The Zion Papers and the Missing Heart of Zion
The Zion Papers and the Missing Heart of Zion
A Blueprint Needs More Than a Structure—It Needs a People Changed by Jesus Christ
“And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” — Moses 7:18
Recently, I discovered a collection called the Zion Papers, (Explore the collection discussed here: Zion Papers) written by a man who lives near St. George, Utah. The papers address many subjects I have wrestled with for years: agency, common consent, centralized control, money, tithing, consecration, stewardship, and the government and economy of Zion.
As I began reading, I felt an immediate kinship with much of the work. I have independently come to many of the same conclusions. Zion cannot be built through compulsion. It cannot be administered into existence by a powerful hierarchy. It cannot rest upon the accumulation of money, land, authority, or institutional prestige. It must preserve agency, honor common consent, protect the weak, eliminate poverty, and replace ownership and control with sacred stewardship.
I am grateful that someone has tried to describe these principles carefully and make them openly available. This is important work.
Yet, as I considered this proposed blueprint, I felt that one essential truth still needed to be placed at its center. It is the truth that has become the heart of my own journey:
Zion Cannot Be Engineered—It Must Be Born Within Us
A community may adopt the right economic model, establish councils, distribute stewardships, reject centralized control, and practice common consent—and still fail to become Zion.
Why?
Because Zion is not first a system. Zion is a people.
Before Zion appears upon the land, it must appear within the human heart. Before property can be consecrated, pride must be surrendered. Before there can be common consent, people must learn to listen. Before wealth can be shared, fear and selfishness must be healed. Before authority can become service, the desire for recognition and dominion must die.
King Benjamin’s people did not become one merely because they received a better governmental arrangement. They experienced a mighty change through Jesus Christ:
“Because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” — Mosiah 5:2
This is the beginning of Zion.
The Nemenhah Records express the same truth with remarkable directness. In the Second Book of Pah Nahtahn, the people are instructed not merely to travel to Zion, but to “create Tsiahn in your hearts” (Second Pah Nahtahn 2:51). Earlier in the same chapter, the record speaks of building Tsiahn, holding all things in common, and creating a covenant community as a way of living—not merely designating a geographical refuge (Second Pah Nahtahn 2:35, 41, 45–47).
This confirms what I have gradually come to understand: Tsiahn must be created in the heart before it can be established upon the land.
The Peacemaker Must First Make Peace Within Us
I have come to know Jesus Christ as the Peacemaker. He does not merely command a peaceful society from a distance. He enters willing hearts, heals division, removes fear, teaches forgiveness, and changes the way we see one another.
Zion begins when the Peacemaker first makes peace within us.
Tsihohnayah taught:
“There is no peace to be found except where men and women know their Peacemaker and walk uprightly before Him.” — Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:25
That is more than a beautiful statement about peace. It identifies the indispensable center of Zion. Peace is not produced by organization alone. It comes as men and women personally know the Peacemaker and learn to walk with Him.
If we have not allowed Him to transform us, we will carry Babylon into whatever system we create. We may change the names of the offices, alter the method of voting, redistribute the property, and rewrite the rules—but pride, fear, competition, appetite, and control will quietly rebuild the old world inside the new one.
The first blueprint of Zion is therefore not written upon paper. It is written upon the fleshy tables of the heart.
The Haymehnay: The Living Connection
The Nemenhah Records use the word Haymehnay for what many would recognize as the living power and guidance of the Holy Ghost. The Haymehnay is not a possession of an institution. It cannot be purchased, controlled, or reserved for a religious office. It is God’s living connection with every willing soul, always pointing us toward Jesus Christ.
The Book of Mormon teaches:
“The Holy Ghost… will show unto you all things what ye should do.” — 2 Nephi 32:5
And:
“By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” — Moroni 10:5
Without this living revelation, Zion becomes another organization. With it, Zion becomes a living people who can be taught, corrected, and united by the Lord.
The Nemenhah record repeatedly places this living guidance at the center of righteous government. Ohuhgohuh taught leaders to govern with the judgment that comes from the Haymehnay and declared:
“Follow the voice of the Haymehnay in all your councils.” — First Ohuhgohuh 1:169–180
The Haymehnay also brings the Lord’s teachings back to our remembrance (Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:54). Ordinances may teach salvation, but they do not manufacture it; salvation comes through the Peacemaker and His living work within us (Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:48).
This is why my guiding principle has become:
Follow the Voice, not the robe.
True authority belongs to Jesus Christ. Priesthood, councils, teachers, and stewards may serve His people, but they must never replace a person’s living relationship with Him. The keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel.
The Four Pillars of a Zion Life
The Nemenhah teachings describe four pillars that must be lived—not merely performed in ceremony:
These covenants are presented together in the Second Book of Ohuhgohuh, Chapter 1: Knowledge and Sacrifice, followed by Virtue and Consecration. They form a progression of transformation rather than a ladder of institutional rank.
1. Knowledge
We seek truth directly from the Creator. We study, pray, listen, and allow the Haymehnay to teach us. Knowledge is not simply collecting information; it is learning to recognize and follow the voice of the Peacemaker.
2. Sacrifice
We willingly place our time, comfort, pride, talents, and resources upon the altar of service. Sacrifice is not forced deprivation. It is love choosing to give.
