Jodi Stoddard’s YouTube Videos on Daniel and John’s Revelation, a Response
General Comments on Jodi Stoddard’s Approach
Sister Stoddard seems to be earnest and honest in her attempts to understand obscure Biblical Apocalyptic imagery. There isn’t anything obviously self-promoting or untoward in her attempts. She doesn’t appear to be trying to make money off of the endeavor. Even if her YouTube channel is monetized, which it doesn’t appear to be, she isn’t getting enough hits to make significant money. However, while she says she is just trying to discern the meaning of the Scriptures, she also says the Spirit has led her to understand things, which necessarily is a claim of inspiration. She should be more careful of these claims, as some members may interpret them as more than what they should.
Overall, she is not in a position to do what she is attempting to do. She makes simple mistakes (e.g., times=multiplication=x, horns=trumpets), does not understand the context of the scriptural texts she is commenting on, and takes a parochial (i.e., Mormon-centric, USA-centric) view of Daniel and Isaiah. For example, she interprets any reference possibly referring to a Temple to be referring to LDS Temples. This is not the case with any Old Testament Prophet. All of them focused squarely on the Temple at Jerusalem and any Old Testament Last Days prediction of a Temple is always explicitly referring to a future rebuilt Temple at Jerusalem. She makes some references to modern Temple worship being restored in Jerusalem, but she sees that as restored now, not requiring an actual Temple being built, which the Old Testament prophets unequivocally require. In John's Revelation, it is also referring to a Temple at Jerusalem, not an LDS Temple.
Sister Stoddard’s general approach is to look for things that simply fit, regardless of whether it is consistent or contextual. If it seems like a good fit, it simply is, no matter how superficial or extra-biblical or poor the evidence is. It is a combination of cherry picking and curve fitting to get something that sounds reasonable. But, under scrutiny it falls apart.
Sister Stoddard, and any aspiring student of end-times apocalyptic texts like this, sould spend more time studying the texts themselves, particularly the Old Testament Prophets, as they are written to be understood, and if one invests the time, they can be understood.
General Comments on the Timing of the Second Coming
This is a comment on the general subject of the timing of the Second Coming, and not specifically dealing with Sister Stoddard’s comments.
The Lord states emphatically nobody knows the time of when the Second Coming is, cf. Mark 13:32-33. Smith himself prayed on the subject and the Lord told him to leave Him alone and stop asking, cf. D&C 130:14-17.
During his mortal ministry, Jesus stated explicitly that signs are given not to know when the time is at hand, but when the time is not at hand, so we will not be deceived, cf. Matt. 24:3-31. Jesus explicitly states we will not know when the time is, but when it does come, it will be obvious to everyone, so, do not be deceived by people saying they know some hidden secret. Jesus is explicitly saying to not predict when it is. Instead, he is saying always be ready and pay attention to the overwhelmingly obvious signs. Jesus is saying there will be no guesswork. The presentation tries to get around this by saying it is trying to figure out the signs and it isn’t predicting the days or hours, it is predicting the years and months. The issue isn’t days and years, it the approach is entirely backwards for what the Prophets intend.
We have 2000 years of history of people trying to predict the Last Days and everyone has been wrong. Ever since Jesus was crucified, every single generation since then has seen their generation as the one experiencing the Last Days, cf. Acts 1:4-11. That is 2000 years of mistakes. Rather than repeating 2000 years of mistakes, we should be ready no matter when it comes, just as Jesus taught. Yes, Jesus will return, but many of us will likely die and meet our Maker the old-fashioned way before He returns, so best be prepared regardless of how that meeting manifests itself.
Specific Comments on the YouTube Videos
The YouTube videos are trying to build a case that we are presently in the middle of the 7 years of tribulation spoken of by Daniel and John’s Revelation. They selectively uses obscure apocalyptic Biblical passages mixed with astrological events and highly selective General Authority quotes used out of context to draw novel conclusions and make predictions about what is presently and soon to be happening.
Video one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twfZYSV_Xwo&feature=youtu.be)
3:45 (3 minutes and 45 seconds into the video) - Isa. 41:10 quoted in a general way to say "Don't panic, the Lord is in control". This is the Lord telling us not to fear. This is an acontextual usage that sheds light on a generally poor understanding of the Old Testament in general, and Isaiah in specific. The passage is the Lord speaking to ancient Israel, which is about to be sacked by Babylon, telling them that He will not utterly abandon them or allow them to be destroyed. This is a promise that He will gather and redeem them after they are scattered. Presentation is using it to say the Day of the Lord is not something we should fear. There are a plenty of other Scriptures that could have been quoted that fit the intended context better. Why pick this one? Presumably because in an attempt to use obscure Old Testament prophetic passages to make the point, and this would superficially lend credibility to the approach.
7:14 – The number 12 is presented as "a symbol of Faith, the Church, and Divine Rule" and does not substantiate that statement. A series of references to 12 are quoted that all have to do with the twelve tribes of Israel, which is what it genuinely represents. All references to 12 in the Bible are a reference to Israel. Any reference to the number 12 in the Scriptures with any theological relevance is in reference to the 12 tribes and the Lord’s covenant with Israel. There isn’t anything else relevant to that number being used in any capacity with respect to Faith, the Church or Divine Rule. We have 12 apostles because there were 12 tribes of Israel.
7:50 - The number 40. The meaning and use of the number 40 is missed entirely. All 40 means in the Semitic cultural context is that it is longer than a lunar month. When the Bible says "40 days" or "40 days and 40 nights" what they are really saying is "longer than a lunar month". There is nothing specific or literal about it. It has no connection at all to the length of human gestation, which is 42 weeks, and is never equated with that ever in the Scriptures. That it gets used as a measure of time for Moses, Elijah, and Messiah is a connection to make Messiah like Elijah and Moses, and nothing else. The Scriptures never uses it as a fixed time with any prophetic or theological import.
9:10 - The number 70. Presentation is incorrect. It has nothing to do with 7 times 10. The number seventy has its theologically important origin in Exod. 1:5. Everything after that with any theological significance is related solely to that. Saying it is 7 x 10 means something is not Scriptural or used in any Scriptural passage as such with any theological significance. The reason we have Quorums of the 70 is because of Exod. 1:5.
10:06 – Signs. Presentation gets this one backwards - Jesus teaches very plainly in Matt. 24 that signs are not to show you when the end times were, but when the end times are not, so you will not be deceived (cf. Matt. 24:3-4).
11:35 – Presentation takes Sister Nelson's comments (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts/article/worldwide-devotionals/2016/01/becoming-the-person-you-were-born-to-be?lang=eng) entirely out of context to make it mean something that Sister Nelson had no intention of suggesting, that Christ was already back on the earth as part of the Second Coming. Sister Nelson, in leading up to this quote says that each of us will have a one-on-one interview with the Lord and we should see that as a reality, and she wants the youth in the audience to understand the reality of the Judgement and have it impact their present behavior. She is asking the kids if their behavior would be different if they knew the Lord had already appeared to His disciples as part of the Second Coming. What she is referring to is ambiguous. It is likely she is referring to all of the appearances of the resurrected Lord documented in Doctrine and Covenants in the early history of the Restoration. This is something we as a Church know and believe. She is asking if that makes an impact on our behavior now. Taking this as a quote to refer to some hidden event that only the Church leadership is aware of is acontextual. The presentation is using the ambiguity to say "obviously there are some really big clues in there". No, it is not obvious there is anything in there that Sister Nelson is alluding to other than what she is saying point blank: she wants the young single adults in the Church to have the strength of conviction to act according to the reality they believe in. This sort of clue hunting permeates all General Authority references in this presentation. The General Authority doesn’t ever come out and say it, they are just alluding to it, which is discerned and revealed to us through the presentation. If this is what Sister Nelson meant to say, why wouldn’t she just come out and say it? If any of them meant anything like any of this, why wouldn’t they just come out and say it?
12:42 - 3.5 or 7 years. The presentation spends a lot of time discussing the length and meaning of an ambiguous chunk of time referred to in both Daniel and John's Revelation. This section of text at issue is one that has been a source of endless speculation by countless people for literally thousands of years. The explanation is confusing in and of itself, and sheds no light on the matter at all. This time period is used in different contexts in different passages throughout the Scriptures, so it’s application is difficult and best left in context.
