An analysis of D&C sections 42, 57,94 & 95, the Plat of the City of Zion, and the Plan of the House of the Lord 

by David R. Hall 12/2/24

Introduction: 

On the afternoon of Saturday, April 14, 1973, I attended a stake leadership conference for the New Brunswick Stake of New Jersey. I was in attendance in my capacity as a clerk for the Princeton ward. My wife, Karen, and I had both graduated from BYU the year before. We had moved to Princeton where I was employed at the Ingersoll Rand Research Center.  

After the leadership meeting, there was a general session for the adults of the stake. President Harold B. Lee was going to be the speaker at that session and the Sunday session. The church had built a brand-new Stake center. President Lee was attending because he was going to dedicate the new building.  

The drive from our apartment to this new stake center was over 30 minutes. Karen was pregnant at the time. As she was not feeling well, we decided that she would stay home. I would stay for the Saturday night session on my own instead of coming back to pick her up. 

The leadership meeting went over its scheduled time. When the session finally ended, all but 5 of us left the building to go and pick up their wives for the evening session. Of the 5 who were left, I was the oldest at 26. The others were younger students at the local universities. After about 10 minutes of us 5 sitting and talking to each other, President Lee came in with an assistant. He remarked that we were the only people present, and we explained to him that everyone had left to pick up their wives. 

President Lee first took off his overcoat, and then his suit coat.  He sat down with us in the chapel. To our surprise, he started complaining about how he was very frustrated because he could not get the support he needed from church employees, stake presidents, and the 12 to make changes to operations in the church that he thought were necessary. He gave us several examples but the one that stuck in my mind was that he had decided that the church should not be in the education business. 

He had approached the state of Idaho and had gained their approval for taking over Ricks College in Rexburg. However, word had leaked about his plans. He had then received 10,000 letters of protest from church leaders and members opposing his decision. He had further found that even the Twelve Apostles would not support him.  

The president also told us that he planned to get Ricks College to be a State of Idaho college and then BYU a State of Utah school. This would follow the previous pattern of turning schools over to local governments. The church would no longer be involved in education just like they were no longer in the business of running hospitals. 

The five of us were of course stunned at his openness with us. We just sat there without saying anything and let him vent. He went on for about 20 minutes until others started to flow into the assembly hall. In closing, President Lee challenged the five of us to study church history and the revelations of Joseph Smith. He asked us to use this to try and figure out how the church should be organized because what he was up against wasn’t working. With that, he left us and went and sat on the stand and put his suitcoat back on. Within 10 minutes the assembly hall was full again and the session started with President Lee presiding. 

After that momentous meeting with President Lee, I learned that in the previous week, at the General Conference, he had expressed some frustration about resistance within the system. He had called on the members to support the church leaders. As a young man, it seemed impossible to me that the President and Prophet of the church would have any issues getting things done as he desired.  

The next year I began an evening MBA program sponsored by my company. I spent 4 years going to night school learning the principles of organizational behavior. I learned that resistance to change is proportional to the size and complexity of the organization. My newly acquired knowledge enabled me to understand that even though he was President and Prophet, President Lee would still have to convince a bureaucracy with entrenched procedures and systems. This would be hard for any leader to change. 

The role organizational complexity plays in inhibiting change is well documented by authors such as Edgar Schlein. Other sources that detail the phenomenon of organizational change and how organizations can cope with it are listed below. These authors and their work provide diverse perspectives on the challenges and strategies associated with managing organizational resistance to change. 

• Kurt Lewin is known for developing the “Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze” model of change management. Lewin’s work is foundational in understanding resistance to organizational change. 

• John P. Kotter, whose book, “Leading Change,” outlines an eight-step process for successful organizational transformation, addressing resistance to change as a key challenge. 

• In “The Change Masters,” Rosabeth Moss Kanter explores the dynamics of change in organizations, including factors that contribute to resistance. 

• Richard Beckhard and Reuben T. Harris, provide insights into overcoming resistance in their work on organizational development, particularly in the book “Organizational Transitions: Managing Complex Change.”  

• Peter Senge, in “The Fifth Discipline,” discusses systems thinking and the learning organization, emphasizing how understanding underlying structures can help address resistance to change. 

• Paul R. Lawrence and Jay W. Lorsch, in their research on organizational behavior in “Organization and Environment,” explore how differentiation and integration affect change processes.  

• Jeffrey Pfeffer’s research often addresses power dynamics in organizations, including how these dynamics can create resistance to change. 

Unfortunately, President Lee passed away later that year. None of the objectives that he had told to 5 startled young men were ever put into practice by the church. In fact, both Ricks College and BYU grew. Today, church leaders face a much bigger issue: very few of the church members can attend these very expensive and exclusive schools, except for a few lucky ones who are highly subsidized by everyone else creating an unintended “elite”.  

I accepted President Lee’s challenge. I began right away to study church history and all the revelations of Joseph Smith including the “Plat of Zion” and the “House of the Lord” revelations that were never canonized. The rest of this paper is a result of over 50 years of diligent continuous study. This of course is my interpretation of the revelations, and I expect that most readers will not agree with my conclusions, at least not at first. After all, it has taken me over 50 years to come to these conclusions; I do not expect that there will be any mad rush for anyone, especially leaders of the church, to understand, especially on their first reading. 

I have made several mistakes along my path of learning, studying, and acting on the concepts that I have learned from this study.  For instance, through the NewVistas Foundation, I was unable to preserve 1,000 acres of land in Vermont around the birthplace of Joseph Smith for a way in the future community patterned after the “Plat of Zion”.  

The local and then the Vermont State legislature passed a unanimous resolution, which placed restrictions on the land that I had purchased. The restrictions prevented any community from ever being built on the site even if it was, as I had promised in writing, to be land preservation for a community that would be more than 100 years in the future.  

The LDS church also came out publicly against the NewVistas concept and the foundation’s Vermont land purchases, without ever reviewing the concept or contacting me to discuss it. They viewed it as a public relations issue that from their point of view was an embarrassment to the church. This was despite my numerous assurances to anyone who asked and statements on all my websites and literature that this was a personal project that I alone was responsible for and that I had never consulted with nor been involved in any church-related organization. 

My experiences over the past 50 years have convinced me that the Zion contemplated in the revelations of Joseph Smith cannot and will not be established by the LDS church. The LDS church has become very temple-centric. In due course, I expect that it will exit education and all other non-essential secular programs to focus on the ordinances offered in their temples which oddly enough are designed “after the manner of the world” instead of as prescribed by vision. D&C 95:13 states “Let the house be built, not after the manner of the world.  Therefore, let it be built after the manner which I shall show unto three of you, whom ye shall appoint and ordain unto this power.”  

The focus on Temple ordinances will open the possibility for “Zion” to be set up by others. Financially and legally independent communities will be initiated by a few LDS members on their own initiative in combination with 100 times more participants from other faiths, and many who do not believe in God but are excited about the concept of having all things in common and no poor among them so that all who participate will be of one heart and mind concerning the key principles that create a Zion community.  

 These communities will be compatible with the LDS church’s focus on temple ordinances by providing compatible facilities at much lower cost through part-time, as-needed rent instead of very expensive exclusive ownership of expensive temples. 

This very low-cost approach for providing part-time facilities that are needed for the LDS temple ordinances would enable the church to redefine key concepts. For instance, since the church would not need much funding, it would be able to redefine tithing as (10%) of “interest” (which in 1838 was 6% of net worth) as D&C119 (1-5) commands instead of sticking with what tithing evolved to be on a person’s “income”. This current definition of tithing is one of the biggest reasons why converts leave the church shortly after joining because it is impossible for most members, especially the poor, to remain faithful members because of the very heavy regressive financial burden of tithing on income. 

The driving force uniting those who will participate in this future Zion, which we have renamed NewVistas, will be social and economic forces that will require solutions that don’t exist anywhere within any existing government or political theories. The revelations of Joseph Smith prescribe a unique approach to economic and social organization that the world desperately needs.  

Analysis of D&C 42, 57, 94, and 95 

My analysis of D&C 42, 57, 94, and 95 is conducted within the context of the Plat of the City of Zion, and the Plan of the House of the Lord. As I will discuss in this presentation, these two revelations had the potential to seminally influence, at the very least, the development of LDS theology.  

D&C section 42 

The following analysis of D&C 42 comprises of a line-by-line analysis of the original revelation, how it was altered, why it was altered, and the repercussions of these changes. Only then can we fully appreciate the momentous nature of this revelation.  

It is possible for honest honorable people to create a society that has: 

 “all things are common” and “no poor among them” 

The original text of section 42 follows this link and below.  

The verses 31 – 34 in the original revelation read as follows:  

& Beholdthou shalt conscrate all thy property properties that whichthou hast unto me with a covena[n]t and Deed whichcannot be broken & they Shall be laid before theBishop of my church & two of the Elders such as heshall appoint & set apart for that purpose & it shallcome to pass that the Bishop of my church afterthat he has received the properties of my churchthat it cannot be taken from him you he shallappoint every man a Steward over his ownproperty or that which he hath received in asmuch as shall be sufficient for him self and family & the residue shall be kept to administer tohim that hath not that every man may rceive according as he stands in need 

Figure 1: A section of the original record of D&C 42 

Revelation, Kirtland Township, OH, [9 Feb.] 1831. Featured version, titled “The Laws of the Church of Christ,” copied May 1831; handwriting of Symonds Rider; six pages; Revelations Collection, CHL. Includes archival marking. 

Each of the three leaves, measuring 7½ × 6½–6¾ inches (19 × 17 cm), has a similar jagged cut on the left edge of the recto. Also running along the left edge of each recto are eight small holes, likely used for sewing the booklet together. Based on comparison of the cuts and tears of the pages, these pages, along with copies of Articles and Covenants, circa April 1830 [D&C 20], and Revelation, 23 February 1831 [D&C 42:74–93], were part of a notebook of at least sixteen leaves, likely created by Symonds Rider. It is unknown when these pages were removed from the notebook. 

Symonds Rider likely supplied a copy of this revelation to the Western Courier (Ravenna, OH), which first published it 1 September 1831.1 The manuscript version featured here was possibly created 23 May 1831, the date found on the manuscript and the date given by the Western Courier. However, the same manuscript that includes a copy of the 9 February 1831 revelation also includes a copy of Revelation, 23 February 1831 [D&C 42:74–93], and gives the correct date of the latter revelation. It is possible that when he inscribed “May 23^d 1831” near the top of the 9 February revelation, Rider intended to write “February 23^d 1831” but gave May as the month rather than February. This possible error may hint that the copy was created simply sometime in May of 1831. 

Of the many extant versions of this text, the Rider manuscript is likely the earliest, save the incomplete version found in Revelation Book 1.2 According to a letter filed with this manuscript, this document, with several other manuscript revelations, was donated to the Church Historian’s Office in the early 1960s by a descendant of Symonds Rider. The rolled-up papers were discovered by the Rider family in 1958, having presumably been held by the family since Rider obtained them circa 1831.3 

A side-by-side comparison of the original “LAW” in comparison to the current LDS D&C version is shown below:  Joseph changed the original in consequence of Law suits by members who wanted out of the communalism he was practicing as a result of influence by Sydney Rigdon in favor of re-distribution vs. what the revelation actually specified.   

