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Scripture-Study List: The Pre-Mortal Existance
Job of the Old Testament was told that all of God’s children shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid. If we then shouted for joy, we must have existed before we came to earth as mortal beings.
Job 38:4-7:
- Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
- Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
- Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
- When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
The Old Testament teaches that upon our death our spirits return to God. If we return to God, we must have existed with God before we came to earth.
Ecclesiastes 12:7:
- Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
God told the prophet Jeremiah that He knew him before his birth, suggesting a pre-mortal existance.
Jeremiah 1:5:
- Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
When Christ and His disciples passed a man who was blind from birth, the disciples asked if the man was so afflicted because he had sinned. Clearly the disciples had a notion of the pre-mortal existence and our pre-mortal ability to sin, for God would not punish a man for sins he had not yet committed.
John 9:1-3:
- And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
- And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
- Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
The apostle Paul taught that God promised the faithful eternal life before the world began. If the faithful did not exist before their birth, with whom did God make the promise?
Titus 1:2:
- In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;