Gathering to Zion

Gathering to Zion. . "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and…that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent" (Pearl of Great Price, Articles of Faith 1:10). Joseph Smith's prophetic statement set out the Latter-day Saint view on the fulfillment of events foreseen in ancient times. , "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it" (Isaiah 2:2). , We have come, as prophets predicted. The 1880 census shows that two-thirds of the people then in Utah were born outside the United States. Today in the valley below, various congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak more than a dozen languages. They are told, "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19)., When dedicating the city park that includes the peak and its trail, President Gordon B. Hinckley said in July 1996, "We pray that through the years to come, many thousands of people of all faiths and all denominations, people of this nation and of other nations, may come here to reflect on the history and the efforts of those who pioneered this area. May this be a place of pondering, a place of remembrance, a place of thoughtful gratitude, a place of purposeful resolution"