What does “Zion” mean?

The term “Zion” can refer to a variety of things. This is illustrated in LDS hymns. 

• In “As Sisters in Zion” (Hymn 309) and “As Zion’s Youth in Latter Days,” (Hymn 256), “Zion” refers to the Restored Church of Jesus Christ and its members.
• “Zion” refers to Utah in hymns such as “O Ye Mountains High . . . . O Zion, dear Zion” (Hymn 34).
• Zion is also the name of the city established by Enoch, taken into heaven and expected to return, as described in “Glorious Things Are Sung of Zion” (Hymn 48). 
• A fourth meaning is captured in “Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise” (Hymn 41, written by Edward Partridge). Zion refers to a righteous people prepared prior to the Millennium “to meet the Lord and Enoch’s band” at their return.

This website focuses on the fourth meaning. This Zion, sometimes synonymous with “New Jerusalem,” is promised in D&C 84:1-5, 99-100; Moses 7:62-3; 3 Nephi 20:22, 21:22-24; and Ether 13:3-6.

President Henry B. Eyring has said, “You sisters, your daughters, your granddaughters, and the women you have nurtured will be at the heart of creating that society of people who will join in glorious association with the Savior. You will be an essential force in the gathering of Israel and in the creation of a Zion people who will dwell in peace in the New Jerusalem.” (“Sisters in Zion,” Ensign, Nov. 2020, 67), available here.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson has distinguished between Zion as the Church and Zion as a community yet to be established. “In our families and in our stakes and districts, let us seek to build up Zion through unity, godliness, and charity, preparing for that great day when Zion, the New Jerusalem, will arise.” (“Come to Zion,”  Ensign, Nov. 2008, 40), available here. He has also said, “We can hope to be one—one within, one at home, one in the Church, eventually one in Zion . . . .” (“One in Christ,” Liahona, May 2023, 79) available here.

Church leaders have taught that Zion will feature a system of consecration and stewardship like what was described in the Doctrine and Covenants.

Those who believe in the return of a system of consecration and stewardship like what was described in the Doctrine and Covenants have some good company.

President Ezra Taft Benson described the united order as the vehicle for implementing the Law of Consecration. “Though not in full operation today, it will be mandatory for all Saints to live the law in its fulness to receive celestial inheritance.”

I want to speak more particularly this morning about this one law—the law of consecration. It is that one’s time, talents, strength, property, and money are given up to the Lord for the express purpose of building up the kingdom of God and establishing Zion on the earth. Or, as we read in Doctrine and Covenants 105:5, “Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom.” . . .

 

 

The vehicle for implementing the law of consecration is the united order. The basic principle underlying the united order is that everything we have belongs to the Lord; and, therefore, the Lord may call upon us for any and all of our property, because it belongs to him. The united order was entered by “a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken” (D&C 42:30), according to the scriptures. In other words, an individual conveys his titles to all his property to the Church through the bishop. The property becomes the property of the Church. You read about this in the forty-second section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

 

 

The bishop then deeds back to the consecrator by legal instrument the amount of personal property required by the individual for the support of himself and his family, as the Lord declares, “according to his circumstances and his wants and needs” (D&C 51:3). This becomes the private, personal property of the individual to develop as he sees fit. It is his stewardship. When an individual produces a profit or surplus more than is needful for the support of himself and his family, the surplus is then placed in the bishops storehouse to administer to the poor and the needy. Under the united order, idleness has no place, and greed, selfishness, and covetousness are condemned. The united order may therefore operate with only a righteous people. . . .

 

 

I repeat and emphasize that the law of consecration is a law for an inheritance in the celestial kingdom. God, the Eternal Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and all holy beings abide by this law. It is an eternal law. It is a revelation by God to his Church in this dispensation. Though not in full operation today, it will be mandatory for all Saints to live the law in its fulness to receive celestial inheritance. (“A Vision and a Hope for the Youth of Zion,” BYU Devotional, April 12, 1977, emphasis added), available here.

President Marion G. Romney looked forward to “the reestablishment of the law of consecration and stewardship as required under the united order.”

Almost from the beginning of my services in Church welfare I have had the conviction that what we are doing in this welfare work is preliminary to the reestablishment of the law of consecration and stewardship as required under the united order. If we could always remember the goal toward which we are working, we would never lose our bearings in this great work. What we are about is not new. It is as old as the gospel itself. Whenever the Lord has had a people who would accept and live the gospel, He has established the united order. . . . Through faithful observance of the principles of tithing, the fast, and the welfare program, we will prepare ourselves to redeem Zion and ultimately live the united order.” (“The Purpose of Church Welfare Services,” Ensign, May 1977, 92, 95, emphasis in the original), available here.

In his authoritative book The Articles of Faith, Elder James E. Talmage taught that the economic system of Zion revealed in the 1830s would be re-established:

The saints confidently await the day in which they will devote not merely a tithe of their substance but all that they have and all that they are, to the service of their God. . . . As far as the plan of this prospective organization has been revealed, it provides that a person entering the order shall consecrate to the Lord all that he has, be it little or much, giving to the Church a deed of his property sealed with a covenant that cannot be broken. The person thus having given his all is to be made a steward over a part of the property of the Church, according to his ability to use it. . . . Of the proceeds of his labors, every man may use as he requires for the support of himself and his family; the surplus is to be rendered to the Church for public and general works, and for the assistance of those who are justifiably deficient. (Articles of Faith, 439–40, emphasis added)

Elder George Q. Cannon taught,

The time must come when we must obey that which has been revealed to us as the Order of Enoch, when there shall be no rich and no poor among the Latter-day Saints; when wealth will not be a temptation; when every man will love his neighbor as he does himself; when every man and woman will labor for the good of all as much as for self. . . . As wealth increases, luxury and extravagance have more power over us. The necessity for such an order is very great, and God, undoubtedly, in his own time and way, will inspire his servant [the prophet] to introduce it among the people. (“Gathering,” Oct. 8, 1872, Journal of Discourses, 15:207–8, emphasis added)

Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote in Mormon Doctrine, 

Early attempts to operate various united orders failed, but the law of consecration must yet be put into full force, and so the United Order or its equivalent must again be brought into being. (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed., 813, emphasis added)

More recently, President Henry B. Eyring connected tithing to the system of consecration. 

As those blessings come, our faith is increased that God is the source of everything that is good in our lives. It becomes easier to see that consecration simply recognizes the truth that all of God’s creations are His. It makes us feel gratitude that He asks only 10 percent of what He has already given us. So we are better prepared to live the law of consecration when it will be asked of us. (“The Blessings of Tithing,” Ensign, June 2011, 5, emphasis added), available here.

To my knowledge, no Church leader has authoritatively stated that a system of consecration and stewardship will not be brought back, whereas many have said that it would be brought back. 

This vision of Zion is called “Zion 21.0.”

• The version number 21 indicates this is a vision for the 21st century and distinguishes it from earlier Zion societies that have flourished or been attempted. 
• Adding “.0” acknowledges that others may have different visions of a future Zion.