| MORMON CHURCH (LDS) | THE SPIRITS OF HUMAN BEINGS HAVE EXISTED IN THE SPIRIT WORLD FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS PRIOR TO THEIR APPEARANCE ON THIS EARTH |
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One of the foundational doctrines of the Mormon faith is a belief in what is called the "pre-
existence". This is a doctrine stating that the spirits of all human beings existed on another
planet prior to their appearance on this earth in the bodies of humans. This is a teaching that is
completely foreign to the Bible and is not even mentioned in the Book of
Mormon. It is a teaching that is claimed to have as its authority a revelation given after the
Book of Mormon was translated. The Mormon teaching about the origin of man and their god is completely different from that taught in the Bible and in their own scriptural source, the Book of Mormon. Since the Mormon god was once a man, the origin of man is the same as that of their god. Mormons teach the essential, core element of being within every human has always existed, never having a beginning creation. This entity, or intelligence, was an individual and was coequal with all other individual intelligences and with god, who was also a man at one time. These intelligences had a size, which is equal to the average size of a human being, but they did not have a body. Since Mormon belief is centered on man and not on God, these intelligences, and thus man himself, substitute in place of a divine creator. The Biblical teaching is that it is God, who eternally exists, was not created and had no beginning. In Mormon belief, it is man who eternally exists, was not created and had no beginning. Biblical teaching presents God as the singular and only center of everything that is, and man is a subservient creature, created by the will and action of God. Mormon teaching presents man as the center of everything, and their god is a product of the elevation of man by his own effort to the position of a god, who is one among an infinity of other gods. If the Mormon God did not create man in the manner taught in the Bible, then why do Mormons worship him as their creator? The answer is, that their god is an exalted man. At the end of his life as an earthly being (on some other planet), he was resurrected and then exalted to the position of a god as a result of his faithfulness to the Mormon beliefs (taught on that planet). In his position of a god, he possessed his own planet and had many wives. Since the Mormon god is an exalted man, he also has a body and can produce children with his many wives. The children that they produce are spiritual in nature in spite of the fact that the heavenly father and his wives are physical in nature. This contradiction is not explained by Mormon apologists. As a result, each spiritual child that he and his wives produce, clothe one of the human intelligences that are floating through the universe waiting to obtain their spiritual body. As a result, over time, the planet of this god (the heavenly father) becomes populated with many billions of spirit children who have as their core being one of the human intelligences that have existed for all eternity. As a result of this process, all human beings live on a planet with their heavenly father and function as beings for an eternity of time prior to their appearance on this earth. One difficulty in this teaching is regarding the size of the intelligences and the child of the heavenly father and mother that is produced to clothe them. If the intelligences are the size of an average adult human being, then the baby produced by the heavenly mother and father must also be the average size of a human adult. It must be that both the intelligences and the spiritual child are very elastic in nature so that the intelligence can inhabit the body of the smaller spiritual child, although Mormon doctrine does not specify that the children produced by the heavenly father and mothers grow from infants to adults; perhaps the children are born as adults. At some point in time, when the population of the planet of the heavenly father becomes great enough, he, along with many of his sons, organize other planets for habitation by the spiritual children. These planets are not created out of nothing, like the creation of this earth written about in the Bible, but they are "organized" from pre-existing matter, because all that is has always existed, according to Mormon belief. These new planets, or earths, have different properties than the heavenly father's planet. These new planets are temporal, or earthly, planets and they can effect changes to spiritual beings. The heavenly father's planet, himself, his wives and children consist of a highly refined material that is invisible to the eyes of ordinary human beings. But this property changes when one of the heavenly beings comes into contact with one of the new planets. The heavenly father sends one of his sons along with one of the son's wives (such wife can only be a sister), to each of the new planets to be an Adam and Eve. They will be the progenitors of the human race that will populate the planet. However, because this Adam and Eve are spiritual in nature and composed of the refined substance that is not compatible with the new planet, they cannot produce human children. This