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We Are Not Going Back to Missouri

The present day perspective within the church, as taught by our professors at BYU and others, is that we are indeed waiting for the brethren to tell us when we can go back to Missouri and start building the Holy City and temple. The following citations are typical of our present mind set:

By an apostle:

The Latter-day Saints are still awaiting permission to go back to Missouri. (George Q. Cannon, Juvenile Instructor, 33:668)

By the Professors at BYU:

If there is never to be another Zion built upon the earth, then he never will come. (Watch and Be Ready, Deseret Book, 1994, p.106. See also 105-130, 159, 182, 192.)

How do we reconcile this current mind set with:

  1. Biblical prophecy.
  2. The Lord's last words.
  3. Prophecies of Joseph Smith.

Each year on Pioneer Day, we celebrate the arrival of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains. We also quote many Biblical scriptures claiming this is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Yet we have a tradition that contradicts that. Why are waiting to go back to Independence Missouri if this is where we are supposed to be?

Joseph made the following prophecy in 1834 - before the Saints left Kirtland or Independence:

This people will go into the Rocky Mountains; they will there build temples to the Most High. They will raise up a posterity there, and the Latter-day Saints who dwell in these mountains will stand in the flesh until the coming of the Son of Man. The Son of Man will come to them while in the Rocky Mountains. (Wilford Woodruff quoting the prophet Joseph Smith in General Conference April 1898.)

Many of the Biblical prophecies have been laid out by Paul Thomas Smith in his book- Prophetic Destiny (Covenant, 1996) which was written to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. Smith also compiled nearly 40 accounts of modern prophecy that the Saints were destined to go west. It is very ironic that during all of the pioneer celebrations no one ever mentions the need to return to Missouri, only the fulfilled prophecies.

Smith concludes his book with this quote from Nibley:

The entrance of the Saints into the Salt Lake Valley was one of the great moments in world history. It was that moment at which the assembly upon the hills and the mountains began at a place which the Lord had appointed from the beginning. It was the beginning of the final act of what we know as world history. It was a vindication of prophets ancient and modern. It was a day of days to be remembered. (Hugh Nibley, The World and the Prophets, Deseret Book, 1962, p.217)

It flies in the face of reason why we as a people maintain a tradition that contradicts so much prophecy. Some may call it a serious misplacement of our faith and of our expectations.

The following are the more prominent Bible prophecies of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. (Isaiah 2:2-3)

And [the Lord] will lift up and ensign to the nations from far, and will [signal] to them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stuble among them. (Isaiah 5:26-27)

The final word from the Lord regarding Independence Missouri is found in D&C 124. Which reads:

49 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any of the sons of men to do a work unto my name, and those sons of men go with all their might and with all they have to perform that work, and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that work, behold,it behooveth me to require that work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept of their offerings.
50 And the iniquity and transgression of my holy laws and commandments I will visit upon the heads of those who hindered my work, unto the third and fourth generation, so long as they repent not, and hate me, saith the Lord God.
51 Therefore, for this cause have I accepted the offerings of those whom I commanded to build up a city and a house unto my name, in Jackson county, Missouri, and were hindered by their enemies, saith the Lord your God.

That was the last word regarding Zion in Missouri that the Lord ever gave. What confuses many Saints regarding this fact, has to do with the placement of section 133.

Section 133, which has been placed out of order and put after section 124, speaks a great deal regarding the redemption of Zion. However it was not the last word, but was given much earlier (Nov. 1831) and should rightly be placed between sections 68 and 69.

At least in 1933 this was understood and accepted by the First Presidency of the church. In fact, they used section 124 as an example in helping the Saints to understand why polygamy and the sacrificing of animals is no longer required by the Lord. Please read:

Messages of the First Presidency, 1933.

In the revelation (D&C 124) given January 19th, 1841, nine years later, the Lord absolved the Church from responsibility, and told them that he required that work no more at their hands, and makes this an example in all things where the people are commanded to do a work, and are prevented by their enemies.

Therefore, the Saints should no more be expecting to return to Missouri, and waiting upon the brethren to make the first move before they could look-up for the coming of the Lord in glory.

By knowing the correct chain of events historically and prophetically, all Saints may start looking upward now.