Footnotes
The apocalyptic content of the letter raises the possibility that it may also have been intended to prepare the Colesville branch for the forthcoming exodus of church members from New York to Ohio, declaring as it did that the “time is soon at hand that we shall have to flee whithersoever the Lord will, for safety.” The inclusion of Cowdery’s letter, with its encouraging commentary on the work in Kirtland, may have helped prepare members in Colesville to respond positively to the call to leave New York and remove to that distant location. However, no other evidence indicates that JS was contemplating a move to Ohio prior to the 30 December revelation. (See Revelation, 30 Dec. 1830 [D&C 37:2–3].)
JS’s use of the term Zion here suggests that he did not yet see Zion as synonymous with the city of New Jerusalem, which was to be built; JS had just dispatched Oliver Cowdery and others to “rear up a pillar as a witness where the Temple of God shall be built, in the glorious New-Jerusalem.” While the two terms would eventually come to be used almost interchangeably, this letter demonstrates that in early December 1830 JS was using Zion to refer more generally to the work of spreading the gospel and building up the church. (Covenant of Oliver Cowdery and Others, 17 Oct. 1830.)