LDS Primordial Existence

[landon13]

Hello,

I have been discussing religion with two Mormon friends of mine. They are working now to “teach” me on primordial or “pre-earth” existence. First they brought up the passage in Revelation 12 about the fall of Satan before creation. Then they brought up some other verses scattered but when I would argue about how we were created first here on earth and THEN breathed into with the spirit of God or how in I believe it is 1 Corinthians it says that the earthly body came first and then the spiritual or something to that affect.

Can anyone give any help as to how to refute their claims of pre-earth existence since they use all these arguments like “we must have been friends in pre-earth life” etc., and they just are getting difficult sometimes to try and talk to. Haha

Thank you all and God bless!

 

[DavidFilmer]

I would suggest that you ask them to support this idea in either science or history, but - wait- LDS are immune to science and history.

So, cast your pearls if you choose to do so. I would not.

 

[1newcatholic]

You can’t persuade most religious people that the religious ideas they have accepted rest on bad authority.

Let them be wrong, and just be nice to them. Just my two cents.

 

[John_Martin]

Their “method” is to “inform you”, so that you have “knowledge”.

In the Kingdom of God (the Church), however, we have something else. We have the Person, Jesus, in person(a). So, in a manner of speaking, we do not have to search for texts to try and understand what happened. Instead, Jesus, in person(a) tells us who he is and who we are and how we are. He is, in person(a) from God, so his word is certain. When we look in the Scripture, it is not to try and figure it all out, but it is to use profitably for “reproof, correction, and training in goodness (righteousness or justice)”

Jesus, in person, said, “If they hear you, they hear me”, to his apostles. The apostles and those they then sent, in persona Christi, tell you and tell me, when we are conceived physically we are made a living soul (nothing before the body is conceived, but living being body and soul at the moment conceived). Do you hear them? Then you hear Jesus, God, telling you what is. That is “revelation”, the book in the Bible by the same name is not “revelation”, but the Person you hear is “revelation”.

This is that mystery you declare every Sunday at Mass: “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church” - “I hear the word from the Church, which is “in persona Christi”, and in hearing this word and believing it, I am hearing Jesus, face to face”

That is what you can offer them - not a set of historical proof texts, but introduce them to a real person (yourself) who speaks to them in persona Christi of where they came from and when they came to be. You are announcing the Gospel (you are announcing “Official News from your King” which is the meaning of “gospel” in common Greek; it does not mean generic good news, but “governmental official news”)

John Martin

 

[RebeccaJ]

Hello,

I have been discussing religion with two Mormon friends of mine. They are working now to “teach” me on primordial or “pre-earth” existence. First they brought up the passage in Revelation 12 about the fall of Satan before creation. Then they brought up some other verses scattered but when I would argue about how we were created first here on earth and THEN breathed into with the spirit of God or how in I believe it is 1 Corinthians it says that the earthly body came first and then the spiritual or something to that affect.

Can anyone give any help as to how to refute their claims of pre-earth existence since they use all these arguments like “we must have been friends in pre-earth life” etc., and they just are getting difficult sometimes to try and talk to. Haha

Thank you all and God bless!

The LDS interpretation of the Bible is made by applying other scriptures that are unique to themselves, including a new interpretation to 1 Corinthians.

 

[Ignatius]

Hello,

I have been discussing religion with two Mormon friends of mine. They are working now to “teach” me on primordial or “pre-earth” existence. First they brought up the passage in Revelation 12 about the fall of Satan before creation. Then they brought up some other verses scattered but when I would argue about how we were created first here on earth and THEN breathed into with the spirit of God or how in I believe it is 1 Corinthians it says that the earthly body came first and then the spiritual or something to that affect.

Can anyone give any help as to how to refute their claims of pre-earth existence since they use all these arguments like “we must have been friends in pre-earth life” etc., and they just are getting difficult sometimes to try and talk to. Haha

Thank you all and God bless!

Actually, Catholic Answers has a booklet on this in the Beginning Apologetics series:
shop.catholic.com/beginning-apologetics-volume-2-how-to-answer-jehovah-s-witnesses-and-mormons.html?___store=default

The purpose of this booklet is to help Catholics identify and charitably refute the foundational doctrines of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. Instead of getting bogged down in unimportant side issues, the authors show you how to focus objectively on their main beliefs. The step-by-step approach uses Scripture, history, and common sense.