{"id":219,"date":"2019-07-31T08:15:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T14:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?p=219"},"modified":"2020-02-25T12:00:07","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T19:00:07","slug":"lecture-at-the-zion-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/07\/31\/lecture-at-the-zion-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture at the &#8220;Zion Symposium&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_497\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-219-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2008.02.23_Zion_Symposium.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2008.02.23_Zion_Symposium.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2008.02.23_Zion_Symposium.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2008.02.23_Zion_Symposium.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?powerpress_pinw=219-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2008.02.23_Zion_Symposium.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"2008.02.23_Zion_Symposium.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Duration: 1:11:24 &#8212; 82.6MB)<\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/light-and-truth-podcast\/id1474389927?mt=2&amp;ls=1\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This lecture by Denver Snuffer, given at the \u201cZion Symposium\u201d, was originally recorded in Provo, Utah on February 23, 2008, in front of a live audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/transcripts\/2008.02.23%20Zion%20Symposium,%20Provo%20UT_Transcript_v2.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Transcript (opens in a new tab)\">Transcript<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>See, that\u2019s the purpose behind the voice, it\u2019s easier to feel the spirit during singing than it is during someone speaking, because our voices were only intended for singing. They don\u2019t talk in the Spirit World, they don\u2019t need do and the voices get used there for singing. You can hear each other without the voice. If it were up to me, I\u2019d have nothing but singing go on today, because I\u2019m using the wrong instrument. See you have to feel the Spirit while I\u2019m using my voice to talk instead of sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Nephi paraphrased Isaiah in the concluding chapter of Nephi\u2019s use of Isaiah and his material, he left out a phase that appears in Isaiah 29 and I believe he did it very wittingly. I believe he did it so that as you look at the material, you\u2019ll ask yourself why did he leave that out? And you\u2019ll think about the omission. <em>\u201cAnd the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed.\u201d<\/em> He left out \u201cthe vision of all.\u201d Well, you&#8217;re talking about Zion here, yesterday and today, and as is usual any time you get to a substantive topic that\u2019s worth paying a lot attention to, the Book of Mormon has something to say. In fact, while it doesn\u2019t comment at extraordinary length, the substance of what it has to say on this subject is really quite startling, and that is described for us in 4 Nephi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But before 4 Nephi picks up, the last verse of Chapter 30 of 3 Nephi is a precaution to us&#8211; that are going to inherit this book, which Mormon made sure was inserted at this point in the narrative. What\u2019s remarkable as you look at that verse is how it then ties into the description of what where going to receive of about the practice of Zion among those in the Book of Mormon, &#8220;<em>Turn, all ye Gentiles, from your wicked ways; and repent of your evil doings, of your lyings and deceivings, and of your whoredoms, and of your secret abominations, and your idolatries, and of your murders, and your priestcrafts, and your envyings, and your strifes, and from all your wickedness and abominations, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel&#8221; <\/em>(3 Nephi, 30: 2 ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep in mind that list of defects as we look into the things that are right and proper in the Zion that we find in 4 Nephi. In 4 Nephi, verse 2, it tells us that, <em>&#8220;the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites<\/em> [and that\u2019s all good and well, but it goes on to say] <em>and there were no contentions and disputations among them<\/em> [which you have to add, because if you\u2019ve been to any gospel doctrine class or any High Priest group meeting Elders Quorum or Relief Society, there\u2019s always that fellow or gal or group, who have an incapacity to depart from contention. So it\u2019s not just being converted, see they\u2019re narrowing it down, you get converted, but then you reach at some point a unanimity or an agreement upon what the Gospel really means. And, well take a look around] <em>\u201cO ye Gentiles, turn from your wicked ways,\u201d<\/em> and ask yourself, ok confine it to your own ward, to your own quorum to your own Relief Society group, to your own Stake, confine to whatever you want it to be confined to &#8211; are there no contentions of disputations among them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a serious defect, it\u2019s a serious challenge and it\u2019s one that we aren\u2019t meeting very well, and it\u2019s one of the reasons why we tend to neglect the Book of Mormon, because the Book of Mormon is always stepping on our toes. The relentless message of the Book of Mormon is \u2013 hey repent, you suck, you\u2019re just a mess, YOU, not them, I mean it\u2019s not a matter of I\u2019ve got religion, I\u2019m safe, I\u2019ve got a recommend, I\u2019m on the IN club, I can get into those buildings that other people can\u2019t \u2013 that doesn\u2019t matter, you still, you\u2019ve got to repent. You\u2019re a defective item incapable of resonating at the right frequency and receiving the Spirit of the Lord and finding&#8211; not contention, but love in bringing people together and coming to become ONE. You can be absolutely in disagreement over a doctrine, and lovingly, and gently, and patiently persuade them to come unto Christ. Or, you can hold a Council, and kick them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, after they manage not only to have the same faith and to eliminate from him contentions and disputations, then they go on and, <em>\u201cevery man did deal justly one with another.\u201d<\/em> See, there\u2019s a difference between mercy and justice. Justice is a tougher standard. We don\u2019t want justice. We want a merciful Redeemer, who will come in and who will make up for our defects. But this is saying, <em>\u201cEvery man<\/em> [Me, inside me, this is the stuff we\u2019re talking about], <em>did deal justly<\/em> [the higher standard] <em>with one another.