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Show great evil would eventually befall the non-Mormon, or Gentile, world, remained an important undercurrent in Mormon thought throughout most of the nineteenth century~ After 1830, Mormon eschatology moved increasingly away from predicicting the time of the Apocalypse toward defining the place where the expected Event would occur. 22 Zion as place becomes the second major facet of the Mormon Gathering. As a millenarian sect, the Latter-day Saints believed that Christ would rule upon earth during the millennium and therefore the Advent was an event which could be viewed with great anticipation. 23 Joseph Smith's teaching strongly suggested that the time was indeed drawing near when the Saints ~ight expect Christ's appearance. In 1835 he told an audience that about "fifty-six years should wind up,the scene. 1124 While Smith later retracted this prediction in favor of a less specific pronouncement, the year 1890 was generally absorbed into Mormon folk belief as the time appointed for the beginning of the millennium. As can be expected, this date became more import ant for Mormons as the century progressed and the expected time came and went. In the 1830s, however, the remoteness of the date coupled with the exigencies of organizing a rapidly growing church shifted chiliastic attention away from time and onto place. The Lord instructed the faithful to "assemble themselves upon the land of Zion, 1125 and await the imminent but unspecified "time of My coming." 26 As the concept of the Zionism gathered momentum within the church, Smith found himself pressed to reveal, if not the time, then the exact location for the Gathering. Though at the time the largest group of Saints was residing at Kirtland, missionaries to the Native American Indians had recently returned from Missouri with glowing reports concerning the desireability 39 |
