Hello everyone! My name is Danny, and I was an active Latter-day Saint for 60 years.
When I was a full-time missionary for the LDS Church, one of the lessons we taught investigators was on the Mormon Plan of Salvation. Today, the LDS missionaries teach basically the same lesson from their Preach My Gospel manual. We were trained to ask the following questions: “Where did you come from? Why are you here? Where are you going?”
These are questions that basically every person on earth has asked themselves at least once in their life. And the Mormon Plan of Salvation claims to have an answer to all these questions.
In this video, I want to focus mainly on the first one – “Where did we come from?” Today, my response to that question is going to be much different than what I taught back in my missionary days and what Mormon missionaries are teaching today.
The reason my answer is different now is because I have studied the Bible with open eyes and mind to understand the true meaning of scripture. What was the original intent of the biblical writers? I came to realize that most of the verses we as missionaries used as proof texts in our lessons were greatly taken out of context and misinterpreted to support Mormon theology. It is commonly referred to as twisting scripture.
Now interestingly - there is nothing written on this subject of preexistence in the Book of Mormon - which by the way - claims to have the “fulness of the gospel.” The closest to anything even being mentioned is, in Alma 13, but it is not clear and quite confusing.
First, let me give you a little background about LDS doctrine when it comes to preexistence. Mormonism teaches that God is the Father of our spirits – that we are literally, His children. Meaning that we were born of Heavenly Parents – as spirit children before, we were born physically on this earth to our mortal parents. From the LDS Church top leadership, we get a public statement called “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” which states, “Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”
This spiritual state of existence in LDS doctrine is referred to as pre-existence, pre-earth life, or pre-mortality. This unique teaching that is only found in Mormonism is fondly held by Latter-day Saints and is difficult to abandon even when they learn it is not biblically true.
According to Mormon theology – all humans are spirit brothers and sisters – siblings from Heavenly Parents. And according to Mormonism, the first-born of these spirit children was Jesus. The second-born of the spirit children was Satan, Lucifer, or the Devil. Afterwards, billions upon billions of other spirit children were born and are continuing to be born. Consequently, not only did that make Jesus and Satan spirit brothers, but both became spirit brothers to the rest of us spirit children in that pre-earth life.
Okay! With all that in mind - let’s get into the scriptural basis for this distinctive doctrine of Mormonism. Even though the LDS are taught to only believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly, they do stand firmly on these passages we are about to look at today.
Here is a favorite biblical passage missionaries use to promote this doctrine of preexistence. God told the prophet in Jeremiah1:5 “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.” To a Latter-day Saint, this verse is saying - God knew Jeremiah as one of His spirit children in the preexistence, where God ordained him a prophet before coming to earth as a mortal man. Now that makes perfect sense to the mind of a Mormon.
I agree, God does know everything - past, present, and future. But when this verse is put in proper context, we see that Mormonism presents a mishandling of the passage.
Here is the true application of Jeremiah 1:5. It is saying that God knew in His infinite mind He was going to create a Jeremiah - before Jeremiah was formed in his mortal mother’s womb. And God had a special prophetic work planned for this Jeremiah to do, while he was here on earth. Notice - the verse does NOT say, JEREMIAH knew God in heaven - or that Jeremiah existed as a spirit before his earthly birth. Instead, God envisioned Jeremiah in His mind before Jeremiah was physically born and chose to use him to fill the role as a prophet to the nation of Israel.
God is demonstrating His omniscience - proclaiming His foreknowledge of all things - which has not yet happened and of those individuals who are not yet created.
LDS missionaries will refer to other Mormon scripture written by Joseph Smith to support their argument in the pre-existence found in the Book of Moses 3:5, where it says that all things were created spiritually in heaven before they were created naturally on the face of the earth. So, first – spiritually created, then – naturally created.
However, that Mormon doctrine is in direct contradiction with what Apostle Paul taught in, 1 Corinthians 15:46 when he wrote, “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.” According to Paul, the natural was first and then the spiritual. How could we have preexisted in a spiritual state before coming to earth - if the spiritual did not come first?
During Jesus’ mortal ministry, He addresses this idea recorded in John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Jesus states, that no one, except Himself, has ever seen God at any time. Logically, if we spiritually preexisted with our Father in Heaven – we would have seen God. After all, according to Mormonism, we were His spirit children - right? And yet Jesus clearly states that no one has ever seen God the Father AT ANY TIME!
Jesus also taught, John 3:31-32 “He that cometh from heaven is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.”
Here, Jesus teaches that HE is the only One who came from heaven. HE is the only one who preexisted. He says we humans are made of this earth - therefore we know only the things of the earth. We do not and cannot know heavenly things because we have never been there. Jesus HAS been there, so He could tell the people of heavenly things.
John 8:23 “And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.” Very clearly, Jesus confirms that all humans are from beneath heaven – beginning OUR creation began here on earth - and that He is the only One who can claim to be from Heaven.
