Question:
Over the last few days there have been quite a few commercials paid for by the Mormons that try to get people to believe that we are all going to RETURN to our home (HEAVEN) when we die. The person speaking states that the SCRIPTURES tell us that we were all residents of Heaven before we were born into this life and so when we die we are just returning to our original Home. Do you know of any scripture that supports this claim?
Answer:
No, there are no truly GOD-GIVEN Scriptures to support this idea.
It is distinctly false and unBiblical as are many other peculiar Mormon doctrines which the average Mormon will say “we don’t teach that!” (ie. baptism for the dead; holy underwear; polygamy; eternal marriage; the ability of humans to become gods; the Trinity as three separate Gods; mother gods (heavenly mothers); temple marriages as a requirement for exaltation; and salvation after death in the spirit world.)
The whole idea of us being and becoming Gods is tantamount in this idea that we were in heaven as babies, and then came to earth. Since Mormonism claims authority of the “corrupt Scriptures” of Protestant Christianity, then virtually any doctrine can be dreamt up as “new revelation” or “corrected revelation”. I often am very sad for the utterly sincere and good people who are trapped in this very unBiblical, unable to save, man-made religion. It is the perfect deception because of Mormonism’s claim to be the restored, corrected, original and uncorrupted true and original Christianity, while everyone else who claims the Bible as God’s sole authority on earth is deceived, believing a terribly corrupted and incomplete “holy book”.
Ironically, the Bible (as orthodox Christianity understands that term), has withstood 2000 thousand years of attacks, skepticism and lies… and yet it remains firm and unmovable as historically, scientifically, archeologically and factually correct. The Book of Mormon however is saturated with unsubstantiated historical claims (despite MASSIVE efforts to find ANY proof possible), grammatical blunders and scientific absurdities… all of which otherwise reasonable, logical and good adult Mormons REFUSE to acknowledge, consider or openly discuss. It’s both sad and puzzling.
“We were first begotten as spirit babies in heaven and then born naturally on earth” (Journal of Discourse, Vol. 4, p. 218).
“In your life before birth, before the earth was created God presented a plan to his children for their advancement. You were free to accept or reject this plan of salvation. Those spirit children who accepted his plan were given the opportunity to live on earth; those who rejected his plan were not privileged to enter mortality” (The Purpose of Life Pamphlet handed out at the Temple on BYU campus).
The Mormons teach that prior to physical birth, everyone had an existence in heaven as a spirit-child and we are all born from the sexual union of God the Father with one of His wives.
Of course even the most green Bible student knows that this is utterly foreign to the Word of God, but when you claim a higher authority than God’s Word (or reinvent God’s Word in a new revelation), then you can simply make up whatever doctrine you want no matter how metaphysical, new age, unGodly, unChristian and pagan it is… which this doctrine is on ALL counts. Pure unadultered, new age tripe.
The real Bible, the real Holy Word that has stood the test of time and skeptics and repelled all who would try to discredit it, clearly refutes this idea:
Gen 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
This is just a simple refutation. It does not take into account all of the major doctrines and theological principles that are completely denied and contradicted by this false teaching of prior existence in heaven.
What I find so insidious, is the effort by Mormonism to redefine and cloak their teaching in elaborate Christian terminology. What I find so sad and even more tragic is the general lack of knowledge and effort by Protestants to know ENOUGH about their own faith and theology to be able to refute such obvious and flagrant false teaching.
I’m not getting on to the gentlemen who wrote this question (he obviously IS making an effort). I’m getting on the fact that more and more Christianity is accepting cults, false teachers and heresies as simply disagreements and fine points in doctrine. Why? Because we don’t know enough of our own Scriptures to 1) recognize the false teaching, and 2) effectively defend true Christianity from it.
Okay, I’m off my soap box now. Let the “judgmental”, “intolerant”, “Christian extremist”, “religious bigot” emails start rolling in. Let me save you some time, and you can copy some of these very common responses and send them to me:
- You don’t know what you’re talking about
- Mormons don’t teach that
- Mormons worship the same God as you
- You’ve never studied Mormonism, you’re just saying what you’ve been told by other misinformed Christians
- I’m a Mormon, and we’ve never taught that before
- You’re being unloving; we can’t reach Mormons with that kind of language
- It’s people like you and you’re hate speech that give Christianity a bad name
One final thought, really just humorous for me. A prominent Mormon recently sent me an email just berating me and rebuking me for calling him a “Mormon” which he claims is a derogatory term now. Funny, the LDS church website is “mormon.org”. Someone should inform them.