The Pre-mortal Life

Overview:

In our pre-mortal spiritual existence, we lived with our Heavenly father, and He is just that, the Father of our spirits. While we dwelled in the Pre-mortal world, there was what we refer to as the Council in Heaven where all of Heavenly Father’s spirit children were present. At this council we learned that we, God’s spirit children, were going to live on Earth and “we were taught all that we would need to know in order to return to Heavenly Father’s presence one day.”(1) After this plan was presented to us, and we all agreed that this plan sounded good, Satan came up with a plan and presented it to us. Our Heavenly Father’s plan was to give us human bodies and send us to the Earth and to overcome difficult forms of temptation and overcome our carnal desires. In order to overcome these desires, we would have to exercise our agency; choose the right or suffer from choosing the wrong. Satan’s plan was to not let us choose the wrong, but to live perfected lives and return to our Heavenly Father with no trial or test of our decisions. The vote for Heavenly Father’s plan, the Plan of Salvation, was voted on by a majority, hence we are here. But Satan still exists today. 3Nephi 11:29 says, “For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another." Anything that isn't positive is of our Heavenly Father, for he knows we must taste the bitter with the sweet, but the temptation to dance with the negative isn't a temptation from our Heavenly Father, that is purely of our fallen brother, Lucifer. “Lucifer in clever ways manipulates our choices, deceiving us about sin and consequences. He and his angels tempt us to be unworthy, even wicked. But he cannot—in all eternity he cannot, with all his power he cannot—completely destroy us, not without our own consent. Had agency come to man without the Atonement, it would have been a fatal gift.”(2)

Agency:

Sometimes, it feels like our lives are empty halls
with many doors surrounding us
and we need to make a choice.
This is our agency;
these doors are our options.

Agency is defined as “the ability and privilege God gives us to choose and act for ourselves.” In 2Nephi 2:15-16, which says, “. . . it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.” Our agency would be a null point if we did not have a negative to each positive. For each bad choice, there is a good choice. This bitter and sweet was differentiating between the simplicity of Satan’s plan, or the complex yet purity of Heavenly Father’s plan. Which was bitter and which was sweet? 2Nephi 2:27, a well known verse, says, “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.” The devil used his agency and he chose poorly, therefore, he wanted us to choose poorly too. What is the point of being miserable if you aren’t miserable with someone else? That must have been his thought process. So, he tries to make us see and choose the negative, easy way of life. He makes this feel like happiness, but in all actuality, it isn’t a wholesome feeling. We have to make the conscious decision to choose the right which is liberty as opposed to the way of life that is captivity. In the pre-mortal life, if we chose the way Lucifer did, we did not gain mortal bodies and live in a constant state of captivity. If you are reading this, and have a human body, way to go! You chose the right thing! 2Nephi 10:23- “Wherefore cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.” All the decisions made in this lifetime are to be judged in the day of judgment, but that doesn’t have too much to do with the pre-mortal life, so let us just stay on topic, eh?

So, which door do you choose?

God is the Father of Our Spirits:

Alma 30:60 says, “And thus we see the end of him who perverteth the ways of the Lord; and thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.” This statement shows that we are the children of our Heavenly Father, and that the devil has a personal vendetta against us, but that is beside the point. We, in the pre-moral existence, were born to Heavenly Parents, but we were not of flesh in the pre-mortal world, hence the pre part of the mortal. In the Book of Mormon, we are often informed that our bodies and our spirits are separate entities. In Moroni 10:34, Moroni states that his body and his spirit are separating as he passes on. Directly, he says, “And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite. . .” Whenever death is talked about, it refers to how our spirit leaves our bodies to continue a different path, only to be reunited with our bodies at a later time. In Mosiah 7:27, it says that “Christ was the God, the Father of all things” which includes our spirits as well. While not a whole lot is really stated about how God is our ACTUAL father in the Book of Mormon, plenty is said elsewhere. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “We all existed premortally as spirit children of God, our Heavenly Father.” (3) President Gordon B. Hinckley, taught and proclaimed, “I believe without equivocation or reservation in God the Eternal Father. He is my Father, the Father of my spirit, and the Father of the spirits of all men.” (4) In the Bible Dictionary that comes with our scriptures, under the term “Spirit,” this is found, “Every person is literally a son or a daughter of God, having been born as a spirit to Heavenly Parents previous to being born to mortal parents on the earth.” I have also some more verses found within the Bible: Hebrews 12:9 says “…shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of our spirits and live?” Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Ecclesiastes 12:7 states, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto god who gave it.” And last but not least is one of my personal favorites: Psalms 82:6, “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.”

The Creation:
And God said,
Let us make man in our own image
after our likeness.
-Genesis 1:26

In order for this whole Plan of Salvation to start, there had to be a beginning, a creation. And so, it was done. In order to receive a human body, there had to be a beginning. The beginning of this story is quite well known. In 2Nephi 2:12 it says, “Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.” I personally love verse 13 too, because of its argument. “And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.” It really is as simple as that. If there were no God, there would be no earth, no life, nothing. With this creation, however, came into existence two very well known beings: Adam and Eve. In Alma, chapter 18, verse 36 there is a record of Ammon speaking of the creation: “Now when Ammon had said these words, he began at the creation of the world, and also the creation of Adam, and told him all the things concerning the fall of man…”

In the scriptures, it is noted that Jesus Christ was basically delegated to create the world on behalf of our Heavenly Father. This is found in 3Nephi 9:15- “Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.” But, what is the Father and the Son without the Great Spirit? In Alma 22:11 it is said, “Yea, I believe that the Great Spirit created all things.” Heavenly Father had his work cut out for him creating the Plan of Salvation and its momentum henceforth, therefore, it was a group effort of sorts to bring to pass the creation of the world and mankind.

And there we have it-- a basic overview of the Pre-mortal aspect of the Plan of Salvation.

Any questions?