=21. Fore-ordination.=--In a wonderful interview with Abraham, the
Lord revealed many things ordinarily withheld from mortal eyes. Said
the patriarch:--"Now the Lord had shewn 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; 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."[584]
This is one of the many scriptural proofs that the spirits of mankind
existed prior to their earthly probation:--a condition in which these
intelligences lived and exercised their free agency before they
assumed bodily tabernacles. Surely then the natures, dispositions, and
tendencies of men are known to the Father of their spirits, even
before these beings are born in mortality; and He needs not to wait
till they develop and prove their capacities on earth before they are
appointed to special labors in the fulfillment of Divine purposes.
[584] Pearl of Great Price: Abraham iii, 22-23; see also Jer. i,
4-5.
=22.= Evidence is abundant that Christ was chosen and ordained to be
the Redeemer of the world, even from the beginning. We read of His
foremost position amongst the sons of God in offering Himself as a
sacrifice to carry into effect the will of the Father.[585] He it was,
"Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the
world."[586]
[585] See page 83.
[586] I Peter i, 20. See "Jesus the Christ," ch. ii.
=23.= Paul taught the doctrine of Divine selection and pre-appointment
thus:--"For whom he did fore-know, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son.... Moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called."[587] And again:--"God hath not
cast away his people which he foreknew."[588]
[587] Rom. viii, 29-30.
[588] Rom. xi, 2.
=24.= Alma, the Nephite prophet, spoke of the priests who had been
ordained after the order of the Son, and added:--"And this is the
manner after which they were ordained: being called and prepared from
the foundation of the world, according to the fore-knowledge of God,
on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place
being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good,
and exercising exceeding great faith, are called with a holy calling,
yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to,
a preparatory redemption for such."[589]
[589] Alma xiii, 3; also 10, 11.
=25. Fore-ordination does not Imply Compulsion.=--The doctrine of
absolute predestination, resulting in a nullification of man's free
agency, has been advocated with various modifications by different
sects. Nevertheless, such teachings are wholly unjustified by both the
letter and the spirit of sacred writ. God's fore-knowledge concerning
the natures and capacities of His children enables Him to see the end
of their earthly career even from the first:--"Known unto God are all
his works from the beginning of the world."[590] Many people have been
led to regard this fore-knowledge of God as a sure predestination
whereby souls are assigned to glory or condemnation, even before their
birth in the flesh, and independently of any merits or demerits of
their own. This heretical doctrine seeks to rob Deity of every trait
of mercy, of justice, and of pure love; it makes the Father appear
capricious and selfish, directing and creating all things for His own
glory alone, caring not for the consequent suffering of the victims of
His injustice. How dreadful, how inconsistent is such an idea of God!
It leads to the absurd conclusion that the mere knowledge of coming
events must act as a determining influence in bringing about those
occurrences. God's knowledge of spiritual and of human nature enables
Him to conclude with certainty as to the actions of any of His
children under given conditions; yet such knowledge has surely no
determining effect upon the creature.[591]
[590] Acts xv, 18.
[591] See "Jesus the Christ," pp. 18, 28.
=26.= Doubtless He knows of some spirits that they await only the
opportunity of choice between good and evil to choose the latter and
to accomplish their own destruction; these are they as spoken of by
Jude, "who were before of old ordained to this condemnation."[592] To
avert the fate of such, their free agency would have to be taken away;
they can be saved by force alone; and compulsion is forbidden by the
laws of heaven, for salvation and for condemnation alike. There are
others whose integrity and faithfulness have been demonstrated in
their pristine state; the Father knows how unreservedly they may be
trusted, and many of them are called even in their mortal youth to
special and exalted labors as chosen servants of the Most High.
[592] Jude 4.
=27. Pre-existence of Spirits.=--The facts already presented
concerning fore-ordination furnish proof that the spirits of mankind
passed through a stage of existence prior to the earthly probation.
This antemortal period is oft-times spoken of as the stage of
"primeval childhood" or "first estate." That these spirits existed as
organized intelligences, and exercised their free agency during that
primeval stage, is clear from the declaration of the Lord to
Abraham:--"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 forever
and ever."[593]
=28.= No Christian doubts the pre-existence of the Savior, or
questions His position as one of the Godhead before He came to earth
as Mary's Son. The common interpretation given to the opening words of
John's Gospel sustains the view of Christ's primeval God-ship:--"In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God." We read further, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us."[594] The sayings of the Redeemer Himself support this
truth. When His disciples dissented concerning His doctrine of
Himself, He said, "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up
where he was before?"[595] On another occasion He spoke in this
wise:--"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world;
again, I leave the world and go to the Father."[596] And His
disciples, pleased with this plain declaration confirming the belief
which, perchance, they already entertained at heart, rejoined, "Lo,
now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb ... by this we
believe that thou camest forth from God."[597] To the wicked Jews who
boasted of their descent from Abraham, and sought to hide their sins
under the protecting mantle of the great patriarch's name, the Savior
declared:--"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I
am."[598] In a solemn prayer to His Father, the Son implored, "And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was."[599] Yet Christ was born
a child among mortals; and it is fair to infer, that if His earthly
birth was the union of a pre-existent or antemortal spirit with a
mortal body, such also is the birth of every member of the human
family.
[593] Pearl of Great Price: Abraham iii, 26.
[594] John i, 1, 14.
[595] John vi, 62.
[596] John xvi, 28.
[597] Verses 29-30.
[598] John viii, 58. See "Jesus the Christ." pp. 37, 411.
[599] John xvii, 5. See also II Nephi ix, 5; xxv, 12; Mos. iii, 5;
xiii, 33-34; xv, 1.
=29.= But we are not left to mere inference on a basis of analogy
only; the scriptures plainly teach that the spirits of mankind are
known and numbered unto God before their earthly advent. In his
farewell administration to Israel Moses sang, "Remember the days of
old.... When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people
according to the number of the children of Israel."[600] From this we
learn that the earth was allotted to the nations, according to the
number of the children of Israel; it is evident therefore that the
number was known prior to the existence of the Israelitish nation in
the flesh; this is most easily explained on the assumption of a
previous existence in which the spirits of the future nation were
known.
[600] Deut. xxxii, 7-8.
=30.= No chance is possible therefore in the number or extent of the
temporal creations of God.[601] The population of the earth is fixed
according to the number of spirits appointed to take tabernacles of
flesh upon this sphere; when these have all come forth in the order
and time decreed of God, then, and not till then, shall the end come.
[601] See Note, this page.