Spring Hill is named by the Lord
Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to
visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the
prophet. (D&C 116)
This is an interesting section. Not only do we have this
prophesied future event of Adam coming to visit his people spoken of, but the
place it is to occur is given a special name by the Lord.
How curious that Adam comes to visit his people. We
understand that Christ must come, but Adam?
We wouldn’t know this without revelation to the prophet. Since we think of Adam
as the father of humanity, it might be easy to say, “Oh, he is visiting
everyone.” But we don’t think that at all. We immediately associate “his people” as meaning the
covenant people of the Lord.
Why does the Lord give this revelation to Joseph Smith? And
why point to a particular place and say, “This is where this event will
happen”? Why does it matter for
Adam to come to that place?
I think this is yet another way that the Lord works to build
and test the faith of His people. When a future event is tied to a very
specific place, it gives us something to watch closely. When the Lord says an
event will happen at a particular place, He also implicitly asserts lordship
and power over it. It’s a shorthand way of declaring sovereignty over its
destiny, over the flow of events toward it, over the who and when and where and
how. In another place, the Lord
asks rhetorically, “Do I not hold the destinies of all the armies of the
nations of the earth?” (D&C 117:6).
The prophecy of New Jerusalem’s Zion to build in Jackson County,
Missouri is similar.
I imagine future Saints will look back on the fulfillment of
this prophecy and say, “But of course
it had to happen there because [list of reasons],” and it will be obvious to
them why and how it came about. Sunday school lessons will be taught about it,
and the Saints will rejoice over it and point to how the Lord’s power and
foreknowledge was demonstrated, and whole books will be written exploring all
the little factors that worked together to bring it about.
Until then, we just don’t know.
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