Parable of the Tower in D&C 101 & Constitution by a Thread..

[linj2fly]

Resurrecting this thread since I've been thinking about this subject after studying about watchmen.... This is the interpretation for the parable of the Tower found in the CES D&C student manual http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/dc-in/dc-in-101.htm It is Sperry's

D&C 101:44–64. What Does This Parable Refer To?

“It would seem that the parable is to be interpreted in this way: the nobleman is the Lord, whose choice land in His vineyard is Zion in Missouri. The places where the Saints live in Zion are the olive trees. The servants are the Latter-day Saint settlers, and the watchmen are their officers in the Church. While yet building in Zion, they become at variance with each other and do not build the tower or Temple whose site had been dedicated as early as August 3, 1831. Had they built it as directed, it would have been a spiritual refuge for them, for from it the Lord’s watchmen could have seen by revelation the movements of the enemy from afar. This foreknowledge would have saved them and their hard work when the enemy made his assault.

“But the Saints in Missouri were slothful, lax, and asleep. The enemy came, and the Missouri persecutions were the result. The Lord’s people were scattered and much of their labors wasted. The Almighty rebuked His people, as we have already seen, but He commanded one of His servants (vs. 55), Joseph Smith (103:21), to gather the ‘strength of Mine house’ and rescue His lands and possessions gathered against them.

“Subsequently, the Prophet and his brethren in the famous Zion’s Camp did go to Missouri in 1834 in an attempt to carry out the terms of the parable. Before they went, additional revelation was received (see 103:21–28) concerning the redemption of Zion. The brethren were instructed to try to buy land in Missouri, not to use force; and if the enemy came against them, they were to bring a curse upon them. Zion was not redeemed at that time but we may look for it in the not-too-distant future. . . . It will be redeemed when the Lord wills it.” (Sperry, Compendium, pp. 521–22.)

Though Joseph Smith followed the Lord’s instructions to gather together the “strength of my house” (D&C 103:22) by organizing Zion’s Camp to redeem Zion, the Lord’s purpose in sending them and His will concerning the redemption of Zion were not fully understood by His people. The redemption of Zion did not take place at that time. When the servant in the parable asked when the land would be possessed, the Lord responded, “When I will” (D&C 101:60).

The parable further states that all things will be fulfilled “after many days” (v. 62), which indicates that a long period of time would pass before Zion would be redeemed. The redemption of Zion still had not taken place even after the Saints had been expelled from Missouri and from Nauvoo. The Lord then told Brigham Young that “Zion shall be redeemed in mine own due time” (D&C 136:18). The redemption of Zion (meaning, the city of New Jerusalem in Missouri) is still future, although it is much closer now than it was when the Saints first sought to regain their inheritance there.

The time of Zion’s redemption is referred to in Doctrine and Covenants 58:44; 105:15, 37. Compare the parable in Doctrine and Covenants 101 with those given in Isaiah 5:1–7 and Matthew 21:33–46.

[linj2fly]

And here is a source for Brian's previous quote:
http://www.boap.org/LDS/Parallel/1840/19Jul40.html#N_5_

And these are the notes of Joseph Smith's discourse on July 19, 1840, as found in the Howard and Martha Coray notebook:

Sermon Delivered at Nauvoo, Illinois July 19, 1840
Source: Howard and Martha Coray Notebook
A few Item from a discourse delivered by Joseph Smith July 19 18401

¶ Read a chap in [Ezek. 33:33] concluding with this saying and when all these things come to pass and Lo they will come then shall you know that a Prophet hath been among you

Parable of Olive Trees - America is Zion
¶ Afterwards read the parable of the 12 olive trees and said speaking of the Land of Zion that It consists of all N. & S America but that any place where the Saints gather is Zion which every righteous man will build up for a place of safety for his children that The olive trees are 12 stakes which are yet to be built not the Temple in Jackson [County, Missouri] as some suppose for while the 12 olive stakes are being built we will be at peace but the Nations of the Earth will be at war.

