The concept of a pre-existence is a fundamental aspect of Mormonism that shapes how many things in the religion are viewed. In Mormonism, we existed as unembodied intelligences, then as spirits, now as humans on our way to becoming gods. This is an eternal cycle. However, almost all of these concepts are not supported by the scriptures at all including the Book of Mormon, which is the most correct book on earth, according to Joseph Smith.
Bible
The Bible provides very little direct insight into whether we existed in some form before this life. According to the text, our existence was always at the point of creation with no mention of anything definitive prior to this point. Some have concluded that since the Bible doesn’t directly refute this concept then it should be viewed as a possibility. This however is an argument from ignorance and is not how fundamental doctrines should be determined.
Most Biblical scholars have simply concluded that there are no unambiguous teachings in the Bible that state we existed in some form prior to this life. Any other conclusions are based on presuppositions we make when reading the text. For instance, in the late 1800’s, J. I. Marais, who was a professor at a theological college in South Africa, stated quite clearly that no scripture supports the idea of the pre-existence of man. He wrote for the first edition of the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:
[Nowhere] does Scripture teach the pre-existence of the soul
J. I. Marais, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
This however doesn’t mean that the Bible doesn’t teach the concept that God has foreknowledge of us and our actions. Many places in the Bible describe the foreknowledge of God. For instance, in Isaiah 46, God mentions there is no one like him and he knows the beginning and the end, including things that haven’t happened yet. The text mentions:
I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done
Isaiah 46:9-10
The concept that God knows our actions before we do them is referred to as foreknowledge or ideal preexistence. In this way the idea of something, namely mankind, existed in the mind of God before our actual creation, just like everything else did before its actually realization. This same concept can be applied to an example where someone picks up a rock and then drops it. They know the rock is going to fall to the ground before they drop it, however their knowledge of this fact didn’t force the rock to drop. In this way the idea and the reality are completely separate aspects to the rock actually hitting the ground. Yet, the idea preexisted the reality.
Old Testament
The Old Testament does have a few scriptures which are commonly proof texted, in the LDS church, to support the idea of a pre-existence. When read in context these verses don’t support the idea, but are commonly used regardless. The first one of these is Jeremiah 1:5, where Jeremiah describes the commission he received from God. On the surface this verse seems to clearly state that God knew Jeremiah before this life, which must mean also that Jeremiah existed before this life. The verse reads:
I knew you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart for me before you were born; I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah 1:5
In this verse, it does seem that God is telling Jeremiah that he existed before this life and was ordained a prophet there. Certainly, this is how many in the LDS church would view this scripture. However, the text is simply stating that God had foreknowledge of Jeremiah which is truthful for everyone. God knew Jeremiah would be the person that he decided to be, however it didn’t remove the agency of Jeremiah or require him to be ordained a prophet before this life.
The entire verse speaks of the foreknowledge of God and nothing specifically about Jeremiah at all. If this verse though, was an obvious example of the pre-existence of Jeremiah, then there is very little reason that Christianity as a whole would reject this interpretation. This verse only supports the idea of a pre-existence in the minds of those that have already reached the conclusion. This is that danger in proof texting the scriptures.
Another often cited passage from the Old Testament is in Job 38. In the previous chapters, Job is recorded as lamenting his current situation and thinking that God had abandoned him. Then in Job 38, God finally answers him with an incredible rebuke. This rebuke however is completely misunderstood in those that want to see this as an endorsement for Job’s pre-existence. In the text, God responds to Job by saying:
Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? … Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? … When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 38:2-7
In the text it does seems to be implying that there was a group of individuals that were aware during the creation of the earth and shouted for joy. According to the Gospel Principles manual, this group of individuals were all the children of God, which would have included Job. However, this frankly can’t be the case. Joseph Smith did use this scripture, in a March 29th, 1841, discourse, as a justification to conclude that Job was among those in the pre-existence. However, this still doesn’t make it true.
In Job 38, God is specifically rebuking Job by saying Job doesn’t have any idea what he is talking about. God does this by contrasting the sharp distinction between him and Job. God is an eternal being and Job is nothing more than animated dust. If, however, Job was there at the framing of the world, then Job could have simply told God this. Why would God be asking where Job was at the beginning of the world other than to illustrate the point that Job is finite and God is infinite. In cases like this it can help tremendously if we look at alternate translations. In the ISV these verses read:
Who is this who keeps darkening my counsel without knowing what he’s talking about? Stand up like a man! I’ll ask you some questions, and you give me some answers!” Where were you when I laid the foundation of my earth? Tell me, since you’re so informed! Who set its measurement? Am I to assume you know? Who stretched a boundary line over it? On what were its bases set? Who laid its corner stone while the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted joyfully?
Job 38:1-7 ISV
In this text, it is clear that God is rebuking Job and telling him that he has no understanding compared to God’s understanding. Job was not there at the beginning of the world so he can’t say anything about it. Job’s understanding is limited to the ideas of men, and he had no comprehension of the works of God. This is why God rebukes him so heavily.
Job was speaking about how God should operate, in relation to men, yet Job had no understanding at all about the smallest sliver of the works of God. God was essentially saying, how can you presume to challenge me when you are infinitely less than I am? God was certainly not saying that Job was co-external with him like the LDS church is concluding these verses say. You can only reach this conclusion if you actually don’t read the text at all.
New Testament
The New Testament is similar to the Old Testament in that there are no explicit mentions of a pre-existence state for mankind. There was however a small, but growing group of believers that explored this concept during the Babylonian exile, up to the time of the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. In apocryphal books, written during that time, there are mentions of a pre-existence of some kind. These can be seen in the Second Book of Enoch and the Apocalypse of Baruch, which speak of mankind’s existence before the creation of the earth. Both books however are not accepted as scripture by any widespread Jewish or Christian groups.
In the New Testament itself, there is no mention of a pre-existence, however there are several mentions of Jesus existing before this life in some capacity. In Philippians 2:6-8, Paul mentions that Jesus was a god before this life who condescended to mortality. In John 1:30, the apostle John records John the Baptist as saying that Jesus existed before John the Baptist was born. This existence would have to have been in some other realm because John the Baptist was physically older than Jesus was.
One other location to note is John 3, where John the apostle mentions twice that Jesus was a special type of being that came down from heaven. Other than these mentions, of Christ being pre-existent, there are no mentions of a pre-existent state for mankind. There is however one, somewhat confusing question posed to Christ, that many in the LDS church use to suggest the idea of a pre-existence.
This question is found in John 9 and pertains to the disciples asking Jesus if a person born blind had sinned before this life, or his parents to cause the man to be born blind. There was a general belief at the time, that situations like this were the result of sin and were a punishment from God. Jesus responds that he was simply born blind so the works of God could be made manifest. The question though presupposes a belief that the man existed in some kind of way before his mortal existence. The text reads:
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him saying, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”
John 9:1-2
In the LDS church, this scripture seems to make sense that that the disciples believed this man had a pre-existence in which he might have sinned and therefore was punished with blindness. According to LDS doctrine today though, this was not possible. There are however a number of other explanations for this question which make far more sense. For instance, there was a rabbinical teaching, at the time, that infants could sin while in the womb.
There also were some contemporary groups which believed in the possibility of reincarnation, with Josephus claiming that the Pharisees were one of these groups. We can see a cultural understanding of this belief in the question that Jesus asked his apostles in Matthew 16. Jesus asked them, what people were saying about him. The disciples responded that people were claiming he was a reincarnated John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or a different prophet.
This would only make sense if there was a general belief in a reincarnation for everyone or at least a reincarnation for specific individuals. In this sense, the man born blind could have been thought to have sinned in a previous life and then be punished in this life for those sins. This appears to be the prevailing Jewish thought at the time.
Christianity
Christianity as a whole has accepted the idea that the spirit of man is created some time between conception and birth. However, over time there have been various groups that have advocated for a pre-existence state for man. These groups have always been on the outskirts of Christianity, however some have had varying levels of acceptance.
For instance, some of the early church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr and Origen, advocated for the concept of a pre-existence. This was seen as an influence from Greek and Hellenistic Jewish culture and was consequently condemned. The ideas however prevailed for several centuries until dying out. Origen, who was one of the earliest church Fathers, wrote about how all spirits existed before this life and had agency. This sounds similar to modern LDS teachings, however Origen also taught that coming to earth was a punishment for those that were disobedient before this life. Most LDS members would disagree with Origen on that point.
