And do not fear those
who kill the body
But cannot kill the
soul. But rather
Fear Him who is able
to destroy
Both soul and body in
hell.
Are not two sparrows
sold for
A copper coin? And
not one of them
Falls to the ground
apart from your
Father’s will. But
the very hairs
Of your head are all
numbered.
Do not fear
therefore; you are of
More value than many
sparrows.
Matthew 10:28–30
In the
previous blog I began this investigation into the origin of the soul and then
in future blogs will continue the doctrine of Original Sin and how Scriptures
approaches this subject and gives the Father’s word revealing the true doctrine
of Original Sin. I must show how this doctrine of preexistence, one of the
three theories presented to people is being taught in certain religious
circles: i.e., Mormons is one of such who teach preexistence:
Consistent
with the idea that all spirits (or souls) existed prior to their mortal life,
LDS doctrine holds that all vegetable and animal life was created spiritually
before the physical creation (Moses 3:5;
cf. Gen. 2:5). In this sense,
every living thing (plant, animal, human) is spoken of as having a soul (Moses 3:9, 19).
The human
soul is innately endowed with an agency that should be honored and guarded as
sacred and eternal (D&C 134:4).
The soul (spirit), being eternal, cannot be fully destroyed but can suffer a
type of destruction or spiritual death through sins that result in total and
ultimate estrangement from God (1 Ne. 14:3; Alma 12:16-18, 36;30:47;42:9, 16). Scripture
teaches that all human souls are children of God and are of infinite worth (Matt. 16:26; Alma 39:17; D&C 18:10-16). God has
great joy in a repentant soul, and there is no more important work than the
saving of souls and bringing them to God (D&C 18:10-16;15:6;16:6). RICHARD N. WILLIAMS[1]
When there is a teaching that holds
to preexistence of the soul there can be found other teachings that are not
orthodox, rather they hold to a god that is not as the Bible portrays and
reveals God:
The
traditional Mormon view of God is summed up by the famous Lorenzo Snow couplet,
"As man is God once was, as God is man may be." The historic
understanding of this strongly implies that God the Father was once a sinner,
and that we ourselves may model our mortal experience unto godhood after the
mortal experience he once participated in. In his famous "King Follett
Discourse" Joseph Smith taught,
"God
himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in
yonder heavens. That is the great secret... [Y]ou have got to learn how to be
Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have
done before you..."[2]
In the book; A Compilation
containing the Lectures on Faith; by Orson Pratt ( a Mormon) as given at
Kirtland Ohio even goes so far as to say that God needed faith to create:
15. By this we understand that the principle of power which
existed in the bosom of God, by which the worlds were framed, was faith; and
that it is by reason of this principle of power existing in the Deity, that all
created things exist; so that all things in heaven, on earth, or under the
earth exist by reason of faith as it existed in Him.[3]
According
to Mormon doctrine and teachings the soul existed, that is was anterior to
creation of the physical body, and that God by means of His faith, which in
some way He needed, and this would be counted true if God was as a man which
the Mormons teach, to create. There is no Scripture that indicates these facts
as proposed by the Mormons.
In
the next blog I will attempt to bring light on the teaching of Origen an early
Church father that had a great impact on Christianity today, who taught a
preexistence albeit no the Platonic doctrine of the ideal world. Should we hold
to this teaching? Read the next blog and make this decision for yourself.
A good man obtains favor
From
the LORD,
But a man of wick intentions
He
will condemn.
Proverbs 12:2
Take Time Today: Read God’s Word
Richard L. Crumb
[1] Retrieved
from: http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Soul:
April 3, 2013
[2] Retrieved
from: http://www.mrm.org/god-of-mormonism:
April 3, 2013
[3]
Pratt, Orson; A Compilation containing the Lectures on Faith as delivered at
the School of the Prophets at Kirtland, Ohio, Bookcraft, Inc. Salt Lake City,
Utah; p. 8
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