Episode #261 - Premortal Identity

When we consider identity and seeking out our personal identity, we should always consider our premortal identity our true nature

Transcript

Welcome to Episode #261 – Premortal Identity.  Today we are going to go into depth about premortal identity.  As with most of my podcasts I ask that you listen to this one all the way through.  One question has arisen in my mind rather frequently regarding perfection, judgment and the premortal life.  How does someone who dies before the age of eight or accountability automatically enter the celestial kingdom without serious earthly testing?  How can these individuals be considered celestial if they haven’t faced the same type of obstacles we have faced?  In some ways, this doesn’t seem fair to those who are required to stay and be a part of mortality.  Yet if they were not to be admitted to celestial life simply because they died young, this would be perhaps a greater injustice.  So how do we rectify the disparity?  Many would simply call forth the atonement and with vagueness say somehow the atonement of the Savior takes care of it.  And yes that is true and if that is all you want to know, then that is what you will know.  When you consider the death of young children though the reasons go far deeper than the statement “the atonement is simply going to make it all work.”

As stated by Elder Oaks in general conference, what we know about the premortal and postmortal worlds is very limited.  Revelations have been few and far between.  You can count the major ones on one hand.  Abraham 3-5, D&C 138 and 76. Beyond these scriptures we have the creation, incidental mention of premortal life such as the healing of the blind man by the Savior where the disciples asked who had sinned and Jeremiah’s initial note to his prophecies that the Lord had known him before the womb.  The truth is that these incidental scriptures are located everywhere in the scriptures and as you look for them you will find them.  However, today I am going to stick with the three major areas of scripture.

While this may not make sense at first the idea of little children inheriting celestial life harkens to the overarching idea of a premortal identity that was reasonably complete with the exception of mortality.  We had grown to maturity in the premortal worlds and as we did, we constructed our personal identity.  This identity was complete and held and still holds eons of experience, emotion, desire, motivation and a very strong set of core beliefs.  The reality of this mortal life is that identity has already been established well before we became mortal.  And our identity doesn’t erase with the veils of forgetfulness.  We maintain exactly who we were in the premortal life.  Mortality is a discovery of our premortal identity within the mortal framework of competing chemistry.  And then to add upon that premortal identity or perhaps to solidify it.  So what we seek in this life is our identity from the premortal life.  How does this help us resolve the early death problem.  Stick around and you will find out.

First of all, let’s get the doctrine correct.  We do not have sufficient direct revelation that dictates premortal or post mortal life in such a way that it is fully comprehensible.  Meaning we have flashes, moments and pieces that the Lord has left for us.  The story is not openly complete but when we add some rational thought and extend a few concepts in a reasonable way we can piece together at least a portion of what occurred and allow for us to more fully understand mortality and premortality.  So what I am saying is this is my interpretation of those scriptures.  I will mix some doctrine into the story but what you should know is that this is not any official position of the Church of Jesus Christ.  This is a solid theory to ponder that provides for at least an answer. 

The whole purpose to my story today is simply to help us understand how finding our premortal identity is key to our success in this life, even with mental and emotional illness.  This story will also provide us with some background that will be helpful to understanding who you are and how you find your premortal identity.  Let’s get started with my favorite scripture regarding the premortal life.  Abraham 3:21-27

21 I dwell in the midst of them all; I now, therefore, have come down unto thee to declare unto thee the works which my hands have made, wherein my wisdom excelleth them all, for I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, in all wisdom and prudence, over all the intelligences thine eyes have seen from the beginning; I came down in the beginning in the midst of all the intelligences thou hast seen.

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

24 And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;

25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;

26 And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.

27 And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.

There is much to talk about here but let’s start with the idea of time and sequence.  First, the beginning has reference to the calling of the Savior.  Nothing could begin as far as mortality without the Savior and Creator being called.  This includes the creation of the mortal world.  The Savior had to be called and we placed under a covenant.  This provided for our ability to move into mortality.  Before the beginning was a timeframe we don’t know much about.  However, it’s during this time our spirits were organized into spiritual bodies and we were reared by our heavenly parents.  We don’t know how long this time was but it is certain that we were provided through experience and our parents teachings a foundation of core emotions, beliefs and motivations.  By the time the Savior was called in premortality we were sufficiently developed that we could enter into the mortality covenant with full knowledge.  The covenant was essential to our development because the first phase of our experience was about to begin.  We don’t know much at all about the time between the calling of the Savior and our mortal opportunity but we do know that the entire creation had to take placed during that time.  We also know that we faced opposition and had a true opportunity to choose the Savior or another path.  This is where we pick up the scriptures in Abraham.

When Abraham states that the Father, “came down in the beginning in the midst of all the intelligences thou hast seen”, we find a clue as to where we were and what was happening at the time of the Savior’s call.  Interestingly if God has to come down to us, we are not where he is.  This first estate, the time between the calling of the Savior and the creation, was in a location spiritually where the Father was not specifically located.  This would indicate some reasonable type of agency where we could be tested and our identities further developed.  We do find that we were granted great learning and agency during this timeframe away from the Father as we later see Lucifer and a significant portion of heaven being cast from this location to the earth that was under creation.  So we developed significantly during this first testing period.  It is interesting that the Lord specifically calls out this testing timeframe.  And I think that it is important as we consider the next scripture.  D&C 138:55-56

55 I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God.

56 Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.

