An 1894 Vision of Zion

by John P. Pratt
20 Jun 2021, 13 Temple (SR), Firstfruits (J), Easter (UJ), 0 Quick (UMa), 1 Savior (P), Pearl (S)

©2021 by John P. Pratt. All rights reserved.

Index, Home

Contents

1. The Twelve Spies 1.1 Biblical Account 1.2 The Sealed Book 2. The Vision 3. Conclusion Notes

A vision given to an LDS patriarch has a magnificent description of the future city of Zion in Missouri.

The Lord has revealed that the city of Zion to be built in Jackson County, Missouri, will be a major city of the Lord's kingdom on earth during the Millennium. How and when will it be built? According to prophecies, that will only happen after there is much destruction in the United States from various causes, which will prepare that area to be ready for a new city to be built there.

Temple lot in Independence.

As for when it will be built, the time is now very close. Hard times have already begun with the recent oppressive actions of the government to prepare the people to be conditioned to obey absurd regulations which have led to a large part of the economy being shut down, in some cases permanently. Right now the building of a new city would seem to be almost impossible. How much more so, then, would it appear after major destruction and the fall of the economy?

This article reviews an important revelation which was published in the official LDS magazine, even though it has not been officially accepted as revelation. It includes a marvelous description of life in the New Jerusalem, the name for the city of Zion (D&C 45:66, 84:4). The reason for publishing it now is that the world is replete with revelations of coming earthquakes, plagues and devastations, but precious few of the glorious Millennium for which the destruction of the wicked is preparing.

Before discussing that night vision, a comparison is made to a Biblical account about how over focusing on the negative can prevent believers from even trying to obey the Lord's commands to fulfill the positive. Thus, this article attempts to paint a positive landscape of the future after the preparation is fulfilled. It is very similar to bulldozing an old dilapidated structure in order to build a new glorious temple! Those who know the plan, do not cry when the old structure is destroyed, but rejoice at the coming of the new!

1.1 Biblical Account

The spies report back to Moses.

The Bible contains the very brief account of the twelve spies whom Moses sent to the Promised Land that the Lord had promised them. Two of the spies brought back a very encouraging report: "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." They then showed a huge bunch of grapes that required two men to carry it (Num. 13:23,27).

Unfortunately, the other ten spies focused on the negative aspects of what was discovered, namely that they would have to overcome some giants, declaring that they would have no chance of taking the land. Caleb attempted to quell the opposition, assuring the assembly that they could indeed prevail (Num. 13:30), but the harm had been done! The people rebelled against Moses and Aaron, and were wanting to choose a new captain to return to Egypt (Num. 14:4). Joshua and Caleb tried again to calm the multitude, emphasizing how good the land was and that they should trust in the Lord (Num. 14:6-9), but the crowd wanted to stone them (Num. 14:10).

At that point the Lord intervened, and, even though Moses pled for his people, declared that because of such rebellion, the people would wander for forty years in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land, until all of the rebellious had died (Num. 14:32-33)!

1.2 The Sealed Book

The ancient prophet Mormon begged the Lord to be allowed to include within the sealed Plates of Mormon[1] a short account of the details of the twelve spies whom Moses sent to the Promised Land (Sealed Moses 17:29). When one reads that account, which was indeed included, it does provide more detail, but there is nothing too amazing there. That leads to the question of just why did Mormon plead with the Lord to allow him to include the account? With that question in mind, let us review one the main points which it adds to the story.

Three sections of the Plates of Mormon.

The first addition to the Biblical account is that the Lord commanded that these men be sent to bring back a positive report! The Lord knew that there would be some serious obstacles to overcome, so he wanted to give the people hope and courage to keep the goal in mind to trust in Him to overcome whatever opposition arose so that the people could immediately inherit the land awaiting them.

Had the report been positive, then the children of Israel could have gone immediately into the Promised Land. Instead, the people were filled with doubt and fear and wanted to return to Egypt! That resulted in waiting another forty years for their children to inherit their land!

Why would the prophet Mormon beg the Lord to allow him to include this account in the sealed portion of his plates? It most likely is because some modern latter-day saints will need to face huge obstacles to return to Missouri to build the city of Zion in the Promised Land! Knowing this, Mormon wanted us to remember how only ten men convinced hundreds of thousands not to fulfill the commandment of the Lord, resulting in their eventual deaths before entering the Promised Land!

The following night vision (inspired dream), was given in 1894 to Charles D. Evans, a stake patriarch of the LDS Church in Springville, Utah. It was soon published in the LDS Church magazine, The Contributor, later to be known as The Improvement Era.[2] It is included here in full because it is one of the very few visions of the future which describes the magnificent New Jerusalem, city of Zion, during the Millennium.

Why was a vision of the city of Zion during the Millennium given in 1894? That was the year after the great financial Panic of 1893[3] when thousands of businesses, banks, and farms failed. Those days were grim and the following account states that Evans had great "apprehensions" about current events. Thus, it was a good time to soothe him by showing that it all ends in the glorious Millennium! Here is his account of the vision from The Contributor:

While I lay pondering, in deep solitude, on the events of the present my mind was drawn into a reverie such as I had never felt before. A strong solicitude for my imperilled country utterly excluded every other thought, and raised my feelings to a point of intensity I did not think possible to endure. While in this solemn, profound, and painful reverie of mind, to my infinite surprise, a light appeared in my room, which seemed to be soft and silvery as if diffused from a northern star. At the moment of its appearance the acute feeling I had experienced so intensely yielded to one of calm tranquility.