Again, Jesus stated in John 6:46 “Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.” Only Jesus had seen the Father before He came to earth. No human had seen the Father, because no one else preexisted. In that same chapter, the Jews were outraged with Jesus’ statement about coming down from heaven, because in their Jewish religious history - they had never heard the idea of a preexistence.
It seems rather odd - that in Mormonism all of us supposedly lived in God’s presence in a pre-mortal state, yet we at no time saw God’s shape or heard His voice. Jesus declared, John 5:37-38 “And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye hath neither heard his voice AT ANY time, nor seen his shape.” I mean, how much clearer can it get?
Another passage Mormon missionaries will use as a proof-text for a preexistence is Job 38:7 “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Latter-day Saints would say, see! We were the sons of God who were shouting for joy in the pre-existence. But who were those “morning stars” and who were the “sons of God?”
Again, it’s important to read that verse in full context. Here, God is speaking in very stern words to Job. Job 38:4-7 “Where was thou when I laid the foundation of the earth? Declare, if thou has understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
This passage comes when the trial of Job is nearing its conclusion. And God speaks with Job, asking him some probing questions like: Where were you Job - during the Creation? Where were you Job - when I laid the foundation of the earth? Job - you weren’t even around then. You didn’t exist yet – not even as a spirit. So, who are you Job - to instruct God?
Then who were those “morning stars” and the “sons of God” mentioned in that passage? They were angels who were among the first order of God’s creations in the universe. They were present at the creation of the world in Genesis.
This is the obvious explanation for why none of us remember being in, a preexistence. Because, just as with Job - we didn’t exist there!
Another chief scripture used by LDS missionaries to teach preexistence is in Hebrews 12:9 “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 Fathers of spirits, and live?” Ignoring all the other passages we examined up to this point, miss-informed Latter-day Saints will exclaim - See! It says right here that God is the father of our spirits!
Listen! The proper understanding of this passage is that - God is the father of spirits ONLY in the sense - that He is the Creator of each human spirit during the physical conception and development of the human body in the womb. Unlike Jesus who - because He is God - preexisted prior to the creation of His human body - all other spirits have their origin in the womb.
We are in the form of a lump of clay before God breathed life into us - creating our spirit within us. It says in Zechariah 12:1 “Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.”
Okay, one last passage misunderstood by the LDS missionaries. Paul wrote in, Acts 17:28 “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Mormonism quickly infers from this passage - that we are the “offspring of God” - our Heavenly Parents, having given birth to spirit-children in the preexistence. They are misconstruing the meaning of this passage - by once again reading into the text an idea - that is not there nor intended to be by the original writer.
In this context - Paul was preaching to the Athenians. They were not believers in the true God. But despite their unbelief, Paul goes on – quoting from their well-known poets - to affirm that we are all “Offspring of God.” Why? Simply because God is our Creator. Whether we believe in Him or not, we are rightly called His “offspring” – because we sprang out from His creative powers.
If you take time to read all of Acts chapter 17, you’ll see the emphasis is on God’s creation - not procreation.
The Bible teaches that we are not literal children of God by nature. The Bible describes how Adam came alive for the first time at creation. Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” First the physical body – then the spiritual.
We are God’s creation and as creatures it is only possible that those who believe in Christ MAY become children of God by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. John 1:12-13 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Paul wrote in Galatians 4:4-7 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son (or daughter); and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” This is deemed as the “doctrine of Adoption.” We are adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God upon our believe and faith in Jesus Christ.
In fact, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:1-3 about our spiritual state prior to being saved as being “dead in trespasses and sins, fulfilling the desires of the flesh,” and being “children of wrath.” Not children of God, but children of wrath. Spiritually lost.
In an exchange with the Pharisees, Jesus called them in, John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil.” Again, not children of God, but children of the devil.
In Mormonism, members are taught to believe that they are born a child of God – literal spiritual offspring. But the Bible teaches otherwise. So how does a person become a child of God?
Jesus told Nicodemus how to become a true child of God. John 3:3 “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus was talking about the spiritual rebirth. Once we are born again, we are spiritually an infant child. As we mature spiritually, we grow to become sons and daughters in the family of God.
Those who trust in Christ and have been born again are made into new creations. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” I personally can attest to the regeneration process in my own life.
In summary: To answer the question – “Where did we come from” - we must learn what the biblical plan of salvation is, which is contrary to the Mormon plan of salvation. The entire biblical record confirms that we did NOT preexist in a spiritual state before we were created in the physical state. It is a false teaching of Mormonism and not part of God’s true biblical plan of salvation.
The important truth we learn from the Bible is that - the only One who preexisted before He was born, was the Word that became flesh – even Jesus Christ - as we have proven here today.
Something to consider! Please check out other episodes covering this topic on YouTube and at Talking to Mormons. com. Please share with family and friends.
Until next time – God Bless!