My Come, Follow Me lesson took me to Doctrine and Covenants 63 this week. When the Prophet Joseph Smith and other Church leaders returned to Ohio from Missouri on August 27, 1831, they told the waiting Church members that the Lord had identified Jackson County, Missouri, as the location for the city of Zion.
The revelation contained in Doctrine and
Covenants 63 was given through the Prophet Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio, on
August 30, 1831. When Joseph returned to Kirtland from his visit to Missouri,
he discovered that dissension and apostasy had entered the Church in his
absence. This was the setting for the revelation now contained in Doctrine and
Covenants 63.
The
section heading quotes from Joseph Smith’s history this description of this
revelation:
In these infant days of the Church, there
was a great anxiety to obtain the word of the Lord upon every subject that in
any way concerned our salvation; and as the land of Zion was now the most
important temporal object in view, I enquired of the Lord for further
information upon the gathering of the Saint, and the purchase of the land, and
other matters (in Manuscript History of the Church, vol. A-1, page 146,
josephsmithpapers.org).
The Prophet received an answer to
his inquiry on August 30. He recorded the information, and it later became
Doctrine and Covenants 63. The “other matters” that the Prophet took to the
Lord may have been concern for several members of the Church who had committed
serious sins and fallen away while he was in Missouri.
The site for the city of Zion had
been selected, and it had been dedicated as a place of gathering for the Saints
when Church leaders visited Missouri. However, members of the Church of Jesus
Christ had mixed views on Zion. Many of the Saints were eager to start
gathering in Missouri, while others – such as Ezra Booth – were disappointed
with the land of Zion.
The Lord addressed the purchase of
lands in Missouri and gave counsel of how to move the Saints to Zion. However,
He also gave this timely reminder: “I, the Lord, utter my voice, and it shall
be obeyed” (verse 5). His voice, His will, His command all “[come] from above,”
and they should be treated as sacred information. In fact, the Lord said that
it “is sacred, and must be spoken with care” (verse 64). The revelation
declared that only those who were faithful followers of Jesus Christ were to go
and help establish Zion in Missouri.
The revelation contains information
on many topics, and one of those topics is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord said in verse 53 that the events of the Second Coming are “nigh
at hand.” While no one but Heavenly Father knows the hour of the Second Coming,
the Lord gave valuable information to help us prepare when He taught the
parable of the foolish and wise virgins (see Matthew 25:1-13).
If the Second Coming was “nigh at
hand” in 1831, it is much closer now. We should view it as imminent and prepare
according. The Lord clarified in Doctrine and Covenants 63 what He meant in the
parable of the wise and foolish virgins. This clarification is found in verse
54: “until that hour there will be foolish virgins among the wise.”
Even among the Latter-day Saints, there
will be those who will be found wicked and who will be separated and cast out
from among the righteous, as in the parable of the wheat and tares (see Matthew
13:24-30, 36-43). This is the reason why the Lord commanded the Saints to
repent of their sins and to prepare for His coming. Then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained this need for Church members to
repent.
While we are powerless to alter the fact
of the Second Coming and unable to know its exact time, we can accelerate our
own preparation and try to influence the preparation of those around us.
A parable that contains an important and
challenging teaching on this subject is the parable of the ten virgins. Of this
parable, the Lord said, “And at that day, when I shall come in my glory, shall
the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins” (Doctrine
and Covenants 45:56).
Given in the 25 chapter of Matthew, this
parable contrasts the circumstances of the five foolish and the five wise
virgins. All ten were invited to the wedding feast, but only half of them were
prepared with oil in their lamps when the bridegroom came. The five who were
prepared went into the marriage feast, and the door was shut. The five who had
delayed their preparations came later. The door had been closed, and the Lord
denied them entrance, saying, “I know you not” (v. 12). “Watch therefore,” the
Savior concluded, “for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of
man cometh” (v. 13).
The arithmetic of this parable is chilling.
The ten virgins obviously represent members of Christ’s Church, for all were
invited to the wedding feast and all knew what was required to be admitted when
the bridegroom came. But only half were ready when he came” (“Preparation for
the Second Coming,” Ensign, May 2004, 8).
We do not know when the Savior will come,
but we have been commanded to prepare for His Second Coming. We can prepare for
that sacred experience by bringing to pass Zion in our individual lives, in our
homes, and in our communities. Anyone who is capable of living in a Zion-like
atmosphere will be prepared to meet the Savior.
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