FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Plan of salvation/Pre-mortal existence
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Contents
Criticism
Critics charge that the LDS doctrine of a "premortal existence" is unChristian or unBiblical, and therefore false.
Source(s) of the Criticism
- “Persons and Pre-Mortality: The Mormon Doctrine of Preexistence,” in James Patrick Holding, The Mormon Defenders: How Latter-day Saint Apologists Misinterpret the Bible (self-published, 2001), at 53—61, with related endnotes at 144—145.
Response
It is logical to believe in a pre-mortal existence. Without such a belief, that would mean that God created us on this earth for really no reason whatsoever, when He could have just created us in Heaven. He knew that many would not make it back to him, be subjected to pain, anguish, and many of us, because of our choices, would be damned and never enter into heaven. Why didn't He just create us in Heaven? If He didn't want anyone to suffer, or be cast off into hell, why did He create us here first? The pre-mortal doctrine answers all these questions. With such, we know we lived with Him once (Eccl. 12:7, Jer. 1:5, Titus 1:2, Job 38:4-7, Proverbs 8:23-30) and are here to be tested, to grow in Faith, and then will be rewarded with eternal life with Him. God is the Father of our spirits (Heb. 12:9, Num. 16:22, 27:16), not our bodies and spirit, but just spirit. If our spirits came from our Father first, where were they? John 9:2 says “Who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” Now how could a man sin and then be born, if there wasn’t a former place with choices and agency?
Conclusion
A summary of the argument against the criticism.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
FAIR web site
- FairMormon Topical Guide: Pre-mortal life FairMormon link
- Kevin L. Barney, "On Preexistence in the Bible" FAIR link (Key source)
- Barry Robert Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church, Chapter 3. FAIR link
- Allen Wyatt, "Preexistence and the Second Estate," Mormonism 201 project. FAIR link
External links
- Russell C. McGregor, "The Anti-Mormon Attackers (Review of: The Mormon Defenders: How Latter-day Saint Apologists Misinterpret the Bible)," FARMS Review of Books 14/1 (2002): 315–320. off-site
Printed material
- Printed resources whose text is not available online