The Latter-Day doctrine of the Preexistence is a comforting one. It is soothing to know that we lived with our Eternal Father as his children before we came here.
As was shown earlier, we may not have considered him our literal Father, as this doctrine was added more recently. Even more surprising it is to learn that we may not have lived with Him at all, at least according to early Church doctrine.
The Book of Mormon famously makes no explicit mention of a Preexistence.
Orson Pratt, early Apostle, and one of the most scripturally minded members of the early Church, claimed to have been unable to determine any Book of Mormon connection with a Preexistence.
“I do not think that I should have ever discerned it in that book.” [1]
In fact, the entire concept of “Spirit Birth” did not originate in Joseph’s lifetime. Joseph, in his later life, taught frequently of “intelligences.” In 1844, the year of his death, the Prophet Joseph offered his final explanation for our existence before this world.
“I wish to speak of…the soul—the immortal spirit—the mind of man. Where did it come from? All doctors of divinity say that God created it in the beginning; but it is not so… Is it logical to say that a spirit is immortal and yet have a beginning? Because if a spirit of man had a beginning it will have an end… God never had power to create the spirit of man at all! …Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle. It is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it. All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement.” [2]
Joseph Smith condemned the teaching that God was the Father of our spirits. According to him, God could not create spirit. Spirits and intelligences were eternal. Uncreated.
It wasn’t until the Prophet died that “Spirit Birth” began to be taught.
Van Hale, faithful LDS scholar, claims that all doctrine of “Spirit Birth” was taught against Joseph Smith’s beliefs.
“Either the Mormon spirit birth doctrine was the result of Smith’s early followers misunderstanding the prophet’s doctrinal statements, or they taught unrecorded doctrine taught by Smith privately in Nauvoo, however much in conflict with Smith’s earlier teachings.” [3]
The modern Church disagrees with Joseph’s doctrine.
“God is not only our Ruler and Creator; He is also our Heavenly Father. All men and women are literally the sons and daughters of God.”
“Every person who was ever born on earth is our spirit brother or sister. Because we are the spirit children of God, we have inherited the potential to develop His divine qualities.” [4]
The modern concept of “Spirit Birth” is emphasized in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”
“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents.” [5]
Joseph Fielding Smith and his First Presidency taught this doctrine unequivocally. Man was born as a spirit to a Father God, just as man is born to earthly parents.
“The doctrine of the pre-existence,—revealed so plainly, particularly in latter days, pours a wonderful flood of light upon the otherwise mysterious problem of man’s origin. It shows that man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal body to undergo an experience in mortality. It teaches that all men existed in the spirit before any man existed in the flesh.” [6]
The evidence is clear. Modern doctrine differs from Joseph’s. Where Joseph taught that God did not have the power to create spirit at all, modern leaders proclaim the opposite. God is the father and creator of our spirits. Spirits are no longer eternal but begotten, and Joseph’s doctrine forgotten.
[1] Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 15:249
[2] Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, August 15, 1844, 615
[3] Van Hale, “The Origin of the Human Spirit in Early Mormon Thought,” 124
[4] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Gospel Principles, 2009.
[5] Family: A Proclamation to the World, para. 2
[6] “The Origin of Man, by the First Presidency of the Church,” 77–80