15:40 - Kirtland Temple Restoration of Keys on Passover. This is the one case where something actually happened on a Jewish High Holy Day (e.g., Passover, Weeks/Pentecost, Tabernacles, etc.) in an LDS Temple. The presentation then attempts to use this to draw parallels with other LDS Temple events, none of which fall on High Holy Days. The one specific event of Passover at Kirtland is an outlier because of what happened: restoration of Priesthood Keys to Gather Israel. It has never happened since and will not happen again, because once the keys are restored, they don’t need to be restored again. There is nothing magical about Temples and Jewish Holidays, and there is no other OT prediction left unfulfilled about a temple, except the one at Jerusalem, which David, Ezekiel and John's Revelation all refer to, and which will not be an LDS Temple based on the predictions given. It will very likely be a Jewish Temple, owing to the practices identified with it.
16:18 - The visual presented here is of a common type used by many people trying to do exactly what this presentation is doing and failing at. The presentation even references one of the more notable failures to do so in the conversation. But, there are many more who have attempted to do just this and they all fail, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
The author would do well to recognize they are in a long list of people doing the same thing, just in a slightly different way. Note the way the author presents day/weeks/months are interchangeable and then uses external events to argue the metric being used is correct. But, what if the event used is wrong? Then the metric is wrong. The entire approach is wrong. For example, the attempt to correlate the Nauvou Temple with Dan. 12:7. The timing is off, the Temple reference is wrong, as Daniel was talking about Jews and the Jerusalem Temple. The attempt to correlate this to LDS history is parochial and strained, at best.
20-21 - The timeline put together here is a mix of references that are poorly connected or unconnected. The most obvious example is pulling the Rev. 12 reference to the Woman in the Sky, as that entire chapter is about the War in Heaven and has nothing to do with End Times. Eclipses and comets have historically been connected to end-times predictions, but the Scriptures have not ever used them as such. The exceptions in the Scriptures to this are events which defy the normal natural order of things, like light at night and new star at the birth of Christ. The Scriptural point of view on this is the Lord has power to alter the reality as we observe it with our sense and discern it with our limited scientific understanding. And, the observation of celestial events, as in the case of astrology, is perceived negatively in the Old Testament because it is associated with foreign religion (cf. Dan. 2:27-28, Dan. 4:7, Isa. 47:13-14). Eclipses are never used in the Scriptures as a sign, although there are possible allusions to them associated with the Day of the Lord. However, those references can also be a result of fire, smoke and general wide-spread destruction where the sky is darkened by means other than an eclipse. Eclipses are commonly connected to superstition and astrology.
Video 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3yngnQAtDw)
5:40 – The view that Rev. 7:1-3 sealing refers to LDS Temple sealings is forwarded. The context of Rev. 7 has nothing to do with LDS Temple worship. This is a Judgement theme where the angels are holding back destruction to gather out righteous literal Israel to protect them from the destruction of the Day of the Lord. Presentation assumes any reference to sealing in the Bible has to do with LDS Temple sealings, which is clearly not the case. The seal being placed on the forehead is the angel marking the people as the Lord’s, just like a king would place a royal seal on something to make it his.
7:00-12:16 Presentation makes a series of connections between Joel 1:13-14 and Rev. 7:9-12 and various LDS Temple dedications. Neither of the two quoted passages are about Temple dedications. The Joel passage is about a plague of locusts eating all of the produce of the harvest so the Israelites are starving to death, so the prophet summons the priests and people to the Temple at Jerusalem to repent in sackcloth and ashes so the Lord will have mercy on them. This is a covenant curse owing to wickedness, and a call to repentance. The Rev. 7:9-12 passage is about the redeemed righteous who are preserved, and they include all nations, not just Israel, as sealed in the earlier section of the chapter. These again are people who are in heaven with the Lord, not mortals on earth.