Verse & comments about Changes to “LAW”	Original Feb. 1831  (Joseph Smith Papers)	Current (2013 D&C, Section 42)
30) Consecration changed from “me” (the Lord or community) to the poor.  Joseph made these changes because of legal challenges from former members to the re-distribution way he was interpreting the “Law”	Behold thou shalt conscrate all thy property properties that which thou hast unto me with a covena[n]t and Deed which cannot be broken & they Shall be laid before the Bishop of my church	And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken.
31)The economic “LAW” that was an to be an investment by participants of “All” (over a time period) into a capital community bank with a covenant (agreement) and Deed that is to them, gets changed to a donation system for taking care of the poor.	& two of the Elders such as he shall appoint & set apart for that purpose	And in as much as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will do it unto me; and they shall be laid before the bishop of my church and his counselors, two of the elders, or high priests, such as he shall appoint or has appointed and set apart for that purpose.
32) Changed from investment to donation and from participant to cannot be taken from church.    The requirement that the bishop (Community Capital Bank), with assistant from two elders (village agencies) to supply a Stewardship sufficient for participant and family (dependents) is deleted.	& it shall come to pass that the Bishop of my church after that he has received the properties of my church that it cannot be taken from  you he shall appoint every man a Steward in as much as shall be sufficient for him self and family	And it shall come to pass, that after they  are laid before the bishop of my church, and after that he has received these testimonies concerning the consecration of the properties of my church, that they cannot be taken from the church, agreeable to my commandments, every man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward over his own property, or that which he has received by consecration, as much as is sufficient for himself and family.
33) The “LAW” (community investment combined with individual productive stewardships) was to be so productive and effective that it would have a significant residual and that is how the poor were to be taken care of in addition to many other needs of the community mentioned in the next few versus.	& the residue shall be kept to administer to him that hath not that every man may receive according as he stands in need	And again, if there shall be properties in the hands of the church, or any individuals of it, more than is necessary for their support after this first consecration, which is a residue to be consecrated unto the bishop, it shall be kept to administer to those who have not, from time to time, that every man who has need man be amply supplied and receive according to his wants.
34) Every participant invests their total net worth (ALL) over an agreed-on period of time, into the capital bank of the community.  And receiving back from the community agencies a stewardship that has enough assets large enough to support the wants and needs of that participant and family, the system after all that has enough excess left over to take care of the poor.	& the residue shall be kept in my store house to administer to the poor and needy as shall be appointed by the Elders of the church & the Bishop	Therefore, the residue, shall be kept in my storehouse, to administer to the poor and the needy, as shall be appointed by the high council of the church, and the bishop and his council;
35) And not only taking care of the poor but also purchasing the land and buildings needed to build up the New Jerusalem which as the plat defines is to fill the world.	& for the purpose of purchaseing Land & building up of the New Jerusalem which is here after to be revealed	And for the purpose of purchasing lands for the public benefit of the church, and building houses of worship, and building up of the New Jerusalem which is hereafter to be revealed.
36) The purpose of the “LAW” is to provide the means so that the Lord’s people (everyone) can be gathered in and come to his temples (24 buildings in every community worldwide)	that my covenant people may be gathered in one in the day that I shall come to my temple & this I do for the salvation of my people	That my covenant people may be gathered in one in that day when I shall come to my temple. And this I do for the salvation of my people.

From Productive consecration to redistribution/Communalism:  

The Original Revelation compared to the current, edited version of D&C 42 

D&C 42, revealed on February 9, 1831, and often referred to as the “Law,” represents the foundational revelation for the economic system for the City of Zion. Joseph had received the revelations about Enoch and his City of Zion. As a result, he was anxious to establish one himself as he viewed himself as a similitude of Enoch and even adopted “Enoch” his new name.  This revelation was promised in January of 1831 in Section 38:32 “Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high.” 

Context:  

Sidney Rigdon first met Joseph Smith in December 1830. He traveled to New York with Edward Partridge to meet Joseph Smith after being introduced to the Book of Mormon and the Restoration by missionaries, including Parley P. Pratt. This meeting occurred before the revelation of D&C 38. Joseph Smith was excited about his meeting with Sydney and about the fact that several hundred from Sidney’s congregation had joined the church in Kirtland. He was also excited about the communal practices of Sidney. 

The reason for the Lord telling Joseph in 38:32 that he would give them the Law once he got to Kirtland was to slow Joseph down a bit and try and help him realize that the Law that the saints were to follow was different than the communalism he was learning from Sydney. 

Joseph was also promised that in Kirtland, he and the saints would also be endowed with power from on high and these promises were met with the dedication of the Kirtland Temple on March 27^th of 1836 and the subsequent visitation of the Lord and others on April 3, 1836. When Joseph finally settled down in Kirtland, he received “LAW” in the presence of twelve elders of the Church, they had gathered and united in prayer, seeking the Lord to fulfill his promise of receiving the “LAW”. 

The original language of the Law (see the transcription of the text in the text above) prescribed a system of “consecration” – an investment with a covenant and a deed between the community bishops and the participant which “cannot be broken, i.e., was to be honored, and was to show what had been consecrated (invested). It also provided that there would be a “stewardship” – ownership of a business, enough for the wants and needs of that steward.  

This further provided the capacity for economic growth that, if implemented as revealed, could have provided the needs and wants of the growing number of community stewards while fostering prosperity for all and maintaining the scriptural goal of “all things in common” and “no poor among them”. 

However, the early Saints’ misunderstanding of the original requirements, legal issues that Joseph ran into as members sued him to get their property back, and acquaintance and existing practice of communal living led to edits to the revelation, shifting its focus from an investment-driven system to a redistributive model rooted in communalism. This section examines the original revelation, highlights the changes made, and explores how those changes reflect a failure of Joseph and the other early leaders to grasp the intended responsibilities of the “LAW” to create sustainable wealth and growth for everyone in the community. 

The original language defines that a formal detailed legal agreement (covenant) is to be entered between the participant and the bishops, ensuring that the contributor retains rights to the value of their consecrated property. The deed and agreement promised that the participant would receive from the community a return on their investment (interest or profit sharing). The interest would be received from the community capital Bank set up by the bishops with help from the elders acting as agents. There is a tithing tax of 10% of the (interest) paid out by the community capital bank to the participants (Investors) that is used exclusively by the Village Branch Presidencies to assist the poor in their branch so that there is “no poor among them”.   

Appointment of Stewardships: This community system required the bishops (banks) with the help of other community agencies, including two “elders” to assist stewards in forming and running successful businesses that were tailored specifically to the individual’s talents and skills so that they can be successful enough to meet their needs and wants, ensuring both sufficiency and autonomy through secure and fair rental agreements between the steward and the community.   

Another requirement that was not specifically mentioned but would later become an issue for Joseph was an agreed-on way for a person to exit the system without loss of their earnings and their original investment plus any interest owed. The lack of this type of agreement forced Joseph to make the edits that changed the very nature of the original concept. 

Implications of the Original Model 

Investment Structure: The bishops were expected to learn about (109:7), set up, and run community banks. They would receive consecrated properties from stewards as capital and provide deeds and covenants as guarantees of a deed to the participant for the value of their investment and a guaranteed return on that investment.  

The covenant and deed would also provide a way to exit and get back their investment plus interest if they decided to withdraw (2% maximum withdrawal per month until completely bought out by the community). This would prevent “runs” on the bank and give the community time to buy the investor out by regular payments over 2 years. 

Leveraged Growth: The banks would leverage the invested assets by a factor of 10-25, by providing loans to community agencies who would then use the loans to purchase land, buildings, equipment, supplies, livestock, infrastructure, and other things needed by “stewards” to run their businesses. The agencies would then rent those assets to the “stewards” of the community. 

Sufficient Stewardships: Each steward rents assets from the community agencies that are sufficient not only for their needs but also for their wants, aligning with the scriptural promise of abundance. The “stewards” are assisted by the community agencies so that they have a much higher chance of their businesses being successful. 

Changes to Section 42 

The version of Section 42 that we have now reflects significant edits from the original revelation of Feb. 9, 1831, that shifts the “law” from an investment-driven system to a redistributive model. The following text is from the current version of LDS section 42. 

30 And behold, thou wilt remember the poor and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken. 

31 And inasmuch as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will do it unto me; and they shall be laid before the bishop of my church and his counselors, two of the elders, or high priests, such as he shall appoint or has appointed and set apart for that purpose. 

32 And it shall come to pass, that after they are laid before the bishop of my church, and after that, he has received these testimonies concerning the consecration of the properties of my church, that they cannot be taken from the church, agreeable to my commandments, every man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward over his own property, or that which he has received by consecration, as much as is sufficient for himself and family. 

Changes:  

1. Removal of Investment Language 

• The revision edited the requirement that there be a “covenant and deed which cannot be broken with the participant.” This removed the responsibility placed on the community to provide a deed to the participant along with an agreement providing a return on the investment. It also removed a way for the participants to exit the community and receive back their consecrated (invested) property should they decide to leave that community, move to another community, or leave the system altogether. 

• The concept of deeds as ownership guarantees tied to capital investment was replaced by communal redistribution. The current section 42:32 goes so far as to say “consecration of the properties of my church, that they cannot be taken from the church” reversing completely the original intent of the consecration of assets by participants in return for a “covenant and Deed that cannot be broken” for the benefit of that individual. 

• Most of the edits that were made to section 42 between 1831 and 1835 were responses by Joseph because disaffected members had taken him and the church to court to plead for the return of the properties that they had consecrated to the bishop. The practice at the time was that the bishop took the assets and re-distributed them to other leaders or members who had a greater need than the giver (re-distribution or communalism). 

• Joseph and the other leaders had not provided an agreement to those who consecrated that included a provision for exit where the community would buy out the investor at 2% per month giving the community time to recruit another investor to replace the one leaving. When a member objected and asked for their assets back the church leaders refused, forcing members to go to court for redress. These suits were successful. Joseph consequently made modifications as illustrated in 42:32 changing the system to one of donations by individuals to the church for re-distribution and that the donations cannot be taken back.  

2. Introduction of Communal Themes 

• Later versions of the text emphasize care for the poor as the primary focus of consecration, neglecting the revelation’s original requirement for leaders to grow and multiply resources for the benefit of all in the community. 

• Communal redistribution became the prevailing interpretation, with assets being divided rather than invested as capital into a community bank which then leveraged those assets by a factor of 10-20 for systemic growth. 

3. Shift Away from Stewardship Autonomy 

• The promise of sufficient stewardship changed to the redistribution of resources, weakening the principle of individualized stewardship tied to productivity and responsibility. 

4. Influence of Sidney Rigdon and Communalism 

• Sidney Rigdon and others brought Campbellite communal practices into the early Church, interpreting “all things in common” as communal ownership. This framework overshadowed the investment model outlined in the original revelation on the “LAW”, leading to a shift toward redistribution rather than leveraging resources. 

