Cover image: Struggle at Zion’s Camp, by Clark Kelley Price.
Since the land and people of Zion have not been fully redeemed, Zion’s Camp marches on with the objective of redeeming Zion. Who is in Zion’s Camp today? Because they are being endowed with the power of God’s love needed to redeem Zion, those who hold an active temple recommend are the members of today’s Zion’s Camp. This “strength of mine house” (D&C 101:55) is an estimated 1/3 to 1/2 of today’s total Church membership. The connection between Zion’s Camp and the temple is the most important message of the 1834 Zion’s Camp because today’s Zion’s Camp makes a temple covenant to establish Zion in the world.
As disappointed as many in Zion’s Camp were by the revelation to end the 1834 Zion’s Camp (see D&C 105:9-13), faith in the redemption of Zion continued in Kirtland, Far West, and Nauvoo.1* Joseph predicted a return to Zion within two years. Similar to the Passover wish, “next year in Jerusalem” of dispersed Jews, Joseph’s motto was “next year in Zion”. 2* He even beheld the future redemption of Zion in a vision revealed in the Kirtland Temple on January 21, 1836. 3* Reflecting the Savior’s directive to His old-world apostles to “teach all nations” (Matt. 28:19), the global vision of Zion in the mind of Joseph was “this church . . . will fill the world”. 4* In Doctrine and Covenants section 21, verses 7 and 8, the Lord confirmed Joseph’s “weeping for Zion” and his inspiration to “move the cause of Zion in mighty power for good”. The cause of Zion moves on in today’s Zion’s Camp because God’s dwelling place will be in Zion (see Psalm 76:2; 102:16; D&C 97:18-19).
At the formation of Zion’s Camp in Kirtland, the Lord said, “the redemption of Zion must needs come by power” (D&C 103:15). To many of the recruits, the word power in this revelation mistakenly meant armed force needed to counter the Missourians. After a display of heavenly power at Fishing River in fulfillment of His promise to “fight their battles” (D&C 105:14), the Lord on June 22, 1834 near the end of Zion’s Camp contrasted power by force to power as an endowed gift. The temple trail to this heavenly power as an endowed gift and the redemption of Zion is emphasized with a chiasmus in D&C 105:9-13:
9 A: wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion—
11 B: And this cannot be brought to pass until mine elders are endowed with power from on
high.
13 A: wait for a season for the redemption of Zion.
Power endowed from on high in the temple to redeem Zion is the priesthood power of God’s love (see Romans 13:1-2; D&C 84:20-21; 113:7-8; 121:36-37, 41-45). The doctrine of the priesthood is the power of the priesthood in God’s love. It is the “heavenly gift” (see 4 Nephi 1:4; Ether 12:8) of the “love of the Father” (see 1 John 2:15; D&C 95:12; Moroni 7:47-48; 10:32-33) through the gift of the power of the Holy Ghost (see Romans 5:5; 1 Nephi 13:37; Moroni 8:26). This is how today’s Zion’s Camp will be sanctified. 5*
After the formal discharge of Zion’s Camp, Joseph Smith and others of the Camp returned to Kirtland to help complete the temple. As revealed in going to the Ohio to be endowed with power from on high (see D&C 38:32), by the end of the Zion’s Camp march Joseph knew that to redeem Zion the saints needed to be endowed with power from on high in the Kirtland (see D&C 105:33) and other temples. The covenants and endowment of the temple are necessary to redeem the living and the dead as a Zion people gathered under Christ’s covenant temple wing (see Psalm 61:4). A Zion people precedes a redeemed Zion place.
At Winter Quarters the Lord reminded the saints that “Zion shall be redeemed in mine own due time” (D&C 136:18). Joseph Smith said, “I know that Zion, in the due time of the Lord, will be redeemed; but how many will be the days of her purification, tribulation, and affliction, the Lord has kept hid from my eyes; and when I enquire concerning this subject, the voice of the Lord is: Be still, and know that I am God” 6* (see Psalm 4:4; 46:10). Besides disobedience, the reason the 1834 Zion’s Camp and today’s Zion’s Camp have to wait a little season for the redemption of Zion is “a trial of their faith” (D&C 105:19), that “they might be prepared, . . . be taught more perfectly, . . . have experience, and know more perfectly” (D&C 105:10) the things God requires to redeem Zion. Faith is mentioned eight times in the Doctrine and Covenants sections concerning Zion’s Camp. It is even the final counsel of the Lord (see D&C 105:41). As the Apostle Paul said, the faith we need in today’s Zion’s Camp is “faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6).
