Pre-earth life

I went to another wonderful class by Laurel Lawrence. She is so knowledgeable and seems to have a fantastic memory for scriptural references and quotes. This week’s lesson was on Pre-mortality.

10/26     Larry Lawrence is a convert and joined the church as an adult. When he investigated, the teaching that most interested him was the concept of a pre-earth life. He said, “the idea of pre-mortality makes life more fair.”

We believe in reward systems – extra pay for overtime, higher paying job for higher education, time off for good behavior, etc., and heaven works that way too. We are rewarded for the good we do.

Harold B Lee said we would be judged at the end of this life for our accomplishments. The same is true for our pre-earth life – we are rewarded in this life for our knowledge gained and good choices there.

We are the only Christian church that believes in the pre-earth life. Many churches believe Jesus was pre-mortal but not us.

It was taught and believed in Old Testament times (Jeremiah 1:4-5), and throughout the New Testament (2 Timothy – God called us before the world began; story of man born blind and asking who sinned before birth; John the Baptist leapt in the womb when he recognized Jesus – how could he recognize him if he hadn’t known him before?; Jude, brother of Jesus, in Jude 1:6 talks of angels who kept not their first estate; Revelations 12 talks of war in heaven), but 500 AD a group of Catholic Bishops removed that teaching from the church. Jews have always believed in a pre-earth life.

In Revelations 12, dragon is Satan.

The restoration of the Gospel brought back the teaching of a pre-mortal life. Moses 3, Abraham 3, Book of Mormon – Alma 13 says men were called to the Priesthood before they were born.

Christ was the firstborn but other than that we don’t know our spirit ages. Since He was the firstborn spirit, we know he was older spiritually than his mother and that could be the case with others. Intelligences are eternal. God took our intelligences and organized us into spirits. Our spirits look just like us. Christ in Spirit said the body of my spirit…. Ether 4:16

All Spirits are in adult form

We wanted to come to earth to become like our Heavenly Parents with the resurrected bodies, all wise, happy, etc. They also began as Spirits, went to an earth and the school of hard knocks, learned and grew. We knew we couldn’t have a fullness of joy without a resurrected body.

There was a council in heaven, much like the councils we do here. Heavenly Father presented His plan. He said it would not be easy but provided the way and showed us how He could satisfy justice. Jehovah volunteered to be the Savior. He was already so advanced in progression that He was already a member of the Godhead.

Bruce R McConkie said, “Spirituality is when you recognize truth and act on it.

Joseph Fielding Smith said the First Presidency of heaven gathered together and concocted a plan and gathered us in council to accept or reject it.

The name Lucifer means light bearer; he used to be an angel in authority. D&C 76

Perdition means destruction – Satan’s whole intent is to destroy us spiritually.

Revelations 12:10 – The name Satan means accuser – he spends all his time accusing innocent people

“Son of the morning” means he is an older spirit. “He is not smart because he’s the devil; he’s smart because he’s old.”  Faust

The war in heaven was a war not of weapons but of reasoning, words, ideas. Michael lead the side of Christ and Satan lead the others.

Ezra T Benson said, Beware of pride; that was Satan’s downfall.

The war was like a political campaign. We fought in it like we helped campaign for Prop 8 – here we knocked on doors, held up banners in intersections, made phone calls, etc., there we preached and taught with all energy.

When we won with a 2/3 majority, we shouted for joy.

God rewarded those who shared testimonies by sending us to the House of Israel.

Our patriarchal blessing states if we are direct descendent and through what line. If we are not direct blood lineage, the blessing will say, “You will receive blessings through Abraham.”

In the pre-earth life each spirit developed at its own pace. We each had our strengths and talents like art, science, music, etc.

Another strength may have been being able to recognize truth and act on it – Joseph Smith.

Israel is scattered all around the world so we can be a light to the whole world in all nations. If not, the world would now have been like Sodom 7 Gomorra.

D&C 76 says the Lord saves all the house of Israel except the sons of perdition.

We are a remnant of Jacob who reside among gentiles

2% or less in the world have Israelite blood – or about 120 million. The missionaries are looking for that 2%

Of Noah’s sons, Shem – was Jacob’s 13^th descendent

 Ham & Japeth are not part of Israel.

The reason there can be some from Ephraim and some from Manasseh is that we are all descendants from Joseph. The Lord decided which tribe you will receive the blessings from. Ephraim is over building temples and missionary work. Having all children from Ephraim and one from Manasseh is like getting one red-headed child, only instead of genes being the reason, it is the Lord’s assignment, or the partial blood of Manasseh that came through the blood lines.

The Jews will be taught last of all, after all other tribes have been taught. They were the first, the chosen now they will be the last.  (The last shall be first and the first shall be last.)

Abraham was one of the noble and great ones. Your Patriarchal Blessing can list your talents and abilities because God knew you way before you came here.

Whitney said if we were allowed to look in the archives of heaven, we would find our name and what we agreed to do in this life.

Satan’s headquarters are here – Revelations 12:12

After the millennium Satan will be cast out to outer darkness forever and he wants to take as many as he can with him. He has a very short time to gather as many as possible.

Earth is Jesus’ headquarters, too. This is the wickedest planet but we also have a great portion of the Holy Ghost here. It wouldn’t be very impressive if He had gone to a more worthy earth to sacrifice. He had to have the worse around Him to descend below all so that he could understand all suffering and be able to help us through our trials.

Harold B Lee said we were schooled before we came here to know how to take care of our bodies.

There is probably something like a funeral service when spirits leave to come to earth, knowing the trials that we would have to face.

Our future posterity is rooting for us and praying for us because what we do affects their lives.

No 2 spirits are alike. There may be twin bodies, but there are no twin spirits. We’ve existed a long time.

Some of those you teach, you knew in the previous life.

1,000 years = 1 day of God’s time

1 lifetime of 90 years = about 2 hours in God’s time

A 2 year mission i= about 3 minutes in God’s time.

To know how long you’ve been away from Heavenly home in God’s time, take your age plus half your age. Example 30 years old, plus 15 = 45. That’s how many minutes you’ve been away.

There is not a minute to waste. Our lives pass as a dream – Jacob.

Missionaries teach God is our Father and this life is to learn and grow. It might sound revolutionary to some investigators, but it also sounds true. People of the house of Israel remember it like Déjà vu.

President Benson said, “ Nothing wills startle us more than when we die and see God and realize how very familiar His face is and how well we Know Him.”

Rev 12 – even in the pre-existence the blood of the Lamb saved us.