5. Lack of Understanding of Financial Systems 

• Despite the existence of banking laws and practices in the 1830s, Church leaders did not grasp the potential of using a banking framework to multiply resources. 

• The failure to establish a legally set up bank meant that the Saints could not leverage their collective capital, limiting their ability to acquire land and develop Zion effectively. Some resources that were available at the time were: 

1. “A Short History of Paper Money and Banking in the United States” by William M. Gouge (printed in 1833 but covers earlier banking practices that could have been learned by counseling with existing bank owners and managers in the East). 

2. “An Inquiry into the Principles of the National Bank of the United States”** by William Findlay (1823). This book provides critical insights into the operations and principles of early U.S. banking institutions. 

3. “Observations on the Bank of the United States”** by Mathew Carey (1811). This publication discusses the impact and role of the Bank of the United States, which was chartered in 1791. 

4. “Considerations on the Currency and Banking System of the United States”** by Albert Gallatin (1831), provides valuable insights into the banking concepts of the period. 

6.             Cultural Norms of Hierarchy and Dependency 

• The changes reflect a broader tendency toward hierarchical leadership and dependence on centralized redistribution, undermining the original vision of self-sufficient stewardship. 

Missed Opportunities 

1. Leveraging the $240,000 of Net Worth membership at the time: 

• With approximately 1,200 Saints in Independence, Missouri, and an average net worth of $200 per person, the community’s total capital was $240,000. 

• If invested in a bank, this capital could have been leveraged by a factor of 10–20 to provide $2.4–4.8 million in loans to community agencies to purchase assets.  

• With modern applications, the bank’s leverage would have been even more, considering that, as banks wish to hold as little capital as possible, the leverage factor could easily be a hundred – assuming zero default, and perfect information.  

2. Purchasing Land and Building Infrastructure 

• At a land price of $1.25 per acre, the community could have acquired 1,000,000 acres, or enough land for 15 NewVistas (1,500,000 people) communities that are 10 miles square along with the livestock, equipment, and supplies needed to build Zion. As agriculture and manufacturing productivity increased, the 1 million acres of land would be enough to support two-fold and then four times more people, enabling the eventual establishment of 60 NewVistas communities of 100,000 people each, occupying a 5 x 5 mile square (25 square miles). 6 million people would be supported by the original 1 million acres purchased by the early saints. For context, 6 million is more than the current active LDS there are in the whole world.    

• Agencies could have rented assets to stewards, enabling productive use while generating income for the community. 

3. Sustainable Growth and Prosperity 

• The original system placed a responsibility on leaders to generate returns greater than the initial contributions, ensuring that every steward received sufficient resources to meet their needs and wants. It also created a means of economic production, thereby ensuring economic sustainability.  

• By failing to implement this system, the Saints remained financially vulnerable, culminating in the failure of the illegal Kirtland Safety Society in 1837. 

Plat of Zion’s details on the Law’s implementation 

The Plat of Zion provides more details that help in understanding how to implement the “LAW” provided in the original text of Section 42: 

1. 24 Community Agencies 

• The Plat of Zion, revealed in May of 1833, outlines a system of 24 public buildings housing 24 agencies each with a unique presidency of 4 responsible for various aspects of community life. 

• These agencies align with the vision in Section 42, where the bishop and elders (as agencies) manage resources for the benefit of the steward. 

2. Renting Assets to Stewards 

• The Plat of Zion framework supports a model where community-owned assets are rented to stewards, enabling productive use while preserving collective ownership of all assets by the community so that “all things were common”. 

3. Economic Balance 

• This system ensures that all members have access to resources while maintaining individual responsibility and autonomy, fostering both equality and prosperity. 

Conclusion 

The original revelation in D&C42 outlined a visionary economic model based on investment, stewardship, and leveraging resources via community banks for growth. By consecrating their net worth to the bishops (acting as a community bank), members would have entered binding covenants and deeds, ensuring both personal security and collective prosperity. The shift to communalism, influenced by preexisting practices and a lack of understanding of financial systems, undermined this vision, resulting in missed opportunities for Zion’s development. Revisiting the original revelation highlights the potential for a sustainable system of stewardship that aligns with divine principles of agency, responsibility, and abundance. By restoring these principles, future efforts to build Zion-like communities could achieve the “all things in common” and “no poor among them” principles envisioned in the early revelations—not through redistribution but through investment in community-owned assets and productive stewardship through the rental of those assets. 

A key verse in the original D&C 42 reads, “theBishop of my church & two of the Elders…”  A striking exact fulfillment of this revelation is the fact that, as we have figured out the detailed responsibilities of all the 1920 public servants, we have found that every new participant is going to invest all their net worth (over an agreed-on period) in the Capital Bank which is one of the bishops (who operates as Agency 8 in the community). In addition, every participant will be living in a branch, 10 of which make up a village. On their apartment floor, a participant will live with their captain of 10 (who is a service extension of the Human Relations Agency, or agency 1) who will assist them by taking them in social and business needs. The captain will take the participant to the village presidency responsible for “stewardships” (responsible for business formation and referred to as one of the Elders in the plat) to assist them in getting their business up and running, assisting with advice on contractors, supplies, markets, and other important details. 

The village presidency of four, which served agency 2, will control the systems that the participant will use for this. These presidents alongside those serving in agencies 1 and 3, based on their current roles, were in the 1500s bible language referred to as “elder”.  Once the business plan is approved then the participant will work with another village presidency of agency #3 so that they can rent equipment, building space, fixtures, tooling, supplies, and raw materials. The agency handles business operations. Therefore, once a participant has entered the community (admitted by agency 1), they need 3 signatures and contracts. These are with capital Bank – to invest their net worth, Stewardship agency, and Business operations agency. All 96 villages have these presidencies. Therefore, each participant is assisted by different elders, but they all invest their assets with the same Capital Bank. All these processes take place online via the operating system as are most of the operations. Since there are so many village presidents and captains (branch presidents), they are likely to know the participant personally, and therefore help them to navigate the system, or with personalized issues.  as well but since there are so many village presidents, they are likely to know you personally and with your captain of 10 help every participant become a successful member of the community.   

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D&C Section 57 

July 20, 1831 

The second revelation included in this analysis is codified in the Doctrines and Covenants as D&C 57. It was revealed through Joseph smith on July 20, 1831, in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. The revelation designated Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, as a gathering place for the Saints at that time. It provided specific instructions for establishing “a” city of Zion including directives for purchasing land and constructing key public buildings. Independence was a center place and a beginning, just as Kirtland and other centers (D&C 88) were called in later revelations. 

 Below is the full text of D&C 57, with commentary to elucidate its directives and significance. 

1. Hearken, O ye elders of my church, saith the Lord your God, who have assembled yourselves according to my commandments, in this land, which is the land of Missouri, which is the land which I have appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints. 

Commentary: The Lord addresses the elders gathered in Missouri, affirming that this land is consecrated for the Saints’ gathering at that time. This marks it as a divinely appointed location for establishing a Zion community and a new “beginning.” This had been promised in February 1831 as recorded in the original revelation of what is now D&C 42. 

2. Wherefore, this is the land of promise and the place for the city of Zion. 

Commentary: Missouri is identified as the “land of promise.” Specifically, it is designated as the location for the city of Zion at that location, or at least one city of Zion. Later, other areas were also designated as a “beginning” and another land of promise. They were also designated as cities of Zion (see, for example, Kirtland in 1833).  

3. And thus saith the Lord your God: If you will receive wisdom here is wisdom. Behold, the place which is now called Independence is the center place; and a spot for the temple is lying westward, upon a lot which is not far from the courthouse. 

Commentary: The Lord specifies that Independence is the “center place” of the Zion community for that time and place, with a designated temple site located west of the courthouse, underscoring the central role of sacred structures in the community’s layout. The May 1833 “Plat of Zion” revelation was still two years away. The saints of that time, therefore, were aware of only one “house of the Lord” or the temple that was to be built in independence at that time.  

Later on, when the Plat was revealed in May of 1833, we learn that every Zion community has a central area with 24 “houses of the Lord”, or temples and that the city of Zion is defined as worldwide communities that all together create the latter-day city of Zion or the new Jerusalem. 

4. Wherefore, it is wisdom that the land should be purchased by the saints; and also every tract lying westward, even unto the line running directly between Jew and Gentile; 

Commentary: The Saints are instructed to purchase the specified land, extending westward, to establish their inheritance and ensure control over that area designated for Zion. Purchasing all this land would have been impossible for these early saints. This is because, since they had not understood the earlier revelations recorded as D&C 42, they had not set up community banks. These banks would enable them to leverage the capital contributions of all the saints by a factor of 10-20. 

As mentioned earlier, land in the area could be acquired from the Federal Government at $1.25 per acre. If the saints had followed the “Law” correctly they would have been able to purchase over 1,000,000 acres. In addition, they would have been able to acquire all the livestock, equipment, and supplies that would have been necessary to productively utilize all the acquired land as commanded. 

5. And also, every tract bordering by the prairies, inasmuch as my disciples are enabled to buy lands. Behold, this is wisdom, that they may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance. 

Commentary: The directive includes acquiring lands adjacent to the prairies, to secure a lasting inheritance for the Saints, facilitating the expansion and sustainability of the community. In the period of 1832/3, there were around 1,200 members who had come to Zion from the East. Their average net worth per person was around $200 at the time. If they had properly followed D&C 42 and therefore set up a community bank, they would have had the ability to purchase the lands needed as required by the revelation. 

In its place, the saints practiced communalism, instead of setting up a Bank that could leverage their investments. This would have enabled them to provide all with a stewardship by renting each steward all of the assets that they might need to provide for their families’ wants and needs. 

6. And let my servant Sidney Gilbert stand in the office which I have appointed him, to receive monies, to be an agent unto the church, to buy land in all the regions round about, inasmuch as can be done in righteousness, and as wisdom shall direct. 

Commentary: Sidney Gilbert is appointed as the church’s agent, responsible for managing funds and overseeing the acquisition of lands, ensuring that these transactions are conducted righteously and wisely. Unfortunately, since the saints were re-distributing their net worth there was not any Bank leverage and so they were not able to provide each steward with enough land, supplies, equipment, and animals to ensure that each could achieve the goal of having both their needs but also their wants met. 

7. And let my servant Edward Partridge stand in the office which I have appointed him, and divide unto the saints their inheritance, even as I have commanded; and also those whom he has appointed to assist him. 

Commentary: Edward Partridge, as bishop, is tasked with allocating inheritances to the Saints, assisted by appointed individuals, to organize the community according to divine instructions. However, instead of looking at saints’ contributions as investments into Zion, Edward subdivided the existing common assets.  

Had Edward set up a bank, he would have utilized the net worth of the individuals to capitalize the community bank which could then leverage that capital by a factor of 10-20. In that era, this was a very common leverage ratio for Western banks. At an average of $200 per individual, the bank would have capital of $240,000 which if leveraged by a factor of 20 would have enabled the bank to provide $4,800,000 in loans to community agencies to buy 1,000,000 acres of land ($1.25/acre at the time), 500 homes at $500 each ($250,000), livestock, supplies, and business inventory, etc. 

