With respect to some prophecies of Joseph Smith, it is not rare to hear that many of them were “obvious.” One example is the attempts to explain away D&C 87 (the so-called “Civil War Prophecy” [to quote one critic, "I find little here to suggest that Joseph Smith was gifted with any unusual prophetic insight here")). One was reminded of these criticisms when reading the following about the “obvious” and “mundane” aspects of Mark’s account of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse:
Some of the events described in [Mark]
13.5-13 are simply standard apocalyptic imagery. For example, wars were, and
are, all too common. Wars were also a part of Jewish literature concerning
cataclysmic events (e.g. Isa. 19.2; Jer. 4.16f.; 6.22ff.; 51.27; Zec. 14.2;
Dan. 9.18ff.; 2 Chron. 15.6; 4 Ezra 8.63-9.3; 13.31). Famines were also common
in the ancient world (cf. Acts 11.28) and likewise they too can be found in
prophetic and apocalyptic literature (e.g. Isa. 14.30; Joel 1; 2 Bar. 27.6).
Earthquakes did and do occur and they too were a part of Jewish imagery in
describing cosmic events (e.g. Isa. 13.13; Jer. 4.24; 1 Enoch 1.6f.; 2 Syr.
Apoc. Bar. 70.8). The wars, famines and earthquakes could all have been
written/predicted without any specific events in mind. (James G. Crossley, The
Date of Mark’s Gospel: Insight from the Law in Earliest Christianity [Journal
for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 266; London: T&T Clark
International, 2004], 39)
Of course, many of Joseph Smith's fulfilled prophecies are not "mandate" or "obvious" based on the then-present events the prophecies were given. For a listing of works on Joseph Smith's prophecies, see:
