Multiple prophets in the scriptures are said to have been shown everything that would happen among the children of men until the end of the world. This vision of all that lay in store on this earth is what I call the eternal vision. It entails not simply a recitation of post and future history but also a clear overlay of the plan of salvation at work among mankind.
At one point I believed that it was the same in each instance like watching a movie and that any differences in the record of various prophets were a result of them being charged with different responsibilities as far as what they were to record and different interpretations of what they were setting based on individual experience. I have come to believe that the vision itself is tailored to the individual and that the consistent aspect of it is simply the scope and overall message it conveys about Heavenly Father and His activity among His children.
All of the prophets that I am able to identify as having this eternal vision will be on my list of priesthood men but not all the priesthood men had this vision. I have no doubt that there are many in scripture who had the vision but left no record of it and some who had the vision and aren’t even listed in scripture so my list should hardly be considered complete.
I realized this morning that at the time that Babylon conquered Jerusalem (588 B.C.) there were at least 3 men alive who had seen or would later see that vision. Daniel, Nephi, and Ezekiel all saw it during their lives. Lehi had seen at least part of it but we have no clear record of whether he saw everything. I think it likely that Jeremiah had also seen it but again the record isn’t clear on that point. When I realized that those three certain and two more likely all lived at the same time it occurred to me that this was likely the highest concentration of men with that vision at a single point in scriptural history. I think that says something about the time in which they lived.
Leave a Reply