion that now are must be strengthened and perfected before they can uphold and sustain that Zion which is destined to be. When Zion is fully established, it will be by obedience to the law of the celestial kingdom, which law is operative in the stakes of Zion only in part." (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, 592)