\u201d<\/em> You don\u2019t have to give me mercy, because I\u2019m going to give YOU justice. I\u2019m going to be tougher on myself. It is fair that I do this for you. Oh no, no, you don\u2019t have to do that. No, no, no, the standard by which they are evaluating their conduct internal to themselves is the more difficult standard. They\u2019re going to deal justly with one another. I will break my heart, I will break my wallet, I will break my life before I will not deal justly with you and give you everything that you\u2019re entitled to. See, it\u2019s putting the shoe on the other foot and it\u2019s not the more relaxed and kindly and gentle standard, because when they\u2019re dealing with one another they want to deal justly [a real problem for all those car dealers among us].<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So after we fixed the religious diversity and we fixed the contentions and the disputation and we\u2019ve grown enough now that we\u2019re willing to treat ourselves as the one upon whom justice has reign, then they get to the point that they had all things common among them. Anytime in the Book of Mormon, they\u2019re ticking off a list and they do it everywhere in the Book of Mormon, this and this and this, and this&#8211; generally what the writer is doing, because they\u2019ve had a lot of time to reflect upon it and they\u2019re etching on metal plates, which is a difficult thing to do, they are being extraordinarily careful with the material that they\u2019re committing to you. So when you count a list, you ought to look at it and say to yourself, is this a progression? Is what they\u2019re doing is telling you here is how you get from one point to another and we\u2019ve encountered that already in 4 Nephi, you encounter it throughout. The Book of Mormon is a manual on how to return to God and we read it like, well, like we do in gospel doctrine, when we\u2019re cover 8 chapters in 50 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So now that we\u2019ve gotten to the point that we\u2019re able to do these things, then and only then did they have all things common among them. Therefore, [and this as a logical result of what happened before], as an inevitability, there were no rich and there were no poor, and there were no bond, and there were no free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift. This is NOT a description of a social-economic order alone. The foundation of Zion shows up here yet again &#8211; it&#8217;s the heavenly gift. It\u2019s the presence and the abundance of the things of the Spirit. It\u2019s not that we have now solved the social-welfare state, because the social-welfare state is the arm of flesh effort to try and imitate something that we all, in our gut, think is probably a fair thing to do, to have everyone be on an equal plane and have everyone deal with one another so that there are no rich and poor, or bond or free, but it doesn\u2019t work and it doesn\u2019t work, because to get where you need to get in order for the things to work, it has to be the heavenly gift. It has to be people in harmony with each other, because they are in harmony with the Lord. By getting in harmony with the Lord you find that, well, YOU are a lot more tolerable to others and others are suddenly more tolerable to you. Even defective others are more tolerable to you, if you\u2019re in harmony with the Lord. Because if you can see them as the Lord sees them&#8211;they are beautiful, they are wonderful! Everyone you have ever met is a child of your Heavenly Father and if you can get the heavenly gift then you stop seeing things through the lens of this world and you start seeing things as they really are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, now we\u2019re in the 37th year. If you skip over you\u2019re going to find that this stuff is going to break down in verse 24 at the 201st year, so really we\u2019ve got this 169, or 168 year interval in which we have the appearance of Zion and we\u2019re going to cover all of the events of that entire period beginning in verse 4 and ending in verse 24. And while you might think that\u2019s an abbreviation, it\u2019s actually everything we need to know and it\u2019s startling in what it tells us. There\u2019s an abundance of information that is downloaded in a rapid-fire fashion. So, look at verse 5 at what happens once you have the presence of the heavenly gift. In verse 5 you find that they healed the sick, they raise the dead, they cause the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, the deaf to hear; and all manner of miracles did they work among the children of men; and in nothing did they work miracles save it were in the name of Jesus, as the song just mentioned, it is about Him and it is about His work and is about bringing about His will. And why was it then, His will that the sick among them be healed and the dead rise again? Why is it that during this period of time it was in conformity with His will that the lame walk and the blind receive their sight and the deaf hear and all manner of miracles occur? Why during this time period, when they\u2019ve got the heavenly gift, and when you would say, you know, that\u2019s sort of unfair, I mean, they got all things in common, they\u2019ve solved the problems of the social-welfare state, they\u2019ve got this great societal thing going on, you know, don\u2019t they need cripples? Don\u2019t they need the blind? Don\u2019t they need people to whom they ought to be ministering to? Shouldn\u2019t there be a group of them, who, unlike the verse mentioned earlier, are in bondage to the ailments of the body? And the answer is &#8212; well, apparently not. Apparently, we need it. Apparently it serves an extraordinarily useful purpose for us, but in their setting they\u2019ve got bigger things to do, they\u2019ve got more important things to do and it will tell us what that is, tell us about it repeatedly. We\u2019ll come back to some of this, because I don\u2019t know if we have time for all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Verse 10, it says, <em>\u201cThe people of Nephi did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly fast.&#8221;<\/em> In verse 11 it says, <em>\u201cAnd they were married, and given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the promises which the Lord had made unto them.&#8221;<\/em> And on page 467, it says they multiplied exceedingly and they filled the whole land. So, at first blush you say, \u201cwhoa there\u2019s a lot of sex going on during that Zion thing,\u201d and I\u2019m reasonably confident that no matter what I say someone is going to walk away from here and say, \u201chey, what did brother Snuffer talk about&#8230;Zion and the Book of Mormon?