![FairMormon Logo](https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021_fair_logo_primary.png)
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
(→: m) |
(→: m) |
||
Line 33: | Line 33: | ||
* "The Word of God certainly does not support the LDS concept that all humans are literal children of God." | * "The Word of God certainly does not support the LDS concept that all humans are literal children of God." | ||
− | One | + | One particular critical work issues the challenging statement "Until Mormons can show better proof of humanity's eternal existence, Christians are unable to agree with this extrabiblical teaching."{{ref|fn3}} |
Such a challenge, of course, should not go unanswered. In fact, had the authors done adequate research, they would have known that such challenges have been answered many times in the past.{{ref|fn4}} In other words, the authors are not providing new information or even a new angle on existing information. Instead, assertions previously made—and previously answered—are being made again. | Such a challenge, of course, should not go unanswered. In fact, had the authors done adequate research, they would have known that such challenges have been answered many times in the past.{{ref|fn4}} In other words, the authors are not providing new information or even a new angle on existing information. Instead, assertions previously made—and previously answered—are being made again. | ||
− | We will not herein dwell on the | + | We will not herein dwell on the pre-mortal existence of Jesus Christ, Savior of the world. Such a topic is abundantly testified to in scripture, both ancient and modern, and nothing in the chapter at hand gives rise to any question concerning the acceptance of the doctrine of Christ's ante-mortal existence. We will leave it to the reader to ponder whether Christ was not just our spiritual pattern, but also a literal pattern of the path that each of us tread as we make our way from our home with God, through this earth life, and back once more to the eternal realms. |
− | Instead, what we propose to do in the balance of this article is to examine the concept of | + | Instead, what we propose to do in the balance of this article is to examine the concept of pre-mortal existence from several different aspects. The following sections start us on our journey of discovery. |
==Common Sense== | ==Common Sense== |
Answers portal |
Early Christianity & Apostasy |
![]() |
![]() |
---|
Apostasy Authority: and Priesthood
Doctrinal shift:
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Some Christians claim that the Mormon doctrine of a "premortal existence" is pagan, unchristian, or unbiblical, and therefore false.
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here
Summary: Some Christians claim that the LDS doctrine of a "premortal existence" is pagan, unchristian, or unbiblical, and therefore false.
Some Christians present alternate interpretations of selected scriptures that fit with their preconceived notions concerning where we came from, yet, they cannot really answer where we came from. Without an understanding of where we came from, it is difficult to understand why we are here and where we are going. While the teachings of McKeever and Johnson may not answer these questions, we are fortunate to live in a time when the answers have been fully revealed by prophets, as in times of old.
The assertion is that those who believe in the Bible cannot believe in life before life. Such an assertion is evidenced through statements such as the following:
One particular critical work issues the challenging statement "Until Mormons can show better proof of humanity's eternal existence, Christians are unable to agree with this extrabiblical teaching."[1]
Such a challenge, of course, should not go unanswered. In fact, had the authors done adequate research, they would have known that such challenges have been answered many times in the past.[2] In other words, the authors are not providing new information or even a new angle on existing information. Instead, assertions previously made—and previously answered—are being made again.
We will not herein dwell on the pre-mortal existence of Jesus Christ, Savior of the world. Such a topic is abundantly testified to in scripture, both ancient and modern, and nothing in the chapter at hand gives rise to any question concerning the acceptance of the doctrine of Christ's ante-mortal existence. We will leave it to the reader to ponder whether Christ was not just our spiritual pattern, but also a literal pattern of the path that each of us tread as we make our way from our home with God, through this earth life, and back once more to the eternal realms.
Instead, what we propose to do in the balance of this article is to examine the concept of pre-mortal existence from several different aspects. The following sections start us on our journey of discovery.
Many people who are not LDS are entirely comfortable with the concept of a life before this life. Many see this mortal life as nothing more than a temporary way station on some cosmic journey. Consider a small portion of a poem by William Wordsworth:
A common question faced by parents, holding their newborn child for the first time, is where this tiny miracle comes from. The origin of the child's physical body is obvious, but the beginnings of personality evident at the earliest stages of child development are easiest explained through an understanding that our spirits—which make up our personality—do not have their beginnings in the womb. Indeed, they hearken back to an earlier time, as so aptly stated by Wordsworth.
