Beginning at the Temple Lot

Plat of Zion, 1833, Joseph Smith Papers Website

Just a quick entry today to keep up with things.  Teaching two classes (one of them for the first time) and then performing other duties like writing my dissertation is keeping me busy these days.  While breaks are always nice, I've found that when I keep busy, life just seems to run more smoothly and I am more happy.  Hopefully it won't bother people, but because of my D&C class, almost all of my posts will relate to that for awhile.  It's such a fascinating book of scripture, that it is well worth our study--which it receives too infrequently in my case.

Pictured above is Joseph Smith's "Plat of Zion," or the city plan for the Latter-day Saint settlements that were being planned for Independence, Missouri.  The design for the city grew out of a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith in September 1832.  The Prophet was informed that the Lord desired to gather "his saints to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem" (D&C 84:2).  But he was then given more specific directions about the city.

"Which city shall be built, beginning at the temple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord was well pleased.  Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city of New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which shall be reared in this generation" (D&C 84:3-4).

As I pondered these verses during this reading, I stopped worrying as much about ancillary things like the timing of when the Lord would again command His saints to build a temple in Jackson County, and instead began to think about the subtle doctrine the Lord was teaching with the phrases "beginning at the temple lot" and "beginning at this place."  The physical city of Zion, will one day be built around and focused upon the House of the Lord, just as is shown in the Plat of Zion.  Since 1833, other cities built by the Saints have had the same focus, most notably Salt Lake City, whose 1848 plat is pictured below.

Plat of Salt Lake City, 1848, LDS Church History Library

As it was with the cities of Zion and Salt Lake City, so it is with us.  The Temple and its holy ordinances is a good place to begin building our lives outward.  At the center of the Holy Temple, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, as we begin to build our lives around the Temple, we necessarily begin to build our lives around the Lord Jesus Christ.

Brett