\u201d And someone is going to say he talked about a lot of sex that goes on during the time of Zion. But that\u2019s not the point; the point is what is the bigger fish to fry, what is more important? What is it about Zion that results in this baby boom? Anyone got any idea? <em>Audience answers: \u201cPlural marriage?<\/em> Well, there\u2019s plural marriage, that\u2019s part of it. <em>There\u2019s no fear when people are devoted entirely to the Lord, then they can have another child?<\/em> There\u2019s no sickness and death&#8211;you\u2019re going to get rid of the infant mortality problem, yeah. <em>It provides a purpose of the Lord to bring spirits to the earth?<\/em> Yeah, family life. Would you like to see Zion being practiced right this minute? I don\u2019t care where you go in the world; you can find it inside the family. That\u2019s the little microcosm of Heaven, that\u2019s the little&#8230;do you expect, well I don\u2019t know, there might be some Dickensian folk here&#8230;do you expect child labor, you know how stuff&#8230;there we are&#8230;do you expect child labor for your kid to earn the right to be clothed and housed, and fed? <em>Audience: &#8220;They should have jobs.&#8221;<\/em> They should have jobs, but if your child needs food and your child needs clothing and your child needs shelter&#8230;when Christ used in His analogies the idea of the Father &#8211; which of you if his child asks of him for bread, gives him a rock? Speaking to some fairly hard-headed people, many of whom would conspire together to cause His death and He is saying to them&#8211;I know how you can relate to the principles of the Gospel\u2014think about your own children. And these people in this setting [Zion] have as their priority, the family, the nurture and the raising of children. And the family is the place where, if we don\u2019t find it anywhere else, we will find the presence of Zion, even in the hovels of third-world countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See, as a consequence [and we\u2019re going back to verse 7], as a consequence of the way in which they were living, the Lord did prosper them exceedingly in the land insomuch that they did build cities again, where there had been cities burned. These people are busy, they\u2019re engaged in activities&#8230;they\u2019re not just sitting about, they\u2019re accomplishing something, but they\u2019re not accomplishing something in the way in which we accomplish something. If you wanted to rebuild a city among us, the way in which we set about to rebuild cities is extraordinarily inefficient. We divide up the capital that\u2019s used to finance the construction and we create a whole industry and people out there that never produce anything, except let people use their money, and that\u2019s all they do and they become really quite wealthy as a consequence of that. There are some people that do some small component and all they do is that small component and they sell it at a high price and whether it\u2019s easy or whether it\u2019s difficult, the purpose behind that is their own self-interest and we have managed to figure out how to get along in a society with every single person working for their own self-interest, and we\u2019ve never come together to say, how might we benefit one another by the contribution of whatever our unique gifts are [by the way when the Lord talks about gifts in section 46, He talks about gifts as the property belonging to, not the person who has the gift, but the church itself. It\u2019s not a commodity that someone owns; it is the presence of God in the life of a person that is intended to elevate and to benefit and to bless everyone and they are proceeding on the basis that \u2013 the presumption is&#8211; everything is to be done for the benefit and the glory of Zion. Well, they talk about the destruction there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In verse 10, <em>\u201cBehold it came to pass that the people of Nephi did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly fast, and became an exceedingly fair and delightsome people.\u201d<\/em> Exceedingly fair and delightsome people, one of the themes the early saints in the valley talked about was the children that were given to those who were practicing plural marriage, were exceedingly fair and delightsome, their children were blessed and they were benefited. And from what we now know about genetics, the more diverse you get into a gene pool the more healthy is the progeny of those that are there. What is happening here, is that the children are being blessed and the children are turning out to be these wonderful, delightful children, but this process is happening not in some violation of the laws of biology, they\u2019re happening in conformity with the way it would always happen if we were living in a certain fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Verse 11 says, <em>\u201cAnd they were married, and given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the promises which the Lord had made unto them.\u201d<\/em> The multitude of the promises, \u201cthe married and given in marriages,\u201d &#8211; think about that for a moment. We have just had the fulsome restoration of the benefits of the Gospel by the coming of the Christ in which He has restored some things that are too sacred to be committed into the written account of the events and now it says in passing, \u201cthey\u2019re given in marriage and He blessed them according to these promises.\u201d Well what\u2019s He telling us? It\u2019s the covenant of Abraham&#8230; it\u2019s the temple marriage. He\u2019s saying that these people enter into the covenant of marriage and as a consequence of the covenant of marriage they realize the benefits of the promises made and what are the promises made that you associate with the covenant of Abraham? Well, it\u2019s not just benefits that pertain to this life; it\u2019s benefits that pertain to all eternity. It\u2019s the promise of exaltation. It\u2019s the promise that you become part of the Church of the Firstborn, you become part of the General Assembly, you become part of the citizens, not just of a society here on this earth, but a society that includes a heavenly body and you have the right to commune with all of those that are participants in this larger organization. You need to go through and read the descriptors of those in D&amp;C 76, beginning at verse 66 and I apologize, I do have a set of the D&amp;C from the RLDS church, but it\u2019s at home and I didn\u2019t bring it with me, so I can\u2019t give you the cross reference, but D&amp;C 76 beginning at verse 66, <em>\u201cthese are those who are come unto Mount Zion<\/em> [see Zion in this context is a mount, because it\u2019s up, a symbolic elevation of the way folks live], <em>and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all&#8221; <\/em>[Oh my]. <em>&#8220;These are they who have come to an innumerable company of the angels, to the general assembly and the church of Enoch, and of the Firstborn. These are they whose names are written in heaven, where God and Christ are judge of all. These are just men made perfect.