Life Before Life: Here By Chance? No Chance!

Posted on June 2, 2011 by karenrose

Pre-ExistencePolls show, intriguingly, that more than 95% of Americans (and close figures exist for other parts of the world) profess a belief in God or some higher power and that between 70 and 80 percent believe there is a spirit or soul in human beings that continues after the physical death of the body (see Gallup and Lindsay, Surveying the Religious Landscape, Morehouse Publishing, 1999).

So, the natural question, is: Where did that soul which most of us acknowledge, come from? If we are spiritual beings, where did our spirits originate? Did they flair into being at birth or conception? Have a spiritual beginning? Come from a spiritual home? Familiarity and frequent intimations seem to come to us here, suggesting there is more than the present, more than the future, but what of the past.

I’m a “Mormon“, member of The Church of Jesus Christ, (“Mormon” is a nickname coined by friends of other faiths that we understand), and I’m here to say that those inklings are purposed.  We are not here in a vacuum-to be and cease to be, nor are we here from scum or slum or a big bang alone. We pre-date this life and have lived in God’s presence previously, for lengthy period of time, growing up to a point of readiness to jump into a body and come to earth to gain additional needed experience. We will return home. We aren’t going to be recycled as another animal or person. We are who we are who we are. We will become better and more glorious if we follow Christ but our intelligences are eternal. Thank goodness for the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. These truths, I testify, were lost but are now restored.

You and I are not here by chance. Not a chance!

John MacArthur boxes the semantics right out of this issue of chance, in these terse words:

But chance is not a force. Chance can’t make anything happen. Chance isn’t anything, it doesn’t exist. It has no power to do anything because it isn’t anything. Its impotent because it’s nothing. It has no power because it doesn’t exist. Are you getting it? Since chance doesn’t exist, it can’t produce anything. It can’t be the cause of any effect. Yet modern evolutionists talk about chance all the time. It’s just nothing but hocus-pocus. It’s the oldest and most inviolable law of science, logic and reason. Any of you who ever took debate or studied any of the rational philosophers remember the statement, “Ex nihilo, nihilo fit(?),” out of nothing, nothing comes…and chance is nothing. This is rational suicide.

So when scientists attribute instrumental power to chance, listen carefully, they have left the domain of reason, they have left the domain of science. They have turned to pulling rabbits out of hats. They have turned to fantasy. And then all scientific investigation becomes chaotic and absurd because it can’t really yield what it should yield because they won’t allow it to. Today the absurdity of evolution goes largely unchallenged and all these universities and colleges, they keep pounding on this stuff. Every time I pick up a Newsweek or a Time magazine, I get another one of these wild kind of evolutionary articles, particularly because I read National Geographic, I’m exposed to that as well, and they keep trying to make us believe that chance exists as a force. That everything by chance spontaneously generated. Nobel laureate, George Wald, brilliant man, I quote him, “One has only to wait, time itself performs the miracles. Given so much time the impossible becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable actually certain,” end quote. What in the world is that? That is just double talk. That is absolutely meaningless. Self-creation is absurd no matter how much time because chance does not exist…it doesn’t exist.

The truth is, we’re here on purpose. Our lives have eternal meaning, and we come from a Heavenly Home to which we will return. These and other eternal truths are knowable and are restored again to the earth; the Savior Jesus Christ Himself has brought back His Church with His teachings, unmixed, unmuddied by man, for you and I.  We invite you to investigate further the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often referred to inadvertently in the media as the “Mormon Church.”).  Learn more about Mormons here.

 

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Sweet Hour of Prayer

Posted on March 13, 2012 by nora

The Christian hymn, “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” is a favorite among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Its peaceful words and melody beckon each of us to turn our hearts toward our Heavenly Father:

A Woman PrayingSweet Hour of Prayer

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer! That calls me from a world of care

And bids me at my Father’s throne Make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief, My soul has often found relief

And oft escaped the tempter’s snare By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

And oft escaped the tempter’s snare By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

We are Children of a Loving Heavenly Father

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that every human being who has ever lived on earth is a spirit child of a loving Heavenly Father. We lived with Him before we were born. He was involved in the details of our pre-earth lives, providing guidance, support, and counsel as we grew. We listened carefully to Him, obeyed Him, and trusted Him.

A Mother and BabyWe now live here on earth, separated for a time from God’s presence. But that does not mean He cares any less about the details of our lives. He still desires to provide us with guidance, support, and counsel, even more so now that we are faced every day with the temptations of the world. His greatest desire is that we return to live again with Him after this life is over. In order to do so, He needs us to listen even more carefully to Him, obey His commandments, and trust in Him.

Listening to God

Prayer is the means by which we communicate with our Heavenly Father while we are here on earth. It is also a central means by which, if we humble ourselves and pay careful attention, God can communicate with us. Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are taught to humble themselves physically and spiritually in prayer, by kneeling, folding their arms, bowing their heads, and keeping their eyes closed. A posture of humility helps us to feel the humility necessary to hear God’s voice in our hearts, and to accept His will as He makes it known to us. Thus we become able also to feel His love for us, and receive His blessings. In the Bible Dictionary included with the LDS (Latter-day Saint) edition of the King James Bible, the following is recorded under the entry, “prayer:”

Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.

Jesus Prays in GethsemaneJesus Christ, Our Example

Jesus Christ is our greatest example of prayer. During the Lord’s prayer, as found in Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus repeatedly acknowledges our dependence upon our Heavenly Father, using phrases such as “Thy will be done,” “Give us this day our daily bread,” and “Deliver us from evil.” During His atonement, when the Savior prays in Gethsemane, it is recorded that He “knelt (Luke 22:41), fell on his face (Matt. 26:39), [and] fell on the ground (Mark 14:35)” (Bible Dictionary, “Prayer”). Even our Lord, Jesus Christ, set an example of utter humility when He prayed. In His greatest extremity, while suffering for the sins and pains of all mankind, He said

Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42).

Praying to the Father in the Name of Christ

Jesus taught us that we should pray to our Heavenly Father in Jesus’s name. In addition to the many New Testament scriptures about this, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ teaches us to pray to the Father in the name of the Son. In the Book of Mormon, which is the religious history of an ancient people who inhabited the Americas long ago, Jesus visits His “other sheep” on the American continent after His resurrection. One of the very first things He teaches them is about prayer:

Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name;

And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you (The Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 18:19-20).

The Book of Mormon also contains urgent counsel that we should pray often, indeed always, to protect us from evil:

A Mormon Family PrayingBehold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat (3 Nephi 18:18).

Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you;

Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save.

Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.

Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.

Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening.

Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.

Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness.

Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them.

Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase.

But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.

Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you (Alma 34:17-27).

Our Heavenly Father wants us to pray. But like all of God’s commandments, the commandment to pray is really an invitation to be blessed. When we obey Him, accept His will, and trust in Him, He can take away our burdens of sin and suffering through the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He will protect us from the ultimate sorrow of wandering away from His loving care. Truly, prayer is indeed sweet.

A Mormon WomanSweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer! Thy wings shall my petition bear

To Him whose truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless.

And since He bids me seek His face, Believe His will, and trust His grace,

I’ll cast on Him my every care And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

I’ll cast on Him my every care And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Additional Resources:

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings, “Sweet Hour of Prayer”

Further Study: Prayer

Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayer

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What is the Origin of the Universe and of Man?

Posted on February 23, 2012 by nora

Clouds of GloryThe famous William Wordsworth poem, “Intimations of Immortality,” says the following in its fifth stanza:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known to some by the nickname, the Mormon Church) has always taught that we each lived in heaven with God before we were born. Our life on earth is a short, but very important, step along the road of our eternal lives. So why are we here? Where did the universe we see around us come from?

Long before the earth was created, our Heavenly Father created our spiritual beings from eternal intelligences that had always existed. He gave us spiritual form, and we became His spirit children. In our pre-earth life we lived with Him, and we learned from Him all that we could. We desired to be as much like Him as possible.