In addition, many within the Christian community are comfortable making reference to our "immortal spirit" or our "eternal spirit." Logic dictates that if something designated as eternal has a beginning, then it is not really eternal. Likewise, if a spirit can be imagined to have a beginning, then it can just as easily be imagined to have an end. To accept the concept of a beginning without an end is just as illogical as thinking that a circle has an endpoint.
As appealing as the concept of a premortal life may be to some, to others the idea smacks of emotionalism, wishful thinking, simplistic superstition, or outright heresy. Common sense ideas, however, often have their roots in deeper doctrinal concepts, as shall be shortly seen.
It is certainly true that the LDS are not the only people to believe in a premortal life. In fact, many scholars (both LDS and non-LDS) find strong evidence for a belief in premortal life in the writings and teachings of the early Christian fathers. While these teachings may have been dropped from the rote canon of the church, there is little doubt that they were understood and espoused from the earliest recorded times.
For instance, Clement of Alexandria, commenting on the scriptural passage in Jeremiah 1:5 (which is also addressed more fully in the next section), generalized the doctrine as having universal application. He wrote:
Another church father that spoke directly to the idea of a premortal existence was Origen of Alexandria (ca. AD 185–254). Writing in the third century, he stated a belief that differences evident among men on earth were attributable to differences in rank and glory attained by those men as premortal angels. According to Origen, God could not be viewed as "no respecter of persons" without such a premortal existence. In fact, if the differences of men on earth were not related in some way to our premortal condition, then God could be viewed as arbitrary, capricious, and unjust. Origen felt that just as there would a judgment after this life, that a sort of judgment had already taken place based on our premortal merit, with the result being the station to which we were appointed in this life. As an example of this concept supported in the Bible, Origen referred to the Old Testament story of Jacob being preferred over Esau. Why was this so? According to Origen, because "we believe that he was even then chosen by God because of merits acquired before this life."[5]
Belief in a premortal life was not confined to various early church fathers. In the course of his writings the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote about the beliefs of the Essenes. He reported they believed "that the souls are immortal, and continue for ever." He further related that the Essenes believed that the souls of men "are united to their bodies as in prisons" and that when the spirits are set free they are "released from a long bondage" and ascend heavenward with great rejoicing.[6] Josephus' description of Essene doctrine has surely taken on greater validity in light of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. Together these records provide primary evidence that contemporaries of Christ and the apostles believed in a premortal life—a belief that is validated by the Bible itself, as discussed in the following section.
These historical citations are just the tip of the iceberg. Serious students of the topic can find additional information that verifies that ancient Christians and Jews understood and accepted the concept of premortal existence. While knowing that the concept has historical roots does not prove the concept to be true, it certainly counteracts the fallacious claim that the teachings of the LDS on the topic are new, heretical, or dangerous.
In the course of proffering a refutation of the LDS doctrine of a premortal life, McKeever and Johnson cite three scriptures, asserting that the LDS use them as biblical proofs for the concept of a premortal life. The cited scriptures are Jeremiah 1:5; Job 38:4,7; and Ecclesiastes 12:7. The extent of McKeever's and Johnson's rebuttal of these scriptures is to contend that the LDS interpretations are incorrect, and offer differing interpretations. A deeper examination of those scriptures, along with the interpretations of them, is certainly in order.
In the case of Jeremiah 1:5, the authors assert that the scripture is a reference to God's foreknowledge, and not to a personal knowledge of humans. Granting that God has limitless foreknowledge does not preclude a personal knowledge of individual humans, however. McKeever and Johnson do not refute the possibility of such knowledge, instead opting to say (in effect) "No, that can't be it." Such assertions, while they may be comforting to the authors and sufficient in their own estimation, do not preclude the acceptability of the LDS interpretation of the scripture at hand.