12:45-13:15 Presentation uses squishy math that the Prophets themselves never do. This is a common practice, as presenter notes. It is a poor metric, as it is mixing units from different texts in an effort to get to something that seems to make sense to us today. It just doesn’t work that way, it is curve fitting.
13:21-19:33 Presentation uses a footnote from one of President Nelson’s talks to reference some scriptures and uses the ambiguity of the those references to draw highly speculative conclusions about what President Nelson might be referring to. Inferences are made that Nelson never makes and assumes President Nelson is promising all possible favorable outcomes right now. Presentation has a list of 6 things at 19:01 and suggests President Nelson is offering all of them to us now, which he never does.
19:38-22:32 Standard commentary on the 144,000 mixed with other novel and highly speculative statements. The assertion mortals left on earth will be translated during the millennium is novel and totally unsubstantiated. The assertion that the earth will enter terrestrial glory is novel and totally unsubstantiated. Assertion in 22:31 that angels are from the city of Enoch is novel and unsubstantiated. Presentation then forwards a set of statements on translation in 22:43-24:36 where it is saying we can be translated too if we just desire it and ask for it like John the Beloved and the Three Nephites did. It is difficult to express how uniquely unusual this position is. Nobody else has ever suggested such a thing, and there is absolutely no scriptural text even suggesting such a thing.
25:30-27:20 Interpreting Rev. 12 via astrology. Presentation equates Rev. 12 with an astrological event of Virgo, Leo and Rosh Hashannah and says the events of Rev. 12 occurred on Sept 23, 2017. Astrological signs have never been used as evidence of anything in the Scriptures. We have never been pointed to them as evidence of an interpretation or a means of interpreting Scripture. The Scriptures themselves do not recommend such an approach, nor has anyone in any position to do so ever suggested such a thing. Even assuming the astrological argument is a valid approach, presentation claims the twelve stars on the woman’s head are the 9 stars of Leo and three planets in our solar system, which are not stars. So, even if you buy the astrology, it isn’t following the text. The chapter is meant to explain the animosity between the dragon and the woman and why it is playing out on earth. The War in Heaven is explicitly mentioned, which is clearly in a pre-mortal context, and the text is presented as having the events spill out onto earth. Revelation 12 in and of itself is there to set context for the ensuing chapters about the beasts on earth who do the dragon’s bidding, so we know who the dragon is and who the beasts work for.
28:56-33:51 Israel becomes a state in 1948 and then presentation uses Daniel 9:24-25 with squishy math where weeks are actually years to count off 70 years after 1948 to say the US Embassy moved to Jerusalem, which has no theological significance at all and was never predicted or even relevant. But, it does have the number 70 in it, which is considered too important to be coincidental so it must be important. But, presentation really wants to count back 69 years, because Daniel said 69 weeks, not 70 weeks, and there was an eclipse in 2017 in the USA, so that must be what Daniel was talking about. Presentation wants to make big point of this now, because it will be used in the next video. Presentation also makes a number of concessions through this section about how it was referring to the historical Temple at Jerusalem, but Scriptures have layers of meaning, so they can be re-used for other readings, which is what is being done here.
Video 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osHQ2IlPBFg)
0:30-3:10 More squishy math talking about the importance of eclipses. Almost seven (video 2:10 – August 21 2017 to April 8 2024 is three months less than 7 years) years is close enough to round up, and the intersection of eclipse paths is in Illinois, over 300 miles south east of Adam-on-diamon in Missouri. Here is a screen grab of the distance:
This is obviously a clear miss, but presentation allows it on the assumption that earthquakes will move Adam-on-diamon into the eclipse path. Note presentation doesn’t include a map like this in her video, it is just brushed off as a problem easily remedied by impending earthquakes.
