Chronology of the Christian Church: A Scriptural Timeline from Adam to the Modern Day

Curtis Newbold

4 years ago

*Please scroll below to see an enlarged and expandable version of the graphic.*

I’m going outside of my traditional infographics in this post with something more personal. As a life-long Christian and someone who has always appreciated and been intellectually curious about the religious roots of and relationships between the Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Islam, and Christianity—one of challenges I’ve often faced in studying is knowing when and where each book of scripture is taking place. With so many important figures and events, it can be difficult to follow who was living when—and where the various peoples of ancient times were migrating to and why.

Because much of the Old Testament history shapes what was happening during Jesus Christ’s ministry, I believe it is helpful for Christians to understand the chronology of events that came before His time on Earth. It’s also important to understand what has happened since His death. This infographic is designed to assist with that. While the graphic is obviously not a comprehensive collection of all the events and people mentioned in the scriptures, it’s my attempt at a more holistic chronological view of Christianity, from the time of Adam until the present day. The graphic shows some of the most prominent events in Christian history, from the birth of Adam to The Flood to the migration of Abraham to the birth of Jesus Christ to the Protestant Reformation.

My purpose in creating this infographic was a personal endeavor, a project I did simply to help me better understand. But since I finished it and shared it with a few people within my personal circle of friends and family, it became evident that others were intrigued and saw value in studying it for themselves. I wasn’t going to publish the infographic on my website, but have since decided that if it’s of value to any curious observer of religion and, more specifically Christianity, then maybe it was worth publishing publicly.

To clarify the perspective and framework that informed this document, I am a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a member of this faith, I hold the core beliefs of all Christians—that God is a loving Father in Heaven, that He sent his son Jesus Christ to atone for the sins of the world, and that He uses prophets and apostles as mouthpieces through scripture and other means to share important truths to the world. I follow the teachings of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible (relying largely on the King James translation). I also use the Book of Mormon, a translated work of ancient scripture written by disciples of Jesus Christ—much like the Bible—that takes place on the American continent between 600 B.C. and 400 A.D. I also rely on other works of scripture, including the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham—inspired works translated by Joseph Smith in the early 19th Century—that provide additional insight into the lives of some of Christianity’s (and other religions’) most recognized prophets.

From this perspective, you’ll notice in the infographic a few distinct doctrinal features of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that vary somewhat from other Christian faiths. The most obvious differing feature on the timeline that you might notice is the period of the Great Apostasy, which occurred during what is largely known today as the Dark Ages. This was a time when Christianity persisted on Earth through great sacrifice of many inspired leaders and faiths, but where truths were lost or confused through lack of access to scriptural texts, issues with translation, and political and religious upheaval that altered doctrinal understandings until the time of the time of the Reformation and Age of Enlightenment. In modern times, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that much of the lost truths were restored through divine inspiration to Joseph Smith and other modern prophets and through the translation of the Book of Mormon.

Another feature of the graphic that shows a differing feature from other Christian faiths is the delineation of the gospel dispensations. Dispensations are periods of time when God has authorized servants on the earth who are commissioned to dispel the truths of the gospel to all people. Dispensations have occurred throughout history so that the people of the earth have not had to rely entirely on previous dispensations to understand God’s teachings. The Bible distinguishes six clear dispensations with Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus Christ. Paul wrote of the “dispensation of the fullness of times,” which is the dispensation in which we currently live, a final dispensation after the Great Apostasy but before Christ’s Second Coming. There were other dispensations with other peoples of the earth, including in the Americas (which are partially accounted for in the Book of Mormon) and others with the Lost Tribes of Israel, which we know less about. But studying different dispensations and the prophets who led those dispensations can help us better understand how God has managed the spread of his gospel to different people in different times around the world.

Another unique feature that you’ll recognize in this graphic is the timeline of important events of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ during the 19th Century. As the Great Apostasy was coming to an end and God was preparing the world for the final dispensation before Christ’s return, He restored many lost truths and established His church once again for our days. These truths were initially restored through Joseph Smith in the early 1800s and they continue to be revealed to other prophets and apostles of His church today through divine inspiration.

Whether you follow my same faith or not, I hope that you’ll at least find some appreciation for the similarities in not only other Christian faiths, but with the Old Testament links between Islam and Judaism. I hope you’ll find it a valuable resource for study, if for nothing else to learn more about what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes from a chronological perspective. Clearly there is a lot more to Christianity and to the Church of Jesus Christ than is shown in this infographic, but there is an interesting religious history told in this chronology of events that I hope you’ll find as fascinating as I do.

All sources and references for this graphic came from ChurchOfJesusChrist.org, which includes a tremendous depth of scriptural insight should you want to learn more. More sources are cited below.

An important caveat: While I designed this specific graphic, you’ll notice as you peruse the sources that much of what I have created is NOT original. I have simply merged several resources produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into a single, unifying graphic and chronology.