It is hard to deny the specificity of words used in the Jeremiah passage:
Notice three key words here: knew, sanctified, and ordained. The wording itself indicates that God literally knew Jeremiah and was familiar with his spiritual attitudes and abilities. In addition, God sanctified Jeremiah, a description not of foreknowledge but of an actual event with participants present. The process of sanctification, or setting something apart as holy, by definition requires that something (such as Jeremiah himself) be present to be set apart. Likewise, the act of ordaining a person—in this case a prophet—requires that the individual be present. These acts—sanctification and ordination—are not mental exercises, but actual events.
Indeed, other modern Christian scholars have chosen to acknowledge the claim that Jeremiah 1:5 speaks of more than mere foreknowledge. In reference to the concept of premortal life, William de Arteaga stated:
The event referred to in the sixth century was an edict by Pope Vigilius in AD 543 that rejected the doctrine of preexistence taught by Origen of Alexandria. Historical records indicate that the edict, called Anathemas Against Origen, was actually penned by the Roman emperor, Justinian,[8] and signed by the pope and other bishops present at the Second Council of Constantinople.[9] The official document labeled Origen's teachings heresy and forbid them being taught in the church.[10]
When it comes to the trials of Job and the discussions that God had with Job, it seems that McKeever and Johnson are actually the ones taking scripture out of context. They are quick to cite the rhetorical nature of the questions posed to Job, but slow to understand the concepts being conveyed by the Lord through such literary means. Just take a look at Job 38:1-7:
In the course of reproving Job, the Lord indicates several key pieces of knowledge. First of all, in verse four the Lord asks "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Such a question, by its very nature, implies that Job was somewhere. Why would God ask Job a question which was not instructive, and why would the ancient scribes include the discourse if something could not be learned? McKeever and Johnson indicate that the assertion that Job had to be somewhere (thereby supporting preexistence) presupposes that preexistence is a fact. Such circular reasoning can be just as easily applied to the position taken by McKeever and Johnson: one can only interpret the verse as saying that Job was not present when God laid the foundations of the earth if one presupposes that the spirits of men had no premortal life.
Thus, both interpretations can be seen to be on an equal footing when the singular verse is examined. The Lord, however, does not leave the matter alone for long. In further questioning Job, he asks (in essence) where Job was "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Here, again, is the assertion that Job had to be somewhere. Not just Job, however, but the morning stars and the sons of God. And these were not silent participants in the framing of the world, but singers and shouters, indicating they were possessed of independent capabilities of thought and action. Taken together, these two verses provide a strong case for the concept of a premortal life.
Finally, McKeever and Johnson indicate that the LDS see Ecclesiastes 12:7 as a reference to "the second leg of a 'round trip' passage." While this may be an amusing way to discredit the LDS concept, it is not nearly as easy to avoid the specific language of the verse:
The simple question remains as to how something could return to a point it had not been to before. If the scripture is best translated, as the authors assert, as only having reference to returning to a God who created the spirit,[11] then the only difference between their understanding and that of the LDS is a matter of timing. We believe that God created the spirit of man—just that it was done long before the mortal birth. Either way, the spirit still returns home to God.
But there is a deeper problem with the interpretation of this scripture offered by McKeever and Johnson. By rejecting the concept of premortal existence, the authors swallow the concept that the spirit of man springs into existence at some time between conception and birth.[12] If the scripture is to be interpreted literally, and as a parallel linguistic construction, then dust returns to dust, as it was without life, and spirit returns to its former uncreated condition, meaning without life as well. Thus, the problem is that the scripture could just as easily be used to justify a doctrine of there being no life after death.
Having already addressed the few scriptures that McKeever and Johnson cited in their chapter, there are others—equally telling—that they ignored. These scriptures, when taken in conjunction with those already discussed, present an even stronger case for the concept of a premortal life. Perhaps the most salient to consider at this point is the exchange between Jesus and his disciples recorded in John 9:1–2:
Was this a rhetorical question on the part of the disciples? No, the question indicated that the disciples thought one possible answer to the blindness of the man was that he had sinned. Since he was born blind—a fact the record indicates that both Jesus and His disciples knew—then the wording of the question indicates that the sinning must have taken place before the birth of the man, by the man himself. How could the man have sinned, resulting in a punishment of being blind at birth, unless he had lived before he was born?