But there were some things He had that He knew we could not obtain unless something changed. One important thing we were missing was a physical body, like the one our Heavenly Father possesses. Without a physical body, we could not manipulate physical matter like He could, and we could not experience physical emotions, including a fulness of joy. Another barrier to our becoming like our Father was that we could not really understand the difference between good and evil while we remained constantly in His presence. He is the ultimate Good, but we could not become good ourselves unless we had the chance to understand and choose between good and evil.

Baby BoySo our Heavenly Father presented to us a plan by which we could leave His presence, obtain physical bodies, learn to choose good over evil, and then return to live with Him again. Then we would be able to continue to grow to be more and more like Him, and experience a fulness of  joy. In Heavenly Father’s plan, we would leave His presence and be born upon the earth. There we would gain the physical body and experiences we needed.

Heavenly Father knew that while we were on earth, we would become subject to sin and death, thus barring us from returning from Him. Satan, who originally was another one of  our Father’s spirit children, rebelled against God and wanted to take away our ability to choose. He continues to fight against God and against us, hoping to lure us away from choosing good over evil. Rather than the joy our Heavenly Father wants us to experience, Satan wants us to be miserable like he is.

Jesus Christ, CreatorBecause He knew we would all sin while we were away from Him, Heavenly Father sent Jesus Christ to atone for our sins. Through Jesus Christ’s atonement, we can be forgiven for our sins and made clean, allowing us to once again live in God’s presence. Through Christ’s resurrection, the bands of death have been broken, and we will eventually be resurrected ourselves, to spend eternity in immortal physical bodies. When we fully understand and choose good over evil, and possess physical bodies like God’s, we can experience the fulness of joy that He experiences.

Jesus Christ, the eldest of our Heavenly Father’s spirit children, was therefore essential to His plan. Jesus, under the direction of God the Father, created the earth and the heavens. Then He created the first man, Adam, and placed his spirit within his mortal body. The entire universe is God’s creation; He says he has created “worlds without number.” Mankind is the pinnacle of God’s creation. In The Pearl of Great Price, a book of scripture translated by Joseph Smith through revelation during the 19th century, there is an account written by Moses about his first experience with God. In Moses 1:39, God reveals why He created the earth, men’s spirits, and their physical bodies:

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

We are God’s greatest work. We are His glory. We are His children. Jesus Christ sacrificed His life, and suffered beyond anything we could imagine, to make it possible for us to return to live with God. God wants us to experience a fulness of joy. Every day of our lives, we should remember who we are, and what God has done for us.

Additional Resources:

Our Eternal Life

Scripture references: Premortal Life

 

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What Happens When We Die?

Posted on February 22, 2012 by dwhite

mormon-deathDeath holds a great deal of fear for people everywhere. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which church is frequently misnamed the Mormon Church) have a much different understanding of death than many other religions and philosophies do. Latter-day Saints believe that each of us was created as a spirit child of God before we were born onto this earth. Our time here on the earth is an incredibly small percentage of our eternal existence, but it can be difficult to maintain that perspective here.

This understanding of our eternal existence takes fear out of the idea of death for faithful Latter-day Saints. When we die, our spirit leaves our body, and we go to the other side of the veil. This veil is drawn across our minds during this life so we have no recollection of our pre-mortal existence. This gives us a chance to really learn and grow and to discern between good and evil through our own experience.

Latter-day Saints (or Mormons) believe that in the spirit world, a great deal of work needs to be done to prepare billions of people who died without a knowledge of the Savior. Mormon doctrine teaches that there are essential ordinances (the first of which is baptism and confirmation) a person must receive in order to live with God again. These ordinances must be received on the earth, though. Since the vast majority of the human population lived without knowledge of Jesus Christ, or lived during a period when the fulness of His gospel was not on the earth, they had no opportunity to receive these ordinances. This is a purpose of Mormon temples. Living Latter-day Saints receive their personal ordinances, but after that, they can return to the temple to receive these ordinances vicariously for people who died without receiving them. Latter-day Saints believe in the principle of free will, so any deceased people who have this work done for them still have the opportunity to accept or reject this work in the spirit world. If the work was not done for them at all, however, they would have no choice the matter, because these ordinances have to be done on earth..