\u201d<\/em> Now while this is a description in section 76 of the afterlife and ultimate arrival, the description as is often the case, is not merely a description of the afterlife alone, because, well as we are signing off, verse 117 of this same revelation, after talking about those who love Him and purify themselves before Him, it\u2019s added: <em>\u201cto whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves; that through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, keep that in mind as you read verse 11, <em>\u201cblessed according to the multitude of the promises, which the Lord made unto them.\u201d<\/em> These now are citizens with dual citizenship. They may be born in Mexico, but they have a work permit in the United States. They are still confronted with the obligation of enduring to the end, but they have a residency prepared for them elsewhere and these folks, tying the marriage covenant and the blessings, according to the multitude of the promises, which the Lord had made unto them, should not be constricted. Oh, and they didn\u2019t walk anymore after the performances and ordinances of the Law of Moses&#8211;very useful\u2014animals were pleased to hear that. I imagine during the Millennium when the lamb and the lion lie down together, we\u2019re not going to be eating both of them. <em>\u201c&#8230;but they did walk after the commandments which they had received from their Lord and their God, continuing in fasting and praying, and in meeting together oft both to pray and to hear the word of the Lord.\u201d<\/em> You know, fasting and prayer and in meeting together oft, meeting together oft, meeting together on the Sabbath? It doesn\u2019t say that. Meeting together in order to correlate the activities of the Stake, as we do at 0630 in morning every Sunday. Meeting together to hold some presidency meeting or other&#8211;none of that. Meeting together oft and what were they doing when they got together? They\u2019re fasting, they\u2019re praying, they\u2019re meeting together, they\u2019re bearing testimony, and they\u2019re listening to the word of God. Listening to the word of God. Oh, oh I know what that is, that\u2019s the scriptures, they\u2019re reading the scriptures. It doesn\u2019t say and reading together the scriptures. They got together to hear the word of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Used to be [or if you\u2019re from Alabama, used to &#8220;was&#8221;] when we baptize folks, we expect the abundance of the gifts of the Spirit to be manifest and quite often in the journals of those in the earliest part of the Restoration, folks would prophecy as they came up from the waters of baptism. You read the account, well we can, turn to it in Joseph Smith History, verse 74, this after the baptized, well back up to verse 73: <em>\u201cImmediately on our coming up out of the water after we had been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied many things, which should shortly come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of this Church, and many other things.\u201d<\/em> And then look at verse 74, <em>\u201cOur minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of.\u201d<\/em> I don\u2019t imagine they were getting together to rehash and reiterate a limited and redundant correlated curriculum, that tends to make high priests of us all, that is to put us to sleep. I imagine there was something exciting about it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I first joined the church, I was astonished at all of the flood of new information that came and I was astonished in reading those old, New Testament passages that had been pounded into my head by a devoted Baptist mother, who never succeeded in making a Baptist of me, despite her best efforts. I\u2019ve said this a number of times and apologize if you\u2019ve heard it before, my Mom was always afraid I was going to hell, because I didn\u2019t join the Baptist Church and then I became a Mormon and removed all doubt. I was astonished at how much new information there was and the Gospel was exciting, it was delightful. They word that gets used by Lehi is delicious and it was, and it took about 5 years and then, it was Hamlet\u2019s soliloquy about flat, stale and unprofitable and redundant, and what happened? We\u2019ve reached the end of the road &#8211; Can you tell me more? Can you tell me more? I was in search of a mentor. I was in search of new information and I knew more than anyone in any group that I sat in. I read everything I could get my hands on&#8211;there was nothing new. What just happened? We crossed a threshold. Now we\u2019re going to idle, endure to the end? That does not mean to be bored until the end! And I searched, I searched for 7 years before I ran into a guy, I don\u2019t know his first name, I know that he worked in the church office building and I know that he was one of the good guys and he taught as part of \u201cKnow Your Religion\u201d series in Sandy. At the time I was living in Utah County and had to drive up there, but I drove up there and I found someone that could teach me and I was astonished, because there was the guy. And he taught, and he seemed to really dislike the audience, but he taught. And he told a story about when he first became a member of the high council and they were holding a church court and he showed up at the church court and when he arrived, he was the only person in the room that was ready for what was about to take place, that was in the Spirit and in tune and ready to confront the difficult issues that were going to be laid in front of them. And how the rest of the room took forever to get up-to-speed, and get the Spirit to the point that they could judge the matter. And he wasn\u2019t talking about the high council; he was talking about the infernal room. Well, he endured and I had him as a mentor for a few years and was so grateful for that, but he announced he was quitting, and there was a big groan from the audience, because he made life easier for a lot of them, they could bring their notepad and they never had to do any work and he just handed it over, but he was through with that. He had been through with that for a long time. You know, as I think back about that moment, some things about that are really quite poignant, that probably ought not be shared, but I went up and I talked to him&#8211;this was the first time I had spoken with him, in the entire time I had been there learning for a number of years learning from the fellow\u2014 and I shook his hand and said, \u201cyou know I\u2019ve never spoken to you, I\u2019ve always sat on the back row, but I really appreciate what you\u2019ve done.