In the first part of this chapter, the message of Ether is briefly recorded. It bears a marked resemblance to the prophecies of Enoch, as preserved in the Pearl of Great Price. The mission of Enoch was to warn the people who lived before the flood of their wickedness. Ether was sent to the Jaredites with a similar word of warning. The Ante-diluvians rejected Enoch. The Jaredites refused to listen to the words of Ether.
In his pleas that they abandon their iniquities and turn unto righteousness, Ether explained to them the Plan of Salvation from the beginning to the end of all things. The Gospel that Ether preached was the Gospel of Adam, of Enoch and the Patriarchs. It was also the Gospel of Noah, handed down through his sons to Eber, Peleg and his brother, Joktan, and to Jared. It was the same Gospel that was entrusted by our Lord to His Apostles for dissemination throughout the world. It was, in one word, the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ
From the beginning of man. Enoch says: “The Heavens He (God) made; the Earth is His footstool; and the foundation thereof is His ... an host of men hath He brought in upon the face thereof.” (Genesis 1:1) A philosopher who has become lost in the midst of the wonders and riddles of Nature, as in a labyrinth, without an Ariadne-thread by which to find the way out, may ask, bewildered: Where am I? Who am I? The Gospel answers: You are, O mortal! in God’s Universe, in God’s house. He has placed you here. Not as a stranger, but as a child in His home and your own. As such you have His care, His protection, His Fatherly love and responsibility; all on condition of filial trust and obedience. “For a wise and glorious purpose,” He “has placed us here on Earth.”
The Flood. It is not necessary to discuss, here, any controversial questions relating to the deluge. Many nations and many tribes have traditions in which the story of some such catastrophe has been preserved. There are, besides the account of it in Genesis and reference to it in other parts of the Bible, Ovid’s Greek story of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who were saved in an ark when Zeus destroyed all other inhabitants of Hellas by a flood; also the stories of the Hindus, and the Persians, who say that the waters washed away the evils of Ahriman, the Evil One; further, traditions or legends by Babylonians, Assyrians, Scandinavians, Mexicans, Peruvians, and others. The point that Ether makes is this, that the Lord, after the deluge, declared the American Continents to be a “choice land above all other lands,” and that all who dwell thereon are under obligation to serve Him. (Compare Ether 1:42-43) And this directs the attention of Moroni to the revelation given through Ether on the New Jerusalem (vv. 3-13), an element of the Everlasting Gospel of Salvation evidently of first importance to the compiler of the works of the last Jaredite Prophet.
The place of the New Jerusalem. For a better understanding of this section, one is referred to the visions of Enoch recorded in the Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:60-62.
Enoch, it will be remembered, ascended a high mountain, where the Lord revealed to him the future of the human family. The advent of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was shown to him. At that time, the Lord declared: “As I live, even so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance, to fulfill the oath which I have made unto you concerning the children of Noah.”
Enoch had asked, “When shall the Earth rest?” and the Lord answered, that the day of rest would come, but it would be preceded by a period of deep night and destructive revolutions. We read:
“Before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake and also the earth; and great tribulations shall be among the children of men, but My people will I preserve; and righteousness will I send down out of Heaven; and truth out of the earth, to bear testimony of My Only Begotten; His resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the Earth as with a flood, to gather out Mine elect from the four quarters of the Earth unto a place which I shall prepare, an holy City, that My people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of My coming; for there shall be My tabernacle, and it shall be called ZION, a New Jerusalem.” (Moses 7:61-62)
Two Cities. In the account of the life of Enoch, as recorded in the “Writings of Moses,” Pearl of Great Price, two cities of outstanding prominence are mentioned, viz., the City of Zion, and the New Jerusalem. Concerning these we note the following information:
The City of Zion. As a fruit of the missionary labors of Enoch among the Ante-diluvians, the righteous of all nations were gathered together. They were the people of the Lord, and He called them Zion, “because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” (Moses 7:18) Then Enoch undertook to build a city as the chief center thereof, we may suppose, of the country of the gathering place, and that city became known as “The City of Holiness, even Zion.” (v. 19)
Zion, the Abode of the Lord for ever. This done, Enoch expressed the hope that the organization of the people of Zion, and their magnificent city might remain forever. “Surely,” he said, “Zion, the City shall dwell in safety forever.”
The Lord answered, in substance, that it would, “Zion have I blessed, but the residue of the people have I cursed.” His answer was amplified by a vision of the future of the inhabitants of the Earth. “And lo, Zion, in process of time was taken up into Heaven.” There it would remain in safety forever with its perfect organization, its palaces and temples, and there the Lord would dwell: “And the Lord said unto Enoch: Behold mine abode forever.” (v. 21) If it has pleased the Lord to establish His permanent home, His Royal Residence, in the City of Zion on the other side of the veil, then that City is the Capital of the Kingdom of God forever.
