Developments in Zion D&C 97, 98, 100 The Missouri Saga The Book of Mormon spoke of a New Jerusalem Missionaries called to go to Missouri Fall 1830 First LDS settlement in Jackson County in Summer 1831 Law of Consecration brings external pressure Distance from Kirtland brings internal pressure Given an ultimatum two weeks before D&C 97 Section 97 Origin Less than two weeks prior to Section 97, having been pressured by mob violence and threats, the saints in Jackson County, Missouri agreed to an ultimatum that required them to leave the county. Parley Pratt described Zion during the summer of 1833 as the opposition escalated. "Immigration had poured into the County of Jackson in great numbers; and the Church in that county now numbered upwards of one thousand souls." He described how they industriously improved their situations by building homes and cultivating farms. He said that they observed the Sabbath according to Section 59, but made no mention of building the temple described in Section 84. "I devoted almost my entire time in ministering among the churches," Parley wrote, "holding meetings; visiting the sick; comforting the afflicted, and giving counsel. A school of Elders was also organized, over which I was called to preside. This class, to the number of about sixty, met for instruction once a week. The place of meeting was in the open air, under some tall trees, in a retired place in the wilderness, where we prayed, preached and prophesied, and exercised ourselves in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here great blessings were poured out and many great and marvelous things were manifested and taught.... To attend this school I had to travel on foot, and sometimes with bare feet at that, about six miles. This I did once a week, besides visiting and preaching in five or six branches a week." Parley and his brethren wrote to Joseph, seeking the Lord's will concerning their school. While "thus engaged," Parley wrote, "and in answer to our correspondence with the Prophet, Joseph Smith, at Kirtland, Ohio, the following revelation was sent to us by him, dated August, 1833." D&C 97 Outcomes Parley Pratt testified that the Lord poured forth the promised blessings of Section 97 when he did as the revelation commanded regarding the school for the elders. "The Lord gave me great wisdom," Parley wrote, "and enabled me to teach and edify the Elders, and comfort and encourage them in their preparations for the great work which lay before us. I was also much edified and strengthened." But Parley also noted that "this revelation was not complied with by the leaders and Church in Missouri, as a whole." As Section 97 itself shows, the saints in Zion were not unified, not all committed to keeping their covenants. Thus, "notwithstanding many were humble and faithful," Parley noted, "the threatened judgment was poured out to the uttermost." The saints were driven from Zion and we still weep for her. D&C 98 Origin Oliver Cowdery wrote from Independence, Missouri to church leaders in Kirtland, Ohio, informing them that opposition from the saints Missouri neighbors was rising. By the time the letter arrived in Ohio, in Missouri bishop Partridge had been tarred and feathered, the church's press destroyed, and the saints given an ultimatum to leave Jackson county or face continued oppression. Joseph did not know the full extent of this persecution when he received Section 98, but the Lord braced the saints for it with a revelation on how to respond when attacked. D&C 98 Outcomes Oliver Cowdery arrived in Kirtland with news of the violent persecution and the saints' pending expulsion from Jackson County. Joseph was passionate about Zion and responded to the crisis with the expected emotions. He wrote a long letter in his own hand to the church leaders in Missouri, beginning with a broken- hearted prayer that the Lord would comfort the saints and curse their enemies before concluding, "O Lord glorify thyself thy will be done and not mine." Joseph's first reaction was to curse the Saints' enemies but he believed Section 98's promises and bowed to its moderating instructions in response to the crisis. For example, he urged the Saints to "wait patiently until the Lord come[s] and resto[res] unto us all things and build the waist places again for he will do it in his time." He wrote to Zion, "th[ere] is no saifty only in the a[r]m of Jehovah none else can deliver and he will not deliver unless we do prove ourselves faithful to him in the severeest trouble for he that will have his robes washed in the blood of the Lamb must come up throught great tribulation even the greatest of all affliction but know this when men thus deal with you and speak all maner of evil of you falsly for the sake of Christ that