\u201d He looked me in the eye and held my hand longer than, you know it was almost French, it was uncomfortable, and he said to me, \u201cthe only reason I have been here for the last year is the back row.\u201d You know, sometimes you can look out at an audience and you can see who\u2019s getting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, these guys did not find what was going on unhappy, unpleasant, unexciting&#8211;this was an eager thing, so eager in fact that they met together oft and they pursued things. Joseph Smith said, \u201cI would encourage you to search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of God.\u201d He does not say, I would encourage you to keep your feet on concrete at all times, so as not to sink deeper into anything. We tend to have a real aggressive view about doing exactly the opposite of what the Book of Mormon invites us to do, which is to search into the mysteries of God. In any event, so they\u2019re meeting together, both to pray and to hear the word of the Lord, and I would not read, \u201chear the word of the Lord,\u201d as a limiting expression of a monotonous repetition of a limited curriculum, but something that is just delicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201c&#8230;There was no contention among all the people, in the land; but there were mighty miracles wrought among the disciples of Jesus.\u201d<\/em> So we lose some of them, except the three [Disciples] and verse 15, <em>\u201cAnd it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.\u201d<\/em> See this is now the third time that they\u2019ve mentioned, \u201cno contention.\u201d They mention it back in verse 2, no disputations, and no contentions among them. They mention again in verse 13 and they mention it again in verse 15 and they talk about <em>\u201cthe love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.\u201d <\/em>Etching is hard work. There\u2019s absolutely no reason for redundancy, therefore, you have to conclude that while they thought they had gotten rid of contention, they found another level of harmony among them. And then when they thought they had achieved a perfection of that harmony, they found yet another level of harmony among themselves \u2013 Oh, three degrees.Well, that\u2019s interesting. <em>\u201cBecause of the love of God, which did dwell in the hearts of people.\u201d<\/em> The love of God: Faith, Hope, Charity &#8211; these three, well such irony. Here we have Charity now, where we have finally arrived at the point where there is such a fulsome elimination of the problem that you have to use the word, but you don\u2019t have to mean the same thing with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, look at what we got rid of in verse 16, <em>\u201cthere were no envyings.\u201d<\/em> Well, go back to that (last chapter of 3 Nephi], turn all ye gentiles and repent of your crap you\u2019re doing and it says, in that long list of stuff, it associates, <em>\u201cand your priestcrafts and envyings.\u201d<\/em> Ew, now I\u2019m uncomfortable, because if envyings get associated with priest-crafts, well I don\u2019t like that at all, and yet what a wonderful system we have. We have upward mobility in the church. We have your elders and you have your elder\u2019s quorum presidents and you have your wards and you have your bishops, and you have your stake presidents who rule and reign over your bishops and you have your area presidents, who rule and reign over your stake presidents and you have your general authorities and you have your first presiding authorities in the quorum of the twelve and the first presidency and then you have your first presidency and then you have your president. And all along scattered in there, there\u2019s lot\u2019s and lot\u2019s of opportunity for envyings, because we\u2019re suffering from the defect that the Savior noted among His own disciples about wanting those chief seats. A Savior, who knelt and washed the feet, the most menial act that you can engage in, in that society, is dealing with the problem of disciples, an inner circle, who want recognition, they want those seats, and He says, look, look, don\u2019t do that, don\u2019t even think about that. Go sit in the back of the room, get called up. And I think about Nephi in the crowd at the temple Bountiful and how the Lord had to call him up. Nephi wasn\u2019t up there saying, \u201cthe great and wonderful, His holiness has appeared, I\u2019m here to introduce him.\u201d Because really all that is, is a diversion of attention to the one\u2014(like Chaucer in Knight\u2019s tale). Nephi did not make of himself Chaucer; he sat in the back, blended in with the crowd, and required the Lord to call him up. Christ addressed this problem directly. I know people, well, I mean I know people, you know people, we all know them, whose life\u2019s ambition is to have some office in the church. And my life\u2019s ambition, I had an opportunity to substitute in my little daughter, Carson\u2019s, 7- year-old primary class. My ambition is to be a 7-year-old primary teacher if I can ever get that calling, that, that is wonderful. I can\u2019t imagine dealing with the affliction. Neil Maxwell talked about it, he said yeah, it\u2019s out there, but you just don\u2019t inhale. But the way my wife has characterized, and I think it\u2019s the perfect characterization, is the curse of celebrity- dome. We turn them into celebrities; we want to turn them into Britney Spears, because that\u2019s the ultimate end of celebrity-dome. It is hollow, it is stale, it is flat and it is unprofitable&#8211;there is nothing to it. Why do you think Britney Spears is the mess she is? Because fame and fortune is nothing. And I suspect those who enjoy the envy of position, who ultimately wind up in a position in which \u201cthey are now there,\u201d they managed to weasel or brown-nose their way to where they thought it would be great, arrive at that point and look around and say, \u201cwell this is just like where I was, nothing has changed;\u201d because the change has to be a change internal to the person and not a mere geography or topography\u2014going from the third floor to the tenth floor, it doesn\u2019t change you. You\u2019re still that same hollow, miserable, envious chap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there\u2019s no envyings and there\u2019s no strifes, and as a result of that there are no political conventions. I mean that\u2019s all a tumult is; it\u2019s just a lot of noise in a concentrated collection of folk, in which, we have a revival, we have a Republican Party breakout just all of a sudden, no tumults. And, despite all of the rapid increase in the population and the familial life that\u2019s going on there, there is no whoredoms. Well, tumults, politics, and whoredoms, they