Establishing Zion
Chapter 5 — Nauvoo: Cornerstone of Zion
D&C 124 declares Nauvoo the cornerstone of Zion — not once but four times. That repetition is significant. A cornerstone is not an ornament. It is the reference point from which everything else is measured and aligned. Understanding what the Lord meant by that declaration requires reading the revelation carefully, because what it describes is far more than a temple city. It is a complete community framework.
The temple stands at the center. D&C 124 is primarily a revelation about the Nauvoo Temple — its construction, its purposes, the ordinances to be performed within it. But the revelation does not stop there. It also addresses Church organizational structure, commercial enterprise, civic governance, and personal conduct. Taken together, these elements constitute a blueprint for how covenant people are to organize their common life.
The Nauvoo House is the revelation's most instructive institution for understanding Zion's economic principles. It was to be a boarding house and gathering place, but its governance structure was deliberately designed to prevent the concentration of ownership and to prioritize Zion's progress over profit. Shareholders were subject to qualification requirements — not just anyone could hold a stake. Maximum ownership was capped. The enterprise was to be governed in the interest of the community rather than of investors. This is not incidental detail. It is a direct application of Zion's economic principles to a specific commercial institution, and it offers a template for how Zion enterprises should be structured today.
Nauvoo also demonstrated that there will be active markets in Zion. The revelation does not call for the elimination of commerce but for its transformation — market participants placing the interests of all stakeholders on equal footing, cooperation and a focus on Zion's good driving enterprise rather than profit maximization alone. The question the Nauvoo House raises for us today is whether cooperation and shared purpose would be sufficient to drive the innovation and productivity a Zion society requires. The historical record of cooperative enterprise — from Brigham Young's ZCMI to the Mondragon cooperatives — suggests the answer is yes, with the right organizational design.
D&C 124 also contains individualized counsel directed at specific people by name. Reading those counsels carefully reveals a pattern that applies to all who seek to live in Zion: follow the prophet, proclaim the gospel, plead the cause of the poor, labor with your own hands, be humble and without guile, clothe yourself with charity. These are not peripheral suggestions. They are the personal dispositions that make Zion possible — the internal counterpart to the institutional framework the revelation also describes.
The original understanding of a stake was a gathering community — a tent peg driven into the ground, extending the boundaries of Zion outward from a center place. That understanding was largely set aside as the Church grew globally and stakes became primarily ecclesiastical units. But the gathering principle has not been abandoned. President Nelson's repeated emphasis on gathering Israel, on making our homes and stakes into sanctuaries of faith, points toward a recovery of the original vision — covenant communities organized not just for worship but for the full range of life together that Zion requires.
D&C 124 declares Nauvoo the cornerstone of Zion four times. The chapter argues that the cornerstone encompasses temple, Church structure, cooperative enterprise, civic governance, and personal conduct — not just the temple alone. Does this broader understanding change how you think about what building Zion requires?
The Nauvoo House model included a cap on maximum ownership, governance directed to pursue Zion's good over profit, and shareholder qualification requirements. What contemporary organizations come closest to this model? What would it take to build such enterprises in your community today?
The chapter acknowledges that there will be active markets in Zion, but that market participants will place the interests of all stakeholders on equal footing. It also raises the question of whether cooperation and a focus on Zion's good would be sufficient to drive innovation. What is your view?
If stakes were originally gathering communities rather than just ecclesiastical units, what would it look like for a contemporary stake to function as a genuine gathering community?
D&C 124 contains individualized counsel that applies to all who seek to live in Zion — follow the prophet, proclaim the gospel, plead the cause of the poor, labor with your own hands, be humble and without guile, clothe yourself with charity. Which of these feels most demanding or most relevant to your own efforts today?