As a host of signs have been given us by which we are to know the time of Christ’s return, so the ancients were given many signs by which they were to have known the time of his birth. These signs included such things as the shepherds being told they would find the Christ Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12), as well as the marvel of a new star in the heavens which the wise men from the East followed, that they might bring gifts to their newborn king (Matthew 2:1-10). Samuel, the Lamanite prophet, was the instrument for bringing forth marvelous prophecies among the Nephites, identifying the time of Christ’s birth and the signs incident to that birth and to his crucifixion (see Helaman 14).