Twelve Symbolic - Redeeming Zion means more than Missouri
¶ our cry from the 1st has been for peace and we will continue pleading like the Widow at the feet of the unjust judge but we may plead at the feet of Majistrates and at the feet of Judges At the feet of Governors and at the feet of senators & at the feet of the Preidents for 8 years it will be of no avail. We shall find no favor in any of the courts of this government. The redemption of Zion is the redemption of all N & S America and those 12 stake must be built up before the redemption of Zion can take place and those who refuse to gather and build when they are commanded to do so cease to be Saviours of men and are henceforth good for nothing but shall be cast out and trodden underfeet of men for their transgression as Reed Peck was when he aplied in the name of an apostate for business in a store in Quincy They told him that they wanted no apostates round them and showed him the door At this same store the Authorities of this Church could have obtained almost any amount of credit they could have asked--

Nauvoo to be Scattered - U.S. in Danger - Gospel to Whole Earth
¶ We shall build the Zion of the Lord in peace untill the servants of that Lord shall begin to lay the foundation of a great and high watch Tower and then shall they begin to say within themselves what need hath my Lord of this tower seeing this is a time of peace & Then the Enemy shall brak come as a thief in the night and scatter the servants abroad when the seed of these 12 Olive trees are scattered abroad they will wake up the Nations of the whole Earth Even this Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to peices and tumbling to the ground and when the constitution is upon the brink of ruin this people will be the Staff up which the Nation shall lean and they shall bear away the constitution away from the very verge of destruction Then shall the Lord say go tell all my servants who are the strength of mine house my young men and middle aged &c come to the Land of my vineyard and fight the battle of the Lord Then the Kings & Queens shall come then the rulers of the Earth shall come then shall ail saints come yea the Foreign saints shall come to fight for the Land of my vineyard for in this thing shall be their safety and they will have no power to choose but will come as a man fleeth from a sudden destruction But before this the time shall be when these who are now my friends shall become my enemies and shall seek to take my life and shall be m there are those now before me who will more furiously pursue me and the more dilligently seek to my life and be more blood thirsty upon my track than ever were the Missouri Mobbers You say among yourselves as did them of old time it is I & is it I But I know these things by the visions of the Almighty.

Nauvoo to be Built Up
¶ But brethren come ye yea come all of you who can come and go to with your mights and build up the cities of the Lord and whosoever will let him come and partake of the poverty of Nauvoo freely for those who partake of her poverty shall also shall also partake of her prosperity. And it is now wisdom in God that we should enter into as compact a city as posible for Zion and Jerusalem and must both be built up before the coming of Christ This will near a half of a century How long will it take to do this 10 years Yes more than 40 years will pass before this work will be accomplished and when these cities are built then shall the coming of the Son of man be5

Nauvoo to Become Great
¶ Now let all who can coolly and deliberately dispose of their property come up and give of their substance to the [poor?] that the hearts of the poor may be comforted and all may worship god together in holiness of heart Come brethren come all of you.And I prophecy in the name of the Lord that the state of Illinois shall become a great mountain and mighty mountain as city set upon a hill that cannot be hid and a great that giveth light to the world and The city of Nauvoo als[o] shall become the greatest city in the whole world.

¶ Curse that man who says to his neighbor you are a mean man because you do not believe as I do I now invite all liberall minded men to come up to Nauvoo and help to build up the city of our God We are not greatly distressed no nor ever will be This is the principle place of gathering therefore let the brethren begin to roll in like clouds and we will sell you lots if you are able to pay for them and if not you shall have them without money and without price

¶ The greater blessing is unto those who come in times of adversity. For many will come to us in times of prosperity that will stand at the corners of the street saying with long pharisaical faces don to those that come after them dont go near Bro Joseph dont go near the authorities of the church for they will pick your pockets they will rob you of all your money Thus will they breed in our midst a spirit of dissatisfaction and distrust that will end in persecution and distress--

Ancient Scripture to Come Forth with Temple - Book of Abraham
¶ Now from this hour bring every thing you can bring and build a Temple unto the Lord a house into the mighty God of Jacob. We will build upon the top of this Temple a great observatory a great and high watch tower and in the top thereof we will Suspend a tremendous bell whi that when it is rung shall rouse the inhabitants of Madison wake up the people of Warsaw and sound in the ears of men [in] Carthage Then comes the ancient records yea all of them dig them yea bring them forth speedily