3. Virtue
Virtue is righteous power without domination. It protects the weak, restrains appetite, honors covenant, refuses manipulation, and uses every gift to bless life. Without virtue, power becomes control and consecration becomes coercion.
4. Consecration
Consecration is the natural fruit of changed hearts. It is not simply transferring ownership to an institution. It is recognizing that everything has been entrusted to us by God and using it for the good of the whole community.
The Book of Tuhhuhl Nuhmehn describes consecration in living terms:
“You will utilize the gifts of the Aylohhihm for your own maintenance and with the surplus you covenant to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, lift up the hands that hang down, and to shoulder each other's burdens.” — Tuhhuhl Nuhmehn 6:1
That is the economy of Zion. We receive what is needed for our maintenance, and the surplus becomes a covenant blessing for the entire community.
Babylon asks:
“What belongs to me, and how much can I keep?”
Zion asks:
“What has been entrusted to my care, and how much good can it do?”
“There Was No Poor Among Them”
The test of Zion is not the size of its treasury, the beauty of its buildings, the number of its members, or the authority claimed by its leaders.
The scriptural test is unmistakable:
“There was no poor among them.”
Tithing alone is not consecration. A people may pay ten percent faithfully while continuing to accumulate, compete, ignore suffering, and leave their neighbors behind. Consecration means feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, bearing one another’s burdens, honoring each person’s gifts, and ensuring that no one is abandoned.
Zion replaces ownership with stewardship, accumulation with gratitude, competition with cooperation, and isolation with covenant community.
Common Consent Must Become Sacred Listening
I agree strongly with the Zion Papers’ emphasis upon common consent and the danger of centralized control. However, common consent must become more than voting or majority rule.
True councils make room for every voice. They listen for the quiet, the overlooked, the mothers, the elderly, the children, the poor, and those who may worship differently. The purpose is not to defeat one another in debate but to seek the mind of Christ together.
This is why the instruction to “follow the voice of the Haymehnay in all your councils” is so important (First Ohuhgohuh 1:169–180). Common consent without the Haymehnay can become politics. Common consent under the influence of the Haymehnay becomes sacred listening.
Unity does not mean that everyone must think alike. It means that people with different gifts and perspectives learn to love one another, listen to the Haymehnay, and walk toward the same Center.
That Center is Jesus Christ.
Zion Is Not Something We Wait For
For many years, believers have spoken of Zion as something God will someday establish in a particular place. But I have come to believe that Zion is not primarily something we wait for. It is something we become.
The kingdom of God begins within us. It grows whenever a person chooses peace instead of contention, forgiveness instead of resentment, stewardship instead of ownership, service instead of status, and the voice of Christ instead of institutional pressure.
We do not need to wait for a perfect city before beginning.
Zion begins around a kitchen table. It begins when neighbors care for one another. It begins when a council truly listens. It begins when the hungry are fed, the lonely are welcomed, and the powerful refuse to exercise dominion. It begins when thankful people gather and choose to become responsible for one another.
The Structure and the Living Heart
I see much value in the Zion Papers. They appear to offer important pieces of Zion’s governmental and economic framework. They ask serious questions about agency, common consent, central control, tithing, money, and consecration—questions that must be faced honestly.
But a skeleton cannot live without a heart and breath.
The governmental and economic blueprint may provide part of the skeleton. The mighty change of heart through Jesus Christ provides the heart. The Haymehnay provides the living breath. Knowledge, Sacrifice, Virtue, and Consecration teach us how to walk. Love binds the people together. The Peacemaker remains at the Center.
This is not intended as a criticism of the author’s work. It is an invitation to bring our discoveries together. He lives near St. George, not far from me. Perhaps, if the Spirit directs, we may someday meet and compare what each of us has found.
I believe we are seeing different parts of the same great work.
The question is no longer merely, “What should Zion look like?”
The deeper question is:
“What must Jesus Christ do within us so that we can finally become the people of Zion?”
Until that transformation occurs, every blueprint will remain paper.
But when the Peacemaker makes peace within us, when the Haymehnay teaches us, when virtue replaces dominion, and when consecration leaves no poor among us, the blueprint will begin to live.
One heart. One mind. A consecrated life.
That is Zion.
Study These Scriptures Yourself
Moses 7:18
Mosiah 5:2
Alma 5:14
2 Nephi 32:5
Moroni 10:5
4 Nephi 1:2–3, 15–17
Acts 2:44–45
Acts 4:32–35
Luke 17:20–21
Doctrine and Covenants 38:24–27
Nemenhah Records
Second Pah Nahtahn 2:35, 41, 45–47, 51 — All things common; building Tsiahn as a covenant way of life; “create Tsiahn in your hearts.”
First Ohuhgohuh 1:169–180 — Govern by the judgment of the Haymehnay; follow its voice in all councils.
Second Ohuhgohuh, Chapter 1 — Knowledge, Sacrifice, Virtue, and Consecration.
Tuhhuhl Nuhmehn 6:1 — Use surplus to feed, clothe, lift, and bear one another’s burdens.
Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:25 — Peace is found as men and women know their Peacemaker.
Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:38–39 — The covenant teaches the people to do good continually.
Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:48, 54 — Ordinances teach salvation; the Haymehnay brings truth to remembrance.
Explore the collection discussed here: Zion Papers
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