Plan of salvation/Pre-mortal existence

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The Mormon doctrine of "premortal existence"

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• Non-Mormon belief in a pre-mortal existence
• Modern revelation regarding a pre-mortal existence
• Biblical support for a pre-mortal existence

Non-Mormon belief in a pre-mortal existence

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• Question: Are Mormons the only ones who believe in the concept of a life before this one?
• Question: Did the early Christian fathers express a belief in a pre-mortal life?

Modern revelation regarding a pre-mortal existence

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• Question: What does Latter-day Saint revelation say about pre-mortal life?

Biblical support for a pre-mortal existence

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• Question: Is the Mormon doctrine of a "premortal existence" pagan, unchristian, or unbiblical, and therefore false?
• Questions: What biblical evidence is there for a pre-mortal existence?
• Question: Did Jesus and the apostles believe in pre-mortal life?

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Source(s) of the criticism

Critical sources

Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism (Harvest House Publishers: 2005). 130. ( Index of claims ) Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson, Mormonism 101. Examining the Religion of the Latter-day Saints (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2000), 67-69. ( Index of claims ) “Persons and Pre-Mortality: The Mormon Doctrine of Preexistence,” in James Patrick Holding, The Mormon Defenders: How Latter-day Saint Apologists Misinterpret the Bible (self-published, 2001), at 53—61, with related endnotes at 144—145.

Past responses

Barry R. Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity (Redding, CA: Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 1999), [citation needed]. Barry Robert Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity, 2nd edition (Redding, CA: Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 2013), [citation needed]. Richard R. Hopkins Biblical Mormonism (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers, 1994), [citation needed]. Truman G. Madsen in Eternal Man (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1966), [citation needed]. Joseph Fielding Smith in Man, His Origin and Destiny (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1954), [citation needed]. Boyd K. Packer in Our Father's Plan (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1984), [citation needed]. Brent L. Top The Life Before (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988), [citation needed].

Notes