In more modern Christianity, a popular Methodist preacher by the name of Lorenzo Dow was also very vocal in his belief of a pre-existence for our spirits. In 1804, he wrote about the heaven that our spirits existed in before this life and the fact that everything was created prior and was just waiting to be given a temporal existence. He wrote:
When did God make the soul of the child that was born yesterday? … Your idea that God makes new souls daily, falls to the ground; and you can’t deny it, if the Bible be true. But says one, their souls were made in the course of six days. Where then have they been ever since? Laid up in a store-house in heaven? If they were, they were happy
Lorenzo Dow, The Opinion of Dow
According to Dow then, all spirits had an existence prior to this life in a blissful state of happiness while we waited for our birth into mortality. Throughout Christianity, up to the present time, various other influential leaders have advocated for similar concepts using different modes of arguments.
Book of Mormon
In Mormonism today, the concept of a pre-existence permeates almost all aspects of the religion. If a member was asked where this idea originated, they would probably say in the Book of Mormon somewhere. They might even say Alma 13 which is about the foreknowledge of God like Jeremiah 1. However, the idea of a pre-existence is read into the text and is not what the text actually says. For instance, Orson Pratt, who was an excellent theologian, was speaking about the pre-existence of man and mentioned that he never would have found it, in the Book of Mormon, without Joseph’s later revelations. In speaking about the Book of Mormon he mentioned:
I do not think that I should have ever discerned it in that book had it not been for the new translation of the Scriptures
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses
The Book of Mormon itself mentions nothing about a pre-existence state for man. However, it does speak about the pre-existence of Christ just like the New Testament does. For instance, Ether sees the spiritual finger of Jesus before he was born in Ether 3, and Jesus told Nephi, in 3 Nephi 1, that he was going to be born the next day. Both are clear examples that Jesus was alive, in some form, prior to this life, however there is nothing else in the Book of Mormon to suggest anyone else was in a similar state.
As mentioned, many will point to Alma 13 to establish the concept of pre-existence however this falls into the same problem as Jeremiah 1 does. For instance, when read without the understanding of modern Mormonism then the text has a different meaning. In speaking about an order of priests that foreshadowed the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus, Alma 13 reads:
And this is the manner after which they were ordained: being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling
Alma 13:3
Most members would read this as meaning that those special priests exercised “faith and good works” before this life, this is why they receive the special order of the priesthood. Many, like Bruce R. McConkie, in his book Mormon Doctrine, have interpreted it this way. As shown by Orson Pratt’s lack of seeing it this way, when read without a bias of modern Mormonism, this passage seems to only suggest that the calling or order of the priesthood was based on the foreknowledge of God.
The text seems then to only suggest that the priesthood order would be given to individuals based on their “faith and good works” while in mortality. This seems far more consistent and doesn’t imply a privileged status to only a relatively few individuals. If, however, the standard LDS interpretation is correct, then that would mean that those who are high priests, in the LDS church, somehow exercised more faith and good works than billions of other people. You would expect them then to exemplify that in this life, which is typically not the case. The concept alone seems quite imbalanced honestly. If, however, the text suggested the idea of a pre-existence, then it should also apply to the New Testament where there is very similar language.
For instance, Romans 9 describes how some are “before prepared unto glory”, Ephesians 1 says that some were chosen “before the foundation of the world”, and 1 Peter 1 says that some of the elect were chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God”. As we have seen though, very few interpret this as evidence of the pre-existence of man. These are all evidence of the foreknowledge of God, and examples of the works of God being eternal and prepared prior to this life. When reading scripture, it can be very dangerous to interpret the text in ways the author never intended.
Mormonism
In the early church, there was no unique idea that the spirits of man pre-existed their birth into mortality. It was generally believed that we began existing, in all forms, at the moment of our birth. However, the specifics of this were completely left up to the individual for their own understanding. On May 6th, 1833, however, Joseph received what is known today as D&C 93. In this revelation, it is mentioned that we existed with God prior to this life, not as individual spirits, but part of the very essence of God. D&C 93 reads:
Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also
D&C 93:29-30
In reading this verse, it is easy to confuse it with the later understanding of intelligences from the Book of Abraham, however this is not what the verse says, and not how the verse was understood at the time. Earlier in the revelation, in verse 23, the pre-existent nature of man is equated with the “Spirit of truth”. Then, in verse 36, this intelligence or spirit of truth is identified as the glory of God. According to this then, man was with God prior to this life, not necessarily as an individual entity, but part of the eternal spirit, truth, or glory of God. At some point, man was made individual and could operate independent from God.
