“[W]ithout a Zion, and a place of deliverance, we must fall, because the time is near when the sun will be darkened, the moon turned to blood, the stars fall from heaven and the earth reel to and fro; then if this is the case, if we are not sanctified and gathered to the places where God has appointed, our former professions and our great love for the bible, we must fall, we cannot stand, we cannot be saved; for God will gather out his saints from the gentiles and then comes desolation or destruction and none can escape except the pure in heart who are gathered.” 

Joseph Smith – 21 April 1834 (Recorded by Oliver Cowdery) Kirtland Council Minute Book 1832-37 (Kirtland, OH: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 21 April 1834), 44.