Pre-Mortal Existence

 

One of the subjects I’m most interested in is the pre-mortal existence. It is one of the main reasons I felt The Church was true.

In my book, By the Way, I wrote about reading the book by Carolyn Myss, Sacred Contracts and the impression it left on me regarding life templates and the pre-mortal existence. I was taken with the fact that we are all a family before we came to the Earth. There is a plan and we all had a say in the plan.

The question regarding if we choose our families and individuals in our lives have always sparked a certain twinge of curiosity in my heart. I decided to do some spiritual research on the subject, instead of relying on what I believed in faith.

Not a lot has been written on this subject,but if we lean towards the word ‘choose’ I did find concepts which related to the subject worth considering.

Do we know in the pre-mortal world what our mortal lives would be like?

 

We do know this: God certainly does.

O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it (2 Ne 9:20).

And so did the angels in Heaven:

The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord (D&C 130:6-7).

It seems there is a choice and we do not make this choice only from the information of our ‘past’ (past being the pre-mortal existence). We are aware of the conditions into which we will be born into.  I believe we are given a hint of the trials we will endure which a valuable lesson(s) will be taught.

A related concept in which could be argued for both our choices and our foreknowledge is those who are sealed in the temple have sealed upon them all of the blessings that were promised to father Abraham. Reason also dictates that there must have been familial commitments made in the spirit world that were to be honored in mortality and in eternity.

Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these 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 my 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 wast chosen before thou wast born. ~Abraham 3:22-23:

 

Believing that we all have free will and with that free will comes power of our own destiny, does foreknowledge imply predestination?

The simple answer is no, it does not. However, one can not answer this question without using scripture as if you’re like me, a simple answer will not suffice.

Free agency of men in the pre-mortal spirit world there is this scripture:

And it came to pass that Adam, being tempted of the devil–for, behold, the devil was before Adam, for he rebelled against me, saying, Give me thine honor, which is my power; and also a third part of the hosts of heaven turned he away from me because of their agency (D&C 29:36).

The following scripture below refers to the agency of many during his mortal sojourn:

That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment (D&C 101:78).

The course of our lives is not predetermined. It may be modified and is directed by our actions and the acts of God. God has a certain agendum for His universe. God operates by His own glory and articulates what will happen without exception:

For behold, by the power of his word man came upon the face of the earth, which earth was created by the power of his word. Wherefore, if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure? (Jacob 4:9)

 

Who shall say that it was not a miracle that by his word the heaven and the earth should be; and by the power of his word man was created of the dust of the earth; and by the power of his word have miracles been wrought? (Morm 9:17)

 

What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same (D&C 1:38).

From askgramps.org:

Now, there may be supposed by some to be a conflict between the will of God and agency of man. The question could be formed as, does the foreknowledge of God preclude the agency of man? There is no causal relationship between the thoughts in one being’s mind and the actions of another being. When those thoughts are expressed as actions or words, they impact the external world. Although we may not have the power of rhetoric to fully explain to other rational beings that foreknowledge does not preclude agency, yet it is true, because the contrary would preclude the fulfillment of the word of God. Therefore, if it cannot be rationally defended, it must be accepted on the principle of faith, because it is the truth. God’s complete foreknowledge is voiced in the following scripture—

 

The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord (D&C 130:6-7).

 

From what I’ve studied and meditated on I can only summarize we are all given a template of our life before being born, but our choices-our free will-can alter the results. Sort of like those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. When you think about it, isn’t that what life really is? An adventure to determine exactly what you want to be in life and who ultimately you are living for.