In my profession as a GIS Analyst, I often take multiple datasets and overlay them on a map in order to extract meaning that would otherwise be unnoticed when looking at a single dataset. It recently occurred to me that I could do the same thing with many of the prophecies concerning the Last Days. I've done this research for my own benefit, but am posting it here with the hope that scriptural enthusiasts will benefit from it.
My approach has been to set up a spreadsheet with six key prophetic accounts on the left, and significant repeated events along the top. Then, I just put a marker any time a prophecy mentioned one of those events. All scriptures are provided on the second page, and take the reader to LDS.org and highlight the respective verses. It creates an interesting way to observe who prophesied what. Looking at my final chart clearly indicated some interesting occurrences that would be practically impossible to spot without some sort of visual aid.
As a quick caveat, we know that the Latter-days have been spoken of by many ancient prophets, but some have spoken about it more than others. I am only using six prophesies that describe the latter days in the most detail, so this isn't an exhaustive analysis of the doctrine of the last days. The graph could certainly be expanded to include both, other prophesies, and / or other events.
My approach has been to set up a spreadsheet with six key prophetic accounts on the left, and significant repeated events along the top. Then, I just put a marker any time a prophecy mentioned one of those events. All scriptures are provided on the second page, and take the reader to LDS.org and highlight the respective verses. It creates an interesting way to observe who prophesied what. Looking at my final chart clearly indicated some interesting occurrences that would be practically impossible to spot without some sort of visual aid.
As a quick caveat, we know that the Latter-days have been spoken of by many ancient prophets, but some have spoken about it more than others. I am only using six prophesies that describe the latter days in the most detail, so this isn't an exhaustive analysis of the doctrine of the last days. The graph could certainly be expanded to include both, other prophesies, and / or other events.
- Event Chronology: It became obvious to me early on that four of the six prophecies were given in a seemingly chronological order. These four are 1) Nephi's Vision 2) The Savior to the Jews 3) The Savior to the Nephites, and 4) The Savior to Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 45. This is an extremely helpful tidbit of knowledge! Why? Because when one account is vague on a certain topic, you can search another account, look at the surrounding events, and glean more information. The other two prophesies are from Isaiah and John the Revelator, and seem to jump around a bit, and often repeat certain things.
- Different Prophecies for Different Audiences: At a first glance, it is easy to see that the Lord did not intend the same latter-day prophecies to be given to the Jews and to the Nephites - or at least did not intend to include the same prophecies in scripture.
- The Nephites received a lot on Gentile stuff. The Jews got little to nothing on that topic
- The Jews received a lot on Days of Tribulation stuff. The Nephites got next to nothing on that.
- OR DOWNLOAD MULTIPAGE PDF FROM HERE -
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hxu3c4pgpeqhjbs/ParallelProphesies.pdf?dl=0
SEE MY OTHER LAST DAYS INFOGRAPHIC HERE
SEE MY OTHER LAST DAYS INFOGRAPHIC HERE
Thank you for sharing the graph. I have been researching this subject and I look forward to reviewing what you found. I also attempted to view "See My Other Last Day Infographic" only to find that the link is not working. I would love to view your other research. Perhaps, you could email it to me at joeemc2000@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteKind Regards, Jay Oliver