On Death, Our Purpose, and a Premortal Life
"And the LORD God Commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'" Genesis 2:16-17
The LDS church has a rather unique belief of a premortal existence living as spirits without a body receiving instruction in preparation of coming down to Earth. According to their current practices, we may have knew each other before this life, but a veil was placed over our minds not allowing us to remember our pre-existence. This doctrine comes more explicitly from Abraham 3:21-23, Doctrine and Covenants 138:56, and discourses from Joseph Smith written by William Clayton (“Extracts from William Clayton’s Private Book,” p. 7). Other passages are largely vague inferences and stretched interpretations. A premortal existence as spirits is problematic as it does not coincide with biblical theology; particularly, with our purpose and the nature of what we are.
To understand how a premortal life is problematic, we must understand what is our purpose in life. An illustration of this can be found in Ecclesiastes, which is a work of scripture written by King Solomon and his philosophical journey exploring the meaning of life and the human condition. God graced Solomon with immense wisdom, so that he could better serve God's chosen people. Solomon lived quite the colorful life experiencing a variety of ups and downs with fabulous wealth. While Solomon was a sinful man, one should greatly consider his words as he was given a special gift of wisdom from God Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 :
What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the
business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made
everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart,
yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do
good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take
pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man. I perceived that whatever
God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from
it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has
been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven
away.
Verse 12 "I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;" Solomon's conclusion is people should seek joy and to do good, which is not just a recommendation for a fulfilling life but as a recognition of our limitations of understanding and control. Verse 13 "also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man." enjoying the fruits of our labor and finding content in simple pleasures is a gift from God that we should find satisfaction in what we do and have. Verse 14 contrasts the transient nature of human achievements with the enduring nature of God's works "I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him." The last segment of the verse emphasizes that God's work is designed to inspire fear, which is not terror but about awe and profound respect for God's majesty and authority. Verse 15 "That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away" focuses on the cyclic or repetitive nature of events in God's creation, but God oversees the cycle of life and events.
Our purpose is to toil and work God's creation, to find pleasure, satisfaction, and joy in our labor and day-to-day lives. However, we are designed to seek for everlasting truth and eternity, but we are unable to understand it. Why? So that we seek God an worship Him. Our purpose refined down further: working and enjoying God's creation and to glorify God. Ultimately, we are not in control, as the passage in Ecclesiastes illustrates. All of this is not designed for us, but for God. This life is a gift to enjoy and not for God to be used as a reservoir of power for our own bidding Ecclesiastes 12:13 :
"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."
Love in a perfect sense desires relationship, and God's steadfast love desires our hearts turned toward Him to accomplish this. No matter the sin, because where sin increases, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20). This is why Christ's sacrifice is so beyond expression, because we truly do not deserve such an act of eternal worth. God's desire for our relationship is so strong that He brought upon our recovery despite our wake of destruction and evil.
This is the whole point of The Beatitudes—blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted for righteousness' sake—it is a mindset devoted to a relationship with God. We have to lower our hearts and minds to see God; otherwise, we are blinded by our pride and stubbornness. We have to realize that we are shipwrecked souls drifting away at sea and the only way for our recovery is by accepting that Jesus is our captain. God seeks what has been driven away.
The next idea to understand is what death is. Death is fundamentally the separation of our body and spirit (James 2:26). Our spirit has inherited the eternal nature of God, so it cannot be destroyed by any craft of man. The spirit lives on even without our body (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Death, however, is not natural Romans 5:12 :
Therefore, jus as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Romans 6:23 :
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Death was never part of the design. This is the direct consequence of sin. Since we cannot be in the presence of God with our sin, we are cut off from the fountain of life, who is God, leaving us to a gradual decay and corruption that ends in death (Jeremiah 2:13). For death is considered to be the enemy that must be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). God would never design something He would consider to be an enemy, since this would cease to make Him God. In reality, death is due to our choice of committing sin taking ourselves out of the presence of God. This was already made known to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16-17 of what would happen if they did so.
Genesis 2:7 :
[T]hen the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
What constitutes a living human being is of the physical ("dust from the ground") and the spiritual ("breath of life"); otherwise, it is not considered to be a living creature. The same is illustrated in Paul's prayer for holistic preservation in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 reflecting a view of human beings as an integrated whole—body and spirit.
An important factor to consider is the order of which we are created. First, our physical vessel is created and then our spirit is then formed inside our body. This is seen in Genesis 2:7, and in Ezekiel 37:6 :
"And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD."
Sustaining life for us is both the spirit and the body together, or else we would not be able to fulfill our purpose being a part of and tending God's physical creation. To say we lived a life as spirits without a body in a premortal life does not make sense, and means we were created first in death—an enemy to God. Additionally, if God needed to create us in an initial stage as spirits to "receive lessons" as Doctrine and Covenants 138:56 states, then this has serious conflictions on the divinity of God. This implies God's ability to put eternity into our hearts at creation is not good enough requiring an initial instruction. Can He not immediately will it to be done so that we can properly seek to know Him? Surely, God can speak it into completion as He did throughout Genesis 1 willing everything into existence. God is not limited in His ability to program our hearts and minds that it must be done in progression.
The underlying problem with LDS theology is we were created for an entirely different purpose than what is stated throughout the Bible. This is illustrated in Doctrine and Covenants 132:20 :
Then shall they be gods, because they have no end;
therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they
continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto
them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels
are subject unto them.
Was this not precisely what the serpent in the Garden of Eden beguiled Adam and Eve with in Genesis 3:5? At the heart of the sin of disobeying God was autonomy and wanting to know and do good like God on their own. Additionally, we would not match the definition of God, we are a created being with a beginning, so we cannot be a god. The contemporary LDS church prevaricates this issue and tries to obscure it with mental gymnastics and bad interpretations. However, D&C 132:20 seems rather clear to me on the doctrine where we get "all power" with angels subjected to us. Does this not match the divinity of God? Overall, LDS theology sharply clashes and makes no sense. This doctrine is trying to elevate man and make God subservient. No longer are we here to worship God's glory, but to glorify ourselves and become our own creation believing we are in control. This is evil and a grievous sin.
To further illustrate how LDS theology makes God subservient is the "council in heaven" with other Gods (Abraham 4:26, Doctrine and Covenants 121:32) and the doctrine of “as man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may become” brought forth by president Lorenzo Snow. These two ideas together form a major problem with the formal distinction of God inferring certain codes and elements of wisdom, knowledge, purpose, and truth exist separately and God merely inherits these properties. That God Himself has a beginning and is on a linear progression plane subjected to council and higher code.
Let us compare the Biblical God to that of the LDS god. One God sent His Son out of pure love for us securing our recovery. The other god sent his son out of obligation in a subservient role for a higher purpose and plan god is subjected to. The situational circumstances of the latter god that this is not a loving or eternal god speaks louder than what LDS canon says.
Desperate prevarications and verbose explanations are usually returned when such LDS doctrine is analyzed. Passages like Psalm 82 and 1 John 3:2 are pulled out of context and spun into different meaning to match that of their own scripture. One will find it difficult to reason with those who willingly elect to be deceived by interpreting text over two thousand years old through 21st Century eyes debased from context to fit a narrative. The fruit of LDS endeavors can be observed through a typical sacrament meeting with sad, empty people desperately seeking righteous validation by boasting of their experiences and evanescent providences wanting a God to serve them. Despite this, they will still paint on a smile and say all is good with the church.
Our purpose in life is to enjoy and take care of God's creation, while worshipping His glory developing a relationship with God. LDS doctrine has taken this so far off the mark into Luciferian territory. Our life is an incredible gift that we were never entitled to receive. Despite all this, God has done so much beyond what is desired purely out of love for us. Our hearts should be turned back towards God giving all the praise He requires. Glory be given to God for delivering our shipwrecked souls from death through Jesus Christ.