go hand-in-hand. The only guy in the entire assortment of folk that were running as candidates that had not had more than one wife was the Mormon, and he\u2019s not running anymore. Nor whoredoms. What was that headline about John McCain in the New York Times? Well, if we\u2019re going to have whoredoms, of course we have its corollary, lyings, because those go together, and there are no murders or any manner of lasciviousness. Now take that list and ask yourself, upon which any of these things is our culture, is our society, is our economy based? You can\u2019t, Viva \u2013 yeah, it\u2019s no longer Las Vegas, it\u2019s Viagra [laughter]. Ok, take that list of stuff and say, we\u2019re going to eliminate this from the storylines of prime time television. What\u2019s left? The only thing that\u2019s left is, \u201cAre You Smarter than a Fifth Grader,\u201d because everything else, this is the stuff we eat, this is our daily fare, this is who we are, this is the definition of us. You know what, we\u2019re going to make you envy with each year\u2019s new car model. Why do we buy new cars? Why would anyone ever buy a new Dodge truck after they\u2019ve gotten a Dodge truck that has a lifetime warranty? And do you know why Dodge can give you a truck with a lifetime warranty? Because it\u2019s only for the life of the original owner and guess what, you\u2019re not going to own that vehicle past 50,000 miles, because you\u2019re going to envy the new model that they\u2019ve got on the drawing board. Envy is the stuff that Wall Street uses. Lusts, and whoredoms\u2014I mean we don\u2019t sell chewing gum, without sex. Everything about our society; take that verse and photocopy it, so you\u2019re not messing your scriptures up, take that verse and sit down and watch an evening of primetime television and start crossing it off, you probably won\u2019t be 15 minutes in before you\u2019ve recognized in the story that they\u2019re telling you and the commercials that interject themselves, you\u2019re going to check off everything on that list. THIS IS US, Oh Ye Gentiles! So we\u2019re here and we\u2019re talking about Zion and we\u2019re wondering why it\u2019s not here in full bloom at this point. This garbage is in our DNA. We have a hard time even thinking in terms that would allow us to relate to these people. The plot lines of all of our great western stories involve this stuff &#8211; <em>\u201cnor murders, or any manner of lasciviousness.\u201d<\/em> The story of the latter end of the Jaredites is full of murders, lyings, and all manner of lasciviousness. The ultimate end of the Nephites is going to be a repetition of that. And we don\u2019t learn from the patterns that were shown that says, here\u2019s the road to hell and here\u2019s the road to Zion, and we march down the road to hell and we talk about Zion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So then it says, <em>\u201cand surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.\u201d<\/em> To us, in our cultural setting that seems really incongruent, because everything that drives us, everything that our economy is based upon, everything that our entertainment portrays in front of our minds is based upon these kinds of conflicts and tumults, and envyings, and whoredoms, and desperate housewives. It\u2019s all tied into this stuff. CSI, how many murder-based shows are there on TV? The only thing that\u2019s interesting anymore are the murder shows, because the forensics of Crime Scene Investigation ultimately get you to the real guy and you notice in the background, there\u2019s always pole dancer or two, because they just presume we\u2019re all in to that stuff. You know and among lyings and this stuff, the Marriott hotel in which we\u2019re currently talking, owned by the Marriott Corporation, the CEO of which is a Latter Day Saint and whose father built the Marriott Center at Brigham Young University, has enough pressure on them from those who use their hotels, that they offer X-rated movies in the privacy of your room as part of the services provided. I haven\u2019t checked, but I assume it\u2019s true in Provo, because if it\u2019s true in one place, it most certainly would be true everywhere. Because they will actually lose patrons, they will lose customers if they don\u2019t offer that garbage in the hotel room. And so, market-driven forces require them to offer this kind of stuff, and we sit back, scratch our head, and say, \u201coh those decadent Romans with that Coliseum,\u201d \u2013 What? Whoa, what\u2019s the difference between Jaws [the movie] and the boat battles in the Coliseum that the Romans were notorious for flooding, and killing, and mayhem, and carnage? Now, ours is a mechanical shark, and Roy Scheider is just so ineffective anyway, but the blood in the water is the real color and your mind cannot tell the difference between what you take into it in a fictional way, and what you take into it in a reality way. That\u2019s one of the reasons why I don\u2019t read fiction, because I hate messing up and remembering something that was out of a novel instead of out of some bit of history that I\u2019d read and boy, history is much stranger than fiction. Should you read history, it\u2019s perverse, man. It will twist you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But these people who have been separated from our common fare, there could not be a happier people than among all the children of God, because you know what? There comes a point when you have separated yourself from the crap, that your capacity to incorporate more and more truth and light, allows you to say, \u201cwell, this is more interesting than that was anyway.\u201d There\u2019s something more engaging about truth and light and there\u2019s something more fascinating about the things of eternity than there is about any of this stuff. We are all weak, we are all vulnerable, we are all carbon-based mud-piles at the moment and this carbon-based pile of mud around which my spirit has been wrapped into, it gets tired, it has appetites, it has weaknesses, but the reason why they threw fasting in there was to subordinate that body and to teach it that the spirit is something that ought to be in control. There comes a point at which if you\u2019ve allowed the spirit to have its way, you find that the things that are fascinating to this pile of mud that you walk around in, are far less interesting than the things of the Spirit. And whatever principle of intelligence you attain to in this life is going to rise with you and if it does, then you\u2019re going to have so much the advantage in the world to come. And why is that? Because in the world to come, the crap that\u2019s here has no utility, it has no value. It\u2019s here to test you, it\u2019s here to try you, and it\u2019s here to give you an opportunity to overcome it, but it\u2019s not here for you to revel in, it\u2019s for you to dig yourself out from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, there\u2019s no robbers. Ok, there goes the banking industry, the law industry, yeah; there goes the government. Nor murders neither were there Lamanites, or any manner of -ites. But they were all in one, the Children of Christ and heirs of the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re running short on time, so I\u2019m going to skip forward and talk about what happens to Zion. In verse 24, <em>\u201c&#8230;two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, <\/em>[see it starts with this pride]<em> and wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world. And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them. And they began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain.\u201d<\/em> So, institutionally, as soon as you get the mischief going, as soon as you begin the process of corrosion, the very first thing we want to build, the very first thing we\u2019ve got to fetch for ourselves is churches. That ought to sit sort of as a curiosity to you. Now why is that? Why is it that as soon as this process of degeneration begins to unfold, the first thing they want to get is churches? [Audience answers: \u201cI think it\u2019s because you feel insecurity right away and you want security back again\u201d]. Yeah, because you know you\u2019re wrong. Well, let\u2019s take one step back from that statement. Everyone who has a body, everyone who is here in mortality, knows Christ, chose Christ, accepted the plan of the Father, and came down and inherited this estate as a consequence of having kept the first estate. Whether they are in tune enough with their spirit, whether they are in tune enough with the voice of God in this life, or not, they know at some very fundamental level that what they\u2019re doing is wrong, when they are doing wrong&#8211;everyone does! That\u2019s why a convert to the church feels like they\u2019re coming home, they feel like there\u2019s something familiar. They feel like in the teachings of the Gospel of Christ that have been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith there is a resonance there with something inside them that was empty that this now fills. And when you take a step back from that, when you reject that, when you say I\u2019m departing, even though at this point they may be departing so little, that to us these people at this point in this decay of Zion, would be our superiors&#8211;they know that they\u2019ve lost something. And because they know they\u2019ve lost something they have to repair that damage. So what do you need? To repair the damage you need someone to tell you, \u201cdon\u2019t worry at the last day God will beat you with a few stripes but it will be ok, all is well in Zion, Zion is prospering. Check out the wardrobes in our congregation, things are ok, we\u2019re building a lot of new chapels, there\u2019s a lot of brickwork going on, things look economically viable. If we were ranked among the Fortune 500 companies, we\u2019d be right up there, all is certainly, certainly well in Zion. And with a 1.53 percentage rate growth increase in the United States last year, the LDS church qualifies as being one of the top growing churches in America, because so many of the others are in state of decline&#8211;whoosh, all is well in Zion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So they build up churches when they\u2019ve divided into classes, because the first institution you want when you know that you\u2019re racked with guilt is religion. It\u2019s always about false religion. The entire story of the Book of Mormon, all of the anti-heroes, have religion. Even the Rameumptom folks are steeped in religion, devoted to religion. The problem is not the absence of religion; it\u2019s the presence of false religion and the presence of things within the religion that is false. <em>\u201c&#8230;unto themselves to get gain and began to deny the true church of Christ.\u201d<\/em> See, churches [plural], true church of Christ [singular]. Why plural, why singular? Well, because churches [plural], there\u2019s different personality types, there\u2019s different kinds of ego trips, there\u2019s different kinds of folks wanting to salve a peculiar form of sin that they\u2019re participating in, and so they need different kinds of churches to tell them, \u201cthat\u2019s ok, that\u2019s ok.\u201d But if you look at what began the process of degeneration in verse 24, it all begins with one particular problem\u2014pride. \u201cI\u2019m proud of my church, I\u2019m proud of my neighborhood, I\u2019m proud of what we\u2019ve accomplished, through hard work, through a capitalist, and protestant, and Elizabethan and puritanical tradition that has managed to come into an even flow to the consciousness of us as Latter Day Saints and by damn I\u2019m proud of it.\u201d And so, look here now were I a resident in Zion at this point, verse 24 shows you where I\u2019d show up, I\u2019d be right there saying, \u201clet\u2019s break this mold, let\u2019s&#8230;this harmony, it\u2019s incessant, I mean, look at us, we\u2019re wearing uniforms, we all look alike, you all sound alike, let\u2019s do something new, let\u2019s do something different. I found this plant and if you smoke it, that\u2019s really&#8230;and the music here sucks, have you noticed that, it\u2019s all hymns, I mean why can\u2019t we have some rock and roll, and we have rock and roll and we have rock and roll stars and we have rock and roll stars and get limos and more pearls and costly apparel, and it\u2019ll be fine, it\u2019ll work out, this is going to be nice\u201d \u2013 pride! I mean pride manifests itself in so many divergent ways, that just the word alone tells you something about the insidious nature of the decay. See, if the Book of Mormon is only part history and is also prophecy, that is, they selected from their history those portions, which most relevantly bear upon us and our condition, and if you would like to know what is going to happen in the Millennium at the end of that season when Satan has been bound, and the beginning of that little season when Satan is loosed and how we managed to wind up then with the loss of Zion at the end of the Millennium, before that great tumult that is described in the book of Revelation, after the Millennium, the word pride, ought to resonate with you. Pride suggests that you know better than God. Pride suggests that at that moment when everyone has been resurrected and everything has been wrapped up and everything is now at \u201cpost-second resurrection\u201d state, that you can look about and say, \u201cI know better than God,\u201d that is, \u201cHis judgments are unjust,\u201d that is \u201cSatan was right all along, because look, I\u2019m Telestial, look I\u2019ve been quickened by a portion of the Terrestrial world, well look, I\u2019ve been quickened by a portion of the Celestial world, but my friend was quickened only by a portion of the Telestial world&#8230;and it\u2019s not fair, it\u2019s not right.