Looking at the USGS fault maps, there are no earthquake fault lines in Missouri:
The “fault” alluded to is probably between Southern Missouri and Tennessee, and is called the “New Madrid Seismic Zone”:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/urban/st_louis.php
This is well South of the area marked between eclipses and would not bring Adam-on-diamon closer to the eclipse path in the event of seismic action.
https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/maps/national-seismic-hazard-map
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Seismic_Hazard_Maps.gif
5:45 70x7 Jubillee years. A highly speculative reading on Matt. 18:22 on assumption of 70 Jubilee years, then 70 years of Israel as a nation when the USA moved their embassy to Jerusalem (May 14, 2018, which was the Gregorian 70 year anniversary, not the Jewish calendar anniversary) and 7 years between the eclipses (the first of which is August 21, 2017). First, presentation admits it is pulling the passage out of context, but, again, appeals to spiritual inspiration in squishy math number work. The assumption is Jesus wasn’t saying they should forgive someone seven times seventy times over, but was saying 70 X 7 and the X represents the eclipse crossed paths. Israel being declared a nation in Human worldly politics is irrelevant to anything Scriptural, and is never referenced in the Scriptures as being significant. Eclipses are never used as signs in the Scriptures. And, it all relies on squishy math where you round things to what fits, since the dates of the events don’t really line up.
6:40 Presentation tries to make an X significant by saying the Hebrew letter Tav was marked as an X anciently, not in Jesus time, but in David and Solomon’s time (which is anachronistic to Jesus’ alleged deeper predictive allusion, as Jesus spoke Aramaic and the taw in Aramaic is not an “x”). But, in Matt 18:22, Jesus doesn’t use that language at all, he is speaking of counting offenses, not of multiplications or signs or placing a marker on something. This is a semantic mix up in English that is based on multiplication being “times” as in “area equals height times width” and being an “X marks the spot”. This is a conflation over the Western cultural tradition of using an X to represent multiplication, which we call “times” like a “times table”, and it is not born out in the Scriptural language Jesus used. Jesus was not referring to multiplication, the NT Greek doesn’t suggest that at all. Jesus was referring to counting a number of times you do something, meaning you should count to seven over and over until you do seventy sets of seven. The X has nothing to do with what Jesus was saying, it only means multiplication in a modern Western context. The letter X was first used as a symbol for multiplication in 1631 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplication_sign), obviously well after Jesus’ time.
7:46-8:21 Temple coin. Presentation makes it sound like the nation or state of Israel minted this Temple coin to be used as currency in the Temple. It is not. It is a fundraising effort by a small private group and only 1000 coins were minted to be sold as a fundraiser for the group:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-group-mints-trump-coin-to-honor-jerusalem-recognition/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-trump-coin-honours-recognition-jerusalem-as-capital/
Presentation is trying to make it sound like this is some momentous event, when it is just fundraising. The coin will never be used as currency in the Temple and was never presented as such. Presentation says “Pretty amazing. Not a coincidence.” Not a coincidence of what? A group claiming to be descendants of Levitical priests in Jerusalem want Americans to subsidize their activities by producing a commemorative coin. What is the theological significance of that? Nothing. Until there is a Temple at Jerusalem, as predicted by Ezekiel and echoed by John in Revelation, this is all wishful thinking.
10:13 Sept 23, 2017 is the Jupiter in Retrograde out of Virgo, or what presentation thinks is the fulfilment of Rev. 12.
https://earthsky.org/human-world/biblical-signs-in-the-sky-september-23-2017
Presentation then connects with the event of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and if you then count backwards 40 days back, then it’s the date of the first eclipse. This is squishy math built to fit a preconceived notion. Nowhere in scripture or prophetic tradition does anyone engage in this kind of arithmetic proof as evidence.
10:41-15:12 Presentation uses Ezra Taft Benson’s talk and inserts a time table that Benson never used to come up with a squishy math chronology that fits the model. Benson referred to the destruction of the Temple so that equals 40 years (except that it was 37 years after Jesus predicted the destruction that Rome sacked Jerusalem in 70AD – and 70 minus 33 is 37) and then he says “day” and “hour” which presentation reinterprets that according to her squishy math to add 40 years to the date of the original talk to come up with Spring 2021, which is the halfway mark between the two eclipses. More squishy math.
15:30-28:14 Tribe of Levi – Temple Institute. Small group of men in Israel who are trying to organize and reestablish historically accurate Temple worship in Jerusalem is the fulfilment of the various OT predictions of the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple. These guys claim to be Levites and therefore are Cohen and they have built some of the artifices and performed some rites. But, the OT predictions are clearly calling for the rebuilding of the Temple and the full re-enactment of Temple ritual, including animal sacrifices. Clearly, the Temple hasn’t been rebuilt, but this small group of men fits the proposed time schedule, so it is called complete.