Although it may have been at the hour of midnight, and the side of the globe whereon I was situated, was excluded from the sunlight, yet all was light and bright and warm as an Italian landscape at noon, but the heat was softer and more subdued. As I gazed upward I saw descending through my bedroom roof, with a gently gliding movement, a personage clothed in white apparel, whose countenance was smoothly serene, his features regular, and the flashes of his eye seemed to shoot forth scintillations, to use an earthly comparison, strongly resembling those reflected from a diamond under an intensely illuminated electric light, which dazzled but did not bewilder. Those large, deep, inscrutable eyes were presently fixed upon mine, when instantly placing his hands on my forehead, his touch produced an indescribable serenity and calmness, a calmness not born of earth, but at once peaceful, delightful and heavenly. My whole being was imbued with a joy unspeakable. All feelings of sorrow instantly vanished. Those lines and shadows which care and sorrow impress upon us were dispelled as a deep fog before the blazing sun. In the eyes of my heavenly visitor, for such he appeared to me, there was a sort of lofty pity and tenderness, infinitely stronger than any such feelings I ever saw manifested in ordinary mortals. His very calm appeared like a vast ocean stillness, at once overpowering to every agitated emotion.

By some intuition or instinct, I felt he had something to communicate to me to sooth my sorrow or allay my apprehensions. Thereupon addressing me, he said:

"Son, I perceive thou hast grave anxieties over the perilous state of thy country, that thy soul has felt deep sorrow for its future. I have therefore come to thy relief and to tell thee of the causes that have led to this peril. Hear me attentively. Seventy-one years ago, after an awful apostasy of centuries, in which all nations were enshrouded in spiritual darkness, when angels had withdrawn themselves, the voice of prophets hushed, and the light of Urim and Thummim shone not, and the vision of the seers was closed, while heaven itself shed not a ray of gladness to lighten a dark world, when Babel ruled and Satan laughed, and church and priesthood had taken their upward flight, and the voice of nations, possessing the books of the Jewish prophets, had ruled against vision and against Urim, against the future visits of angels, and against the doctrines of a church of the apostles and prophets, thou knowest that then appeared a mighty angel with a solemn announcement of the hour of judgment, the burden of whose instructions pointed to dire calamities upon the present generation. This, therefore is the cause of what thou seest, and the end of the wicked hasteneth."

My vision now became extended in a marvelous manner, and the import of the past labors of the Elders was made plain to me. I saw multitudes fleeing to the place of safety in our mountain heights. The church was established in the wilderness. Simultaneously the nation had reached an unparalleled prosperity, wealth abounded, new territory was acquired, commerce extended, finance strengthened, confidence was maintained, and people abroad pointed to her as the model nation, the ideal of the past now realized and perfected, the embodiment of the liberty which was sung by poets, and sought for by sages.

"But", continued the messenger, "thou beholdest a change. Confidence is lost. Wealth is arrayed against labor, labor against wealth, yet the land abounds with plenty of food and raiment, and silver and gold in abundance. Thou seest also letters written by a Jew have wrought great confusion in the finances of the nation which, together with the policy of many wealthy ones, has produced distress and do presage further sorrow."

Factions now sprang up as if by magic; capital had entrenched itself against labor throughout the land; labor was organized against capital. The voice of the wise sought to tranquilize their powerful factors in vain. Excited multitudes ran wildly about; strikes increased; lawlessness sought a place in the regular government....[4]

I stood trembling at the aspect, when lo, a power arose in the west which declared itself in favor of the constitution in its original form; to this suddenly rising power, every lover of constitutional rights and liberties throughout the nation gave hearty support. The struggle was fiercely contested, but the stars and stripes floated in the breeze, and, bidding definace to all opposition, waved proudly over the land. Among the many banners I saw, was one inscribed thus: "The government based on the Constitution, now and forever;" on another "Liberty of Conscience, social, religious, and political."

The light of the gospel which had but dimly shone because of abominations, now burst forth with a lustre that filled the earth. Cities appeared in every direction, one of which, in the center of the continent, was an embodiment of architectural science after the pattern of eternal perfection, whose towers glittered with a radiance emanating from the sparkling of emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and other precious stones set in a canopy of gold and so elaborately and skillfully arranged as to shed forth a brilliancy which dazzled and enchanted the eye, excited admiration and developed a taste for the beautiful beyond anything man had ever conceived. Fountains of crystal water shot upwards through transparent jets which in the brilliant sunshine, formed ten thousand rainbow tints at once delightful to the eye. Gardens, the perfection of whose arrangement confound all our present attempts at genius, were bedecked with flowers of varied hue to develop and refine the taste, and strengthen a love for these, nature's chastest adornments. Schools and universities were erected, to which all had access; in the latter Urims were placed, for the study of the past, present and future, and for obtaining a knowledge of the heavenly bodies, and of the construction of worlds and universes. The inherent properties of matter, its arrangements, laws, and mutual relations were revealed and taught and made plain as the primer lesson of a child. The conflicting theories of geologists regarding the formation and age of the earth were settled forever. All learning was based on eternal certainty. Angels brought forth the treasures of knowledge which had lain hid in the womb of the dumb and distant past.