is not a problem, because the longer they live on the new planet, the more they are infused with the temporal and earthly nature of the planet, and as a consequence they are eventually able to produce children who are not of the refined substance that was the original nature of their parents. In addition this Adam and Eve are also transformed into persons of a temporal nature who can be seen and touched by their children. As each new baby is born on the new planet (earth), a spirit child of the heavenly father is sent from his planet to inhabit the body of the new baby (earthly tabernacle). Since the spirit child is the size of an adult human and earthly babies are so small, there seems to be a great problem. There is no mention as to how this problem is solved on the planet of the heavenly father, but on the earth, somehow the spirit child is contracted or shrunk until it fits inside the body of the human infant. This seems to be a very convoluted action, because in the process the memory of the spirit child is removed to allow the spirit body to become smaller. As a result, human beings have no memory of their "pre-existence" with their father in heaven. Once the earthly child is born and infused with the spiritual child of the heavenly father (the human spirit), then that child throughout its life must follow the tenets of the Mormon religion so that after death and resurrection he can be exalted to a god, have many wives on his own planet and produce spiritual children who clothe other intelligences with a spiritual body. He then organizes planets just like his heavenly father did and sends his sons to populate them as Adams and Eves. This process has been going on from eternity past and will continue through eternity future and is called the "eternal progression". Difficulties are numerous in this doctrine. Not the least of the difficulties is the proverbial question about which came first the chicken or the egg? The answer to that question is much more simple than the questions brought to mind by the Mormon doctrine, because a person with a Biblical view can always answer that God made the chicken. But in the Mormon view, this cannot be done, because all that is existed before there was ever a Mormon God. In addition to humans having always existed as "intelligences", all animal and plant life have also always existed as "intelligences" with spirit bodies made from the refined and intangible matter that cannot be seen or detected by the human senses.
Mormons must deny the creation account of the universe and man as revealed in the Bible, because it does not agree with what they believe. In order to reject the account, they must find a reason to do so, but their standard reason for rejecting the portions of the Bible that do no support their other teachings, namely that the Bible was altered by corrupt Catholic priests or has been translated incorrectly, will not stand the test in the case of the book of Genesis. Historical and manuscript evidence prove those claims to be false. So they must simply deny the Biblical record as being untrue and substitute their own doctrine in its place, but in the process they remove the authority, truthfulness and accuracy of the Bible which they claim to be one of their scriptural authorities. By engaging in this action, the Mormon church reveals its true position regarding the authority of the Bible, making it subservient to their own doctrines rather than the Bible having authority over what they believe. The Mormon hierarchy only uses the Bible in an authoritative manner when they believe that it supports their own pre-determined doctrines. In all other cases, where the Bible contradicts Mormon doctrine, it is rejected, claimed to have been altered and mistranslated. The Mormon church places itself in a position from which it cannot extricate itself, because Joseph Smith, the first Prophet, President, Seer and Founder of the Mormon church made his own translation of the Bible, claiming the translation came through revelation from God, and left the Genesis account of creation virtually unchanged. So in rejecting the Biblical Genesis account, the Mormon church also rejects the authority of their own prophet, Joseph Smith, but they refuse to admit that is the case. They simply ignore the contradiction, and most adherents seem not to know or care about the problem that is created. Acknowledgments Ideas, quotes and information obtained from: Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse Ministry - www.utlm.org The Mormonism Web - http://mormonism-web.com ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: On This Website: God Heaven Book of Mormon and Doctrines Superior To The Bible - Claims By The Mormon Church The God of the Bible Is Different From The God Of The Mormon Church Mormons Are Polytheistic, Believing In An Infinite Number Of Gods The God Of The Mormon Church Was Once Just A Man Adam Was A Spirit Child Of His Heavenly Father And Was Not Created The Father Of Jesus Christ Mormon Men Can Rule Over Their Own Planets The Spirits Of Human Beings Are Born On Another Planet, Fathered By A Mormon God Other Resources: The Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Jerald & Sandra Tanner The Mormonism Web Alpha & Omega Ministries, James White |
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