8. And again, verily I say unto you, let my servant Sidney Gilbert plant himself in this place, and establish a store, that he may sell goods without fraud, that he may obtain money to buy lands for the good of the saints. 

Commentary: Sidney Gilbert is further instructed to establish a store in Independence, conducting honest commerce to generate funds for land purchases, supporting the temporal needs of the Saints. This would have brought in a little bit of profit but not nearly the amount needed to purchase all of the land that they were commanded to purchase. The only way they could have accomplished this was if they had learned how to run a community bank. Had they established a bank in 1832, they would have had all of the early saints invest their net worth as the capital of the community bank. 

9. And let my servant William W. Phelps be planted in this place and be established as a printer unto the church. 

Commentary: William W. Phelps is designated as the church’s printer in Independence, responsible for producing materials essential for communication and dissemination of doctrine. 

10. And let all these properties be turned over unto my servant Edward Partridge, that he may receive the monies which are to be paid for the lands which shall be purchased, and that he may deal with the monies as I have commanded. 

Commentary: All properties and funds are to be entrusted to Edward Partridge who was the bishop at the time. He could have set up a community bank and provided a well-written agreement and deed to the stewards who contributed their net worth, but unfortunately, they never understood nor caught on to the concept of a community bank and how it enabled the leveraging of the existing net worth of the individuals in the community. 

11. And let my servant Sidney Gilbert obtain a license—behold here is wisdom, and whoso readeth let him understand—that he may send goods also unto the people, even by whom he will as clerks employed in his service; 

Commentary: Sidney Gilbert is advised to obtain the necessary licenses to operate his store and distribute goods, employing clerks as needed, to facilitate the community’s economic activities. 

12. And thus provide for my saints, that my gospel may be preached unto those who sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of death. 

Commentary: The establishment of these enterprises aims to support the Saints and enable the preaching of the gospel to those in spiritual darkness, integrating temporal and spiritual missions. 

13. And again, verily I say unto you, let my servant William W. Phelps be established in the land of Zion, inasmuch as it is his desire to do the will of God; 

Commentary: William W. Phelps is encouraged to settle in Zion, contingent upon his desire to fulfill God’s will, highlighting the voluntary nature of service. 

14. And let all those of whom I have spoken plant themselves in the land of Zion, as speedily as can be, with their families, to do those things even as I have spoken. 

Commentary: All individuals mentioned are urged to relocate to Zion promptly with their families, to carry out the Lord’s directives and establish the community. 

15. And now concerning the gathering: 

16. Let the bishop and the agent make preparations for those families which have been commanded to come to this land, as soon as possible, and plant them in their inheritance. 

Commentary: The bishop and agent are responsible for preparing for incoming families, ensuring they are settled in their designated inheritances efficiently. Section 42, given in February of 1831 had promised the saints that if they invested all of their net worth with the Bishop who was to set up a community bank and assisted by elders who would set up community agencies, they would receive in return a stewardship that was sufficient to meet their wants and needs. 

17. And unto the residue of both elders and members further directions shall be given hereafter. Even so. Amen. 

Commentary: Additional instructions for the remaining elders and members will be provided in due time and this was primarily accomplished later by the revelations of sections 94/95, the Plat of Zion revelation, and the House of the Lord revelation. 

Doctrine and Covenants Section 94 

May 6, 1833 

Another important revelation in the context of the establishment of Zion is D&C 94, revealed on May 6, 1833. The revelation outlines specific instructions for the early Latter-day Saints regarding the establishment of sacred buildings and the organizational structure and physical structure of the city of Zion in the land of Kirtland. Since another “beginning” had been designated as Independence, Kirtland was yet another beginning of the city of Zion. Considering that the plat had already been revealed, D&C 94 can be viewed as attempting the saints to “operationalize” parts of the pattern. Below is the full text of Section 94, accompanied by commentary to elucidate its directives and significance. 

1. And again, verily I say unto you, my friends, a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall commence a work of laying out and preparing a beginning and foundation of the city of the stake of Zion, here in the land of Kirtland, beginning at my house. 

Commentary: The Lord commands the Saints to begin establishing Kirtland as a stake of Zion as another “beginning”, with the construction starting one of His houses, indicating the centrality of public buildings in the community’s foundation. 

2. And behold, it must be done according to the pattern which I have given unto you. 

Commentary: The construction and organization are to follow a divine pattern previously revealed and known now as the “Plat of Zion”, emphasizing adherence to God’s specific designs for the latter-day communities of Zion. 

3. And let the first lot on the south be consecrated unto me for the building of a house for the presidency (one of the 24 presidencies), for the work of the presidency, in obtaining revelations; and for the work of the ministry of the presidency, in all things pertaining to the church and kingdom. 

Commentary: The first lot on the south of the plat drawing is designated for a building dedicated to the work of one of the 24 community agency Presidencies. This building is #5 on the plat drawing and has a large #1 next to it indicating that it was the 1^st of the 24 to be built. All 24 buildings have 4 offices on the east side of the first floor that are specifically for the agency presidency that serves in that building. Additionally, there are offices in each building for the village and district presidencies that are served by that building.  

4. Verily I say unto you, that it shall be built fifty-five by sixty-five feet in the width thereof and in the length thereof, in the inner court. 

Commentary: Specific dimensions are provided for the critical “Inner court” of the building, measuring 55 feet in width and 65 feet in length, referring to the inner court, which may denote the inner interior space. This basic dimension is mentioned three times in D&C 94 and 95 and is critical in determining the full size of the building and where it is located on the 15-acre block that is specified by the Plat mentioned previously in vs. 2. The early saints knew this dimension well but also misinterpreted it as the only court instead of just the inner court.  They needed an outer court for halls, bathrooms, elevators, and stairs plus an East and West court for the pulpits.  

5. And there shall be a lower court and a higher court, according to the pattern which shall be given unto you hereafter. 

Commentary: The structure is to include two identical courts—lower and higher— pattern to be revealed later, indicating a duplicate identical court arrangement within the building’s design. The “Plan of the House of the Lord” design revelation provided on June 5th of 1833 defined these two courts as each being 28 feet in total height, with an elliptical arch, with curtains and veils that divided the inner court into 4 rooms. It also had 4 rooms for the presidencies at each end of the inner court (East and West courts), By subdividing using curtains, it was possible to create 1,2,4, or up to 12 rooms that could be used for public or religious functions. Such functions would include branch, public, or school meetings and ordinances (creation, garden, world, terrestrial). 

The design also specified that there were to be veils at each end of the inner 65’ x 55’ court. If we provide 6 inches at each end of the inner court for the veils and make the East and West courts 16.5 feet deep, then the total courts end up (16.5’+.5’+65’+.5’+16.5’) or 99 feet x 55 feet x 28 feet high.  

Since hallways and stairways and bathrooms and elevators would be needed to access all of the rooms of the courts, an “outer court, measuring 16.5 feet in width would be needed all around the 99×55 feet “inner court.” The overall floorplan would therefore be132 x 88 feet. These are the same dimensions specified by the plat that was revealed to the first presidency and recorded by Frederick G. Williams before receipt and record of section 94. 

One of the missing functions of the design that was recognized early on was that there was no place to do baptisms, washing, and anointings. They used the basement of the Kirtland temple for these functions. Later, when the Nauvoo temple was built, they had a ground or podium type of floor where they had baptismal fonts and places for washings and anointings. 

Figure 4 Shows all these factors together including the higher parts of the inner courts which were to be offices and classrooms. The Outer 16.5’ court is just the right size for hallways, elevators, and bathroom/change areas.  

The stairways are in the four corners of the building and entrance doors are all around the 1^st podium floor. This first floor is illustrated later in the paper.  

The pools have built-in retractable floors so that that area in addition to being a swimming pool is also an assembly area for activities and meetings. 

 D&C 95:17 “And let the higher part of the inner court be dedicated unto me for the school of mine apostles 

The builders who constructed the Kirtland temple between 1833 and 1836 erroneously included the pulpits with the inner court.  The 55’x65’ inner court was for the seats for 3 quorums of elders. With each quorum having 96 elder presidencies, they added up to 288 seats. Additionally, there were 12 High council members on the West and 12 deacons on the East of the 288 seats for the elders. 

The Pulpits were supposed to be in the 16.5 feet East and West courts. On the West, they were also supposed to have seats for the 4 Melchizedek presidencies, plus 3 quorums of 24 high priests, totaling 72 high priest seats.  On the Eastern side, there were seats for 4 Aaronic presidencies, 24 teacher presidencies, and 48 priest presidencies.  

In total, therefore, there would be seats for the following: 

(12+24+48+12+288+12+12+(24+24+24, 36 each side of the pulpits =480 seats:  

In 1836 it would have been impossible to imagine “seats” for all 480 that could move in and out of the building independently and turn in any direction as well as lift a speaker like a podium does so that that person can be seen and heard by all of the 480 presidents.   

The “Mule” platform is being developed so that all the courts can open without chairs enabling multiple public functions including assembly, pickleball, and basketball. More information on the Mule platform can be found here:  www.mule.work The mule is designed to enable “apps” to be affixed to it, such as a seat or a bed, with various functions enabling the user to move, rise, and lie horizontally, or stand up. 

The Mule platform provides mobility in all directions and a seat that can recline for viewing slide presentations or movies on modern LED screens or projections.  

A mule-powered seat can lift a person above the rest of an assembly and turn that person in any direction so that all can see and hear him or her.  The designers and builders of 1833-6 would not have had any ability to visualize this modern possibility. They had to do what they could at the time with the materials and labor that were available to them. With an inner court that is 55’x65’ and easements for “curtains and veils” of 0.5 feet on both ends of the inner court, plus East and West courts that are 55’x16.5 feet we end up with a 55’x99’ feet court. This court is large enough for all 480 electric Mules, each measuring 2X4 feet. Mules can easily exit the building so that the same court can be used as a pickleball or basketball court, or multiple conference rooms, among other uses. 

This versatility would provide a fully multifunctional building for use by the community on a 24/7 basis.  Each community has 24 buildings, each 88 x132 feet in area, five stories high, with each floor being 14 feet high, there is plenty of space to accommodate the needs of 100,000 people.   

To fill two buildings, #5 and #17 each with two courts we needed to figure out how many public servants are needed.   We get some of the numbers from the LDS D&C about the size of the quorums:    For instance, an elders quorum is specified as 96 and there are three of the 24 buildings specified for elders and room for 288 seats in the inner court of each building and so enough for 3 quorums of elders in each court and so 12 quorums of elders since there are 4 courts.  There are 96 villages and so each of the villages would be served by three presidencies of 4 and so 12 elders or one from each of the 12 quorums.   96 villages each served by 12 elders (Presidents) = 1152 elders.    There are 3 buildings for High Priests and so 3 quorums of high Priests for each court.  High Priests serve the 24 districts of the community and since there are three presidencies of 4 for each district then there are 24 x 12 high priests = 288 High Priests in 4 courts, 288/4=72 per court, 3 x 24=72, and so a High Priest quorum is composed of 24.   The West and East courts each have 4 presidencies so a total of 24 mirroring the 24 buildings. The West Court also has 72 High Priests, and the East Court has 48 Priests and 24 Teachers.  12 High councilors face the West court and 12 deacons face the East court.    And so, the total number of seats needed for each court is 288 for 96 x 3 elders, 8 x 3 presidents=24, 24x 3=72 High Priests, 12 high councilors, 12 deacons, 48 priests, 24 teachers for a total of (288+24+72+12+12+48+24) =480.   480 in each court x 4 = 1920.  Each building has 24 offices on floors 3 & 5 +(24+4+4) on the 1^st floor =80. 80×24=1920. Every Public servant has a seat in a unique court, plus a unique office in one of 24 buildings.   

6. And it shall be dedicated unto the Lord from the foundation thereof, according to the order of the priesthood, according to the pattern which shall be given unto you hereafter. 

Commentary: The building is to be dedicated to the Lord from its foundation, constructed according to priesthood order and a divinely provided pattern, underscoring its sacred purpose. 

7. And it shall be wholly dedicated unto the Lord for the work of the presidency. 

Commentary: One of the building’s functions is to provide offices for the Presidency of agency #5, highlighting the importance of multiple dedicated spaces for community leadership functions.   This function is within all 24 of the buildings providing 80 offices each so that all 1920 presidents who serve the community have a specific office in one of the buildings.   

8. And ye shall not suffer any unclean thing to come in unto it; and my glory shall be there, and my presence shall be there. 

Commentary: Notice that the word used is “thing.” There are no examples in any scripture where the Lord calls people “things.” Therefore, this is not a prescription against any person but unclean things should not be permitted. The 24 “houses of the Lord” are to serve the many needs of the community. All participants in the community are encouraged to participate in events in these public buildings where sports, schools, conferences, as well as religious services and religious ordinances are conducted. Most of those participating would not be members of the LDS faith. However, all participants would be participating in the basic community concepts of having all things in common and no poor among them. 

9. And again, verily I say unto you, the second lot on the south shall be dedicated unto me for the building of a house unto me, for the work of the printing of the translation of my scriptures, and all things whatsoever I shall command you. 

Commentary: There are three lots in the center of the community as defined in the Plat drawing. The second lot on the south is a 15-acre block just like the 1^st lot on the south where #5 was specified and commanded to be built. This 2^nd lot is another 15-acre lot. Therefore, the Lord is commanding another identical building to be built. Its presidency would be responsible for printing publishing and spreading the word about Zion communities. On the Plat this building is #17 and it has a large #2 next to it indicating that it was to be the 2^nd one built and also that this is the 2nd block discussed in the revelation. 

10. And it shall be fifty-five by sixty-five feet in the width thereof and in the length thereof, in the inner court. 

Commentary: #17 The House of the Lord shares the same inner court dimensions as the house for the presidency, suggesting a uniform architectural plan for the 24 public buildings. 

11. And there shall be a lower and a higher court. 

Commentary: Similar to the first building that was described, this building will also have two levels of courts, indicating a standard design for multifunctional use. 

12. And this house shall be wholly dedicated unto the Lord from the foundation thereof, for the work of the printing, in all things whatsoever I shall command you, to be holy, undefiled, according to the pattern in all things as it shall be given unto you. 

Commentary: The printing “House of the Lord” is to be constructed precisely according to the revealed pattern. This building is one of the 12 buildings in the Aaronic Priesthood’s 15-acre block. It is in the row of 3 buildings that are designated for the Three Teachers’ presidencies of four. One of the responsibilities of the teachers is to publish the bylaws of the community and in modern times maintain the community’s website.  

Presidency #17 of 24 has its 4 offices in this building along with the three district presidencies for District #17 and the three village presidencies for each of the 4 villages of that district. The Trustee Presidency of 4 and the Deacons presidency of 4 that serve that District also share 4 of the 80 offices in this building. 

 The early saints were able to complete part of the design of building #5 which is known as the Kirtland Temple. However, they ran out of funds and never even started building #17. As a result, they never had the 4 identical assembly hall courts that were commanded to be built. The early saints misunderstood the design specifications. They tried to fit all the pulpits and seating into the inner court that was 55 x 65 feet. The inner dimensions of the Kirtland temple are 55 x 65 feet plus the addition of a hallway/stairway and entrance on the east end of the temple. They built the two identical courts but never figured out what the 2^nd court was for and since the court was small, they did not figure out that 480 seats were necessary to provide seats for all of the public servants of the community and so they did not every figure out the full organizational structure that is needed to properly operate a community of Zion. 

13. And on the third lot shall my servant Hyrum Smith receive his inheritance. 

Commentary: The third lot is designated as an inheritance for Hyrum Smith, recognizing his service and providing him with a place within the community. This lot is another 15-acre lot that is for 30 apartment buildings where (30×100) =3000 participants in the community would live. The design for these apartment buildings was never figured out and so the early saints never followed through and built them. Instead, they built a few homes similar to the standards of the time.  There would have been room for Hyrum Smith but also 2,999 others on that block.  

14. And on the first and second lots on the north shall my servants Reynolds Cahoon and Jared Carter receive their inheritances— 

Commentary: Reynolds Cahoon and Jared Carter are granted inheritances on the first and second lots north of the temple lots, acknowledging their contributions and integrating them into the city’s planned structure. Each of these 15-acre lots had 30 ½ acre lots. The plat specifies that each was to have one “house” that would provide housing for 100 of the participants. Reynolds and Jared would have been living with 2,999 other participants who had housing on those 15-acre lots with 15 “houses” (apartment buildings).  

15. That they may do the work which I have appointed unto them, to be a committee to build mine houses, according to the commandment which I, the Lord God, have given unto you. 

Commentary: These individuals are appointed to a committee responsible for constructing the designated buildings, fulfilling the Lord’s commandments regarding the establishment of community buildings. 

16. These two houses are to be built, one for the presidency, and the other for the printing of the scriptures. 

Commentary: All of the 24 buildings have 4 offices for the presidency of the agency that occupies that building. The presidency occupying building #17 has the responsibility for printing and publishing the by-laws and regulations of the community. It is also responsible for the online library and the community websites. The presidency of 4 who have (4) offices in building #5 has the responsibility for Life Planning for community participants. There are 80 offices in each of the buildings. They are occupied by the 3 district presidencies for that district (12), and the 3 village presidencies for each of the 4 villages in the district, (48), plus two priest presidencies (8), one teachers’ presidency (4), and 4 offices shared by a deacons’ presidency of 4 and a trustee or High council presidency of 4. A total of 80 offices in each of the 24 buildings so that all 480×4=1920 public servants have their own private office.  

17. According to the directions which shall be given hereafter. 

Commentary: These directions were given as part of the 3D revelation given to Joseph Smith, Sydney Rigdon, and F.G. Williams on June 5, 1833, with my interpretation as Fig. 4 above.  

18. And it shall be for a house for the presidency of the school of the prophets, established for their instruction in all things that are expedient for them, even for all the officers of the church, or in other words, those who are called to the ministry in the church, beginning at the high priests, even down to the deacons— 

Commentary: Every public servant is to have an office in one of the 24 houses of the Lord as explained in the paragraph above. All public servants have an office – 80 offices * 24 houses = 1,920 offices. Each public servant is a president with a unique responsibility and representing one of the 4 demographic divisions of the community, each with its own court for its 480 presidents.  

The 2 identical courts in each of building #5 and building #17 can hold exactly 480 public servants with details as follows: (24) seats for the 8×3 demographic presidents 12 on each side of the inner court: Each court is to have 12 seats on each side of the inner court as shown below. 

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Figure 5: West side of Kirtland Temple, lower court (Married Men demographic): pulpits for12 Melchizedek presidents 

In the image above, the first three (lowest) seats are for the married men elders’ presidency. The next three are for the high priest presidency, followed by the bishop presidency, and lastly, the Melchizedek presidency on the fourth (top) row.  

The early saints were in a hurry to get going, and in this haste, did not understand that the 55X65 feet inner court was just that – an inner court. They put the east and west pulpits, together with the chairs, into this inner court. However, the pulpits and the seats on the west and the east were meant to be on their own 16.5 feet east and west courts. A 16.5’ 16.5-wide outer court was needed all the way around to provide room for hallways, bath/changerooms, elevators, and stairs. 

Because of these errors/ modifications, the Kirtland temple ended up much smaller than the 88’x132’ specified by the plat. While the saints did build both the lower and higher identical courts, the higher court was not built as well because they were running out of funds.  

The church has never figured out the reason for a lower and higher court since they never built the 2^nd building that was commanded in D&C 94 and 95. They did not see with their own eyes 4 identical courts which needed to be filled with public servants. The Plat which preceded D&C 94 & 95 laid out 24 buildings. This was beyond their imagination and understanding at the time. Subsequent “Plats” reduced the number of temples to fewer and fewer until there was just one.  

 The above photo is the East Aaronic side of the higher court. The First three seats are for the married woman’s presidency of the Deacons, the 2^nd row is for the married woman’s presidency of the teachers, and the 3^rd is for the married woman’s presidency of the priests. The 4^th is for the married women’s presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood.  

The Kirtland temple was building #5 and the first building that was commanded to be built. The 2^nd building #17 was never built. It was to be a duplicate of this building with the same lower and higher courts so that there would have been a court for the single women demographic in the lower court and also a court for the single men in the higher court of building #17.  

Each court has 480 seats so that each President of each demographic group has a unique place in the House of the Lord for them to “stand in their place”. All 480×4=1920 of these presidents also have a unique office in one of the 24 buildings fulfilling the promise from the Lord that he would prepare a place in his house for all his servants.  

There are 12 pulpits on both sides. Therefore, there are 24 Presidents or 8 demographic presidencies in each court. Since there are 4 courts with 24 agency presidents in each court there are also 24 presidencies of 4 (one from each court) who serve the community in the 24 agencies.  

The Lord promises in D&C 124:145 that he will “prepare rooms for all these offices in my “house.” He also commands, in D&C 84:109, “let every man stand in his own office and labor in his own calling.”  

The house of the Lord is to have:  

• 36 seats on each side of the central presidency seats for a total of (72) on the West side where 3 quorums of High Priests each have a unique seat. 