\u201d And what is that, at the end, that\u2019s pride, which is what we\u2019re really here preparing to confront is that argument at the end of the Millennium. And so, when you arrive at that blessed day and you\u2019re confronted in that moment and you want to know how we\u2019re going to get from where we are at that moment to the end of the war that is about to unfold, yet again, before they are cast out into their place and the saints inherit the earth&#8211;check or calibrate your pride, and realize that the God and Father of us all has been right all along, His plan has been perfect all along, He is merciful, and He is just and it is not our place to judge Him, but it is our place to be judged by Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, if you go through [we\u2019re out of time], if you go through and look at the rest of the description of the decay into where they wind up with, you are reading once again a re- introduction into that society of our cultural mores&#8211;they are becoming progressively more like us. So, we still weep for Zion, it has fled. There are two models that you can consider from the scriptures as possibilities for Zion in the last days. The one model is the Book of Mormon model in which Zion gets introduced after destruction and after the return of the Lord and after folks have a season to incorporate the information and the teachings, the ordinances that Christ restores at His coming. Under that model, we will not see Zion until sometime post-Second Coming. There\u2019s a second model that we find in the scriptures, however, and that model is the one that Christ suggests, He says \u201cas it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be at the time of the coming of the Son of Man.\u201d And what was it that was going on contemporaneous with Noah? \u2013 it was the city of Enoch, in which a people, separated themselves, and they found Zion. Melchizedek was able to do the same thing. The people of the Nephites were able to do the same thing. Whether the model that will actually apply is the model that Christ suggested about the City of Enoch and a righteous people ready to meet the Lord, or the model that the Book of Mormon suggests &#8211;a post- holocaust, a post-second coming establishment of Zion, is YOUR choice, and that ought to be the most sobering comment of all. Let me end by bearing testimony to you that what I\u2019ve been trying to do today is the same thing I\u2019ve been trying to do in every book I\u2019ve written and that is \u2013 to remove the condemnation under which we labor, because we don\u2019t take the Book of Mormon seriously enough. Joseph Smith did not write that book. It is a gift of God. It is the Vision of All. It is the message for the last days. You can get closer to God and closer to understanding Him and His ways, by abiding by what is in the Book of Mormon than you can in any other book. It is NOT a watered down version, it\u2019s not the Gospel-lite and \u201cooh, we can\u2019t wait for the rest of this stuff when they break the seal and bust it out.\u201d If you\u2019re attentive to what you have now, you\u2019re going to find out that all that\u2019s going to happen when the seal is broken and you read the rest of it is, \u201cyeah, you were right, you did pick it up, because it\u2019s all in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This lecture by Denver Snuffer, given at the \u201cZion Symposium\u201d, was originally recorded in Provo, Utah on February 23, 2008, in front of a live audience. Transcript<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lecture at the &quot;Zion Symposium&quot; - Restoration Archives Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christ suggests, \u201cas it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be at the time of the coming of the Son of Man.\u201d And what was it that was going on contemporaneous with Noah? \u2013 it was the city of Enoch, in which a people, separated themselves, and they found Zion. Melchizedek was able to do the same thing. The people of the Nephites were able to do the same thing. Whether the model that will actually apply is the model that Christ suggested about the City of Enoch and a righteous people ready to meet the Lord, or the model that the Book of Mormon suggests, a post-holocaust, a post-second coming establishment of Zion, is YOUR choice, and that ought to be the most sobering comment of all.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/07\/31\/lecture-at-the-zion-symposium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lecture at the &quot;Zion Symposium&quot; - Restoration Archives Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christ suggests, \u201cas it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be at the time of the coming of the Son of Man.\u201d And what was it that was going on contemporaneous with Noah? \u2013 it was the city of Enoch, in which a people, separated themselves, and they found Zion. Melchizedek was able to do the same thing. The people of the Nephites were able to do the same thing. Whether the model that will actually apply is the model that Christ suggested about the City of Enoch and a righteous people ready to meet the Lord, or the model that the Book of Mormon suggests, a post-holocaust, a post-second coming establishment of Zion, is YOUR choice, and that ought to be the most sobering comment of all.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/07\/31\/lecture-at-the-zion-symposium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Restoration Archives Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-31T14:15:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-25T19:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brent\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"45 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/07\/31\/lecture-at-the-zion-symposium\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/07\/31\/lecture-at-the-zion-symposium\/\",\"name\":\"Lecture at the \\\"Zion Symposium\\\" - Restoration Archives Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-31T14:15:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-25T19:00:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075\"},\"description\":\"Christ suggests, \u201cas it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be at the time of the coming of the Son of Man.\u201d And what was it that was going on contemporaneous with Noah? \u2013 it was the city of Enoch, in which a people, separated themselves, and they found Zion. 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