Establishing Zion
Chapter 4 — Foundation Stones
What principles should guide not just personal behavior but the institutions and organizations of a Zion society? Chapter 4 answers that question by identifying five foundation stones drawn from scripture and prophetic teaching: devotion to God and Christ, charity, agency, accountability, and unity. These are not a checklist of requirements. They are the weightier principles of the gospel — the deep orientations of heart, soul, and community from which all more specific commandments and practices flow.
The chapter begins with a clarifying move about how to relate to principles of this kind. President Nelson's insight about the Sabbath offers the model: rather than cataloguing appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, ask what sign you want to give to God. That single question, applied consistently, brings clarity that no checklist can provide. The same orientation applies to all five foundation stones. The question is never "have I technically complied?" but "does this express who I am becoming?"
The two love commandments — love of God and love of neighbor — are qualitatively different from all other commandments. They are not specific do's and don'ts. They provide each of us the opportunity to ponder continuously whether our actions align with what the Savior modeled. On these two commandments, the Savior declared, hang all the law and the prophets. Elder Holland's insight grounds this in sequence: the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all His heart, might, mind, and strength — and it is from drawing on that foundation that we develop the awareness, sensitivity, and motivation to respond to the needs of those around us.
Agency is not a commandment — it is a gift as fundamental to human existence as a heartbeat. From the beginning, God instructed, offered alternatives, and said: "Thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee." But true agency does not stop at preference or intention. It is the full cycle of informed choice, decisive action, and changed futures. The Lord made this explicit: those who wait to be commanded in all things are slothful servants. Those who are "anxiously engaged" — who see a need and act without waiting to be told — are exercising the full measure of their agency. Choosing without acting is agency arrested at the moment of preference, producing no change, no growth, and no righteousness.
Accountability is agency's inseparable companion — and it is far more demanding than it first appears. It is not simply the acknowledgment that choices carry consequences. It is the active acceptance of responsibility for those consequences — and the commitment to do something about them. But accountability extends beyond the individual. When we choose to affiliate with a community, a congregation, a workplace, or a civil government, we take on responsibility for how well that body functions. D&C 105 makes this unmistakably clear: the Lord held the whole body of the Church accountable for the failure to establish Zion — not just the Saints in Missouri, but the congregations elsewhere who withheld their means and their commitment. From this accountability flows self-reliance — not as independence from others, but as the prerequisite for genuine service.
Unity stands apart from the other four foundation stones. Love of God, charity, agency, and accountability can each be cultivated individually. Unity is different. It is the only foundation stone that is inherently and irreducibly social. No individual can achieve it alone. It requires at least two people — and ultimately it requires a gathered, covenanted community committed to practicing it together. Unity is what is intentionally pursued by those who love God with all their heart, who love their neighbors as themselves, and who actively embrace the service that flows from self-reliance in a community approaching Zion. It operates along three dimensions: unity with Christ and His Father (made possible by the Atonement), unity with the living Saints (being of "one heart and one mind"), and unity across dispensations (the welding together of all the Church of the Firstborn from Adam onward). Unity has been rare in human history — but it has been achieved, in Enoch's city, among the Nephites following the Savior's appearance, in the early Jerusalem church. It will be achieved again.
Elder Gary Stevenson has compared the two great commandments to the foundation and the supporting towers of a suspension bridge — the structure from which everything else hangs. His language about loving with "your entire consecrated being" captures what the chapter is pointing toward: not a measured compliance with requirements, but a wholehearted orientation that shapes every person and institution it touches. Elder Bednar adds the essential action dimension: "Faith is the principle of action in all intelligent beings" — and we are commanded to be "doers of the word, and not hearers only." Adam's choice at the Fall offers the chapter's most searching illustration of informed choice under genuine uncertainty: he knew the fruit was contrary to commandment, knew the consequence would be death, knew he could not keep the multiply commandment without eating — but did not yet know there would be a Savior. He chose, with full awareness of what he did not know. That is agency fully exercised.
President Nelson's insight about the Sabbath — asking what sign you want to give to God — is presented as a model for how to relate to all the foundation stones. How does shifting from a checklist orientation to a relationship orientation change how you approach your covenant obligations?
The Savior said all the law and the prophets hang on love of God and love of neighbor. Do you find this claim liberating, demanding, or both? Are there commandments or community obligations you find it difficult to derive from the two great commandments?
The chapter argues that true agency is the full cycle of informed choice, decisive action, and changed futures. Where in your community life do you see agency arrested at the moment of preference — good intentions that never become action? What holds people back?
The chapter argues that accountability extends beyond individual choices to the institutions we belong to. What would it look like to take genuine accountability for the functioning of your ward or community rather than simply attending and observing?
President Romney taught that self-reliance becomes spiritual only when we use the freedom it brings to serve others. How does this reframing change how you think about your own efforts toward independence?
Unity must be intentionally pursued — not a natural byproduct of the other four foundation stones. What would intentional pursuit of unity look like in your ward or neighborhood? What is the first concrete step your community could take?
The foundation stones must be nurtured first in the home and then elaborated through life experience, social interaction, and public discourse. What does this suggest about the role of families, wards, and communities in cultivating the foundation stones across generations?