28:40-30:27 Red Heifer Prophecy – Presentation cites sources as confirming the presence of a kosher all red heifer that will be sacrificed by the resurrected returning Christ at the Second Coming. However, the Jewish sources (Temple Institute) who heralded the claim are holding it up as suitable in consecrating a rebuilt Temple. Proposed timeline is entirely off as the Temple Institute’s intention is to rebuild the predicted Temple at Jerusalem and then use the red heifer as part of the consecration of that Temple. Construction of the Temple hasn’t even started, and the heifer will clearly age out of candidacy before it is built. Presentation is suggesting the mere presence of the heifer is fulfilment and makes it available for sacrifice at the Second Coming. This is a very selecting and inaccurate reading of the “Red Heifer Prophecy” as being presented by the Temple Institute. There is no “red heifer prophecy” documented anywhere scripturally talking about Jesus sacrificing a red heifer at the Second Coming. This is something that is brought in by inference from Number 19:1-9 and connected by the Temple Institute to say they are ready to go and the Lord is supporting them and preparing the way for them. Their timeline kind of fits the presentation, so it is brought in as a misrepresentation to make more evidence for the case.
30:35-34:30 Interprets Rev. 19 as a Temple Dedication at Rome, Italy. This is not the case at all. Rev. 19 takes place in heaven and represents the final Wedding Feast of the Church of the Firstborn, where the Lord is heralded as the winner and His Saints praise Him for Victory.
35:00-38:52 Presentation of the 24 Elders and 4 beasts from Rev. 19 with a picture of the current LDS apostles and counts it up to 24+4, including both live people and statues. Totally out of context as Rev. 19 is talking about a scene in heaven, not earth, the 24 elders and 4 beasts are all in heaven and have been discussed previously in John’s Revelation. The Four Beasts are part of Ezekiel’s merkabah (cf. Ezek. 1 and 10), which represents the power of the Lord’s throne on earth, they are comparable to four horses that pull a battle chariot, except these beasts are heavenly and supernaturally powerful. The Lord sits on the throne, He cannot be one of the beasts, and the four beasts are heavenly angels, not mortals. Using a picture of the modern Quorum of the Twelve, First Presidency and statues of Jesus and the ancient Twelve to add up to 24+4 of Rev. 19 is wildly speculative and completely acontextual. It also flatly contradicts D&C 77:5, which interprets the 24 elders as those who belonged to the seven ancient churches and who were dead and in heaven.
38:56-44:15 Presentation uses Rev. 11:4 to say it is Peter and Paul mentioned in the Rome Temple dedicatory prayer. Presentation admits Rev. 11:4 is talking about Jerusalem, but brushes that aside and says “what if…” and “I wonder if there is a parallel here” and it is labeled as “personal speculation” but proceeds anyway encouraging the viewer to look at the picture and find it compelling and see parallels between the two unrelated things. This shows how willing the presentation is to ignore what the Scriptural text plainly says and reread it to fit the proposed timeline. Presentation is an agglomeration of seeming coincidences that ignores what the Scriptural text clearly says to forward a particular viewpoint. Presentation isn’t trying to follow the Scriptural text at all. If one can use a text any way you want to, then you can make it mean anything you want.
Presentation also compares palm fronds with human palms to build case. This is again based solely on the English translation of the scriptural text. These two things clearly have nothing to do with each other, except being the same word in English. In any other language, they are not the same thing, particularly in Greek, which is what the original text was written in (John 12:13 and Rev. 7:9 use GR:phoinix for palm fronds where John 20 uses GR:cheir for hands, Matt:26:67 uses GR:rhapizo for palms of hands, Mark 14:65 uses GR:rhapisma for palms of hands, John 18:22 uses GR:didomi for palms of hands).