• Each High Priest quorum is composed of 24 high priests. One from each of the quorums sits next to the other quorum members, so 24 demographic presidencies of 3 sit on the stand. They are split into 36, (12 presidencies of 3), that have seats on both sides of the Melchizedek quorum Presidencies (Melchizedek demographic Presidency of 3;3 Bishops:3 High Priests: 3 Elders), with each High Priest demographic presidency representing one of the 24 districts in the community (4 villages per district), (96 villages per community, (10 branches per village), (100 people per branch/apartment building):  

• (12) seats for the High Council or Trustees who serve a specific demographic of that court with seats on the West end of the inner court facing the 4 Melchizedek demographic presidencies of 3: 

• (288) seats for 3 elders quorums of 96 each; one from each quorum sits next to the other two quorum members so that there are 96 demographic presidencies of 3 representing each of the 96 villages in the community:  

• One quorum of (12) deacons who sit at the East end of the inner court facing the 4 Aaronic Presidencies (Aaronic demographic presidency of 3; Priest Presidency; Teacher Presidency; deacon presidency:  

• One quorum of (48) Priests with 24 on each side of the Aaronic Presidencies:  

• One quorum of (24) teachers with 12 on each side of the Aaronic Presidencies:  

• 480 in each of the 4 courts for a total of 1920  

Public servants who serve each of the 4 demographic groups of the community; A: Married Men (Building #5 lower court), B: Married women (building #5 higher court), Single women (building #17 lower court), D: Single men (building #17 higher court):  

480 x 4= 1920 public servants in unique callings and a unique seat in one of the 4 courts:  

80×24= 1920 Each public servant serves in a unique office in a unique building and there are 80 offices in each of the 24 district buildings: Each building has 4 offices for one of the 24 agencies that occupy that specific building:  

The illustration below shows all of the seats mentioned above for one demographic group of public servants for one of the 4 courts. All 4 courts are identical with 2 in building #5 and two in building # 17. The Kirtland temple is partially representative of what building #5 was supposed to be. The early saints completed the building in March of 1836. They did not have enough funds to make the higher court exactly like the lower court, but they tried their best to do so.  

They also made the mistake of trying to include the pulpits in the 55’ x 65’ inner court instead of adding 16.5’ x 55’ West and East courts plus a 6’ easement for veils on both ends of the inner court. They also missed building a 16.5’ outer court all of the way around so that they would have hallways, bathrooms, and elevators to help them enter and exit the chambers and courts of the 5-story 70’x88’x132’ building.  

There are 480-seat easements 4.125’ long and 2.0625’ wide. All the mule-based seats are the same size (4’x2’) so that they fit within the easements, and all have the same functionality.  As a result, there is no need for the different levels for the pulpits and side chairs because the mobile chairs, mounted on mules in NewVistas communities, can elevate a person as a podium does when they need to speak so that any person talking can stand higher than the audience and face any direction when speaking.  By replacing the need for permanent seating and pulpits the court becomes a large multipurpose room that serves the multifunctional needs of the community. 

Doctrine and Covenants Section 95: 

June 1, 1833 

A month after D&C 94 was revealed, D&C 95 was given. The revelation admoonished the saints for delaying the construction of the temple as revealed in 1832 (D&C 84). The revelation also included important details on the development of the City of Zion, in addition to further details on specific building dimensions.  

Text with Commentary 

Verse 1: 
“Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you—” 
Commentary: The Lord expresses His love for the Saints, clarifying that chastening is an act of love designed to help them overcome sin and temptation. This sets the tone for the revelation, showing that correction leads to spiritual growth and forgiveness 

Verse 2: 
“Wherefore, ye must needs be chastened and stand rebuked before my face;” 
Commentary: The Lord rebukes the Saints for their neglect, emphasizing the seriousness of their actions and the need for accountability. 

Verse 3: 
“For ye have sinned against me a very grievous sin, in that ye have not considered the great commandment in all things, that I have given unto you concerning the building of mine house;” 
Commentary: The specific grievance is revealed: the Saints have delayed constructing the temple that was commanded to be built earlier in section 84 Sept. 22-23 of 1832. This underscores the importance of obedience to divine commands, especially when it comes to building Zion. 

Verse 4: 
“For the preparation wherewith I design to prepare mine apostles to prune my vineyard for the last time, that I may bring to pass my strange act, that I may pour out my Spirit upon all flesh—” 
Commentary: The temple is presented as a preparatory space for the apostles who had not yet been set up but were in Feb. of 1835 to carry out their work. It is integral to the Lord’s plan for spreading the gospel and facilitating the outpouring of His Spirit. 

Verse 5: 
“But behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many who have been ordained among you, whom I have called but few of them are chosen.” 
Commentary: The Lord highlights that being ordained is insufficient without faithfulness. Only those who prove themselves through obedience and dedication are chosen for greater blessings and responsibilities. This verse also provides some instruction on correct methods for future callings in that many need to be prepared and qualified for callings, but few are chosen for any calling at a particular time and place. That doesn’t mean that all will be eventually chosen for a public service calling. The nature of a calling will not be exactly at the time and place one might want.  

Verse 6: 
“They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin, in that they are walking in darkness at noonday.” 
Commentary: Those not chosen are described as being spiritually blind despite the availability of gospel light. Their disobedience has caused them to lose spiritual clarity, at least for that particular time and place. 

Verse 7: 
“And for this cause, I gave unto you a commandment that you should call your solemn assembly, that your fastings and your mourning might come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, which is by interpretation, the creator of the first day, the beginning and the end.” 
Commentary: The Saints are reminded of the previous commandment to hold a solemn assembly. This act of collective repentance and fasting was intended to show their humility and invoke divine mercy. 

Verse 8: 
“Yea, verily I say unto you, I gave unto you a commandment that you should build a house, in the which house I design to endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high;” 
Commentary: One of The temple’s purposes is revealed: to endow the public servants who are chosen with divine power. This aligns with the pattern set in Jerusalem, where the apostles were endowed before their ministry. 

Verse 9: 
“For this is the promise of the Father unto you; therefore, I command you to tarry, even as mine apostles at Jerusalem.” 
Commentary: The Saints are commanded to wait and prepare themselves, similar to the apostles who waited for the outpouring of the Spirit in Jerusalem. The promise of power is conditional upon their obedience. 

Verse 10: 
“Nevertheless, my servants sinned a very grievous sin; and contentions arose in the school of the prophets; which was very grievous unto me, saith your Lord; therefore, I sent them forth to be chastened.” 
Commentary: The contention within the School of the Prophets is addressed as a serious offense. Unity and humility are critical for spiritual learning and leadership, and chastening is seen as a necessary corrective measure. 

Verse 11: 
“Verily I say unto you, it is my will that you should build a house. If you keep my commandments you shall have power to build it.” 
Commentary: The Lord reiterates His will for the temple to be built, promising that obedience will grant the Saints the power and resources to accomplish the task. 

Verse 12: 
“If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you; therefore you shall walk in darkness.” 
Commentary: Disobedience will result in spiritual estrangement from the Father, illustrating the serious consequences of neglecting divine commands. 

Verse 13: 
“Now here is wisdom, and the mind of the Lord—let the house be built, not after the manner of the world, for I give not unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world;” 

Commentary: The temple is to be constructed according to divine pattern, distinct from worldly designs. The early saints, after receiving the design of the “house of the Lord” did the best they could at the time with the resources they had, and they still went bankrupt, but they got a good deal of the design understood and completed. The Kirtland Temple is a physical record of what they accomplished. 

The early saints forced the pulpits at both ends into the 65’ x 55’ inner court and did not pick up on the need for the 16.5’ East and West and Outer courts. They also did not create a 6” easement on both ends of the inner court for the curtains and veils that are needed between the 4 rooms (creation, garden, world, terrestrial) that can be created within the inner court and the East and West courts that can be 4 (16.5’ x 13.75’) offices for the 4 Presidencies on each end but also open up to function as (16.5’ x 55’) celestial rooms on both the East and the West. The design contemplated the future modern age where digital video would enable each of the 4 rooms to function as all 4 with each of the 4 assemblies able to exit through the veil to the celestial rooms that are on both ends of the 4 assembly rooms, enabling up to 4 endowment sessions to start on the hour and still exit through the veil into the celestial room. 

Since the building has both a lower and a higher court, it is possible to have 8 endowment rooms in each of the 24 buildings. In the early church of Christ, there were not any chapels like there are in the modern LDS church. All functions of the church were focused on the “house of the Lord” or temples. That is where you went for all related activities and schools and schools of the prophets and all ordinances. It seems in our day that there would be no need for 24 “Temples” but if they are multipurpose buildings where all activities for the community are held as well as religious ordinances then it is easier to see why 24 are needed. The temple sessions are only a fraction of the building’s usage. 

In a Zion community, the buildings are used most of the time for day-to-day activities, but they are perfectly designed for LDS temple ordinances as well. In a Zion community, the only LDS functions are Temple sessions which are expanded to include the ordinance of sacrament as part of the endowment with all baptisms for both the living and the dead completed in the temple. 

The endowment ceremony would include much more instruction and interactive discussion within the sessions than is current practice because the temple was meant to be the “school of the prophets”. Sessions would be administered by agency presidency #5 whose community function is “life Planning” but is also an LDS temple presidency of 4. Temple sessions would be adjusted to fit into the standard on the hour start time and 45-minute length (or multiple hours but always ending 15 minutes before the hour so that there can be orderly entry and exit and fit the same schedule that the community uses for all other temporal functions like conferences, sports events, school classes, office renting, etc.) 

The early saints completed the construction of both a lower and higher court. In the lower court, they included the required elliptical arch with the 28-foot-high assembly halls with 14 feet between each floor. 

The full 88’ x 132’ x 70’ design for all 24 public buildings as derived from the original revelations and expressed from a modern view can be seen on the Multifunction website. 

Verse 14: 
“Therefore, let it be built after the manner which I shall show unto three of you, whom ye shall appoint and ordain unto this power.” 
Commentary: The high council at Kirtland met and selected three to receive this revelation: They chose Joseph Smith, Sydney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams: And so over 200 individuals in Kirtland Ohio knew about this future revelation before it was received and were able to select the 3 to do it. After retiring to the woods nearby the three, together, saw a 3D vision that was described later by Frederick G. Williams: 

“We went upon our knees, called on the Lord, and the building appeared within viewing distance, I being the first to discover it. Then all of us viewed it together. After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the building seemed to come right over us.” 

Frederick G. Williams did the best he could in recording the design and this document is on the Joseph Smith Papers site: The vision was received on June 5, 1833, the same day that the saints started work on the temple: F. G. Williams prepared the document sometime between June 5 and 25 of June 1833 when they were sent to Bishop Partridge in Independence so that they could use the same design for their 24 “houses of the Lord” that the Kirtland saints were using in Kirtland. 

Verse 15: 
“And the size thereof shall be fifty and five feet in width, and let it be sixty-five feet in length, in the inner court thereof.” 
Commentary: Precise dimensions for the temple’s inner court are given, indicating the importance of detail and structure in fulfilling divine instructions. 

Verse 16: 
“And let the lower part of the inner court be dedicated unto me for your sacrament offering, and for your preaching, and your fasting, and your praying, and the offering up of your most holy desires unto me, saith your Lord.” 
Commentary: This is an important design feature that was missed by the early saints. Each of the courts is split into two sections and purposes: The lower part is an assembly hall that can be split into 4 rooms. 

Verse 17: 
“And let the higher part of the inner court be dedicated unto me for the school of mine apostles, saith Son Ahman; or, in other words, Alphus; or, in other words, Omegus; even Jesus Christ your Lord. Amen.” 

Commentary: The higher part of the inner court are classrooms. These rooms hang from the upper floor and are accessible from the outer court hallways of the 3^rd and 5^th floors.  The early saints failed to supply a 16.5’ (hallway/stairway/bathroom/elevator) outer court and so they had no way to imagine how to achieve these school rooms as a “higher part of the inner court”: A detail that was recorded by F. G. Williams sets the total height of each court at 28 feet and 14 feet between the floors plus an elliptical arch between. That provides room for the school rooms on both sides of the higher part of the inner court with an elliptical higher ceiling between them. This provides the lower assembly hall with a high ceiling. The schools end up 16.5 feet long and 13.75 feet in width (sticking out over the lower inner court) and there are 6 of them on each side of each 99’x55’ court. Since there are two courts, this yields 24 classrooms for schools of the prophets and other uses: The classrooms if designed correctly can be split into smaller offices so that each building once fully designed out yields 80 offices so that all 480×4=1920 public servants have their own private office. All the offices are the same size and directly off of the public hallways that are all around the “court”. 

F. G. Williams’ drawings and text that he wrote as he tried his best to record the vision don’t do a very good job of putting all of the design details together. He missed that there needed to be an East and West court and an Outer court in addition to the inner 55 x 65 ft. court. He also missed that there needed to be a 6” easement on both sides of the 65 feet for the curtains and veils that open into the President’s rooms that can also be dual as the celestial room right off of the 4 ordinance rooms. The early saints recognized a need for washing, ordinance, and baptism rooms. However, they did not have the funds to create a 1^st floor or basement to provide these needs. Later when the Nauvoo temple was constructed, they added that floor below the two identical courts. The Nauvoo temple was close to the correct size of the building of 132’ x 88’ but they still missed how to do the higher part of the inner court for the school rooms. 

Later, when temples were built in Utah, they continued having the two courts above the other and with baptism and washings on the first or ground floor, but they continued to miss the concept of school rooms as the higher part of the inner court. Eventually, the LDS leaders moved completely away from the commanded design and started designing and building after the manner of men. 

The figures both above and below illustrate the design of the higher part of the inner courts as specified in section 95 vs. 17. 6. “Schools of the prophets” rooms are 16.5’ x 13.75’ on each side of the hallway for that level and each side of the lower assembly hall court below. The 12 larger school rooms can be divided into two 8.25’ x 13.75’ offices for the 1920 Presidents of the community. Since each of the two higher parts of the inner courts has 24 offices there are a total of 48 from these courts plus another 36 offices that are on the first floor of the building around the pools. That makes a total of 80 offices in each of the 24 buildings so 24 x 80=1920.  

The rooms are very useful for the school classrooms and offices. These offices are occupied by the 3 village presidencies of 4 on each side for each village. Since there are 4 villages per district building the two chamber-level courts provide 12 offices for each village with a village occupying all the offices on one side of each chamber level. 

 Plat of the City of Zion, circa Early June–25 June 1833 

This p[lot] [con]taines one mile square  

Commentary: The text and drawing of the plot define the size of the blocks and streets and that there is a 132’ easement on both sides of the plot on the North and South. This yields 6,336 feet square and not 5,280 feet.  

After several years of trying to solve this puzzle, I asked an engineer who worked for me at a diamond plant that I had built in Stonehouse England if he had ever heard of a 6,336 ft. mile. He told me that it was the length of the old-time mile in Gloucestershire, England where Stonehouse was located. He told me that before Queen Elizabeth I standardized the mile as 5,280 feet in 1593, the mile in Gloucestershire was 6,336 feet. Gloucestershire was the place where William Tyndale was born and the area where there is a large monument recognizing his role in translating the bible into the English language. 

I also found that the first atlas of England, Saxton’s Atlas completed in 1579 used the 6,336 ft. mile calling it a “Miliairum” which was the Latin term for the mile. 

Saxton’s 1579 map of Gloucester England. Note that the scale is in Miliairum. 

After learning of this I asked Stan Carmack to analyze the text of the “Plat of Zion” and he found that the text was early modern English, just like the Book of Mormon text. From then on whenever interpreting the text of the Plat or Plot I have taken the text back to the 1530’s and translated the text into modern business English. So, the central square where the people live is a mile square (6,336 feet), as used in William Tyndale’s day, which is the same as 1.2 standard miles square.  

all the squares in <​the​> plot contains ten acres each being 40 rods square you will observe that the lots are laid off alternate in the squaresin one square runing from the south and North to the line through the middle of the squareand the next the lots runs from the east and west to the middle line each lot is 2 4 perches pe[rc]hes, in front and 20 back making ¼ of an acre 

Commentary: Notice that the unit of measurement is Perches, a unit of length used in England that was also a Rod and equal to 16.5 feet, this is the standard measuring stick that we use throughout the design for both the buildings and the land blocks. The 7 rectangles in the middle of the plot are 960’ x 660’ or 15 acres and the rest of the squares in the plot are 660’ x 660’ and 10 acres. The 3 middle blocks are for community buildings and all the rest of the blocks are divided into ½ acre lots (not ¼) for apartment buildings.  

in each lot so that no one street will be built on intire<​ly through the street​> but one square the houses stand on one street and on the next one another except the middle rangeof squares which runs North and south in which range are the painted squares the lots are laid offin these squares North and south all of them because these squares are 40 perches by 60 being twentyperches longer than the others the long way of them being east and west and by runing all the lo[ts] [in]these squares North and south it makes all the lots in the City of one size the painted squares [in the]middle are for publick buildings the one without any figure is for store houses fo[r] [the]Bishop and to be devoted to his use 

Commentary: The blocks are laid out so that no apartment building faces another and instead looks out onto the garden areas of the other blocks. One of the three 15-acre public blocks is specifically for the Bishop and his storehouses. I have projected this definition to include not only storehouses but also modern malls, a bank and business buildings. It would also include a modern stadium for sports events and in each of the 4 corners in between other buildings, an opera house/theatre, symphony, exercise facility, and nutrition center. There would be business all around and a large playing field in the center that can also serve as a farmers’ market and an event stadium seating a fifth or 20,000 of the community’s 100,000 people. 

 figure one is for Temples for the use of the pres[idency,]the circles inside of the square are the places for the temples you will see it containes twelve f[igures]2 is for the Temples for the lesser Priesthood it also is to contain 12 Temples  

Commentary: Two of the central blocks are for the 24 public buildings. The block labeled with the number 1 is for the 12 Melchizedek Priesthood buildings. This #1 is also next to building # 5 which is for one of the three High Priest Presidencies. All of the buildings are for Presidencies. However, each presidency and each building has specific responsibilities and is for a specific district with specific villages and branches. The block labeled #2 is for the 12 Aaronic Priesthood presidencies. Notice that it is called the lesser Priesthood. Hierarchism was the standard protocol for Joseph and all other LDS leaders even to the present, and this extended to patriarchy especially once polygamy was established. It is therefore not surprising that church literature, practice, and day-to-day operations place the Aaronic callings inferior to the Melchizedek. 

However, the only reason why the Aaronic could be called “lesser” is that only 96 of the 480 seats are Aaronic seats whereas 384 seats are Melchizedek. There is actually no need for one to be above or below the other, especially with how the public service callings are related to the organization of the community in achieving the goals of creating Zion.  

For instance: D&C 84:109-110: “Therefore, let every man stand in his own office, and labor in his calling; and let not the head say unto the feet it hath no need of the feet; for without the feet how shall the body be able to stand? Also, the body hath need of every member, that all may be edified together, that the system may be kept perfect.” This metaphor of the body suggests that all callings are important and necessary for the functioning of the community, emphasizing the equal value of different roles. 

Additionally, D&C 121:34-37: Although this passage deals more with the misuse of priesthood power, it underscores the principle that no position affords superiority and that true power and influence come through righteousness and service, suggesting an underlying equality among those who serve. All 480 seats have unique responsibilities, and all are equal in the sight of the lord. 

What is very graphic is that to fill all 24 buildings, the community must come up with 24 unique needs and responsibilities for the 24 presidencies of 4 that have unique offices in all 24 buildings. Every business or personal need that a participant would encounter must be provided by one of the 24 functions. The needs of the community go way beyond what Joseph and the early saints were thinking and even though the plat or plot was very graphic it still did not dawn on any of the early saints that they had to figure out how to fill all of these 24 very large 70,000 square foot buildings with community functions that met the needs of the community.  

the whole square <​plot​> is s[upposed]to contain from 15 to 20 thousand people you will therefore see that it will require 24 building tosupply them with houses of worship schools & none of these temples are to be smaller than the oneof which we send you the draft this Temple is to be built in square number marked figure one and tobe built where the circle is which has a cross on it.  

Commentary:  

The temple to be built first is designated on the plot as building #5. The text also explains that it will require 24 buildings to supply them with houses of worship and schools and that none of the buildings are to be smaller than what was sent to Bishop Partridge in Independence and others in the draft which was the House of the Lord’s design. The text is1530’s at that time only the heads of households were counted as legal persons. Women, children, and servants were not counted since they were not recognized by the law of the time. Another factor is that there are (24) 70,000 square-foot 5-story 88 x 132’ x 70-foot-high buildings since all must be the same size as the revelation prescribed. 

In 1530s England, a legal person was typically considered to be an adult male, particularly landowning men who had legal rights and responsibilities. Women, children, and servants were generally not counted as legal persons in the same way, as they did not have the same legal autonomy. Women’s legal identities were often subsumed under their fathers or husbands, and they typically could not own property or represent themselves in legal matters independently. This legal status was reflective of broader societal norms that prioritized male landowners in matters of law and governance. 

In any society, only a fraction of the population attends church meetings or schools. Therefore, if the population was 15-20,000 people, there would be more square footage available than necessary for such small a population. If, instead, we assumed that the average household size of a family in 1530 was 5 then we could assume that the population of this Zion community would be between 75 and 100,000.  

There is enough room in the 24 buildings to accommodate the needs of 100,000 people for religious services and schools plus other community needs like recreation and sports and exercise classes. 

The two 99 x 55 ft courts in each building are just exactly the right size for an NBA basketball court or 4 pickleball courts etc. On the first floor of each building, there is room for 4 half-size Olympic pools that can be subdivided into 20 smaller “fonts” for spa businesses or for religious ordinances like baptisms, washing, and anointings.  

The swimming pools could also be converted into a dance floor, convention facilities, or extra assembly rooms, and 32 additional offices so that each building has the 80 offices that are needed to supply all public servants with a private and specific office directly off the building’s public hallways.  

The 24 offices that are in the higher part of each inner court provide the other 48 offices needed to achieve 80 offices per building.  

If we assume that 50% of the population would attend Sunday meetings and we held four 45-minute sessions followed by 45-minute school classes with all meetings starting on the hour at 9 am and with the last session at noon there is room to have seats in all of the buildings for that high attendance plus enough school rooms to accommodate the 2nd-hour continuation of Sunday school type of classes after a 45-minute Sunday community meetings held to advance the concept and understanding of Zion where all things are common and there is no poor among them. 

The 24 public buildings are perfectly designed to meet the needs of all LDS meetings and temple ordinances, but they are also adaptable to fit the needs of any other religion because there is lots of storage within each building and so a variety of religious props and alters could be stored and ready to be used by many different faiths. This is needed because, in a Zion community, only a small percentage of the population will be active LDS.  

All participants will be required to agree to adhere to the economic concept of “all things in common”  where all limited partners who join the community are required to invest a minimum of $20,000 and over the following 2-3 years liquidate all of their assets and invest all of their net worth into the community capital bank and continue to run and build their private businesses by renting assets from one or more of the community agencies including their housing and any other building facilities and equipment and supplies that they may need to properly run their individually-owned businesses (stewardships).  

The only community service positions in the community that must be held by active LDS participants are the 4 presidents of agency #5 who are responsible for life planning for all the participants of the community. These 4 presidents would also be responsible for all LDS temple sessions. LDS temple sessions would expand so that they include all living ordinances, LDS member instruction, as well as all ordinances for relatives of members who have passed on.  

There would be no other LDS meetings or activities outside of the expanded temple sessions. All other secular and social functions and activities are community activities that all participants can do together. All the other 1916 public service positions could be filled by participants who are of other faiths or agnostic to any faith but support and agree on the concept of all things in common and no poor among them.  

None of the public servants in these Zion communities is paid anything for their service nor are they reimbursed for any travel or other expenses. Most of the positions are part-time, requiring about 10 hours per week. The 24 community agency presidencies, 12 community Deacons, 12 community Trustees, and all World and Area Presidencies are full-time. These service callings are filled by participants who are over 50 years old and have successfully sold their businesses so that they have the means to serve the community full-time for the 4-year term. All public service callings have 4-year terms and one of the 4 presidents in eve ry presidency is replaced each year. 

__________________ 

 On the north and south of the plot where the line isdrawn is to be laid off for barns stables &c for the use of the city so that no barns or stables will be in theCity among the houses the ground to be occupied for these must be laid off according to wisdom wisdom. 

Commentary: The line is drawn 132 feet from the edge of the community providing an easement for utilities, freeways, airports, and animal passage between the communities. Beyond this line are according to wisdom mirrored village blocks that are equal in size to the central square creating a total size for the community of 2.88 square miles not including larger agricultural and mining land that surrounds the community. These mirrored village blocks are used by the community for light or heavy-duty industry and animal feed lots or animal and agricultural processing. No large animals are to be within the community which teaches us that we are to plan to keep obnoxious smells from animals or from industry outside of the immediate populated community in these mirrored industrial zones owned by the community but rented to private businesses and managed by the village presidencies that they are a mirror of.  

________________ 

Onthe North and South are to be laid off the farms for the agracultur<​i​>sts a sufficient quanty of land to supply thewhole plot and if it cannot be laid off without going <​too​> great a distance from the city, there mus[t] also belaid off on the east and west 

Commentary: In addition to the mirrored village blocks (1.44 square miles) industrial zone there is to be enough quantity of farmland for the agriculturists to the NSEW of the community to supply the whole community. If we assume that agricultural productivity is equal to the USA average yield per acre the amount of land needed to supply 100,000 people with all the food that they need to require that the community end up at 10 x 10 miles or a total of 100 square miles needed per community.  

Agricultural productivity is rapidly increasing and so once all of the latest vertical farming and other technologies are applied, we may be able to get the size of a community down to 25 square miles or 5 x 5 miles.  

To achieve this the communities will need to be very sophisticated and be using the best techniques as well as the best nutrition so that the use of very high footprint consumables like drugs, sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol and beer, red meat, all are way down in usage. This will enable the community can have a low footprint compared to current consumption levels.  

In addition to land for agriculture, the community in combination with the 50 adjacent communities that are close by will need to obtain land for grazing and rights for mining and processing minerals, oil and gas, and fertilizers. These land and mineral rights may end up being quite far from the community but would still be owned by the community and rented or leased out to participants within the communities.  

Different communities will also need to cooperate so that they can build freeways, utility grids, airports, and other large infrastructure projects. A council of 50 composed of all the capital bank presidencies and so up to 200 presidents meet quarterly after the normal community quarterly conferences and work collaboratively together to fund and build systems that benefit multiple communities.  

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 where this square is thus laid off and supplied lay off another in the same way andso fill up the world in these last days and let every man live in the City for this is the City of Zion 

Commentary: This is a very bold statement that redefines what the City of Zion is. Once one community is laid off and supplied then we are required to lay off another in the same way and so fill up the world. If Zion is to be everywhere and worldwide and enough so that every man can live in the city, then this concept must be completed in such a fashion that it is attractive to all mankind.  

This precludes it from being run by a religion since that would offend most of the world. It also requires that the economic and social system be so attractive that all mankind will desire to live in one of the communities that make up this City of Zion which is thousands of financially and legally independent communities of 75-100,000.  

This requires that a superior economic system and social system be created where all have their needs and wants to be met and there is no poor among them. 

It also requires that individuals can start businesses and not be dependent on an employer for their daily bread. They need to be able to be true stewards and able to magnify their talents, education and skills so that they can take care of their family and meet their wants and needs. 

It also requires that the system allows easy entry or exit and also the ability to move easily from one branch and village to another or even to another community or if needed to move completely out of the system. For this reason, NewVistas has a policy that the capital bank has to purchase back any investment that a limited partner has made in equal installments over not less than 4 years. 

We also require the capital bank to share profits of the community in the form of regular “interest” or dividends so that all participants are attracted to participate by receiving higher returns on this investment than what they could expect from the stock market or other mainstream investments. Participants are attracted to the system because it is the best economic system but also the best social system since all live in the world’s largest mansion and have privacy but also easy access to sociality at many levels. 

The following illustration is an updated plat of Zion with the mirrored village blocks and other details including how each community starts as a 10×10 mile square but as agriculture and manufacturing productivity increases ends up being able to thrive on just a 5 x 5 mile square or .16 acres per person.     

The lower left corner of the updated plat illustrates how a community starts by purchasing a 10-mile square parcel and locates the 1.44 sq. mile inner square and its 1.44 square mile outer industrial mirrored blocks in the center of the corner 5 x 5-mile square parcel. As productivity increases additional communities can be placed starting with 1 and advancing to 4 as shown. Each community must have enough farmland surrounding it to supply the needs of that 100,000-person community. 

[all the streets a]re of one width. being eight perches wide 

Commentary: a perch is like a rod and is 16.5 feet so 8 x 16.5 is 132’. This is a very wide “street” until we redefine street to what it meant in 1530. In 1530 there were very few Mobile carts and not any roads as we now think of them. What a few very wealthy individuals had was wide open public squares in front of large “houses” where up to 100 people would live primarily serving the needs of a king or other very wealthy individual. An example of this is Hampton Court which was built in the 1500’s and still exists today.  

Notice that there are wide public gardens in front of the building. The Plat or plot defines that this public garden be in front of all of the buildings and be 132’ wide. Since Zion communities will need to be the world’s largest mansions we should expect that we would build very well built Apartment buildings that house 100 people on a ½ acre plot of land with terraced gardens behind the building and 132’ wide “streets” that are public gardens in front of the buildings creating pleasing vistas on both sides and around the apartment complexes. 10 apartment buildings of 100 individuals each are lined up together in a row to create a village of 1,000. 

 als[o the space round] the painted sq outer edge of the painted squares is [to beeight perches between] the Temples and the street on every side 

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Commentary: This specification is crucial for determining the size of each building as they are to be 8 perches or 132’ back from the streets before the edge of the buildings. There are 3 buildings across the 660’ x 990 ft. 15-acre lot. Since the 3 buildings have to be 132’ from the edge of the block then we have (660-264) =396 of width to place three buildings on and with an equal distance between each.  

We already have the inner court dimensions of 55 x 65 provided by section 94/95. If we add a rod or 16.5 feet to both sides of the 55 feet, we end up with an 88 feet-wide building, and since there are three buildings we end up with 66 feet between each. There are 4 rows of 3 buildings from the top of the block to the bottom of the block and again we have to subtract 132’ from both ends of the 990 ft block. 

If we keep the distance between the buildings constant at 66 feet we get a building length of 132’.This same dimension is achieved by assuming that at each end of the 65 ft inner court is a 6” easement for veils and curtains making the court 66 feet long.  

If we then add an East and West court that is also a rod wide we end up with a total length of the court of 99’ and then if we add the outer court around we end up again with a building length of 132’ and width of 88 ft. The Kirtland temple was much smaller but it was because the early saints assumed that everything needed to be within the inner court and so they did not consider having an East and West court plus an outer court. Additionally, they did not add 6’ for veils at both ends of the inner court. 

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The Scale of the plot is 40 perc perches to the inch 

No one lot in this City is to contain more than one hous & that to be built25 feet back from the street lea leaving a small yard in front to be plantedin a grove according to the taste of the builder the rest of the lot for gardens &call the houses to beof brick and stone 

Commentary: The lots are 66’ wide and 330’ deep, therefore measuring half an acre. There was to be only one “house” per lot and so this forces a house to be defined much broader than we currently understand. The best kind of “house” possible in the 1500s was similar to the Hampton mansion illustrated previously. 

So, if each house in Zion was similar to this mansion it would easily supply the housing needs of 100 people on four floors of the building with around 25 individuals per floor served by a captain of 10 (7-12) limited partners and their dependents. If the bottom or ground floor was a podium that the 4 apartment floors were built on, then this podium could be a car park or as cars disappeared an area for exercise equipment and delis or other local businesses. 

These apartment buildings would be mansions that are 5 stories high with each floor being 14 feet and so a total height of 70’. The depth of the building would be whatever is necessary to supply the needs of its occupants and there would be gardens behind and a grove in front on top of the podium. This grove would be planted according to the taste of the builder and the mansion apartment building would be built of very high-quality materials such as brick and stone or other modern materials of equal quality. The Plat has (3) 15-acre blocks in the Middle of the community. The block furthest North is for the bishops and their storehouses. The middle block is for the (1-12) Melchizedek presidencies of 4 and the south block is for the 12 Aaronic Presidencies of 4 (13-24). On the back of the plat document are the names of the rows of the “houses of the Lord.” For instance, the names of buildings 1-3 are: 

“The house of the Lord for the Elders in Zion an ensign to the nations” 

These long names are quotes from the text on the back of the plat. The modern NewVistas names for each of the community functions and the assets they are responsible for, the names of each Agency, and their presidency of 4 are within each square as illustrated below.  

The 24 seats on the stands in each of the 4 courts mirror this same pattern and are where the Presidents who serve in these 24 community agencies sit. Since there are 4 courts where the 3 presidents of the demographic presidencies sit next to each other the 4 who occupy the same seat from each court form the operations presidencies of 4 who have their 4 offices together in the building # of their agency on the 1^st floor on the East side of the building. All 1,920 public servant “Presidents” have a specific seat in a specific court and a specific office in a specific building.