Savior on Mt. Zion

What does it mean to be a Savior on Mt. Zion?

Obediah 1:21 - And Saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's

Geographically Mount Zion refers to the mountain on which King Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.  The term can also refer more generally to the city of Jerusalem or even the entire land of Israel.  In modern-day revelation, it also applies to the term "New Jerusalem" which will be built on the American continent and also the Celestial Kingdom of God.

Doctrine and Covenants 84:2 - 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 New Jerusalem.

Articles of Faith #10 - We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American Continent....

Doctrine and Covenants 76:66 - These are they who are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all.

The word Savior can refer to one who rescues, or delivers, and saves someone or something.  Jesus Christ was called a 'Savior' because he saved us from eternal death and sin.  We can become Saviors by bringing the gospel to our kindred dead and allowing them the opportunity to participate in temple covenants that they otherwise would not have.

The prophet Joseph Smith taught that Latter-day Saints can be "as saviors on Mount Zion" by participating in the great work of salvation for the dead.  

“But how are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances, baptisms, confirmations, washings, anointings, ordinations and sealing powers upon their heads, in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead, and redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be exalted to thrones of glory with them” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 473).

President Gordon B. Hinckley explained:

“Just as our Redeemer gave His life as a vicarious sacrifice for all men, and in so doing became our Savior, even so we, in a small measure, when we engage in proxy work in the temple, become as saviors to those on the other side who have no means of advancing unless something is done on their behalf by those on earth” (Ensign, Nov. 2004, 105).

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

“Temple work enables us to do for others what they cannot do for themselves. It is a labor of love that permits our forefathers to continue their progress toward eternal life” (“Seeking the Good,” Ensign, May 1992, 88).

GOD IS A MERCIFUL GOD

God is a Merciful God

Jeremiah wrote often of how compassionate and merciful God was

Lamentations 3

22 ¶ It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.

23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

24 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

31 For the Lord will not cast off forever:

32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

God loves us and wants us to succeed.  He wants us to be happy.  He is always there for us and has great compassion for us and our plight in life.  But it is important that we repent, that we follow His commandments.  It is through the process of repentance that we especially feel his compassion and love for us.

The greatest act of compassion was when the Savior satisfied the demands of justice and stood in our place and suffered the penalty for our sins

On lds.org it says

God’s compassion may seem to conflict with the law of justice, which requires that no unclean thing be permitted to dwell with Him (see 1 Nephi 10:21). But the Atonement of Jesus Christ made it possible for God to “be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also” (Alma 42:15).

The Savior satisfied the demands of justice when He stood in our place and suffered the penalty for our sins. Because of this selfless act, the Father can mercifully withhold punishment from us and welcome us into His presence. To receive the Lord’s forgiveness, we must sincerely repent of our sins. As the prophet Alma taught, “Justice exerciseth all his demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is her own; and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved” (Alma 42:24; see also Alma 42:22–23, 25).

Forgiveness of sin is not the only gift of mercy from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Every blessing we receive is an act of mercy, more than we could ever merit on our own. Mormon taught, “All things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them” (Moroni 7:24). For example, we are recipients of divine mercy when Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers, when we receive guidance from the Holy Ghost, and when we are healed from sickness through priesthood power. Although all such blessings come as results of our obedience, we could never receive them through our efforts alone. They are merciful gifts from a loving and compassionate Father.

President J Reuben Clark Jr was said 

“You know, I believe that the Lord will help us. I believe if we go to him, he will give us wisdom, if we are living righteously. I believe he will answer our prayers. I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to save every one of his children. I do not think he intends to shut any of us off because of some slight transgression, some slight failure to observe some rule or regulation. There are the great elementals that we must observe, but he is not going to be captious about the lesser things.

“I believe that his juridical concept of his dealings with his children could be expressed in this way: I believe that in his justice and mercy, he will give us the maximum reward for our acts, give us all that he can give, and in the reverse, I believe that he will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose.”

