Several definitions of Zion include people and places
"The name Zion,' " wrote Elder James E. Talmage in Articles of Faith, "is used in several distinct senses. By derivation Zion, or, as written by the Greeks, Sion, probably meant bright, or sunny; but this commonplace signification is lost in the deeper and more affecting meaning that the word as a name and title came to acquire. . . . A particular hill within the site of the city of Jerusalem was called Zion. When David gained his victory over the Jebusites he captured and occupied thestronghold of Zion,' and named it the city of David. (See 2 Sam. 5:6,7; see also 1 Kings 2:10 and 8:1.) `Zion' then was the name of a place; and it has been applied as follows:
"1. To the hill itself, or Mount Zion, and, by extension of meaning, to Jerusalem."2. To the location of the `mountain of the house of the Lord,' which Micah predicts shall be established in the last days, distinct from Jerusalem. To these we may add another application of the name as made known through modern revelation, viz.:
"3. To the City of Holiness founded by Enoch, the seventh patriarch in descent from Adam, and called by him Zion. (See Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:18-21.)
"4. Yet another use of the term is to be noted - a metaphorical one - by which the Church of God is called Zion, comprising, according to the Lord's own definition, the pure in heart. (See D&C 97:21.)"
Elder Talmage further explained that in the last days "the people or Zion of Enoch, and the modern Zion, or gathered saints on the western continent will become one people." He noted that the town of Independence, Mo., was named as "the center place" (see D&C 57:3) for the gathering of the Saints and that the site for a temple there was designated.
"But the plan of building up Zion has not yet been consummated," he wrote. "The saints were not permitted to enter into immediate possession of the land which was promised to them as an everlasting inheritance. Even as years elapsed between the time of the Lord's promise to Israel of old that Canaan should be their inheritance, and the time of their entering into possession thereof - years devoted to the people's toilsome and sorrowful preparation for the fulfilment - so in these latter days the divine purpose is held in abeyance, while the people are being sanctified for the great gift and the responsibilities associated with it."
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