Dreamers of Zion, Joseph Smith and George J. Adams

Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Mormon movement and George J. Adams, one of his least known followers - two Gentile dreamers of Zion - were instrumental in encouraging Jews and Christians to support the restoration of Israel. ... For Joseph Smith, Jewish responsibility for establishing Zion had not been forfeited nor terminated. It was continuous: the Jews would return as Jews; they would rebuild Jerusalem as Jews. In his view, neither the denigration of Jews, so often characteristic of Christianity, nor supersession by the Church, was tenable. According to Joseph’s perception of the Scriptures, and his own prophetic insights, there are to be two strategic centers - Zion at historical Jerusalem, and Zion in a New Jerusalem in the heartland of America. He believed that a renewed Israel and a church, restored to its primal purpose, shared a mandate to body forth in society the dream of the Kingdom of God. He called this dream the cause of Zion, which became a major emphasis of the Mormon movement. ... This book explains the rejection by Smith and Adams of "normal” Christian replacement theology and sets out the apologetics by which Smith and Adams promoted courage and conviction in all who joined them in encouraging the ingathering of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem.