Our Pre-mortal Existence
In the opening portion of the 13th chapter of Alma are seven verses that I consider the most revelatory in the entire Book of Mormon and the most revelatory on the subject of our pre-mortal existence to be found anywhere in our standard works. I marvel that this sublime doctrine should have been preached to the rebellious apostates in the city of Ammonihah. For whatever reason Alma did so, we in this dispensation have Mormon to thank that he included these enlightening verses in his abridgment.
It is important that the readers of these words comprehend that Alma’s references to the pre-mortal lives of high priests in the Melchizedek Priesthood were made by him with crystal clear intent and full knowledge of whom he was speaking. It is also important that those who read Alma’s words understand that what Alma said concerning high priests applies, as is appropriate, to elders and sisters as well who labor in the kingdom of God on the earth in our day. President Spencer W. Kimball confirmed this important point when he wrote: “Before we came here, faithful women were given certain assignments while faithful men were foreordained to certain priesthood tasks. While we do not now remember the particulars, this does not alter the glorious reality of what we once agreed to. You are accountable for those things which long ago were expected of you just as are those we sustain as prophets and apostles!” (“The Role of Righteous Women,” Ensign, November 1979, 102).
The Prophet Joseph Smith’s teaching on this subject is that “[e]very man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 365).
What we may conclude fairly from the writings of these two prophets is that not all of our Heavenly Father’s spirit children come into this world bearing the same expectations and opportunities.
To prepare us for what we will learn in the 13th chapter of the Book of Alma, we should consider first the Lord’s words in D&C 93:38: “Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.” In other words, Christ’s atonement made it possible for us to be born into mortality in an innocent state. If we “became again” innocent at the time of our mortal birth, then we must have been innocent once before. Thus we know with assurance what the first phrase of the verse means. “Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning” confirms that we were born as spirit children of God into the pre-mortal world in a state of innocence. As we matured and gained experience in the pre-mortal world, we lost our innocence through actions that were contrary to God’s law. The Lord’s atonement has the power to reach beyond this mortal world backward in time and space to pay for the consequences of our mistakes committed during our pre-mortality.
Now take a Book of Mormon to hand and read the first fourteen verses of chapter 13 in the Book of Alma. Did you notice Alma’s change of course in the opening phrase of verse 3? Now read the final words of verse 9: “And thus it is. Amen.” The seven verses including verses 3 through 9 are a parenthetical discussion on our activities in the pre-mortal world. Note the initial phrase of verse 10: “Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this high priesthood, . . .” These words harp back to the subject Alma began discussing in verses 1 and 2. Therefore, we see that Alma is carrying on two separate but very much related discussions in the first fourteen verses of this chapter. He is teaching the people of Ammonihah concerning the calling and works of high priests of the Melchizedek Priesthood from the days of Adam down through the recorded history they possessed on the Plates of Brass and then on down through the subsequent history to their very day and experience. This portion of his discourse is found in verses 1, 2, and 10 through 14. His discourse on our pre-mortal existence is found in verses 3 through 9. And again, we should remember that his words in this latter discourse concern the experiences of high priests specifically. As appropriate, what we learn here applies to other holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood and righteous sisters in this dispensation as taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith and President Spencer W. Kimball.
In verse 3, we learn that high priests in this dispensation were foreordained and prepared for assignments in the Kingdom of God on this earth as a result of God’s “foreknowledge” of these brethren based on their deeds in the pre-mortal world. There, God noted “their exceeding faith and good works.” In that realm, His spirit children could “choose good or evil.” These high priests of which Alma speaks chose “good, and exercis[ed] exceedingly great faith.” Does this glimpse of faith’s role in that realm cause us personally to reflect upon our own understanding of faith? I think it should. Also please note in verse 3 the confirmation of the role Christ’s “redemption” played in the calling and preparation of these high priests.
We note in verse 4 that those who were not so foreordained or received assignments to labor in the Lord’s vineyard on earth were excluded from these opportunities because they rejected “the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds.” If it had not been so, “they might have had as great privilege as their brethren.”
It is in verse 5 that D&C 93:38 becomes relevant. “Or in fine, in the first place they were on the same standing with their brethren.” What Alma is reaffirming here from verse 4 is that those who were not as valiant because they hardened “their hearts” were born into the spirit world innocent just as their brethren had been who did remain valiant. No child of God was born into pre-mortality with an unequal opportunity to be faithful and obedient to his/her Father’s expectations.
In verses 6 through 9 we learn that the high priesthood is “without beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from eternity to all eternity, . . .” This Priesthood existed in the pre-mortal world and high priests for this world were so ordained there. If by some chance this point is not clear from the reading of the relevant verses, then consider this. The Priesthood is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. When a brother is ordained to an office in the priesthood either Aaronic or Melchizedek, he must first have the appropriate priesthood conferred upon him. How could high priests for this world be foreordained for their labors here before they were holders of the Priesthood? And if this is not sufficient, then consider the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith: “The Priesthood was first given to Adam; he obtained the First Presidency, and held the keys of it from generation to generation. He obtained it in the Creation, before the world was formed, . . . (Teachings, 157).
Again, we have Alma to thank for his enlightening discourse and Mormon to thank for including what he did in his abridgment. As with the Savior and His use of parables in teaching the Jews of his day, the righteous understood His words and were blessed because of it while the unrighteous did not and were thus spared greater condemnation. We of this generation who labor in His Kingdom have been granted a “pearl of great price” through the teachings of an ancient prophet that if properly understood and applied in our lives will provide us with a greater understanding of our beginnings and should instill in each of us a greater desire to determine what it is that our Father and our Savior expect of us in mortality.