This is how Parley P. Pratt understood it, according to his 1842 book, The True God and his Worship contrasted with Idolatry. In the book, Pratt mentions:
The Spirit Of Truth, proceeding from the Father and the Son … is the light, life and spirit of all things.
Parley P. Pratt, The True God and his Worship contrasted with Idolatry
According to Pratt then and D&C 93, the eternal nature of man was originally a part of God that was made unique and independent. The specifics as to how this happened or when it happened were not made clear. Almost nothing more was said about this concept, until Joseph continued his work on the Book of Abraham, which was published in 1842.
In Abraham 3, the text describes a council of God in which God overlooks eternally existing individual intelligences and begins a plan for their advancement. These intelligences are described as being co-eternal with God in the sense they can’t be created or destroyed. They didn’t have a beginning and will have no end. By some chance, God was in their midst and benevolently decided to help them since they couldn’t help themselves. Abraham 3 reads:
[Spirits] have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal.
Abraham 3:18
In Abraham 3, these individual spirits are referred to interchangeably as ‘spirits’, ‘intelligences’, and ‘souls’. These appear to all be the same concept according to the text and are all the same way of referring to the eternal and individual aspect of man, that when combined with a human body, gives that body life. During the later years of Joseph’s life, in Nauvoo, these spirits or intelligences were always taught as being eternal and uncreated. They existed with God and God organized a means for them to receive physical bodies.
However, after the death of Joseph then the teachings of the church shifted from intelligences and spirits being synonymous, to actually being a distinct separation of the two. This separation resulted in the teachings that intelligences were eternal, but the spirits of man were created at some point prior to their birth into mortality. For instance, in a 1909 First Presidency statement, issued to combat the concept of evolution, it was taught, that our spirits were created by our heavenly parents through a divine act of creation. This act, which is unspecified, converted us from intelligences into spirits. The statement said:
Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal body
First Presidency, Origin of Man, Improvement Era, November 1909
Joseph Fielding Smith further clarified this separation, in a 1944 book, The Progress of Man, where he unequivocally stated that the intelligence and spirit of man were distinct and when merged together make an individual identity. He wrote:
There is something called intelligence which always existed. … This intelligence combined with the spirit constitutes a spiritual identity or individual.
Joseph Fielding Smith, The Progress of Man
Today in Mormonism, this is the generally accepted understanding. Intelligences existed forever and God fashioned spiritual bodies, then physical ones for these intelligences. When passages like D&C 93 or Abraham 3 are read, they are interpreted this way which is seemingly contradictory to the text and the original understanding. This is the complication when attributing later understanding to earlier text. You can see things in places that were never intended.
Conclusion
In looking at the concept of the pre-existence of man, there is no justification from the scriptures themselves. This is true for the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Book of Mormon. There are various passages which can be read to support the concept of a pre-existence. However, they must be taken out of context and misapplied. Many of these are read in a way where a pre-existence is assumed, and then the text is used as a justification.
In the Old Testament, only God, and the divine council, are described as existing outside of the confines of this mortal realm. In the New Testament, and the Book of Mormon, the only individual with a pre-existent state is Jesus who is described as God in the flesh. This was the understanding of the early LDS church. However, this subtly changed with the publication of D&C 93, which identified man as co-external with God, and sharing in a portion of his divine nature.
This eternal nature of our spirits was taught by Joseph, however, was later changed by the leaders of the church. The spirit was no longer eternal, but was a creation by God, prior to this life. Man was still eternal and existed with God, however the eternal nature of man was changed to be a more primitive form, of basic intelligence, that God had to elevate to a spirit and then in a temporal body.
According to Joseph, in a January 5th, 1841, discourse this means that since our spirits had a beginning, then they must also have an end. The spirit can’t be eternal, which is a serious problem for Mormonism today. Joseph said:
If the soul of man had a beginning it will sureley have an end. … Spirits are eternal.
Joseph Smith, January 5, 1841
