The Building Up of Zion With Power and Holiness

All the holy prophets have looked forward with great anticipation to the creation of Zion. As Joseph Smith said, “The building up of Zion is a… theme upon which prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to [this] day” (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, p. 514-15). The concept of Zion was so much in Isaiah’s mind, and is so integral to his message, that he spoke of it both in his original introduction and in the larger introduction he added to his book toward the end of his life. In those introductions, he said:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isa. 2:2-3; part of Isaiah’s original introduction).

. . . afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness (Isa. 1:26-27; part of Isaiah’s later, larger introduction).

By “Zion,” Isaiah did not mean a covenant people struggling to keep the commandments; he meant a people similar to the city of Enoch, a people so pure that Christ himself could dwell among them (Moses 7:62-63). Isaiah recognized, of course, that creating Zion would take time, but he also recognized that many who were supposedly preparing themselves to build Zion would not do so with valiance—that many would fail and die:

Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. . . . Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war (Isa. 2:16-17, 25).

Isaiah knew that creating Zion would be so important that God would create a “furnace of affliction” to humble his covenant people—even if it meant, unfortunately, the loss of many lives. Isaiah knew that the natural fruit of Christ’s gospel is always to lead people toward Zion, but if his people don’t bring Zion forth, they will either be destroyed or be humbled until they do. In the latter days, this has meant waiting “for a little season” (D&C 105:9). However, Isaiah knew that time would be running short in the last days and that the glory of Christ’s second coming would not only destroy sinners but even God’s own people if they proved unworthy to receive him (Isa. 33:19; D&C 5:19). Isaiah also knew that the Lord could not simply wave his hand and create a righteous people. All of his children have eternal agency, meaning they must willingly keep their covenants first, all of them, and then by their faith create a Zion that Christ can dwell in. Thus, only by their faith can the Saints of God create Zion, a city of power and light:

And, now, behold, if Zion do these things she shall prosper, and spread herself and become very glorious, very great, and very terrible. And the nations of the earth shall honor her, and shall say: Surely Zion is the city of our God, and surely Zion cannot fall, neither be moved out of her place, for God is there, and the hand of the Lord is there; And he hath sworn by the power of his might to be her salvation and her high tower. Therefore, verily, thus saith the Lord, let Zion rejoice, for this is Zion—the pure in heart; therefore, let Zion rejoice, while all the wicked shall mourn (D&C 97:18-21).

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy. . . . when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night (Isa. 4:3-5).

This cloud by day and flaming fire by night indicates the presence of the Lord. As Moses said of Israel being led out of Egypt: “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night (Ex. 13:21). Christ also affirms in other prophecies that in the last days he will dwell with his people in power.

And behold, this people will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob; and it shall be a New Jerusalem. And the powers of heaven shall be in the midst of this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you (3 Ne. 20:22).

And they shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob, and also as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem. And then shall they assist my people that they may be gathered in, who are scattered upon all the face of the land, in unto the New Jerusalem. And then shall the power of heaven come down among them; and I also will be in the midst (3 Ne. 21:23-25; see also Moses 7:63-64).

And importantly, according to Isaiah, once Zion is established on earth in the last days, it will not be removed:

Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken (Isa. 33:20).

With Zion also comes a covenant of peace, a covenant, also, which shall never be removed. It is significant that this covenant, found in Isaiah 54, is the only chapter from any prophet that Jesus Christ quoted in full, either to the Jews in his day or to the Nephites after his resurrection. According to Isaiah, Christ’s covenant with his people in Zion will be unmovable:

…For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee (Isa. 54:9-10; cf. 3 Ne. 22:9-10).

Again, Zion is the natural fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The natural branches of Israel will eventually produce this fruit, but only after much refining—only in purity and holiness. And once Zion is established, with the King of kings in its midst, neither the stakes of Zion nor the covenant of Christ’s peace will ever be removed. According to Isaiah, once Zion is established on earth in the last days, this city, this dream of all the holy prophets, will be on Earth to stay.