Being called to live in tents?

[QuestionAbound]

A friend told me of a “revelation” or doctrine of the church which said that in the last days some members will be called to a certain place (she thought it was a valley in Utah) and would be asked to live in tents in this place. It would be called “tent city”. She thought the people would be called out of California (which may not be totally surprising given recent events). But she could not remember where she had heard it.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? If so, where is it found?

[DarkJedi]

A simple Google search will find it for you, right at the top when I did it (I searched “Mormon tent city”). It’s certainly not doctrine, and while it may be revelation it doesn’t appear to be revelation for the whole church in the way we are taught such revelation will come (through the prophet).

[Jazernorth]

I have heard of something similar, many times.

I write it off as they can do or live however they want.

I certainly have not received that type of revelation.

I don’t think I would like to live in a tent.

I like to camp for a week or so in a tent, but I wouldn’t want to do it for more than 1 week.

[SamBee]

Sounds like Adam ondi Diamhan (Sp?) – in Missouri.

Tents are frequently mentioned in 1 Nephi.

[QuestionAbound]

Dark Jedi…you put me to shame. I am always telling people to google things … putting personal responsibility on their shoulders. :thumbup:

To the others…it seems that some church members have dreamt of tent cities. The author says he saw a vision while on his mission and he promptly wrote it down. He saw those in the Los Angeles area were called to live in tents in St. George, Utah.

Other members who have had this dream seem to believe that when the time comes, they will “feel” inspired to leave their homes to live in a tent near the Rocky Mountains. These members believe that they are not to tell anyone of their move. They believe that they will move from place to place and the Lord will direct them when/where to move.

I went here to scan the article: http://www.abysmal.com/LDS/Preparedness/why_tent_cities.pdf

The author says that no official church doctrine indicates the need for tent cities…but that he sees “secondary evidence” that suggests that the church is planning for this by their building of larger girls’ camps in Utah. The author concedes that perhaps the church is planning ahead for church growth and has built larger facilities for such an idea.

Either way…I tend to shy away from “fear mongers” and those who cry loudest about “doom and gloom”.

I mean, I get that doom and gloom are coming, but…if we are prepared we shall not fear…right?

[Jazernorth]

QuestionAbound wrote:

but that he sees “secondary evidence” that suggests that the church is planning for this by their building of larger girls’ camps in Utah.

Now that is a leap, sort of.

I used to live near one of the girls’ camps. They are so busy there is no way they were built for “other agendas”. The church makes back the money they spent on the girls’ camp pretty quickly with the volume of busses that go up there weekly.

[DarkJedi]

Jazernorth wrote:

QuestionAbound wrote:

but that he sees “secondary evidence” that suggests that the church is planning for this by their building of larger girls’ camps in Utah.

Now that is a leap, sort of.

I used to live near one of the girls’ camps. They are so busy there is no way they were built for “other agendas”. The church makes back the money they spent on the girls’ camp pretty quickly with the volume of busses that go up there weekly.

I agree that this is a leap. The church is building these all over the U.S. Prior to building the one our stake uses (with several other stakes), our girls’ camp took place on a small piece of land owned by the stake. It was basically an open field with tents and porta-johns. The only building as a small pavilion where meals were served and some classes were held. Food was cooked on camp stoves and grills. Our current camp has cabins, showers, a large dining building with a full commercial kitchen, nurse’s office, full time missionary managers, etc. It can be rented by church and family groups.

I didn’t mean to shame you QA, please accept my apologies. I hadn’t heard of this idea before, maybe because I live in the east. I believe revelation is fairly rare, even for the prophets. But if these people feel prompted that they should go live in the desert in tents, I think they should do it. If I am destroyed in the rapture because I wasn’t living in a tent in Utah at the time, I will probably always think I was destroyed for some other reason (such as being an inactive non-temple recommend holding skeptic).

[Old-Timer]

If I am being blunt, I would say that I dismiss it without much thought – for lots of reasons.

[QuestionAbound]

Dark, no need to apologize. You totally gave to me what I give to others. I just found it funny!

Ray, you are so right. Now that I know this was based on a missionary’s vision some decades ago, I’ll not give it much more thought.

Thanks, all!

[Heber13]

I’m so grateful our church teaches us to have personal revelation…boy…do I cling to that belief especially on topics like this.

If others have had dreams or feel they will be called to live in tents in Missouri or someplace…knock yourself out if you feel that is for you.

Since I haven’t had any feeling that would ever happen…I can choose to dismiss it.

In a hypothetical situation where my leaders told me I needed to go live in a tent somewhere to be considered a faithful member of the flock…well, I would still fall back on personal revelation. If the Lord wanted me to, I should be given personal revelation to do that. Since I doubt that would ever happen, I think I’m safe resting on that principle…personal revelation can help save me from doing whacky stuff others say is necessary.

But it can’t be completely far fetched when we have a history in…

– handcarts leaving for west late in the spring time

– kirtland banks needing members to invest to make it work

– Joseph Smith telling women to accept polygamy or their salvation is in jeapordy

– sacrificing all the saints had to build a Nauvoo temple they knew they would leave

We are taught faith is built on obedience and sacrifice. Faith is tested when personal revelation and priesthood revelation are not identical to the individual. Faith seems to also be tested at times to check if we are willing to obey, even in things we don’t understand. But even with the Abraham story, he was willing to sacrifice Isaac as long as the Lord would raise him up so he could fulfill the promises given (see Heb 11:19). So personal revelation is needed to know how to obey.

[Tobin]

Heber13 wrote:

I’m so grateful our church teaches us to have personal revelation…boy…do I cling to that belief especially on topics like this.

If others have had dreams or feel they will be called to live in tents in Missouri or someplace…knock yourself out if you feel that is for you.

Since I haven’t had any feeling that would ever happen…I can choose to dismiss it.

In a hypothetical situation where my leaders told me I needed to go live in a tent somewhere to be considered a faithful member of the flock…well, I would still fall back on personal revelation. If the Lord wanted me to, I should be given personal revelation to do that. Since I doubt that would ever happen, I think I’m safe resting on that principle…personal revelation can help save me from doing whacky stuff others say is necessary.

But it can’t be completely far fetched when we have a history in…

– handcarts leaving for west late in the spring time

– kirtland banks needing members to invest to make it work

– Joseph Smith telling women to accept polygamy or their salvation is in jeapordy

– sacrificing all the saints had to build a Nauvoo temple they knew they would leave

We are taught faith is built on obedience and sacrifice. Faith is tested when personal revelation and priesthood revelation are not identical to the individual. Faith seems to also be tested at times to check if we are willing to obey, even in things we don’t understand. But even with the Abraham story, he was willing to sacrifice Isaac as long as the Lord would raise him up so he could fulfill the promises given (see Heb 11:19). So personal revelation is needed to know how to obey.

Yep, that is 100% my attitude. If someone claims to be a prophet of God (or has any communication from God), then I’d expect God will back them up and tell me too. Until then, I’ll continue to employ the brains in my head and that usually leads me to saying something along the lines of “you have to be kidding me?!?”

[Author]

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