Many believers in the restoration movement consider the location where Zion will be built is obvious: Independence, Missouri. In Doctrine and Covenants 57:1–3, Joseph Smith designated Jackson County as the “center place” of Zion. The Church of Jesus Christ does not accept the Doctrine and Covenants as scripture, and while Missouri played a central role for an important part in the early restored church; the answers to where Zion and the New Jerusalem will be physically built remains an open question for the Lord’s continued direction. The Church of Jesus Christ believes everything must be grounded in the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
The Bible and Book of Mormon portray a robust, beautiful and scripturally consistent model of Zion beyond any single city in Missouri. It involves God’s covenant with an entire land, a specific people, a gathering that has not yet fully commenced and a future that belongs to the remnant of Israel.
The Choice Land — God’s Covenant with the Americas
The Book of Mormon establishes a profound covenant truth at its very foundation: the Americas are God’s choice land — sanctified and set apart by Him for His purposes, consecrated for His covenant people.
Moroni records the Lord’s everlasting decree: “…This is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God” (Ether 2:10).
And earlier: “…this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity” (Ether 2:9).
Notice the scope. God did not designate a city. He designated an entire land — a continent, a hemisphere — as His choice land. This is covenant language on the grandest scale: the Americas are the land God set apart for the fulfillment of His promises to the house of Israel.
This covenant was first revealed to the Jaredites, renewed with the Nephites, and remains in force today. It is the everlasting decree of God — and it applies to every people that possesses this land. Those who serve God will be blessed. Those who ripen in iniquity will be swept off. This is the covenant of the choice land.
The Descendants of Joseph — The Covenant People of This Land
The Book of Mormon identifies the primary covenant people of the choice land: the descendants of Joseph — the son of Jacob whose birthright blessing included this promised land.
Lehi was of the house of Joseph. He carried the birthright blessing of Joseph of old. Jacob’s blessing over Joseph in Genesis speaks of this: “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall” (Genesis 49:22). Joseph’s descendants would be multiplied, scattered, and given great blessing — and his “branches” would run “over the wall,” beyond the boundaries of the old world, to a new land.
The Book of Mormon confirms the fulfillment of that promise. It is the record of the house of Joseph — the history of Lehi’s descendants on the choice land. And the Book of Mormon’s title page declares its purpose: it was written “…to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever…”
The descendants of Joseph — identified by The Church of Jesus Christ amongst the indigenous people who have inhabited the Americas from ancient times — are the remnant of the house of Israel on this land. They are the covenant people to whom the promises of the Book of Mormon most directly apply. They are not a footnote in the story of the Restoration. They are central to it.
Jesus Himself spoke to this when He visited the Nephites: “And behold, this people will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob; and it shall be a New Jerusalem” (3 Nephi 20:22). Christ established the descendants of Joseph on this land to fulfill the covenant He made with Jacob. The New Jerusalem is connected to this people and this land.
The New Jerusalem
The prophet Ether declared “…after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord…” (Ether 13:2). In other words, from the very beginning, God had a plan, but what makes a land chosen by the Almighty for His people to inherit? Dirt is dirt and trees are trees. There are lush and beautiful places worldwide. What makes a land sanctified — set apart — by the Lord?
One of the earliest prophecies from the Book of Mormon gives a clear answer: this land is a land of promise upon which the holy city of the New Jerusalem will be built in Zion and upon which the heavenly city of the New Jerusalem will descend at Christ’s glorious return at the end of time in the flesh. Ether declared: “…that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.” (Ether 13:6) The New Jerusalem is built on this land — the Americas, the choice land — unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph. No precise location is identified, but upon this land of promise, for these people.
Jesus taught the Nephites: “And they shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob, and also as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem” (3 Nephi 21:23). “And then shall they assist my people that they may be gathered in, who are scattered upon all the face of the land, in unto the New Jerusalem” (3 Nephi 21:24).
The builders of the New Jerusalem are identified clearly: the remnant of Jacob — the descendants of Lehi, the seed of Joseph, the covenant people of this land. The Gentiles will assist them. Others from the house of Israel who come into the covenant will assist them. But the primary builders are the remnant of Jacob themselves.
The emphasis is on God’s covenant faithfulness to the descendants of Joseph — not on a geographic coordinate. The New Jerusalem will be built where God determines, when God determines, by the people He has covenanted with.
Ether goes on to prophecy that, “And there shall be a new heaven and a new earth; and they shall be like unto the old save the old have passed away, and all things have become new. And then cometh the New Jerusalem; and blessed are they who dwell therein, for it is they whose garments are white through the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who are numbered among the remnant of the seed of Joseph, who were of the house of Israel.” (Ether 13:9-10) Joseph upon this land will play a critical part in building the kingdom of God on earth to prepare for the cleansing and purification of the world at Christ’s return. Christ has a plan for His people and a place prepared for the people of God.
The Old and New Jerusalems
The Book of Mormon presents a comprehensive prophetic picture involving two parallel gatherings and holy cities.