If the concept of a premortal life was in error, then the Master Teacher had a perfect opportunity to correct His students. His answer is recorded in John 9:3:
Jesus then proceeded to heal the man, foregoing any opportunity to correct the concept of the man having lived before birth. Instead, He acknowledged the concept by saying that the man had not sinned.[13] In the words of one non-LDS scholar:
There are other scriptures in the Bible that can be used to support the concept of a premortal life. Suffice it to say that for the time being, however, the words of God and Jesus may be sufficient to the task at hand. McKeever's and Johnson's charges of taking scripture out of context notwithstanding, there is a reasonable basis for at least recognizing a biblical basis for the doctrine of a preexistence.[15]
While the biblical record is extensive for at least acknowledging the possibility of life before life, those who believe in continuing revelation are left with no doubt as to the veracity of premortal life. McKeever and Johnson may question why the doctrine of premortal life wasn't taught from the very beginnings of the restoration (in the very first years of the LDS Church), but such is the nature of continuing revelation—it allows the mysteries of the Lord to be revealed as the people are ready to hear, understand, and accept the concepts being taught by the Lord.
In their treatment of the topic at hand, McKeever and Johnson already made reference to some of the scriptural references that support the doctrine. In Abraham 3꞉22–23 the Lord is speaking to Abraham and revealing His plan for His children:[16]
Can there be any doubt that Abraham understood who he was, as one of God's children, and that God had a plan for him? In fact, it is interesting to note that this scripture is consistent with the earlier discussion of Jeremiah 1:5. God, in consistent manner, revealed to two prophets that they had been with God before they were born and they were there chosen to fulfill their prophetic missions on an earth that had yet to be created.
Perhaps the most telling scriptural statement is made by the Lord Himself in Moses 3꞉5, where the Lord is recounting the story of the creation to Moses:[17]
Here, again, there is little doubt as to where man fits into the overall economy of God's plan. God created His children before sending them to earth; they were with Him in the preexistence.[18]
References to premortal life are not limited to the teachings of the ancient prophets among those in the Middle East, as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price. Indeed, ancient prophets in the Americas also understood and taught the concept. One such prophet was Alma,[19] who recorded these words in Alma 13꞉3–7:
Here we learn several things. First, that priesthood power is eternal, being an order that "was from the foundation of the world; or in other words, being without beginning of days or end of years." We also learn that certain men—priesthood holders—were "called and prepared from the foundation of the world." In other words, these people existed with God in the premortal life and were prepared to come to earth, bear the priesthood, and teach God's children. Why? Because God's foreknowledge allowed Him to understand the need for such preparation and such priesthood holders.
These verses also make reference to "the first place." In our modern-day vernacular, we often use the phrase "in the first place" when we are about to list off items in some manner. This common usage often blinds us to the fact that "the first place" is primarily just that—a place first among several. Alma refers to the priesthood holders being "in the first place" and left to choose good and evil. They chose good over evil, showed "exceedingly great faith," and were prepared for missions here on earth. Others present at that first place, given the same opportunities, did not respond in kind and so were not given the same preparation and calling.
Such a scenario is reminiscent of the account in Abraham, where he was informed that the Lord stood among leaders prepared before the foundation of the world, and that Abraham was one of those leaders.
Finally, the prophet Joseph Smith taught that man lived before coming to earth. DC 49꞉17 records a revelation[20] of the Savior in which it is stated that man was created "before the world was made."[21] Later, in DC 93꞉29, the Lord revealed "man was also in the beginning with God."[22]
Prophets today continue to teach the glorious truth that we are children of loving heavenly parents. We lived before we came to this world, we can know God while in this life, and we have the opportunity to be with God after we leave this mortal sphere. In late 1995, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve[23] unitedly stated:
== Notes ==
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.
Donate Now