Pre-Earth Life

Today I began teaching a class in our ward: Temple Preparation. There were several good members that could teach the class. Indeed, we just had the sister that has been the teacher move out. About a year or two ago my stake president suggested I might even teach the class. That seemed like a very good idea to me, but for some reason I have decided not to until now.

The course looks interesting. There are seven lesson outlines, however the manual indicates that the lessons do not need to be done in seven weeks. The instructor can take as long as he or she feels is needed. Well, after I looked at the manual I decided that I indeed would take a little longer. The first lesson is on the Plan of Salvation. Today I spent my time briefly introducing the course and discussed the pre-earth life. For fun, I am including a few thoughts about the pre-earth life I have gleaned from my own studies. There is very little that we have revealed from what I would consider reliable sources (essentially the scriptures).

Overall, I think the class went fairly well. It was clearly a first-class, because there was not the relaxed feeling that I like so much in the class room when I teach. Oh well. I figure that in the next several weeks things will loosen up.

Where was the location of the pre-earth life? In the poetic version of The Vision (D&C 76) written by the Prophet Joseph Smith to his friend W.W. Phelps, we find this line: “From the council in Kolob, to time on the earth” (“A Vision,” 82). If Kolob, the planet nearest to the residence of God, is where the Grand Council was held, it seems reasonable to suppose that it was also the planet upon which we resided in our premortal estate.

What did we do in the pre-earth life? We learn from Abraham 3:22-25 that the Great and Noble Ones helped to create the earth. We know that at the very least, Abraham was present. (see also Abraham 4:1, 26-7.)

Did sin exist in that place? Yes! Enough to make a devil out of Lucifer. D&C 93:38 is a great example of this. From this verse we learn that the Atonement of Christ was efficacious in that sphere of life. Truly, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world!

Did we make choices of companions and families before our mortal birth? Maybe, or at least it depends. I think it is clear that some couples clearly were (Adam and Eve, Joseph and Mary, etc.) and some were not. The only way to tell is by revelation. Sometimes patriarchal blessings are helpful in the vein.

Do the spirits of those yet to be born mingle with the spirits of those who have died? “The idea that premortal spirits will mingle with postmortal spirits plays havoc with the doctrine that those who did not have an opportunity to accept the gospel in mortality will have that chance in the spirit world and thus ‘be judged according to men in the flesh’ (1 Pet. 4:6; D&C 138:10). Surely to be surrounded by the unborn but faithful hosts of the premortal life would more than tip the scales in favor of accepting the gospel for those who did not hear it in mortality. No faith would be necessary in such cases, for the veil of forgetfulness would have been lifted. The labor of the unborn spirit is to prepare itself for mortality; the labor of the disembodied spirit is to prepare for resurrection and the glories of an immortal world. Perhaps those differences in purpose are themselves sufficient to suggest a difference in place.” (Joseph Fielding McConkie, Answers.)

To what extent do our actions in the premortal existence affect who and what we are in this life? The same question could be asked about the decisions of our childhood effecting our adulthood. D&C 130:18-19 and the doctrine of same-o, same-o. Some have talents that were developed there that are manifest here.

Were there fence sitters or those that did not make a decision? No! Every person who came to earth chose to follow Christ, otherwise they would not have kept their first estate and come to the second estate.

How many plans were presented in the Grand Council? One. Often we get this idea that there were two plans presented: one from Christ and the other from Satan. This is simply not scriptural. The plan was authored by our Heavenly Father. The key phrase is “Whom shall I send?” It was not, “What shall I do?” Heavenly Father was not looking for ideas as to what to do. He knew the plan, it was His. Now he needed a volunteer to be willing to sacrifice and lay down His life for us.

Satan was not advocating forced obedience, at least not the way I understand it. There is nothing in his vocabulary that speaks of righteousness. It is foreign to him. Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught:

“When the Eternal Father announced his plan of salvation—a plan that called for a mortal probation for all his spirit children; a plan that required a Redeemer to ransom men from the coming fall; a plan that could only operate if mortal men had agency—when the Father announced his plan, when he chose Christ as the Redeemer and rejected Lucifer, then there was war in heaven. That war was a war of words; it was a conflict of ideologies; it was a rebellion against God and his laws. Lucifer sought to dethrone God, to sit himself on the divine throne, and to save all men without reference to their works. He sought to deny men their agency so they could not sin. He offered a mortal life of carnality and sensuality, of evil and crime and murder, following which all men would be saved. His offer was a philosophical impossibility. There must needs be an opposition in all things. Unless there are opposites, there is nothing. There can be no light without darkness, no heat without cold, no virtue without vice, no good without evil, no salvation without damnation. “And so, in the courts of heaven, the war of wars was waged. Christ and Michael and a mighty host of noble and great spirits preached the gospel of God and exhorted their brethren to follow the Father. Lucifer and his lieutenants preached another gospel, a gospel of fear and hate and lasciviousness and compulsion. They sought salvation without keeping the commandments, without overcoming the world, without choosing between opposites. And they ‘prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’ And his legions, the legions of hell, are everywhere. They are “the third part of the stars of heaven,’ the one-third of the spirit children of the Father; and they were cast out of their heavenly home because of rebellion. And so the holy word says: ‘Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath.’ And he goes forth ‘to make war’ with all men and particularly with those who ‘keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ (Rev. 12:4-17.) And the war that is now going on among men, the war between good and evil, is but a continuation of the war that began in heaven.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, 666-7.).