Missionary work after the removal of the City of Zion. The Patriarch now was shown that missionary work was continued among the Ante-diluvians after he and his City were taken unto Heaven. “And Enoch beheld angels”—Gospel messengers—“descending out of Heaven, bearing testimony of the Father and Son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many.”
What about these on whom the Holy Ghost fell?
“And they were caught up by the powers of Heaven.” So they, too, became citizens of the heavenly Zion, of which Enoch says, “And Thou hast taken Zion to Thine own bosom, from all Thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity.”
Thus the righteous of the Ante-diluvians were saved from destruction. The impenitent perished in the Flood. And the work of Enoch, as seen in the results attending his city and its people on the other side of the veil, far surpassed in magnitude and importance anything that the Patriarch could ever have hoped for.
A New Jerusalem. Enoch had glorious visions of the advent of the Only Begotten in the meridian of time. Also visions of His Second Coming in the last days. A New Jerusalem is closely connected with this great event yet future.
The place revealed. In a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith and six elders at Kirtland, Ohio, September 22, 1832, we read:
“Yea, the word of the Lord concerning His Church, established in the last days for the restoration of His people, as He has spoken by the mouth of His prophets, and for the gathering of His Saints to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the City of the New Jerusalem. Which City shall be built, beginning at the Temple Lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries in the State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord is well pleased.” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:2-3)
A wonderful reunion. The Lord told Enoch about the marvelous destiny of this City to be built in Missouri. In the first place, our Lord, Himself, and Enoch and the inhabitants of Zion, the City of our Lord before the Flood, are to meet the Saints in the New Jerusalem, in a most affectionate reunion. In the second place, the Lord will make it His abode temporarily, “It shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made”; the affairs of the Kingdom of God will be directed from there, and the Earth shall rest for a thousand years. Enoch saw that the Lord would come in the last days to dwell in the New Jerusalem on the Earth in righteousness for the space of a thousand years. That is the glorious hope and expectation of the people of God. They know that the last word in the controversy between the agents of good and evil; the final word of triumphant victory, will be spoken, not by any slave of Lucifer, but by the Son of God, the Savior and the Redeemer of mankind.
A Jerusalem from Heaven. Note that the New Jerusalem mentioned in verse 3 as coming down out of Heaven and the holy sanctuary, is the City of Zion, which had been taken up into Heaven. (Moses 7:19-20) It is the heavenly pattern of the city yet to be built upon the Earth.
Upon this Land. The New Jerusalem of this paragraph is the City that is to be reared in Jackson County, Missouri. Here the Saints of God will meet the Saints of the last days. President Brigham Young may have had this marvelous reunion in mind when he told the Saints:
"About the time that the Temples of the Lord will be built and Zion is established—pretty nigh this time, you will see, (those who are faithful enough) the first you know, there will be strangers in your midst, walking with you, talking with you; they will enter into your houses and eat and drink with you, go to meeting with you, and begin to open your minds, as the Savior did the two disciples who walked out in the country in the days of old.
"About the time the Temples are ready, the strangers will be along and will converse with you, and will inquire of you, probably, if you understand the resurrection of the dead. You might say you have heard and read a great deal about it, but you do not properly understand it; and they will then open your minds and tell you the principles of the resurrection of the dead and how to save your friends; they will point out the Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments, in the Book of Mormon and other revelations of God, saying, ‘Don’t you recollect reading so-and-so, that saviors should come up on Mount Zion?’ etc., and they will expound the Scriptures to you. You have got your temples ready; now go forth and be baptized for those good people. There are your father and mother—your ancestors for many generations back—the people that have lived upon the face of the Earth since the Priesthood was taken away, thousands and millions of them, who have lived according to the best light and knowledge in their possession.
“Many of the elders of Israel in Mount Zion will become pillars in the Temple of God, to go no more out. They will eat and drink and sleep there; and they will often have occasion to say, ’Somebody came to the Temple last night; we did not know who he was, but he was no doubt a brother, and he told us a great many things we did not before understand. He gave us the names of a great many of our forefathers that were not on record, and he gave me my true lineage and the names of my forefathers for hundreds of years back. He said to me, ’You and I are connected in one family; there are the names of your ancestors; take them and write them down, and be baptized and confirmed, and save such and such ones, and receive the blessings of the eternal Priesthood for such and such an individual, as you do for yourselves.” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, pp. 294-295. Also See, Discourses of Brigham Young, Widtsoe, pp. 627-628.)