“I often think that one of the most beautiful things in the Christ’s life was his words on the cross, when, suffering under the agony of a death that is said to have been the most painful that the ancients could devise, death on the cross, after he had been unjustly, illegally, contrary to all the rules of mercy, condemned and then crucified, when he had been nailed to the cross and was about to give up his life, he said to his Father in heaven, as those who were within hearing testify: ‘… Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34).”

God has shown us great mercy, compassion, and love.  In turn, we need to do the same thing.  In the scriptures it says "Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy." Matthew 5

I love what President Hinckley once said in the April 1990 conference " I am convinced that there comes a time, possibly many times, within our lives when we might cry out for mercy on the part of others. How can we expect it unless we have been merciful ourselves?"

God's Mercy

God of Mercy - Prayer Song

Below is a list of other places in the scriptures where God has showed mercy and/or compassion --

shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, Ex. 20:6.

proclaimed … Lord God, merciful and gracious, Ex. 34:6 (Neh. 9:31).

Lord thy God is a merciful God, Deut. 4:31.

covenant and mercy with them that love him, Deut. 7:9.

his mercies are great, 2 Sam. 24:14.

Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies, Ps. 25:6.

according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, Ps. 69:16.

father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them, Ps. 103:13.

mercy of the Lord is from everlasting, Ps. 103:17.

our God is merciful, Ps. 116:5.

they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, Isa. 49:15.

with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, Isa. 54:8.

God … retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy, Micah 7:18.

Lord had shewed great mercy upon her, Luke 1:58.

Be … merciful, as your Father also is merciful, Luke 6:36.

it is … of God that sheweth mercy, Rom. 9:16.

might glorify God for his mercy, Rom. 15:9.

Father of mercies, 2 Cor. 1:3.

God, who is rich in mercy, Eph. 2:4.

according to his mercy he saved us, Titus 3:5.

wisdom that is from above is … full of mercy, James 3:17.

Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy, James 5:11.

according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us, 1 Pet. 1:3.

Lord … hath visited men in so much mercy, 2 Ne. 4:26.

O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace, 2 Ne. 9:8.

because of his greatness, and his grace and mercy, 2 Ne. 9:53.

Lord saw fit in his infinite mercy to spare them, Mosiah 28:4.

full of patience, mercy, and long-suffering, Alma 9:26.

I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten, Alma 12:33.

he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, Alma 26:35.

God is merciful unto all who believe on his name, Alma 32:22.

a perfect, just God, and a merciful God, Alma 42:15.

do you let the justice of God, and his mercy … have full sway in your heart, Alma 42:30.

with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, 3 Ne. 22:8.

Little children … alive in him because of his mercy, Moro. 8:19.

merciful unto those who confess their sins, D&C 61:2.

Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, D&C 76:5.

he is full of mercy, justice, D&C 84:102.

I, the Lord, show mercy unto all the meek, D&C 97:2.

Isaiah and the Sabbath Day

Isaiah and the Sabbath Day

Since the beginning of time, the Lord has asked us to keep the Sabbath day holy.  Many prophets from the Old Testament to today has repeatedly testified of our need to honor the Sabbath.  Here are just a few

Isaiah 58:13- If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 

14-Then shall though delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

I found this wonderful article in the New Era that breaks down Isaiah 58:13-14 

It is one of the 10 Commandments found in the Holy Bible 

in Exodus 20: 8-11

 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

In the Book of Mormon Abinidi taught it to King Noah and his counsel: Mosiah 13:16-19

16 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

17 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;

18 But the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;

19 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

In Nehemiah 10:31 (Old Testament)  it says 

"And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

• In Jarom 1:5 we see that the Nephites kept the Sabbath Day 
• "And now, behold, two hundred years had passed away, and the people of Nephi had waxed strong in the land. They observed to keep the law of Moses and the sabbath day holy unto the Lord. And they profaned not; neither did they blaspheme. And the laws of the land were exceedingly strict."
• In Mosiah 18:23 Alma taught the new converts
• "And he commanded them that they should observe the sabbath day, and keep it holy, and also every day they should give thanks to the Lord their God."