This scripture adds some detailed light we previously did not have with Abraham.  After the Lord comes down in the first estate and calls the Savior, he called other leaders and then he spent significant time training them for their missions.  This gives us a definitive note that our identities had developed so deeply that the Lord could call us to certain missions and train us for those missions.  What this training looked like we don’t know.  But we do know enough to see that we were fully developed spirits ready for the trials of mortality.  We were developed spiritually with sufficiently solidified identities that the Lord knew how we would behave in and react to our mortal sojourn and that he could trust us with significant responsibilities and missions.  We can therefore see that it could be possible for someone to be sufficiently developed that they did not need significant experience in mortality.  Their identity was of such a celestial nature that it was not necessary that a long mortal life be a part of their experience.  That to me appears to be a very defined identity.  The clearly defined identities and natures of many spirits were already so defined in a celestial manner that the Lord knew before they entered mortality that no matter what they experienced in mortality they would through the atonement become celestial.  This allows for the Savior to justify those dying before any accountability and allow them celestial life.  Yes his atonement must still make up the difference but there is no question as to their nature and their ability to live celestially.

I hope that you can see that you are a fully developed spiritual being with a solid identity.  Much of that identity will come naturally to us in mortality.  We refer to it as our personality and we see it with children all the time.  I have eight very individual children.  Yes they have some similarities but you can see the identity within them.  We come here to mortality fully developed spiritually at least as far as we could progress individually.  We come very differently though as we did not come perfected to the earth.  We were not perfected beings when we came to this earth.  We were fully developed spiritually but this doesn’t detract from the idea that each of us came very differently to this earth with different preferences, different ideas in arts and sciences, already developed skills in the music and arts (prodigy), already developed skills in planning, execution and most importantly we each had already developed differing levels of spirituality.  We each leaned into the covenant we made with different levels of effort.  These spiritual differences explain a great many things about the plan of salvation.  Such as how Joseph Smith, Adam, Moses and all of the prophets and leaders throughout the ages were chosen at the beginning of the formation of the physical earth.  Or how leaders of countries such as the founding fathers of the United States were chosen before they were born.  We each had natural tendencies and talents and the Lord could see how our talents could benefit others and influence individuals for good.   This means that our talents were likely very developed if not fully developed even before we stepped foot on earth.  Just given the little information that we have in the scriptures you can see that we came here fully knowing what we were going to do.  We knew who was going to make it and who would not.  Coming into the second estate there were no surprises as to what judgment day was going to be for almost all god’s children.  The second estate was going to further test our already developed spiritual nature and it was going to test it fully so that it could progress further.  And we would progress based on our adherence to the gospel and our use of the atonement in our lives.  But the die was cast for almost everyone.  Most had already chosen what their happiness would be and mortality wasn’t going to change that for them.  This doesn’t mean that the Lord will condemn sin before it occurs.  It is against the rules of justice for the punishment to occur before the crime.  The Lord plans for us to be successful and where we might stumble simply factoring in every possible road and combination so that we would never be unreachable by him.  There would never be a surprise for the Lord.  We are so developed spiritually and he knows us so well that given any circumstance he could accurately predict every time what we would do.  That is because it is our nature that truly decides who we are as a person.  We are not rational beings we are emotional beings with deeply held principles at our core.  We are spiritual beings having a mortal experience and our spiritual nature is our true identity.  But when we come to earth we must discover that identity.

We should consider the following process as what is critical in our exploration for identity. We should explore our spiritual identity and understand who we were and are spiritually.  By discovering our spiritual core identity, we find who we truly are.  We explore our spiritual nature by taking part in spiritual experiences that teach us who we are.  These spiritual experiences come in a variety of ways to teach us of those core principles we hold true.  For instance, my entirely life I have been fascinated by chemistry and my fascination came during high school when I was introduced to the subject.  It spoke to me like no other subject did.  I have a natural desire towards music and the arts, even though my physical nature doesn’t easily support those creative arts.  I have natural talents that shouldn’t be there.  I started painting just about 5 years ago and have found great joy in it.  

These experiences also come upon in other ways.  Most often they come from trials we face in mortality.  When we are faced with difficult, trying and burdensome trials such as mental and emotional illness it is important to remember that trials are the most effective way in which the Lord can show us our core spiritual beliefs, emotions and motivations.  During severe trials we are often stripped down to only those core spiritual beliefs.  It is in that moment we come to know our spiritual nature, who we really are and in so doing who we can become.  It is also in these moments that the Lord can mold us.  So often the heat of the trial acts like a softening agent to our hearts.  We see more clearly who we really are and the weaknesses we brought with us.  The Savior can then take what we have and build us again anew with corrected attributes.  This process is terribly painful but oh so important to whom we can become and becoming as he is.

The duration of the fiery trials is also a key factor in molding our souls.  Just a quick burn across the hardened steel will not soften the steel. It might cure a little rust but will never be enough to make the changes we need to mold the raw materials we have into something of use in his kingdom.  And so our fiery trials often endure for many years and even decades as we slowly build back a spiritual celestial nature with the Savior at the core.

If we refuse the process and we can refuse it, we will remain stationary in our development and often we will suffer not only the trial but the indignity and pain of suffering without a purpose.  So much of our illness speaks to this process of molding our hearts and minds towards the Savior.  However, we must be willing participants otherwise our promised land will just be another place we didn’t want to go.  I hope today you have come to understand who you truly are and that you ask the Father and Savior to show you your divine purpose, talents and gifts.  May you also see how he is using your illness to make a better you.  Until next week do you part so that the Lord can do his.