The reason why the Saints of Enoch’s Zion will visit the Saints of the Zion in the Last Days, during the Millennium, appears clearly in the remarkable sermon just quoted. The personal calls of the “strangers” are in the interest of the Temple Service, in which both the Heavens and the Earth are equally interested.
The Jerusalem of Lehi. Having spoken of the New Jerusalem, Ether turns, in his prophetic discourse, to the City from which Moroni, the abridger of the translation King Mosiah made of the twenty-four gold plates which contained Ether’s record, says that Lehi should come; that is, Jerusalem in Palestine. That City is to be built up again, and become a “holy City unto the Lord, and it should be built unto the House of Israel.”
The New Jerusalem. This City, as explained, will be upon the American Continent “unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.”
There has been a type. If we understand, correctly, these paragraphs, the thought is there conveyed that the exodus of Jacob with his household from Canaan, at the instance of his son, Joseph, was a prototype of the migration of Lehi and his little company from the Land of Jerusalem, in compliance with a divine command; for, as the father of Joseph was brought to Egypt in order that he and his house might be saved from perishing in an almost universal famine, so Lehi and his family were led to the New World, in order to escape the Babylonian siege and destruction of Jerusalem. In both these instances of notable migration, the purpose of the Lord was the salvation of a “remnant of the House of Joseph” from annihilation.
They shall build a city. The reason for the miraculous preservation of a “remnant of the Seed of Joseph” is here stated. That remnant has a special mission to perform in the Kingdom of God. They are to build the New Jerusalem on this Continent. We read in verse eight: “The remnant of the House of Joseph shall be built upon this land.” That is to say, “It shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a Holy City unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old.” That is the mission of the remnant of Joseph’s seed.
A new Heaven and a new Earth. The preceding sentence (v. 8) refers to a certain time “when the Earth shall pass away.” In verse nine it is asserted that there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth, and that the new creations are to be “like unto the old,” except for the fact that they are new.
This, if modern phraseology alone is considered, might be regarded as a prediction of the end, literally speaking, of the entire universe. But the context does not permit such a sweeping interpretation. The passing away of the Heaven and the Earth is not the end (finis) of either; it is the continuation of their existence, but under such entirely new conditions and circumstances as to enable the people of God to build both the New and the Old Jerusalem on this Earth.
In the ancient writings, the expression “heaven and earth” sometimes means the entire universe as in Matthew 24:29) Compare Revelation by John, 8:10; and 9:1 for the figurative meaning of “star.”
In Isaiah 51:13 and 16, we find the literal meaning, and also the figurative. Our Lord, in this prophecy, first reminded Israel of the fact that He had “stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth,” literally, in the Creation. He then said that He had put His words in the mouth of Israel, and preserved the people, in order to “plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth”—that is, create a new heaven and a new earth, figuratively speaking—and say unto Zion Thou art My people.
In the text under consideration (v. 9) “heaven” and “earth” are to be understood in this figurative—we may even call it political—sense. The true meaning, therefore, is this, that before the coming of the new era, with a New Jerusalem in Jackson County, Missouri, and the Old Jerusalem in Palestine rebuilt, the entire social and political organizations of mankind will be radically changed as to make the establishment of the Kingdom of God among men possible. In that sense there will be a new earth under a new heaven.
Let us now pause a moment and ask whether this change has not been going on for some time. Is the Earth today what it was, say a hundred years ago, speaking socially and politically? Look at the automobiles in streets where formerly ox teams and horses took care of the traffic. Listen to the planes in the air that have made it possible to breakfast in San Francisco and dine in New York the same day. Consider the radio, by means of which a speaker, or singer, in Salt Lake City may entertain an audience in Australia; or a politician in Washington D.C. can converse with a colleague in London, Berlin, or Rome, as if the two were face to face with each other in the same room. Consider the changes affected in the industrial world—agriculture, for instance, with its costly and intricate machinery, or in the conditions of the laboring man generally. Think of the progress made in engineering, in the medical sciences, in education, and the discoveries made by means of the microscope on one hand and the telescope on the other. Our earth is indeed new, if we compare it to that of our ancestors. Were some of them to arise in our midst, they would not know or recognize their old home town, or their farms. They would be in strange surroundings, where miracles would be to them an every-day occurrence. We are already now living on a “new” earth, and further changes are going on daily.