The New Jerusalem will be built on the Americas — the choice land — by the remnant of the seed of Joseph, with the assistance of the Gentiles and as many of the house of Israel as shall come (3 Nephi 21:23–24, Ether 13:6). This is the gathering of the descendants of Joseph to their covenant land, where Christ Himself promised to establish them (3 Nephi 20:22).
The Old Jerusalem will be rebuilt in the land of Palestine as a holy city unto the Lord. Ether prophesied that the house of Israel — including the lost tribes — shall be gathered from the four quarters of the earth to the site of the old Jerusalem, where the city shall be built up again (Ether 13:5, 11). This is the gathering of the house of Israel to their ancient inheritance.
The Church of Jesus Christ believes in this dual gathering: the seed of Joseph shall build a New Jerusalem on the Americas with the help of the Gentiles, while the house of Israel shall gather both in the Americas and in old Jerusalem, the land of their inheritance. Two cities. Two gatherings. One covenant God fulfilling His promises to all of Israel.
Christ Himself described the scope of this work: when the New Jerusalem is established, “…then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people… at that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people, yea, even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem” (3 Nephi 21:26).
The building of the New Jerusalem is not an isolated event. It is the beginning of a global gathering — the commencement of God’s final work among all the dispersed of Israel and all believers who have the hope of salvation through the Messiah- Jesus Christ. The scope is breathtaking. It involves two hemispheres, two cities, all tribes of Israel, the believing gentiles and the direct intervention of God Himself.
Early Restoration Observation
David Whitmer — one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon — addressed the early zeal of the church and identified one of the early Restoration’s most significant errors. The early church leaders, with heartfelt faith and desire, began to believe that they were the chosen servants who should build the New Jerusalem in their own time. Whitmer pointed out the problem: Christ Himself said that the remnant of Jacob — the seed of Lehi, the descendants of Joseph — are the people who shall build that city. The Gentiles are to assist them.
The early leaders were too hasty. The time to build the New Jerusalem had not yet come because the covenant people who would build it had not yet been gathered. The work of gathering the remnant of Jacob was still future. Certain leaders mistook their own generation for the final generation and their own institution for the instrument of Zion’s establishment.
This is a pattern The Church of Jesus Christ recognizes and is sensitive to: the tendency to rush ahead of God’s timeline, to not fully understand the day and time in which we live and to confuse ambition with divine purpose. The building of the New Jerusalem will happen in God’s time, through God’s covenant people, according to God’s plan — not according to a revelation produced under any pressure or expectation.
The Choice Seer — A Future Work
The Book of Mormon prophecies the coming of a mighty figure — the Choice Seer — who will arise from the lineage of Joseph to do a great work among the descendants of Joseph on this land.
Lehi, quoting the prophecy of Joseph of old, records: “A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins… And he shall be great like unto Moses…” (2 Nephi 3:6, 9). This Choice Seer will be from the lineage of Joseph, his father’s name will be Joseph, and he will be raised up to convince the descendants of Joseph of the truth of God’s words and covenants.
The Church of Jesus Christ believes this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled (link to article). The Choice Seer is not Joseph Smith — though many in the restoration movement have assumed so. The work of the Choice Seer is specifically among the descendants of Joseph — the Native peoples of the Americas — convincing them of the covenants God made with their fathers and gathering them to the knowledge of their identity as the remnant of Israel.
This is the great work that precedes the building of the New Jerusalem. Before the city can be built, the builders must be gathered. Before the remnant of Jacob can fulfill their covenant destiny, they must know who they are. The Choice Seer will do that work — and it is a work that has not yet been accomplished.
The Members Guide of The Church of Jesus Christ describes this expectation: the Choice Seer, endowed with great power from God, will convince many of the word of God which would have already gone out among them. Those who hear his words and obey the commandments of Christ shall be numbered among the covenant people of God.
What This Means for The Church of Jesus Christ
The Church of Jesus Christ does claim a role in the larger work: preaching the gospel, holding forth the Book of Mormon as the record of the house of Joseph, bearing witness to the covenants God has made with this people on this land, and preparing for the day when the work of the Father commences in its fullness.
The church’s work is preparatory. The gospel was restored to the Gentiles first — and through the Gentiles, the gospel goes to the descendants of Joseph. In process of time, as the seed of Joseph comes to know their covenant identity, the building of the New Jerusalem will become possible. The church is part of that process — not the entirety of it.
This is a humbling vision. It does not place The Church of Jesus Christ at the center of God’s prophetic plan. It places Christ at the center — and it places the covenant people of this land, the descendants of Joseph, at the center of the work that is to come. The church serves that work. The church bears witness to it. The church prepares the way. But the work itself belongs to God.
The New Jerusalem will be built. Wherever that happens, we desire to assist. The remnant of Jacob will be gathered. The work of the Father will commence. And in the midst of His people — on this choice land, in the city they will build — the Lord Himself will dwell.
“…And the powers of heaven shall be in the midst of this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you” (3 Nephi 20:22).