Zion’s Camp was bracketed with commanded but unfinished temples in Kirtland and Independence. If there was a failure of the 1834 Zion’s Camp in redeeming Zion, it was because there was not a working temple at the beginning and especially at the end of the march. The saints of Kirtland delayed constructing a temple for six months after the December 1832 revelation to build a temple (see D&C 88:119). For this delay, the Saints were reprimanded by the Lord in June of 1833 (see D&C 95:1-13). The Kirtland Temple was finally completed and dedicated in 1836. Two years after the 1831 revelation for a temple in Independence (see D&C 57:2-3) and after warnings (see D&C 97:10-12), the saints in Missouri still had an empty temple lot. This neglect in building a temple has similar overtures to the neglect of the Lord’s house by rulers of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel under the Davidic Covenant (see 1 Chronicles 17:4-6, 10-14; 2 Chronicles 20:1-12; 30:1-10; 1 Kings 9:4-7). Would Zion’s Camp have been necessary if temples were completed and operational in Kirtland and Independence? “Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion” (Psalm 20:2; read Psalm 48 and look for the association of the city of Zion and the temple).
Sections 101, 103, and 105 of the Doctrine and Covenants coincide with the 1834 Zion’s Camp history. The most common phrases in these sections refer to Gathering (15), My house (11, strength of 8), and Zion (25, land 7, people 4, redemption of 9). The heralding temple message of today’s Zion’s Camp is gather together the strength of my house for the redemption of Zion. It is the power of love endowed in the temple that will gather and redeem Zion. Zion is “the pure in heart” (D&C 97:21). The temple endowment produces a pure heart by endowing it with God’s pure love. The temple endowment is the preparatory redemption of a Zion people. This is a message of world-wide importance for the Church today evidenced by the fact that messages of gathering to the temple for the redemption of Zion often come from today’s prophet and apostles. President Nelson said, “The gathering of Israel is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty.” 7* (see Nehemiah 1:9; D&C 29:8). President Nelson’s imperative for gathering is similar to Joseph Smith’s imperative for Zion. He said, “We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object.” 8*
Gathering to Christ leads to the atonement of Zion — “a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories” (D&C 128:18). Zion’s atonement is the gathering to Christ all resources to establish a Zion community. The disparity in the world with diamond mines in poor Africa and the abundance of wealth in divisive America is crying for atonement. Atonement will happen when we gather together as children of God under the healing wing of Christ in His temple. Then in equality we will receive the abundance of the gifts of the Spirit (see D&C 70:14).
If the temple is “the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion” (D&C 124:39), today’s Zion’s Camp can learn much from sections 101, 103, and 105 about redeeming Zion. Many verses in these sections allude to temple symbols, objectives, and teachings. It is time rewarded to parse each verse of these sections looking for the temple. A main message of the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple is Zion will be redeemed by power obtained in the temple. The same message is in sections 101, 103, and 105. The Lord said “[Building Zion] must be done in mine own way” (D&C 104:16). The temple endowment is the “right and proper way” (D&C 101:63; see Psalm 77:13) because it teaches and administers celestial law. Living celestial law is needed to redeem Zion. God’s love is needed to consistently live celestial law.
One of the requirements to build peace and redeem Zion is to build up the waste places of Zion (see D&C 101:18, 75; 103:11). Waste places are wildernesses that might be receptive to Zion (see 1 Nephi 8:4, 7-8, 10; Psalm 1:3). They are places where breaches can be repaired to raise up the foundation of many generations that walk paths to dwell in (see Isaiah 52:8-9; 58:12). D&C section 105 gives instruction on building waste places and establishing peace (see verses 24-27 and 38-40). Part of atoning Zion is building up the waste places of Zion.