People Will Come From All Over the World to See Temple
¶ Then shall the poor be fed by the curious who shall come from all parts of the world to see this wonderful temple Yea I prophecy that pleasure parties shall come from England to see the Mamoth and like the Queen of Sheba shall say the half never was told them. School houses shall be built here and High schools shall be established and the great men of the [earth] shall send their sons here to board while they are receiving their education among us And even Noblemen shall crave the priviledge of educating their children with us and these poor saints shall chink in their pockets the money of these proud men received from such as come and dwell with us

Mormons Will One Day Travile Missiouri Without Fear
¶ Now brethren I obligate myself to build as great a temple as ever solomon did if the church will back me up. Moreover it shall not impoverish any man but enrich thousands I prophecy that the time shall be when these saints shall ride proudly over the mountains of Missouri and no Gentile dog nor Missouri dog shall dare lift a tongue against them but will lick up the dust from beneath their feet and I pray the father that many here may realize this and see it with their eyes. And if it should be (Stretching his hand towards the place and in a melancholly tone that made all hearts tremble) will of God that I might live to behold that temple completed and finished from the foundation to the top stone I will say Oh Lord it is enough Lord let thy servant depart in peace, which is my ernest prayer in the name of the L[ord] Jesus Amen.

and this note at the bottom of the link:

The Twelve Stakes of the revelations were apparently taken quite literally by the Saints. Mary Fielding, future wife of Hyrum Smith wrote to her sister in 1837 of a revelation regarding twelve stakes,

Some important things were shown to Brother Joseph in vision previous to his going off relative to the enlargement of our borders which has indeed become indispensably necessary for the inhabitants of Zion both here and in the west are crying the cities are too strait for us give place that we may dwell. The people are crowding in from all parts and as President Rigdon said in his last discourse here they will gather and earth and hell combined cannot hinder them for gather they will. Hence the necessity of planting new stakes which they received a command to do before they left and it is expected that after they have set in order the Church in the west they will fix upon 11 new stakes before they return but this is not spoken of in public for reasons you will be aware of. If this were generally known it would probably make there way much more difficult. [Mary Fielding Smith, October 7, 1837, LDS Archives.]

So...The olive trees are the 12 stakes.
The Tower is the Temple (I see this as any temple, but in Jackson County, the Temple Lot was dedicated by Joseph Smith and two cornerstones were laid...could this be a reference to the 'foundation' in the parable, but the tower not being completed?).
Zion cannot be redeemed at least until the 12 stakes are built up.

According to the paragraph that Brian originally referenced, the third paragraph above (Nauvoo to be scattered), are we not the 'seed' of the 12 olive trees that has been scattered (driven to the west and colonization)

Surely, Joseph followed the instructions in the parable with the resulting Zion's Camp, but it appears that Joseph is saying there will be a repeat of the last part of the parable when he again references the dire straits of the constitution and says:

" Then shall the Lord say go tell all my servants who are the strength of mine house my young men and middle aged &c come to the Land of my vineyard and fight the battle of the Lord."

[linj2fly]

I knew that the Community of Christ Temple/Church was next to the temple lot but I was shocked to learn that there is a United Nations Peace Plaza next door as well... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nat ... _Missouri)

Independence is also home to President Truman, who gave us the UN, NATO, dropped the bomb, etc.

President Harry S. Truman (standing before microphones) speaks to an audience of nearly 10,000 persons in the auditorium of his hometown shortly after his arrival in Independence, Missouri. Returning from San Francisco, where he addressed the closing session of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, President Truman stopped for a short vacation with his family in Independence. Speaking to the people in his hometown, the American Chief Executive said: "There are two things that I must accomplish as President of the United States. The first one is to win the war with Japan -- and we are winning it. The next one is to win a peace." President Truman continued: "The first step toward the winning of that peace has been accomplished in San Francisco." From: Eric Fowler.http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photograph ... =25760&rr=

Someone mentioned the part of the parable that reads,

57Therefore, get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine enemies; throw down their tower, and scatter their watchmen.

