Eternal Spirit, Part 8

2009-6-26 03:51:00

This is that final part of this treatise. Remember that it was written when I was 21 and still a supporter of the [Mormon] church. I didn't go into the Hebrew and Greek in those days but I did have about a dozen translations of the Bible I relied on for enhanced meaning.

This treatise still supplies good Biblical evidence that we lived before (an ingredient of reincarnation) as well as a window into my early thinking. I hope you think it was worthwhile to post.

  

Biblical Proof

I have made reference to and shall further verify the fact that we lived in spiritual realms before we were born. This would mean that we had a first estate. Logically then, since we are better off than the devils, one may assume that we were those who kept the first estate. So then, what is the second estate? Right here, of course. We have moved up to it.

Another interesting question that may arise from the verse in Jude is what the fallen angels "own, habitation" was in their first estate. A hint of this is given in Proverbs. It also gives undeniable evidence of man's pre-mortal existence:

"Doeth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. Before the mountains were settled [...] While as yet he had not made the earth.. When he prepared the heavens I was there [...] When he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him: rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men." (Proverbs 8:1,22-31)

The "I" here is wisdom, and she rejoiced in "the habitable parts of God's earth." The earth spoken of here could very well be the spiritual counterpart of this earth which was created eons ago. More than likely this was the habitation which the angels who sinned left, and without doubt it is the habitation which all those who ever lived upon the earth once had, for before the foundation of the earth wisdom had delight with the "sons of men," and those are the inhabitants of the earth.

As I said, the Bible gives so many evidences that we lived before we were born one is amazed that all who have read it do not accept the fact. For instance, Christ, said: "no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." (John 3:13)

Since Christ is not the only one who is to ascend to heaven he is not the only one who came from heaven. The Bible records specifically that the two prophets who are to be killed in Jerusalem will ascend to heaven just as Christ did. (Rev 11:11-12) Therefore, according to scripture they had to "come down from heaven." They had a pre-mortal existence. Paul explains that the righteous who are left when Christ comes will be caught up together [...] in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess 4:17) Again these people must have descended from heaven before they could ascend.

According to scripture then, any man who believes he can ascend to heaven ought to believe he came from there. Of course, not only the righteous came from heaven but the writer of Ecclesiastes as well as Psalms put a universal application on humanity: "The spirit shall return to God who gave it." (Eccl 12:7) If at death the spirit returns, then at birth it had to come from that place to which it is to return.

And now David speaks:

"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction (death); and sayest, return ye children of men." (Psalms 90:1-3)

The Knox version [of the Bible] renders the meaning clearer yet: "And wilt thou bring man to dust again, that thou sayest, Return children of Adam, to what you were? In thy sight, a thousand years are but as yesterday [...] Swiftly thou bearest our lives away, as a waking dream. (verses 3-5) Notice again the use of the word "return." Return to the Lord who has "been our dwelling place in all generations." Furthermore, life is but a waking dream, but at death, to what do we awake? Every awakening brings us back to where we were before. In this case we are brought home to God.

The poet William Wadsworth had the same idea:

"There was a time when meadow, grove and stream
The earth and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light
The things which I have seen I now can see no more."

("Intimidations of Immortality," Section 1)

  

In the Bible we read:

"These (holy prophets) all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is an heavenly." (Heb 11:13-16)

The best way to understand this scripture is to go through the important parts step by step. First, Abraham and the prophets "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

To clarify this statement I'll give different renderings from various translations of the phrase: "strangers and pilgrims." Different translations give it as: "temporary residents," "exiles," "foreigners," and "passing travelers."

All the versions make the same point. That is, man did not begin at birth, nor does he go to oblivion at death. For instance, a stranger is one who came from somewhere and is usually going somewhere. The pilgrims did not begin in America just as we did not begin on earth. An exile is one who is put away outside of his proper dwelling place. A foreigner is one who has his true home elsewhere. The term "passing traveler" is self-explanatory.

The next verse reads: "For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country." Instead of the word "country" other versions render it "fatherland," or "homeland". Some of the righteous men spoken of in this chapter, Able for instance, never left their earthly home in their lifetime. If they never left their home then where was the homeland they were seeking? The answer is obvious. They were looking forward to returning to their home they had before birth upon this earth, "a better country, that is, an heavenly."

I believe the J. B. Phillips translation gives the clearest wording to this: "They freely admitted that they lived on this earth as exiles and foreigners. Men who say that mean, of course, that their eyes are fixed upon their true home-land. If they had meant the particular country they had left behind, they had ample opportunity to return. No, the fact is that they longed for a better country altogether, nothing less than a heavenly one."

A lot clearer, isn't it?

The scriptures make it quite clear that the Lord intimately knew us before we were born. For instance: "For whom he did foreknow, he did also predestinate - to be conformed to the image of his son." (Rom 8:29) and "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew." (Rom 11:2)

He foreknew Jacob and Esau to the extent that he could say of them before they were born: "the elder shall serve the younger." (Gen 26:23) The Lord actually knew his family of spirits so well that he selected a set number of worthy ones to come through the lineage of Israel: "Remember the days of old, [...] When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deut 32:7-8)

Thus God could set bounds for the children of Israel because he not only "foreknew" them, but knew the actual number that were to be born. In Acts 17:46 we are told that he set bounds of habitation on "all nations of men." Thus he also had a knowledge of those not of Israel.

I do not want to belabor the point by throwing in too many scriptures about the pre-mortal existence of man, but there are so many people in the world who are unaware of the fact that this is taught throughout the Bible that one cannot overdo it.

