Item Detail
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26710
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0
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0
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English
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Will a Strategy of Signal Communities Redeem the World?
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Restoration Studies
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14
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Independence, MO
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John Whitmer Historical Association; Community of Christ Seminary Press
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145-166
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Signal communities are a way for Community of Christ to pursue its vision of Zion, the peaceable reign of God on earth. A signal community is a covenanted group of disciples, who in their life together, point to the hope of Zion as a potential reality for all the earth. Will a strategy of signal communities redeem the world?
Attempts to live zionically by early Latter Day Saints in the period 1830-44 largely failed for a variety of internal and external reasons. In particular the "redemption of Zion" became the slogan for the church's desire to return to their lands in Jackson County, Missouri, after expulsion in 1833 in order build up the "New Jerusalem" in Independence. Given the communal failures in Independence, Kirtland, Far West, and Nauvoo, the whole zionic enterprise needs re-examination. This re-examination must begin with recovery of the original vision of Zion. No strategy, including signal communities, will work without paying close attention to the early Latter Day Saint vision of the kingdom of God on earth. [From the article]