Artist Information
Name: Poch, Rafael
Location(s): Argentina
Gender: Male
Prescience
by Poch, Rafael
Dated 2025
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Prescience
by Poch, Rafael
Scripture
Doctrine and Covenants 010
Medium
digital
Copyright
Rafael Poch. Used with permission.
Date
2025
Citation
Rafael Poch, Prescience, 2025. The Book of Mormon Art Catalog, [URL].
Insights
Technique & Style
Abstract, Digital illustration
Symbols
chess board, forbidden fruit, thorn
Additional Info
Notes
Artist statement: "In this piece, I sought to illustrate the concept of divine foreknowledge, weaving together two pivotal moments where God’s wisdom anticipated and outmaneuvered the adversary’s cunning: the loss of the 116 pages and the partaking of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Both events, though appearing as setbacks from a mortal perspective, were in reality preordained within the grand strategy of God’s plan. The chess position depicted is not random—it is a moment in the French Defense: Advance Variation, a strategic opening that requires deep foresight, calculated responses, and the ability to think many moves ahead. The adversary, in attempting to seize control, walks directly into an inevitable plan, much like how Satan believed he had gained an advantage with the loss of the Book of Lehi. However, just as Nephi’s second record had already been prepared 2,400 years before, rendering the theft meaningless, so too did God anticipate the Fall of Man, making it a necessary step rather than a tragedy. The scripture here stands as a declaration of God’s superior wisdom over all mortal or demonic cunning, symbolized by an inevitable strategic victory on the chessboard. "
Church Name
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints