Doctrinal Issues
(c) Copyright Michael R. Ash 1998. All rights reserved
Pre-mortal Existence
Doctrine in question:
From the newly revealed LDS scripture and the teachings of modern-day prophets we learn than mankind are literally children of God. God is the Father of our spirits and we lived with Him in the Spirit World before coming to this earth. In the book of Abraham (in the Pearl of Great Price) we find that prior to inhabiting the earth, our spirits resided with God.
...among all these [spirits] there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said:
These I will make rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou was chosen before thou wast born. (Abraham 3:22-23.)
Among these great souls “there stood one among them that was like unto God” (Abraham 3:24). Jesus Christ, our Savior and elder brother, dwelled in the Spirit World with us. Shortly before Jesus’ betrayal by Judas he said: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:4, 5).
In our pre-mortal existence our progression was limited. God desired that we should mature further and therefore called a great council of all the spirits and presented to us a plan. “And we will prove them [the souls] herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:25). God’s plan was to send His children to this earth to take on physical bodies, while having our memory of the pre-mortal life withheld, thereby requiring us to rely on faith and prayer to prove ourselves before our God. To help us along the way God would provide us with the scriptures, commandments, prophets, communication with Him (prayer) and the influence of the Holy Ghost to give us direction if we sought Him with a sincere and humble heart. God realized that we would all sin, due to our free agency and weakness, therefore a Savior would be provided who would take upon him the sins of the world if we would but accept him, repent, and be baptized by one having the authority to do so.
Satan, who was also one of our brothers (see my article entitled, “Jesus: Brother to Lucifer,” concerning criticisms on this issue), proposed an alternate plan. Satan suggested that God’s children be deprived of free agency, forced to do right, ensuring that everyone would return to God. Satan’s plan would not involve testing, nor proving oneself worthy and thus the righteous as well and the unrighteous would gain the same rewards. “Behold,” said Satan, “here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor” (Moses 4:1). Not only did Satan advise a plan alternate to that of Heavenly Father’s, but Satan also wanted all the glory to himself.
Jesus, however, knew that Satan’s plan was wrong. “But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me-- Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever” (Moses 4:2). God chose Jesus as the Savior because of Christ’s love for God as well as his love for his spirit brothers and sisters. The Apostle Peter said that Jesus was “foreordained” as the Savior “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20). Satan was furious that he was not chosen and rebelled against God.
And there was war in heaven: Michael [one of the noble spirits] and his angels fought against the dragon [Satan]; and the dragon fought with his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Rev. 12:6-9.)
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! ...For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.... (Isaiah 14:12, 13.)
As a result of the war in heaven many unfortunate souls sided with Satan. “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth” (Rev. 12:4). One third of our spirit brothers and sisters followed Satan to Hell. These spirits had lost their “first estate” and would not go on to the second estate as would their righteous brothers and sisters.
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day. (Jude 6.)
For... God spared not the angels who sinned, but cast them down to Hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement. (2 Peter 2:4.)
Those righteous spirits who fought on the Lord’s side rejoiced in the Lord’s plan and were eager to progress by coming down to this earth. Each of us on this earth kept our first estate-- otherwise we would not be here. Each of us agreed to God’s plan and voted for it. Each of us rejoiced in the knowledge that we would have the potential to prove ourselves, and each of us promised to try our best to return to our Heavenly Father. A veil of forgetfulness was placed between us and the pre-mortal life so that we might walk by faith and not by sight. Each of us must do our best to use the gifts which the Lord has given us so that we might return to His presence. God did not leave us completely on our own. He provided ways that our faith might be strengthened and our belief turned to knowledge. But he wants us to work at it. This is a time of testing, of purification. We are here to show the Lord that we will keep His commandments, that we are worthy to return to His presence and receive exaltation. God wants us to succeed, and He is willing to help us on this journey. He sent down His Beloved Son to provide salvation from our sins but we must do what He commands.
Anti-Mormon argument:
Although unable to remember anything of this fabled “preexistence” in the spirit world, every true Mormon must nevertheless believe in it because he has sworn to uphold Mormonism’s founding Prophet, Joseph Smith. (Decker and Hunt, 25.)
First of all, it’s just like an anti-Mormon to insert that Mormons “must” believe in the doctrine because they have “sworn to uphold... Joseph Smith.” That is like saying that other Christians “must believe in grace because they have sworn to uphold the Apostle Paul.” Mormons do not swear to uphold Joseph Smith. They believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God just as Moses, Noah, Abraham, Enoch, and Peter were prophets of God. By adding that Mormons have “sworn” to uphold Joseph Smith the anti-Mormons attempt to convey an erroneous idea that Mormons somehow hold Joseph Smith in a reverence that should only be attributed to God or Jesus. As to the statement that Mormons must believe in the pre-existence which they cannot remember, is that any different than believing in a Christ or a God who we cannot see? This is faith. For “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). There is plenty of evidence from within the Bible as well as other ancient sources to suggest that the idea of a “preexistence” is in harmony with gospel doctrines. Paul wrote:
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? (Hebrews 12:9.)
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. (Acts 17:29; italics added.)
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. (Romans 8:17.)
Unlike many churches today, which teach that God is “wholly other,” the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teach what the scriptures tell us about God, that He is our Father-- a loving, caring Father-- and we are His children. Rodney Turner has written:
When resurrected, he [Jesus] told Mary Magdalene: “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17; italics added). In so saying, Jesus made no distinction between his relationship and that of Mary to the Father. They were both children of the same Father-- the Father of “the whole family in heaven and on earth” (see Ephesians 3:14-15). And since we honor the “fathers of our flesh,” should we not, asks Paul, “be in subjection to the Father of [our] spirits, and live?” (Hebrews 12:9; cf. Numbers 16:22; 27:16). Does Paul intend the parent-child relationship to be less literal in the second instance than in the first? Does he say so? (Turner, 28-29.)
God is literally our Father in Heaven. He loves us and wants us to return to His presence. Before the creation of the world we (along with our spirit brothers and sisters) lived with our Heavenly Father. Scharffs explains that one “of the traditional doctrines that raises many problems and turns many from any belief in God is that if God created man and the earth, how can we explain pain, suffering, and wickedness in man? Why would God create such a situation? Latter-day Saints have an answer. Humans are co-eternal with God; therefore God is not completely responsible for what we are. The individual shares in that responsibility.” (Scharffs, 372.)
In the book of Jeremiah the Lord told the prophet:
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jer. 1:5.)
Here the Lord speaks of knowing Jeremiah in the pre-mortal existence, before Jeremiah was born. One anti-Mormon, who claims to have studied Mormonism, has written concerning this verse:
Surely Mormons do not believe that Jeremiah was actually ordained as a prophet in the spirit world before he had a body! Yet if we claim that God literally knew Jeremiah before he was born, to be consistent we also have to literally accept what God said about ordaining him as a prophet before he had a body, while he was yet in the spirit world! (McElveen [1977], 122.)
If the above critic would have done his homework he would know that it is the claim of the LDS Church that Jeremiah was foreordained (while in the spirit world) to be a prophet. Earlier we explained that many spirits were chosen because of their righteousness in the pre-mortal existence. Like Abraham, Jeremiah was one of those righteous spirits. Paul wrote that God “hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:4-5; italics added). The word “predestinated” comes from the Greek word proorizo which also translates as “foreordained.” The Mormon Church believes that each of us was foreordained to certain positions or tasks, or callings, in the spirit world. We were not predestined to these positions, for it is up to us, using our free agency, to decide if we ever reach the point of taking advantage of those callings.
In the book of Job, God spoke of laying the “foundations of the earth” whereupon “all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:4, 7). Robinson and Robinson point out that these “sons of God could hardly have shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid unless they had been intelligent, living spirits.” (Robinson and Robinson, 44.)
Not only does the Bible refer to man’s pre-earthly existence, but when we turn to the newly discovered Jewish and Christian writings of the Old World, we find that the doctrine of man’s pre-existence was taught in the early Church as well. Eugene Seaich, for instance, quotes Hastings-Scribner from A Dictionary of the Bible who wrote that “‘to affirm that Jews in Christ’s time did not believe in a pre-existence is simply inaccurate.’” (Seaich [1983], 29.) Likewise, Vestal and Wallace quote Jewish scholar, Hayim Schauss:
“In talmudic times (the first centuries of the Common Era) the belief was current among Jews that man’s soul was independent of his body, existing eternally in the past and in the future. Only for a short, limited time is it placed in the body of a certain human being. All the souls of the world pre-exist in heaven in a kind of spiritual reservoir...” (Vestal and Wallace, 229.)
“...so realistic was their conception of pre-existence,” explains Seaich, “that contemporary [at the time of Christ] Jews described the very chambers (Hebrew guf, araboth) in which these souls dwelled, awaiting their turn to descend into bodies.” (Seaich [1983], 32.) Robinson and Robinson note:
In the pseudepigraphic book of the Secrets of Enoch, also known as Second Enoch, an even more specific reference is given to the general principle of the preexistence of all souls. This account states: “For all souls are prepared to eternity, before the foundation of the world.” In commenting on this passage, Dr. R.H. Charles [non-Mormon] states:
“The platonic doctrine of the pre-existence of souls is here taught. We find that it had already made its way into Jewish thought in Egypt as recorded in the Wisdom of Solomon (Ch. 8:19,20) This doctrine was accepted and further developed by Philo. According to him the whole atmosphere is filled with souls, (spirits) among these those who are nearer to earth and are attracted by the body descend into mortal bodies.” (Robinson and Robinson, 46-47.)
The book of Enoch was considered to be scripture among both the Jews and the early Christians, and it is quoted often in the Bible. The book of Enoch has much to say concerning man’s pre-earth life.
And everything which is found in this world has been before and has passed before him and has been arranged [organized] before Him... all the creations of the world which have existed in each generation, before they came into this world, have existed before him in their true form..., even all the souls of the children of man have been before they came down to the world, have all been formed before Him in heaven in the very likeness that they have in this world.” (Quoted in Nibley [1986], 242.)
These early Jewish writings not only speak of man’s pre-existence but like the LDS Book of Abraham and the Bible they also speak of foreordination.
In the pseudepigraphic book of the Assumption of Moses the preexistent selection of Moses is recorded: “Accordingly He designed and devised me, and He prepared me from the foundation of the world that I should be the mediator of His covenant.” (Robinson and Robinson, 46.)
The Primitive Christian Church believed in the pre-existence as well. Dr. Nibley reveals that we “know today-- it is not denied at all-- that the early Christians believed firmly in the pre-existence.” (Nibley [1985], 17.) The early Christian Church possessed several Jewish writings and considered them to be scripture before the man-made councils closed the canon of the Bible. Among these writings was the Wisdom of Solomon. Solomon, who was one of the nobler spirits, wrote: “‘As a child, I was by nature well-endowed, and a good soul fell my lot, or rather, being good, I entered an undefiled body’ (8:19-20).” (Seaich [1983], 33.) “Early Christianity,” notes Seaich, “...continued to tell how the ‘chambers of souls’ longed to deliver the spirits ‘entrusted to them from the beginning,’ just as the womb longed to ‘complete its anguish in labor’ (4 Ezra 4:33-43; cf. Rev. 6:9-11). Such writings add that a definite number of souls exist (cf. Deut. 32:8; Acts 17:26).” (Ibid., 32.)
As an interesting note, the doctrine of man’s pre-existence was believed by some descendants of ancient New World cultures.
Some Indian tribes believed in a premortal existence. For example, Ernest Thompson Seton [non-Mormon], in his book The Gospel of the Red Man [68-69] ...writes: “All creatures, including man, were spirits. They moved about in space between the earth and the stars (the heavens). They were seeking a place where they could come into a bodily existence.” (Cheesman [1984], 25.)
Not only do these newly discovered writings speak of man’s pre-earth life, but like the teachings of Joseph Smith and LDS scriptures, these writings also speak of the heavenly council which was called before the foundation of the world. One book in the Nag Hammadi Library, for example, depicts the council in heaven in similar fashion to the scene given to us by Joseph Smith.
Let us gather an assembly together. Let us visit that creation of his [God]. Let us send someone forth in it.... And I [Christ] said these things to the whole multitude of the multitudinous assembly of the rejoicing Majesty. The whole house of the Father of Truth rejoiced that I am the one who is from them.... They charged me since I am willing. I came forth to reveal the glory to my kindred and my fellow spirits. (Second Treatise of the Great Seth, vII, 50:1-24, in James Robinson, 330.)
Likewise the Jewish, Genesis Rabbah, “tells how God took counsel with the pre-existent spirits before creating the world.... These were the same spirits that comprised the pre-existent Church in the Shepherd of Hermas [a writing used by the N.T. Church].” (Seaich [1983], 37.) The aforementioned book of Enoch also speaks of the pre-existent heavenly council.
“And their [pre-existent spirits] dwellings were with the righteous and holy and elect. And at that hour that Son of Man [Christ] was named in the presence of the Lord of Spirits.... He shall be a staff to the righteous whereon to stay themselves and not fall, and He shall be the light of the Gentiles, and the hope of those who are troubled of heart. All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before Him, and will praise and bless and celebrate with songs the Lord of Spirits. And for this reason hath He been chosen and hidden before Him, before the creation of the world and forever more.” (Robinson and Robinson, 46.)
Nibley illustrates that the “newly discovered Jewish and Christian Apocrypha have so much to say about the council in heaven and the plan laid down at the foundation of the world that every student should be aware of the very great antiquity and wide ramifications of the idea.... It is not too much to say that the dominant theme of the Thanksgiving Hymns of the Dead Sea Scrolls is an ecstatic contemplation of the wonder of man’s participation in heavenly affairs going back to the beginning.” (Nibley [1978b], 27-28.) The doctrine of man’s pre-existence and his participation in the heavenly council has been found to be so dominant in early Jewish and Christian writings that (non-Mormon) R.H. Charles claims that “all apocalyptic writing conceives of the whole human history as being ‘determined from the beginning in the counsel of God....’” (Nibley [1978a], 160.) Likewise non-Mormon J. Fichtner has recently “pointed out that the preoccupation with ‘Yahweh’s plan’ [Jesus’ plan of salvation] is the very core and center of Isaiah’s thinking, and scholars are now noting that the presence of a heavenly council from the beginning has been part and parcel of Jewish thought from the earliest times.” (Nibley [1978b], 30.)
With the new light shed on early Christian teachings by these ancient writings (unknown in Joseph’s day), Bible scholars have taken a new look at confusing passages in the Bible and have discovered that this LDS doctrine is contained in this Christian volume of scripture. The world renowned non-Mormon scholar William F. Albright, for instance, had “suggested that the use of the plural in Gen. 1:26 (‘Let us make man in our image’) presupposes a meeting of this Council to discuss the creation of man.” (Seaich, 36-37.) Other scholars have suggested that the logos in John may sometimes by translated as council, referring to the pre-existent heavenly council. (Nibley [1978b], 33.)
It is interesting to note that the word “poem” means creation, referring the rejoicing the hosts of heaven did at the heavenly council. Other scholars have recently established that the Hebrew word for council, or Heavenly Council, and by association “a decree of the council,” is sod (also spelled sowd). These sacred councils imparted “secret” decrees which were known only to the prophets. Accordingly, notes FARMS, “Raymond E. Brown has concluded that the Semitic background of the concept of ‘mysteries’ resides in the idea of prophets... being ‘introduced into the heavenly assembly [council] and gaining a knowledge of its secret decrees.’” (FARMS, Insights, Fall 1986.) Likewise, Seaich, demonstrates that the King James scholars translated the word sowd “as ‘secret’ (e.g. Amos 3:7, where it literally means ‘what is going on in the Heavenly Council’). Basically, SOWD refers to the Council in Heaven, but by extension, all heavenly secrets.” (Seaich [1980], iv.) Amos 3:7 reads:
Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. (italics added.)
We learn two important facts from this passage: 1) God works through prophets. Therefore a church which does not claim to have prophets is not receiving the will of God; 2) “Secret” which comes from the Hebrew sowd refers to things discussed and foreordained in the pre-existent heavenly council. Thus the Lord reveals this pre-existent plan, the plan of salvation (and all doctrines pertaining to salvation), to his prophets. It is interesting that the Old Testament “secret” (which we now understand comes from the Hebrew sowd-- heavenly council) was “the precursor of [the] NT [New Testament] Greek musterion, ‘mystery’....” (Seaich [1980], iv.)
The early Jews and the Primitive Christian Church believed and taught the doctrine of a pre-mortal existence “until it was condemned by the Council of Constantinople in 553. Origen, the greatest of early Church theologians, declared that he still favored the doctrine... as did Justin Martyr, Augustine, Cyril of Jerusalem, Pierius, John of Jerusalem, Rufinius, Nemesius, and the Western Church generally until the time of [pope] Gregory the Great.” (Seaich [1983], 29.) If the Biblically-supported doctrine of a pre-mortal existence and pre-mortal foreordination can be accepted by early Christians and Jews, I can’t see how the Mormons can be criticized for believing in the same thing.
Michael R. Ash
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