40:33-41:51 Presentation uses a December 2015 Christmas Devotional talk from Elder Bednar where he quotes Samuel the Lamanite predicting the birth of Christ in 5 years to say that what Elder Bednar really means is he himself is standing in Samuel’s shoes and doing the same thing and 2015 + 5 years = 2021. Presentation rounds up to 2021 instead of 2020 because it is a Christmas devotional, so Dec 2020 is as good as 2021. Ignore the fact that Samuel’s 5 year prediction was for the birth of Christ in mortality, and take it out of context by likening Elder Bednar to Samuel in a selective quote applying it to the Second Coming. At this point presentation is looking for anything possible that lands on a 2021 date as evidence. A Christmas devotional about the birth of Christ and Samuel’s prediction of the birth of Christ is turned into a Second Coming prediction because it occurred in 2015 and add 5 to that is 2021 if you round up. Squishy math.
41:52-43:50 Jupiter and Saturn convergence on Dec 21, 2020 is 5 years after Elder Bednar’s talk and therefore what he was referring to in quoting Samuel the Lamanite and then says that is Rev. 14’s harvest of the wicked. Elder Bednar’s talk had nothing to do with the destruction of the wicked, and had nothing to do with Rev. 14 or anything even like that. His talk was titled “The Lights and the Life of the World” and focused squarely on the birth of Christ, and he wants the viewer to put themselves into the position of being a Nephite witnessing Samuel’s prophecy and then witnessing the miraculous light at night which was a sign of the birth of Christ and the new star. (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2015-12-0030-elder-david-a-bednar?lang=eng). Bednar also talks about Samuel’s prediction of three days darkness at the death of Christ, but presentation ignores that because it doesn’t line up with the 2015+5=2021 timeline, even though it does better line up with her Judgement and destruction theme of harvest by sickle.
42:03-42:05 Jupiter and Saturn are thought to form the star of Bethlehem – this is a passing reference to something highly speculative and easily disproven: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_Bethlehem#Planetary_conjunction , https://www.space.com/14036-christmas-star-bethlehem-comet-planet-theories.html ). It also contradicts LDS canon (cf. Hela 14:5). This is being used in an effort to bolster the credibility of the astrology-based arguments.
Video 4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bueKbHuSqU)
0:43-6:00 Pattern of the Harvest ? Where is this from, what is the source? This is unscriptural, unsubstantiated, totally fabricated. Presentation says it is sequential, but then some of it overlaps at the end. Presentation cites it as authoritative and verified by recent events, but there is nothing there to compare, and then uses some of own timeline to say it all fits together.
1:16 Who is Bob Canning and what is his “Pattern of the Harvest”? He wrote it in Sept 2018? Where? Not found on google.com or amazon.com or abebooks.com
6:02-8:08 Presentation accuses those who say to stop making predictions of using the Matt. 24:36 quote out of context, which is something presentation does consistently through the entire presentation. Presentation clearly does not understand what Jesus is saying in Matt. 24. Presentation is doing the exact opposite of what Jesus is saying to do, and then uses some passages that are saying we should be prepared at any time so we are not overtaken like a thief in the night to justify her attempting to predict the day and hour, which Jesus tells us to not do. The entire point of the thief in the night analogy is to say that we do not know when the thief will come, so we should always lock our doors regardless. As for being children of light, the point there is if we always do good then it doesn’t matter when the Judgement falls, we will be on the right side. Presentation is being reactionary to those who call it out, and then doing exactly what it accuses them of.
8:12-9:02 What is the point of this? Presentation makes statements about verbal wedding invitations and ties it to nothing. Is presentation alluding to anyone attending an LDS Temple is invited to the wedding? Could not find any reference to the verbal wedding invitation being symbolically related to switching position of the shawl. The shoe’s connection to covenant-making in the ancient Near East is attested to historically, but not in the manner presented. These are oblique Temple references.
9:10-16:35 The marriage summary is not historically accurate or even representative of traditional Jewish weddings, it is an idealized historical-fiction version meant to present Messianic symbolism from Jewish tradition. Presentation is using a summary from chapter 4 of the following book:
https://www.amazon.com/Beloved-Bridegroom-Donna-B-Nielsen/dp/157636075X
Presentation then ties in D&C 88:95-98 to say this is a mid-tribulation rapture which coincides with the groom’s collection of the bride. Presentation applies self-serving reading to the text without dealing with context or even the text itself, presentation simply reads text and says it lines up with the forwarded reading. There is a lot going on in D&C 88 which is being ignored, and conclusions are drawn without substantiating them.