A number of the prophets are recorded as receiving their calling while dwelling in their heavenly country, first estate, home-land, pre-mortal existence... call it what you will.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah: "Before I formed the in the belly I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)

This seems pretty clear. A child could understand it. That is Jeremiah lived and was called before he was born. Nevertheless, I have been given arguments on this scripture. That is before Jeremiah was born God had him all planned out in his mind like a carpenter draws up a building. However, it would be pretty illogical for God to be able to know, sanctify, and ordain something that does not yet exist. Besides, all recorded ordinations have taken place by the laying on of hands. The carpenter idea does not follow reason because it again brings the conclusion that God is the creator of our minds and decisions. But what would one suppose Jeremiah thought when God told him he knew him before he was born?

Naturally he would have supposed that he had a personal relationship with God before he entered the womb -- which, of course, is what most people would have thought.

Another interpretation is that Jeremiah lived before he was born, but we did not. Certainly that idea did not come from the Bible. I do not find it there.

Isaiah records almost the same thing about himself: "Ere I was ever born, the Lord sent me his summons." (Isaiah 49:1 -- Knox translation) when God was talking to Isaiah concerning his likeness he asked: "hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?" (Isaiah 40:21) How about that! Isaiah gained understanding from God from the "foundations of the earth." It would have been pretty hard for Him to do that if he did not exist.

Paul was also called before birth: "But when He who had chosen and set me apart even before I was born, and had called me by his grace." (Galatians 1:15 - Amplified Bible)

The fact that Paul believed in the pre-mortal existence of man is witnessed in many of his writings already quoted.

He also believed that the elect of God were chosen beforehand: "According as he (God) hath chosen us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Eph 1:4) Also: "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." (2 Tim 1:9)

Finally, Paul said he was "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." (Titus 1:2)

One may wonder how it is that God can call certain ones before birth to come to the earth and be prophets, saints, leaders and so on. Paul gave us the key when he said God had a foreknowledge of us. Let us take, for example, a mortal father with two sons. One son is extremely obedient, honest, trustworthy, and loyal while the other son is in complete opposition to him. He never lives up to the Father's hopes. Thus the father begins to lean heavily on his trustworthy son for important tasks and is willing to give him the things he asks for which are for his benefit. Being a just father he gives the wayward son every opportunity to prove himself sometimes more than he does the trusted son.

Then both sons have an accident and lose their memories. All they have left from their past life is the character which they have developed. Now the father has to teach them all over again. From which son will the father expect the most? Will not he expect them to follow the came pattern they did before? Does not the father know them better then they know themselves because he has a foreknowledge?

Of course, there is the same relationship between man and God, except our coming here was no accident. One can only guess how many thousand or million years we were with Him preparing for this life. There were certain ones who performed well in his presence who he knew would perform well here. These are the elect. If a person was not loyal there and changes his ways here he, of course, would be accepted into the elect of God. I am sure, however, that this is not very often the case for once a person has been following set patterns for a million years or so he is not likely to deviate from the course God has outlined for him.

Because then, of His great foreknowledge, He is able to tell the course of events which will happen up to the end of the earth.

Before closing I would like to use the previously established definition of death and what we have learned about the spirit and explain one of the more mysterious passages in the Bible. "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." (Rev  20:12-14)

It would take many words to explicate that whole passage. Our main concern is understanding the second death. And if there is a second death there must have been a first death. If we understand one we can understand the other.

One interpretation of this passage is that people will be resurrected, or brought to life, then be judged, and finally, if wicked, thrown into a literal lake of fire to be burned until they are no more. According to this then, the first death would be our natural death at the end of our lives. The second death then consists of God burning us up once we are brought; back to life. This is, of course, out of line with God's unmatched wisdom and mercy, as well as the conclusions we have already reached. That is the spirit will never have an end. What then will be the final state of the wicked? Paul tell us "They will suffer the punishment of eternal ruin, cut off from the presence of the Lord." (2 These 1:9 - New English Bible)

In other words, the second death is being separated from the presence of God. Thus the second death is the before mentioned spiritual death caused by a callused spirit. Since the second death is a second separation from God then the first death would have been a first separation. When were we first parted from God? Conclusion: Man was first separated from God at birth, which was the first death. Man is taken back to God after the resurrection, and if his name is not written in the book of life because of his deeds he suffers a second death, or separation from God. At this time he will have regained his memory of the joys he had living with God the eons he did before birth. This knowledge of the joy he could have had again; will cause a disappointment in him which will be as "a lake which burneth with fire and brimestone." (Rev 21:8)

Thus we see that even the fact that there is a second death proves that we lived before and are consequently eternal for we cannot have a second separation from God unless we lived before and had a first one.

If one does accept his pre-earth existence he must, on the other hand reject any sect which teaches that there is none. That is such a church could not be all correct, and thus could not come from God. For God would only stand at the head of an organization which teaches true and flawless principles. Any sect teaching less than this comes from the mind of man and not God, for the mind of man has no power to save. The fact that man is possessed of an eternal spirit, without beginning or end, rules out every belief system that does not accept this principle. Any sect that does not accept this suffers a major foundational flaw in their doctrine, which leads to many branch errors.

I am sure that if we could remember even a part of out pre-earth home we would receive a homesickness unparalleled to any feeling or yearning ever experienced for our earthly home. Sometimes when my mind reflects upon the nature of our existence before birth I receive a longing for that heavenly country to which. I know I have been before, and to which I look forward to return. It will be the greatest of all family reunions.