Mormon doctrine states that eternal life is the highest gift God can bestow on His children, and it is one He wants to bestow on all of them. To obtain eternal life, however, one must receive and accept all the necessary ordinances and remain obedient and faithful to the covenants (or promises) made in those ordinances.

When a person receives all necessary ordinances and is faithful to their covenants, they will enter the presence of God when they leave mortality. After the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, all who have ever lived upon the earth will be resurrected, and their spirits will be eternally reunited with their bodies. They will then have eternal life with God.

Additional Resources:

Search for Happiness

Mormon People

Mormon View of Jesus Christ

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Pre-Mortal Life: Where Did We Come From?

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

Life Before Life

As we begin to examine our lives, we invariably ask the questions: Where does life begin and where do we come from? The usual answer in secular circles is that life begins somewhere between conception and birth. But doesn’t our spirit live? When did our spirit come into being and where? And what exactly is our spirit?

Pre-Mortal LifeThe answer, like most of those with which we are concerned, is not that complicated. A perusal of the scriptures provides a clear understanding of these elemental but profoundly important questions.

Our spirit began sometime between our spirit conception and our spirit birth, eons prior to our mortal existence. It began when we became the spirit offspring of our Heavenly Father. We are actually, literally, and truly His spirit children. Continue reading →

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Life Before Life: Where Did We Come From?

Posted on December 29, 2011 by admin

Kathryn Ramirez is a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormon”). Until her recent retirement, she developed computer software. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Kathryn has been married for over 40 years “to the same kind, incredibly patient man!”

Mormon womanMembers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons”) do not believe that we suddenly sprung into existence at the moment of birth, or even at conception.  Instead, we believe that God, our Father in Heaven, created our spirit beings long before we were born to our earthly parents.  We believe that prior to our earthly existence we lived as His spirit children. He knew and loved each one of us, and we knew Him as well.  We did not have physical bodies at that time, but were conscious entities with feelings and personalities. In His perfect wisdom, God knew that were we to remain forever in His presence, we would be unable to progress beyond where we were at that time and would not be able to reach our potential as sons and daughters of Deity. He, therefore, prepared a world in which we could experience mortality. It would be a place where we would be subject to physical temptations, as well as disease, aging and ultimately death. It would be a place where we could be tested, where we could learn to walk by faith. It would be a place where we could be part of a family unit and where we could find the companionship of an eternal partner. God promised to never abandon us, but He would cause a veil of forgetfulness to restrict our memory of our heavenly home during our time here on Earth. Continue reading →

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Life Before Life: A Personal Encounter with God (part II of II)

Posted on December 20, 2011 by admin

Life Before Life: A Difficult Choice

Though I was able to watch and listen from outside the room, most of my memories are of the feelings and thoughts that I had as I reexperienced the meeting, sitting in the chair close to Heavenly Father.

mormon womanAs I watched the meeting commence from outside the room, it was like watching a movie in which I was playing the lead role. I saw Heavenly Father instruct me to sit in the chair on the left as he sat in the chair on the right. Greg stood behind my chair. As I sat down in the chair, my point of view as an outside observer changed. Once I was seated in the chair, I experienced the remainder of the meeting as an active participant. I somehow knew that Heavenly Father had already discussed with Greg His intent for this meeting. And, although I strongly sensed that Greg was there to be a support for me, I knew that he had also been a part of the decision-making process that had brought us to this meeting. As Greg stood behind me, he massaged my shoulders with his hands as if to reassure me. I was grateful for his comforting touch. I readily caught on to Greg’s cue—I knew that I was going to be required to make an important decision. Continue reading →