• In modern scripture, it says "And the inhabitants of Zion shall also observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. (Doctrine and Covenants 68:29)

• Elder Earl C Tingey of the Presidency of the Seventy gave an excellent talk about the Sabbath.  He said "When President Hinckley expressed concern that our people may “take on the ways of the world” by not observing the Sabbath day, I thought of the revelation of the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 59th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. In verse nine, the Lord states, “And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day.”
  The Lord counseled us that we as a people may keep ourselves “unspotted from the world” by properly observing the Sabbath. As a community of Saints, we should emulate the righteous traditions of our fathers and be known as a people who honor the Sabbath. There should be no misunderstanding among our associates and friends, whether members of the Church or not, about how we, individually and as a community of Saints, observe the Sabbath day. This example of our people should reflect how we act as well as what we teach. While others may watch how we observe the Sabbath day, we should not be self-righteous or appear to elevate ourselves in the eyes of others. We should simply observe the Sabbath day in the proper manner because we know it is correct and because we receive personal joy and strength from doing so." (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/02/keeping-the-sabbath-day-holy?lang=eng) 
• And the prophet of today President Russell M Nelson taught: 
• “I learned from the scriptures that my conduct and my attitude on the Sabbath constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father. With that understanding, I no longer needed lists of dos and don’ts. When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, ‘What sign do I want to give to God?’ That question made my choices about the Sabbath day crystal clear” (“The Sabbath Is a Delight,” April 2015 general conference).  
• 
  

Studying ISAIAH

Isaiah can be very daunting to read.  We think only the wise of the wise can read it and understand it.  In 3 Nephi 23:1 the Lord commanded the people to 'search' these things (meaning Isaiah).   That means that all of us need to search and read Isaiah.  I think that instead of trying to read Isaiah from cover to cover we need to choose important verses, then ponder and search those verses.  At the bottom of this blog, I have a list of the scriptures and the theme of that scripture.  Take that list, browse through it, and find a topic you would like to study.  I will give an example of one I have studied

Isaiah 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the ^alast days, that the ^bmountain of the Lord’s ^chouse shall be ^destablished in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all ^enationsshall flow unto it.

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us ^ago up to the ^bmountain of the Lord, to the ^chouse of the God of Jacob; and he will ^dteach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of ^eZion shall go forth the ^flaw, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Principle:  

1    We are taught the way of righteousness in the temple or house of the Lord.  Covenants and ordinances are received there.  Keeping those covenants help us to establish Zion and to prepare to meet the Lord at the Second Coming. (Isaiah 2:2-5)

Therefore:

I need to go to the temple, participate in the ordinances, and when I do it will help me to be part of establishing Zion and preparing to meet the Lord at the Second Coming.

BUT IF I NOW WANT TO STUDY MORE ON TEMPLES I need to decide what I want to study about temples?  How to prepare to go?  What are temples about?  What do you do in the temples?

There are many great resources to begin your study such as:

CONFERENCE TALKS

Go to this  link for a list of talks about temples

Here is one of my favorite by Thomas S. Monson.  The Holy Temple -- a Beacon to the World

or a talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook  See Yourself in the Temple

What other scriptures talk about temples?

Go to the LDS Scriptures "Guide to the Scriptures" topic "Temple, House of the Lord" for a list of scriptures and explanations.

For some videos to watch:

Mormon Temples: The Blessings of the Temple

Mormon Temples

The Process of Building a Mormon Temple

The first 166 Temples (slideshow)  

Resrouces on how to study Isaiah

Ten Keys to Understanding Isaiah by Bruce R. McConkie

How Can I Understand Isaiah? by Ryan S. Gardner

Understanding Isaiah

Understand Isaiah's Prophecies with video

Understanding Isaiah and other Challenging Scriptures with Video

Isaiah’s Counsel

Isaiah 1:11–13 Do not be a hypocrite.