Then cometh the New Jerusalem. When this change of the earth has been completed, then the New Jerusalem will be built in Jackson County, Missouri. (See paragraph 4, this chapter)
Through the blood of the Lamb. The inhabitants of the New Jerusalem are they “who are numbered among the remnant of the Seed of Joseph,” or, in other words, “the House of Israel.” That is, the Saints of the latter days, whose “garments are white through the Blood of the Lamb.” (Compare Revelation 7:13-17) The white garments were a sign of victory. Those who wore them had overcome every trial during the tribulation of the last days. But their victory was, properly considered, the triumph of the Lamb of God who offered His Atoning Blood on Calvary. In other words, the victory of the white-robed Saints in the New City was due to the conquest by the Savior of the powers of hell, or all evil, which was made manifest in the lives of His faithful followers. To Him, therefore, be all honor and glory for ever.
Jerusalem of Old. At the time when the New Jerusalem is coming into existence in Jackson County, Missouri, Jerusalem in Palestine will be restored to a magnificence and importance never before attained by that City. Even the glory of the period of David and Solomon will be far surpassed. The inhabitants thereof, we read, “Have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb.” That is, they have accepted our Lord as the Messiah, who, by His Atoning Sacrifice on Calvary, became “The Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29-36) And thus were they washed, or made clean, in the Blood of the Lamb.
Scattered and gathered. The inhabitants of the restored City of Jerusalem are, further, described as having been “scattered and gathered in from the four corners of the Earth”; that is, from the entire globe. Up to this time, the mission of Israel and Judah, as the custodians of the divine promises to Abraham, by which all nations of the Earth are to be blessed, required them to live in dispersion. Now that mission is ended. A new era, one of consolidation of the scattered descendants of Abraham into political unity and importance is about to begin. The restoration of Jerusalem is one of the signs of the new era.
From the North Countries. The best understanding of this not-quite-definite expression may be gathered from the revelations on the subject.
On April 3, 1836, Moses appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple, and committed to them the “keys of the Gathering of Israel from the four parts of the Earth, and the leading of the Ten Tribes from the land of the north.” (Doctrine and Covenants 110:11) This makes it plain that the “north countries” are the regions where the Ten Tribes found a refuge after having escaped the Assyrian captivity.
Here historic research may come to our aid. According to the Apocryphal II Esdras 13:40-50, the Ten Tribes were deported across the Euphrates by the Assyrian Shalmaneser. This was about 722 B.C. But this ruler had trouble of his own, and in the political confusion prevailing, the captives, for such they were, found an opportunity to recross the great river, and then to turn northward to reach an uninhabited country, where they were safe from pursuit. Esdras says that they traveled a year and a half to a region called Arsareth, and there, he adds, “They dwelt until the latter time, and when they came forth again, the Most High shall hold still the springs of the river again, that they may go through.”
Here, then, we learn that the exiled Tribes traveled a year and a half to reach their new home, the “north countries.”
Lieutenant C.A.L. Totten 1 refers to Herodotus as follows: “He tells us that in his day (450 B.C.), a warlike, virtuous, and powerful race, called Cumbri, lived around the northern coasts of the Black Sea, and centrally at the Crimea.... Herodotus further tells us that this people had originally come from Media, the which, he adds, however, had not been their birthplace, and he puts them there, in Media, as sojourners only. (Circa 600 B.C.) ”Mr. Totten concludes from this information by the “father of history” and from numerous other references, that the Ten Tribes gradually emerged fom the region of the Caucasus and appeared in northern and western Europe as Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Danes, Normans, Goths, etc. All, he says, were kindred, all Cimri, all Scythians, all Scots, all from Crimea and the Asia Minor and Black Sea region of Herodotus.
If these statements are historically correct, we may look for the “north countries” in the regions where these nationalities are liberally represented, especially Great Britain, the German States, and the Scandinavian countries. Northern mythology, which, as preserved in the exquisite Icelandic poetry, especially the Older Edda, reminds one of a kinship with the early parts of the Old Testament, and seems to lend some support to this view.
The following modern revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 133:23-30) should be studied in this connection:
“He shall command the great deep, and it shall be driven back into the north countries, and the islands shall become one land; and the Land of Jerusalem and the Land of Zion shall be turned back into their own place, and the Earth shall be like it was in the days before it was divided. And the Lord, even the Savior, shall stand in the midst of His people, and shall reign over all flesh. And they who are in the North Countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear His voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the sea shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. Their enemies shall become a prey unto them. And in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, My servants.”
This is all highly figurative language, but the general meaning seems to be clear.
Partakers of the Covenant. This Covenant was made with Abraham. See a previous paragraph headed “Scattered and Gathered.” God, Himself, was He Who made the Covenant with the Father of the Faithful
“I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all those countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the Earth be blessed.” (Genesis 26:4)
This Covenant was repeated to Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and the son of Isaac:
“And thy seed shall be as the dust of the Earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the Earth be blessed.” (Genesis 28:14)
Such is the mission of the descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob. (Hebrews 11:18)