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Life Before Life: A Personal Encounter with God (part I of II)

Posted on December 20, 2011 by admin

Before Life: Taken Back to Heavenly Father & Remembering Life Before Life

At day’s end I sat on my bed overcome with convulsive tears. My will to live had been obliterated. Mental imbalance caused by severe depression and a handful of negative encounters with less-than-empathetic bill collectors had been the final victors on that summer day in 2002. Holding onto life had proven itself too hard.

life before lifeThroughout those dark months of depression, necessity had dictated that life be handled in small increments. Holding on for twenty-four hours was often too difficult. Holding on for another breath, another minute, maybe even another hour was the only realistic goal. It was the only way I had been able to keep my suicidal desires at bay.

Inside my once joyous and vibrant soul brewed an emotional storm. My mind screamed I didn’t want to live, but my heart passionately insisted that life needed to be clung to. My battle was lonely and intense despite having loving supporters around me. Each day seemed like a grueling marathon as I worked to get my health and former happiness back. Continue reading →

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Do Mormons Believe In Angels?

Posted on December 13, 2011 by admin

People not of our faith often inquire as to what Mormons believe about different subjects. This article below, written by D. Lauritsen, helps those not of our faith understand members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Inadvertently called by friends of other faiths, the “Mormon Church”) beliefs concerning angels. Latter-day Saints believe that there are good and bad angels, and that God uses angels to help build His kingdom and promote His work on the earth.

Not only do the scriptures, including the Holy Bible, and the BooMormons believe in angelsk of Mormon, a record giving an account of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the American continent, give many accounts of angelic visits, but there have also been many accounts of angelic visits in modern times. Joseph Smith, a prophet whom God called to restore the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth, had many angelic visitations in connection with the restoration. Continue reading →

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Afterlife: God’s Plan of Happiness

Posted on October 13, 2011 by eric

by Eric Kotter, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormon“). Eric is a student at BYU-Idaho studying communications.

Afterlife: God’s Plan of Happiness

One of the most profound truths that I have come to know is that we all have the opportunity of living with God again in the afterlife. I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently called by friends of other faiths, the “Mormon Church“). There are many people who wonder where we go after we die. Is death the end of our existence? I think that not knowing the truth about these things can make a person feel a sad uncertainty about life.

AfterlifeIn The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have learned that when we die, our spirit–the part of us that’s eternal, including our intelligence and personality–leaves our body. This spirit then goes to a place called the Spirit World. In the spirit world there are two places we can go prior to the Resurrection: heaven or hell (spirit paradise, or spirit prison). We wait in this part of the afterlife, until the final judgment when we will receive our reward from God according to the good things we have done to serve Jesus Christ, and according to the grace of the Savior.

In spirit heaven, those who made good choices and received the gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives, will be in “a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.” (Book of Mormon: Alma 40:12). Those who were wicked in this life will live in spirit prison, which is what Latter-day Saints (Mormons) refer to as hell. In this state of hell, there will be suffering and darkness because of the wicked way in which these spirits lived their lives. In this part of the afterlife, there will also be great mercy extended by the Lord.
Continue reading →

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Before Life: We Are God’s Children

Posted on October 11, 2011 by eric

by Eric Kotter, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormon“). Eric is a student at BYU-Idaho studying communications.

Before Life: We Are God’s Children

It is wonderful to me to know that life really has a meaningful purpose. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Inadvertently called by friends of other faiths as the “Mormon Church”), I’ve learned we are not here by accident.

Before LifeI’ve come to know for myself that we are all literally spirit sons and daughters of God himself. Before life on earth we lived with God. While we were with God, He taught us and helped us grow as His spirit children. He knows each one of us in a very personal way, and He wants us all to be happy, to learn, and to grow and become like Him and receive the blessings He has. I think that it is such a wonderful thing to know who we are! It gives me strength to carry on through life. To know that God is our Heavenly Father, and that He loves us tremendously, lifts us up. Continue reading →

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