The appliances for making learning easy surpass all conjecture. Chemistry was rendered extremely simple, by the power which the Urims conferred on man of looking into and through the elements of every kind; a stone furnished no more obstruction to human vision than the air itself. Not only were the elements and all their changes and transformations plainly understood, but the construction, operations, and laws of mind were thus rendered equally plain as those which governed the coarser elements. While looking through the Urim and Thummim, I was amazed at a transformation, which even now is to me marvelous beyond description, clearly showing the manner in which particles composing the inorganic kingdom of nature are conducted upward to become part of organic forms; another astonishing revelation was a view clearly shown me of the entire circulation of the blood, both in man and animals. After seeing these things and gazing once more upon the beautiful city, the following passage of Scripture sounded in my ears: "Out of Zion the perfection of beauty God shineth."

Notes

1. Pratt, John P., "Is The Sealed Book of Mormon Genuine?" (26 May 2019) is a favorable book review of this book, which was translated from the gold Plates of Mormon.
2. Kraut, Ogden, Visions of the Latter Days (Salt Lake City: Pioneer Press, 1983), pp. 57-64; available at visionsandtribulation.blogspot.com/p/the-vision-of-charles-d-evans-1893.html. Those versions are edited from the published article, "A Dream", The Contributor, vol. 15 (Aug 1894), pp 638-641, which was used in this article and is online at archive.org/details/contributor1510eng/page/638/mode/2up, and also available here and here. Thanks to Russell Anderson for finding the original for me to publish here. Some accounts say the vision date was 1893, but the vision refers to Angel Moroni's 1823 appearance as having been 71 years prior to the vision, so it was given in 1894.
3. See "Panic of 1893" in Wikipedia for a summary article.
4. In an attempt to apply the lesson of the negative report of the twelve spies, the dots at this point (...) indicate the omission of the negative part of the vision, which is included in this endnote. It is given here so that it does not overpower the joyous description of the New Jerusalem: "At this juncture, I saw floating in air a banner whereupon was written the words Bankruptcy, Famine, Floods, Fire, Cyclones, Blood, Plague. Mad with rage, men and women rushed upon each other. Blood flowed down the streets of cities like water. The demon of bloody hate had enthroned itself on the citadel of reason; the thirst for blood was intenser than that of the parched tongue for water. Thousands of bodies lay unentombed in the streets. Men and women fell dead from terror inspired by fear. Rest was but the precursor of the bloody work of the morrow. All around lay the mournfulness of a past in ruins. Monuments erected to perpetuate the names of the noble and brave were ruthlessly destroyed by combustibles. A voice now sounded aloud these words: 'Yet once again I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once again signifies the removing of things that are shaken, as of things that are made; that those things that cannot be shaken may remain.' ¶ Earthquakes rent the earth in vast chasms, which engulfed multitudes; terrible groanings and wailings filled the air; the shrieks of the suffering were indescribably awful. Water wildly rushed in from the tumultuous ocean whose very roaring under the mad rage of fierce cyclones, was unendurable to the ear. Cities were swept away in an instant, missiles were hurled through the atmosphere at a terrible velocity, and people were carried upward only to descend an unrecognized mass. Islands appeared where ocean waves once tossed the gigantic steamer. In other parts voluminous flames, emanating from vast fires, rolled with fearful velocity, destroying life and property in their destructive course. The seal of the dread menace of despair was stamped on every human visage; men fell exhausted, appalled and trembling. Every element of agitated nature seemed a demon of wrathful fury. Dense clouds, blacker than midnight darkness, whose thunders reverberated with intonations which shook the earth, obscured the sunlight. Darkness reigned, unrivaled and supreme. ¶ Again the light shone, revealing an atmosphere tinged with a leaden hue, which was the precursor of an unparalleled plague, whose first symptoms were recognized by a purple spot which appeared on the cheek or on the back of the hand, and which, invariably, enlarged until it spread over the entire surface of the body, producing certain death. Mothers, on sight of it, cast away their children as if they were poisonous reptiles. This plague, in grown persons, rotted the eyes in their sockets and consumed the tongue as would a powerful acid or an intense heat. Wicked men, suffering under its writhing agonies, cursed God and died, as they stood on their feet, and birds of prey feasted on their carcasses. ¶ I saw in my dream the messenger again appear with a vial in his right hand, who addressing me, said, 'Thou knowest somewhat of the chemistry taught in the schools of human learning, behold now a chemistry sufficiently powerful to change the waters of the sea.' ¶ He then poured out his vial upon the sea and it became as putrid as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul therein died. Other plagues followed I forbear to record. ¶NuN A foreign power had invaded the nation, which, from every human indication, it appeared would seize the government and supplant it with monarchy."