Hmmm

[Toto]

This is the kind of discussion I have been waiting on for over 5 long years now. My unalterable position is that if the Constitution is to be saved at all, the People have to hold VALID elections and destroy the pedestal of CONTROL by returning to the Silver and Gold Coin of the Constitution.

I was a bit of a surprise back in 2003 to hear Cleon Skousen say the Elders were asleep. Not that I was surprised the Elders were asleep, but that he said it. He also said it would be the wives of the Elders who would wake up when they see what they have done to the children, and that they would wake their husbands up. Nice to have some of the wives here on the forum!

Thanks Brian. Hopefully the discussion will stay on track.

[linj2fly]

Lorenzo Snow:

We will have to meet them [persecutions] in the future if we allow ourselves to be placed in the same condition of disobedience as were the people that colonized Jackson County. We cannot expect anything different. The Lord is the same today as He was yesterday. . . . They are only a portion of the sad results that followed disobedience to the law of consecration. The Saints pursued a course whereby the Lord could not justify himself in preserving them upon the land of Zion. It was decreed of the Almighty that that land should be purchased, as I have read to you. [Sec. 63:29-31.] I remember one time hearing President Hyde (I think it was) speaking in regard to our going back to Jackson County, and he said that inasmuch as they had abused the Saints and wrested from them some of their possessions, when we went back we would follow the same course toward them. After he had got through, President [Brigham] Young spoke upon this, and he said the Latter-day Saints never would get possession of that land by fighting and destroying life, but we would purchase the land, as the Lord had commanded in the first place. And I will tell you that that land never will be purchased, except it is purchased by the tithing of the Latter-day Saints and their consecrations; never, worlds without end. But the Latter-day Saints never will be in that condition of disobedience as were the people that colonized Jackson County. (CR, October 1899, pp. 26-27.)

[linj2fly]

J. Reuben Clark:

While the Saints were still undergoing suffering in Missouri, and after they had suffered much from the mobs who were driving them from their homes, and mistreating and mal-treating them, the Lord gave a revelation to the Church, in the course of which he said (I am reading from Section 101 of the Doctrine and Covenants): [v. 76, quoted.]

Notwithstanding all their sufferings, the Lord directs that they shall still have a loyalty to the rule of law. The revelation continues: [Sec. 101:77-78, quoted.]

The Lord is here declaring the scope and fundamental principle of the Constitution of the United States: [Sec. 101:79-80, quoted.]

To me . . . that statement of the Lord, "I have established the Constitution of this land," puts the Constitution of the United States in the position in which it would be if it were written in the book of Doctrine and Covenants itself. This makes the Constitution the word of the Lord to us. That it was given, not by oral utterance, but by the operation of his mind and spirit upon the minds of men, inspiring them to the working out of this great document of human government, does not alter its authority.

The first Congress of the United States, when it began to consider the operations of the government under the Constitution, became impressed that there was not in that document, as originally drawn, any so-called Bill of Rights; there were in the document no provisions which should keep the people free, which should protect them in their daily lives, nor guarantee to them the great liberties which the Declaration of Independence declared were the heritage of men. Accordingly this Congress proposed to the original states the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and it is significant, I am sure, of the influence which the Lord was at that time bringing to bear upon the minds of men, that the very first clause of the very first amendment declared:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Thus the very first thing which our fathers sought to secure for themselves and for their posterity was freedom to worship as they wished. I do not need to call to your minds the trials and persecution which this people have suffered in the past, in order to bring home to you the conviction that nothing else in the great document, the Constitution, is so important to this people as is this guarantee of religious freedom, because underneath and behind all that lies in our lives, all that we do in our lives, our religion, our worship, our belief and faith in God. . . . We need the Constitution and its guarantees of liberty and freedom more than any other people in the world, for, few and weak as we are, we stand naked and helpless except when clothed with its benign provisions. (CR, April 1935, pp. 93-94.)