Faithfulness During Our Pre-Earth Life

In my study of the New Testament I read a great quote by President Harold B. Lee, 11th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Lee taught the following truth about our premortal existence:

"You are all the sons and daughters of God. Your spirits were created and lived as organized intelligences before the world was. You have been blessed to have a physical body because of your obedience to certain commandments in that premortal state. You are now born into a family to which you have come, into the nations through which you have come, as a reward for the kind of lives you lived before you came here and at a time in the world's history, as the Apostle Paul taught the men of Athens and as the Lord revealed to Moses, determined by the faithfulness of each of those who lived before this world was created."¹

Paul preaches this truth when he says:

"God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth...

"Seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation" (Acts 17:24-26).

Reading all of this reminded me of the following scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21:

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--

"And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

The Lord works by order, not chaos, and each person born on Earth has a set time and place for when and where they are born which is based upon their individual faithfulness during their pre-earth life as well as "according to [God's] unbounded wisdom and kindness."²

Learn more about God's Plan of Happiness or vote in this poll: Do you believe we lived before birth?

Notes:
1. CR, Oct. 1973, p. 7. Quoted in The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1979, p266.
2. The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1979, p266.

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