A waste place of Zion is Jacksonville, Illinois. On March 31, 1834, Fredrick G. Williams marked a camping site for Zion’s Camp one mile east of Jacksonville. He then went into the town and invited its residents to join him and his associates for Sunday worship services the following day. 9* On June 1, 1834, two hundred and fifty citizens from various denominations joined the members of Zion’s Camp for Christian worship. There was such peace and unity in the worship service that they all sang, prayed, and partook of the Sacrament. 10* It was “the most unusual Sabbath of the entire journey”. 11*As hoped by Orson Pratt, who gave a sermon on that day, for one day there was one true religion in Jacksonville. 12* A waste place of Zion had been redeemed for that day. In this respect, Zion’s Camp was a success.
Zion’s Camp had an unusual flag for a marching army. The only word on it was the word PEACE. Peace through love is the unexpected yet powerful message of Zion’s Camp. If Zion begins in individual hearts, it develops into a Zion community of fellowship with such “hearts knit together in unity” (Mosiah 18:21). This unity is “the fellowship of the mystery” (Ephesians 3:9) of God’s love even in loving enemies. Preparing the way of peace is by living peacefully like the founder of peace even in loving enemies.
Joseph Smith taught, “by union of feeling we obtain power with God”. 13* Jacksonville is the “union of feeling” apogee of the 1834 Zion’s Camp trail because the power of unity slowly built in Zion’s Camp before and dissipated after Jacksonville. Signified by all unified in the sacred time and space of prayer, song, and partaking the Sacrament, it was a remarkable Christian union of feeling among diverse denominations worshiping Christ on June 1, 1834 near Jacksonville. To the Lord, Jacksonville is a sacred place. A substantial memorial for Zion’s Camp that remembers this unity, the building up of a waste place of Zion in Jacksonville, and the connection of the story of Zion’s Camp with the temple, is needed for members of the Church and non-members today to fulfill Wilford Woodruff’s prophecy.
As a member of the 1834 Zion’s Camp, Wilford Woodruff testified, “the experience [we] obtained in travelling in Zion’s Camp was of more worth than gold, and the history of that camp will be handed down to the last generations of men. The counsel and the word of the Lord through the prophet of the Lord, and its fulfillment, with our joys and our sorrows in connection with those scenes and events, are engraven upon our hearts as with an iron pen upon a rock, and the history thereof will live through all time and in eternity” 14* (see Job 19:24). Faithful members of the 1834 Zion’s Camp reach through the veil across 188 years to hand down and continue its history. They encourage those in today’s Zion’s Camp to remember the temple covenant and hold the banner of peace and unity to establish Zion with God’s power of love.
The profound scriptural message of Zion’s Camp is engraved upon our hearts when we correlate the key word POWER with the words chosen, house, endow, and love found in sections 101, 103, and 105 and when we gather to Christ to atone Zion. With such an important message as the redemption of Zion, Zion’s Camp truly is a continuing history, a great cause and work, and a profound message for our time and for eternity. It is the great call of gathering for unity with God and mankind because we love Him and our neighbor. Many are called to march in Zion’s Camp today but only those who gather and become “the strength of mine house” through the temple endowment of pure love will be chosen with the power to redeem and live in Zion. This is the message of Zion’s Camp for time and eternity (see D&C 109:24).
Mark Greene June 16, 2022
Notes
1* Joseph Smith in The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft1964), 38-39
2* Richard Bushman Rough Stone Rolling Alfred Knopf New York 2005 p. 245, 305-6
3* Joseph Smith History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Deseret Book, Salt
Lake City) vol. 2 p. 380-381
4*Joseph Smith Teachings of the Presidents of the Church Salt Lake City, the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (2007) p. 137
5* Richard Bushman Rough Stone Rolling Alfred Knopf New York 2005 p. 244-245
6* Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith p. 34
7* Russel M. Nelson “Hope of Israel” Worldwide Youth Devotional, June 3, 2018
8* Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith p. 160
9* Joseph Smith History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Deseret Book, Salt
Lake City) vol. 2 pp. 77-78
10* James Bradley, The Eternal Perspective of Zion’s Camp 2nd ed. 2004 p. 136
11* James Bradley, The Eternal Perspective of Zion’s Camp 2nd ed. 2004 p. 134
12* Heber C. Kimball’s Journal Times and Seasons 6 (January 15, 1845) 773
George A. Smith “History”, 28-29
13* Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ed. B. H. Roberts 2
- Rev. 7 vol. 5:23
14*Teachings of the Presidents of the Church Salt Lake City, the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints 2004: 135, 138