16:38-20:50 Veil removal. Presentation obliquely references a change in Temple ceremony and tries to make it represent some momentous shift. Small changes in LDS Temple ceremony have occurred many times over the years and will continue to occur without any momentous events being associated with them. Trying to tie it into something apocalyptic by a highly selective interpretation of veil symbolism is logically weak. If every change in the Temple ceremony has apocalyptic meaning, then they all need to be addressed for the past 30+ years and assigned to some event.
20:56-23:58 Missionaries called home. Missionaries coming home because of COVID-19 is presented as being a fulfilment of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Orson Pratt’s predictions. However, those predictions were because of wholesale wickedness, which his not the case with the COVID-19 epidemic. These are two entirely unrelated things, and everything suggests the Church will send missionaries back out into the field as soon as possible.
24:06-26:52 Daniel’s prediction of the Abomination of Desolation, echoed in John’s Revelation is fulfilled by the COVID-19 Temple closings. The predictions of the Abomination of Desolation are about the modern Temple at Jerusalem being sacked and desecrated by evil armies. It has nothing to do with LDS Temple closings because of infectious disease. Presentation then pulls in squishy math to say that it was exactly 200 years to the day after the First Vision and 400 years after the Mayflower. Nobody knows the date of the First Vision, so that is completely speculative, and there is nothing special about the Mayflower, which has nothing to do with LDS theology or apocalyptic prophecy. It is simply another fanciful coincidence. The First Vision has nothing to do with the End Times, this is just a seeming coincidence, and it is not to the exact date, which presentation insists is not a coincidence, when that is completely unverifiable. Also, presentation never attempts to put importance to 200 and 400, probably because it is unrelated to any previously mentioned Biblical numbers. The use of the Mayflower is also parochial to an American POV, irrelevant to anyone else.
26:55-28:15 Moroni’s horn falling out in an earthquake is presented as a fulfilment of Amos 3:14 where the horns of the altar are cut off and fall to the ground. The problem here is the horns on the altar are bull’s horns, not trumpets. Again, this is a conflation of English terms in the KJV and assuming it is the same thing. Now, the shofar is made of a ram’s horn, but that is what Amos is referring to in 3:6 where the Hebrew term “shofar” is used, and not the Hebrew term “qeren” used in 3:14, which is a reference to a bull’s horn, which is what the Levitical Priests wiped the blood on in Lev. 4:7, shown below:
This is not a shofar or trumpet that is falling to the ground, it is the horns off the altar that are cut off, symbolizing the Lord cutting off their authority. Moroni’s horn falling off the SLC Temple has nothing to do at all with Amos 3:14.
Presentation says the prediction is about the Gentiles rejecting the LDS Church, but Amos was saying nothing at all like that. Amos 3 is about wicked Israel rebelling against the Lord and being invaded by a foreign power, ultimately Assyria.
28:19-33:19 Hosanna shout on April 5, 2020. Presentation says the General Conference Hosanna shout is what is happening in Rev. 8:2-5 and Isa. 13:2-4. Both of these references are acontextual. The Rev. 8 passage is referring to a scene in heaven where angles are blowing trumpets announcing the Judgements of the Lord upon the wicked of the earth and shortly afterwards the punishments are poured out. There is no reference in the text to people on earth shouting or anything related. Similarly, the Isaiah 13:1-5 reference is about the Lord summoning a foreign army to come and invade and destroy Babylon. Nothing about hosanna shouts. The people shouting are the invading army.
33:21-34:47 Ronald A. Rasband is quoting President Nelson saying we are supposed to usher in the Second Coming. For the past 2000 years every generation of Christians has said the same thing. Yes, eventually it will happen, but remember, the past 20 generations (if you are counting long generations, if you are counting short generations then it is the past 200 generations) of Christians all thought it was during their time and got it wrong.
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