he is your friend and I verily know that he will spedily deliver Zion for I have his immutible covenant that this shall be the case but god is pleased to keep it hid from mine eyes the means how exactly the thing will be done." Joseph concluded his letter "by telling you that we wait the Comand of God to do whatever he plese and if shall say go up to Zion and defend thy Brotheren by we fly and we count not dear our live[s] dear to us." D&C 98 Outcomes Section 98 was the first of Joseph's revelations to acknowledge earthly government. Zion had been considered independent, soon to govern the world as nations fell before the millennial reign of Christ (see Section 87). By acknowledging the rule of Constitutional law, Section 98 got Joseph thinking in new ways. He wrote to Zion, "we are all friends to the Constitution yea true friends to that Country for which our fathers bled." As a result of Section 98, the church befriended Constitutional law and principles as allies in seeking redress for the violations of the saints' civil and religious liberties and property rights. "From then on," wrote historian Richard Bushman, "Joseph was never far removed from politics. For a decade, he sought protection from the government, usually without success, until finally, frustrated by his inability to rally government to the Saints' side, he ran for president." Section 98's command for the saints to befriend the rule of law and to provide evidence or testimonies of the abuses of the lawless seems to have shaped the way the Saints presented their story. Joseph and his followers wrote the history of these events as a law-abiding and unlawfully persecuted minority. In telling the expulsion from Jackson County, Joseph's history says that the Saints were driven by a mob led by civic and religious leaders "while there was not a solitary offence on record; or proof that a saints had broken the law of the land." D&C 100 Origin The Saints in Zion were not the only ones besieged in late Joseph wrote from Kirtland, Ohio that "we are suffering great persicution on account of one man." Philastus Hurlbut had been excommunicated for adultery and responded with a concerted effort to undermine Joseph. "He is lieing in a wonderful manner," Joseph wrote, "and the people[e] are running after him and giveing him mony to brake down mormanism which much endangers at preasnt but god will put a stop to his carear soon and all will be well." Hurlbut threatened to wash his hands in Joseph's blood, which may have contributed to Joseph and Sidney Rigdon leaving for New York and Ontario, Canada to preach. Joseph's journal does not mention the revelation being given but it may allude to it and certainly to some of the concerns that led to it in the entry for October 12 that reads, "I feel very well in my mind the Lord is with us but have been much anxiety about my family." Left Buffalo, N.Y. at 8 oclock A.M. and arrived at home Monday, the 4 th [November 1833] at 10 A.M. found my family all well according to the promise of the Lord for which blessings I feel to thank his holy name. Joseph Smith, Journal, November 1833 D&C 100 Outcomes Joseph Smith possessed a dogged tenacity. He did not want to give up on Zion, on New Jerusalem being built around a holy temple in Jackson County, Missouri. Oliver Cowdery had recently suggested that the Saints could start over somewhere else. Joseph resisted that thought. He told the Saints in Missouri that the Lord wanted them to hold on to their land, not sell it, not give up on Zion. He promised them that Zion would flourish in spite of Hell, though he did not pretend to know how or when. Joseph described himself as praying fervently and often in these months after Zion had been beaten. He could not understand why Zion had been forsaken. He even said that he murmured, though he knew better. Section 100 comforted Joseph. It reinforced his faith in Zion, though it did not answer his questions about how or when the Lord would put the Saints back on the promised land. Joseph wrote that based on Section 100, "I know that Zion, in the own due time of the Lord will be redeemed, but how many will be the days of her purification, tribulation and affliction, the Lord has kept hid from my eyes; and when I enquire concerning this subject the voice of the Lord is, Be still, and know that I am God! all those who suffer for my name shall reign with me, and he that layeth down his life for my sake shall find it again." Section 100 eased Joseph's anxieties about his family's safety in the hostile environment of Kirtland, Ohio. On returning from his month-long mission, he dictated the following journal entry: "Found my family all well according to the promise of the Lord for which blessings I feel to thank his holy name."