Does The Bible Teach That We Lived Before This Life?

In this episode of Gospel First, Joe Cirillo delves into the biblical account of the creation of the universe as described in Genesis. He discusses the role of God the Father and Jesus Christ in the creation process, highlighting theological insights from the Bible and other LDS scriptures such as The Book Of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl Of Great Price. Joe emphasizes the purpose behind the creation, the spiritual and physical formation of all things, and mankind's responsibilities towards the earth. He also shares practical lessons and analogies from the creation story that believers can apply in their own lives, promoting order, rest, and a creative spirit.

Transcription:

For the past few years, I’ve been working on scanning all of our family photo albums and saving them into a digital format. Upon seeing pictures of each of our newly born children, my mind reflected on the incredible feeling of gratitude that filled my heart for my sweet wife and for each of our precious children who came into our lives.

Such was the beginning of life for each of us. Yet, was our birth truly the beginning?

In this lesson, we’re going to focus on “Where did we come from before we were born?”

The world sees birth and death as the beginning and the end. But because of God’s great plan, we know that birth and death are actually just milestones on our journey to eternal life with our Heavenly Father.

We know through the scriptures that our life did not begin at birth and will not end at death.

They are essential parts of our Father’s plan—sacred moments when mortality and heaven intersect. I want to testify that our Father has a glorious plan for each one of us. A plan of happiness.

I believe that our lives are patterned after that of God.

As we study the plan I would ask that each one of us, put ourselves in the role of a parent. By doing so, we’ll be able to understand and comprehend Father in Heaven better.

Many people in today’s world either have no concept of God or have a very different perception of Deity.

Some believe God to be a Supreme Being, a Universal Force or Great Spirit who controls everything. For me, this is God.

I love the Lord’s promise when he says in Jeremiah 29:13-14 “And ye shall seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” In verse 14 he says; “And I will be found of you, saith the Lord:...”

With this promise from Him, will you seek the lord and search for Him with all your heart? I know that when you do, He will be found, and you will know the truth when you hear it.

With that promise in mind, what are some things that testify to you that there is a God?

Alma, a Book of Mormon prophet, wrote, “All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44)

We can look up at the sky at night and have an idea of what Alma meant. There are millions of stars and planets, all in perfect order. They did not get there by chance!

We can see the work of God in the heavens and on the earth. Everything testifies to us that there is a God. But what does He look like? Let’s look at Genesis 1:26

“And God said let us make man in our image after our likeness.”

According to Genesis 1:26 it is evident that we were created in their image, after their likeness and it stands to reason that God must have a body of flesh and bone with two eyes, two ears, nose, hands and feet.

When Jesus Christ was resurrected He went to His Father in Heaven and sits at the right hand of His Father. If Jesus has a body of flesh and bone, doesn’t it stand to reason that our Father in Heaven has one also?

But let’s take a closer look at the words “let us make man in our image”. Who is God referring to and who is the us and in our image?

Can you remember what the pre-mortal existence was like? I can probably guess the answer is no, because of something called “the veil”. The veil over our minds makes it so that we cannot remember the things that happened before we were born on earth.

I can testify that just as surely as we live now, we each lived then. Each of us were born and raised as a spirit child of Heavenly Parents. We are literally a child of God, created, raised, and reared by our loving Heavenly Father and a loving Heavenly Mother in the pre-mortal existence.

Can you now see what Genesis 1:26 is referring to when it says, “Let us make man in our image?” Yes, loving Heavenly Parents created us in their image!

God is the Father of our spirits. We are literally His children, and He loves us. He knows us individually and by name.

Speaking to the prophet Jeremiah, In Jeremiah 1:5 the Lord said, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…” And Acts 17:29 says; “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God.” And Hebrews 12:9 says; “Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of our spirits and live?” The Doctrine and Covenants 93: 29 also says; “Man was also in the beginning with God.”

Now, we sometimes forget we are eternal beings, the spirit offspring of God. As a son or daughter of a Heavenly King, we are each a prince or a princess. Deep down inside of our spirits, we all know we are royalty. After all, we have their spiritual DNA within us.

As God’s children, Romans 8:17 says; “all of mankind has the potential to be heirs of God” We were born of Greatness and for greatness.

So, what did we do in the Pre-existence? The scriptures teach us that we developed personalities, talents, gifts, and abilities while we lived in heaven. We grew in intelligence, learned to love the truth, and prepared ourselves to come to earth, where we could continue to progress.

In the pre-mortal spirit world, God appointed certain spirits specific missions during their mortal lives. This is called foreordination. Although we often read about foreordained Church leaders, foreordination isn’t just for prophets. Many of us seemingly normal, everyday people were also foreordained to do a variety of things in this life.

Speaking of “choice spirits who were reserved to come forth in the fulness of times” the Doctrine and Covenants 138:55-56 states: “I observed that they [Apostles and prophets] were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God. Even before they were born, they, with many others, [you and me] received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.

Most of us have a talent that we are naturally good at or an aptitude to which we seem inherently inclined. That could have come through our DNA, but it also could have come from PMA (pre-mortal abilities)!

Some of what we are doing on earth now is putting the talents and abilities we developed in the pre-mortal existence to use. And so, Heavenly Father presented a plan to us.

He provided a perfect plan to accomplish His purpose. We understood and accepted it before we came to the earth. In the scriptures God’s plan is called a Merciful Plan, The Plan of Happiness, The Plan of Redemption, and The Plan of Salvation

Job 38:7 teaches us that in the pre-mortal existence we were so happy that “we sang together” and “shouted for joy” about the opportunity to come to earth and advance in the plan of salvation. We knew that mortal life wouldn’t be easy, but we looked forward to it.

President Spencer W. Kimbal taught, “We understood well before we came to earth that there would be sorrows, disappointments, hard work, blood, sweat, and tears; but in spite of all, we looked down and saw this earth being made ready for us, and we said in effect, ‘Yes, Father, in spite of all those things I can see great blessing that could come to me as one of thy sons and daughters; in taking a body I can see what I will eventually become immortal like thee, that I might overcome the effects of sin and be perfected, and so I am anxious to go to the earth at the first opportunity.’ And so we came.

In conclusion, for thousands of years, God prepared us in the pre-mortal existence to come here and to succeed in His plan of salvation. And we were excited to be born and have the opportunity to prove ourselves to Him and progress to become more like Him.

This concludes our lesson in this section of ACT 1. The next lesson in ACT 1, is titled “The Creation Story.”

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