Isaiah 1:16 Be baptized and washed clean.

Isaiah 1:17 Serve others.

Isaiah 1:18 Repent 

Isaiah 1:28 Do not forsake the Lord; endure to the end.

Isaiah 2:2–3 Go to the temple 

Isaiah 2:4 Be a peacemaker.

Isaiah 2:5 Walk in the light of the Lord; stay close to His Spirit.

Isaiah 2:7–8 Do not worship or idolize what God blesses us with.

Isaiah 3:9 Do not sin openly and rebelliously like the people of Sodom.

Isaiah 3:16–24 Avoid the fashions and fads of the worldly.

Isaiah 5:11–12 Beware of following the path of ease (see also 2 Nephi 28:8).

Isaiah 5:18 Do not be tied to sins like beasts to carts and burdon

Scriptures Isaiah’s Prophetic Messages about the Savior

Isaiah 2:3–12; 4:4–5 At the Lord’s Second Coming the wicked will be destroyed. The Lord will reign on the earth, where the righteous will walk in His light.

Isaiah 6:8 “Here am I; send me” is a type of the premortal Christ volunteering for His holy mission.

Isaiah 7:14–16 Christ will be born of a virgin and will be called Immanuel. He will refuse evil and choose good.

Isaiah 8:13–15 When Christ comes, some will accept Him and others reject Him.

Isaiah 9:1–6 Christ will be born into the world during a time of spiritual darkness. He will bring great blessings to the people in Galilee.

Isaiah 9:6–7 Christ will be called “The mighty God” and “The Prince of Peace” and will sit on David’s throne forever.

Isaiah 11:10–12 The Lord will come in power and glory to usher in the Millennium.

Isaiah 12:6 The Lord will dwell in the midst of His people during the Millennium.

Isaiah 25:8 Christ will conquer death through His Resurrection.

Isaiah 28:16 Christ will be the “corner stone,” tested and tried to be the sure foundation.

Isaiah 32:1–4, 15–18 During the Millennium the Lord will rule as king. There will be safety and peace.

Isaiah 33:22 The Lord is our judge, lawgiver, king, and savior.

Isaiah 40:3 The Lord will send a messenger to prepare the way before Him.

Isaiah 40:4–5; 42:1–4 At the Second Coming, Christ will come in judgment, and “all flesh shall see him together.”

Isaiah 50:4 Christ will have the “tongue of the learned.”

Isaiah 50:5–6 Christ will willingly obey the Father and allow Himself to suffer persecution.

Isaiah 53:2–12 Christ’s atoning mission is explained.

Isaiah 53:2 Christ will not be different in appearance than

Isaiah 53:3–4 Christ will be despised, rejected, and acquainted with grief. He will bear the grief and sorrows of all.

Isaiah 53:5–6 Christ will pay for our sins and heal us.

Isaiah 53:7 Christ will not revile against His oppressors.

Isaiah 53:8, 11–12 Christ will be slain for the sins of His people.

Isaiah 53:9, 12 Christ will be crucified with thieves and buried in the tomb of the rich.

Isaiah 53:9 Christ will be innocent of any wrongdoing.

Isaiah 53:10 It is Heavenly Father’s will that Christ die for us.

Isaiah 53:12 Christ will be glorified.

Isaiah 54:5 Christ is the Creator and Redeemer; Israel will be restored.

Isaiah 59:19–20; At the Second Coming, the Lord will come Joseph Smith— from the east like the rising sun. Matthew 1:26

Isaiah 60:19–20 The brightness of the Lord’s glory will be the light of the world during the Millennium.

Isaiah 61:1–2 Christ is the anointed one who will help those in spiritual bondage, including the spirits in prison (see also Luke 4:16–21; 1 Peter

3:18–19; 4:6).

Isaiah 63:1–6; 66:15 Christ will come in power and glory in a “day of

vengeance,” having “trod the winepress alone.

List from Old Testament Seminary Manual