Scriptural evidence for "pre-mortal existence". Is there any?

[KathleenGee]

I have been backing off of Mormon threads…very disconcerting because so much of their beliefs are literally man made – Smithsonians is better name.

I have been trying to pray more for them, and Parker is included…I liked him…he was quite subtle…

‘Smithsonianism’ is not at all Christianity.

TruthSave…liked your comment…I am drawing more to be in that place of the universal church that is Roman/Orthodox/Hebrew Catholic…the fusing of the three…the Hebrew Catholics need us to study our Jewish roots and assimilate them in our hearts…and we need to be reunited with the East…

I am reading Cardinal Ratzinger’s, ‘Spirit of the Liturgy’, and his title of Cardinal is kept because he is proposing his personal opinion that the entire congregation, including the priest, face Christ’s rising over the cosmos…from the East…

I like how the Greek Orthodox fast twice a week as practice…and keep several days a month solely for the Lord – as St. Paul exhorted…and that Russian Orthodox Cathedral in San Francisco…how much more our Roman Churches can glorify the Lord…my parish is installing the icons, and the painter wants more of our high walls covered in more icons…her father was Orthodox, her mother Roman Catholic…she has her own take on the Great Schism…

Seek the universal Catholic Church…my context is from the 3 that I mentioned as the true solid faith…you will find communion with the Holy Trinity here on this earth…and once you taste true communion based on God and not man made beliefs…you will never go back…

Only God can bring peace and fulfillment to the deepest recesses of our soul, only in Christ can we find our true selves.

 

[Miriam1947]

I will continue to pray for him. I still get excited when I think of him in RCIA and the discussions we could have!

In His Grip

I think we should all pray for PD as well as the Mormons in general.

As I went back through the thread today I noticed that PD had gotten a bit sarcastic/snarky lately.

Perhaps someone reported him and the moderators took a look.

Sometimes bans are not forever (I think) so I guess is is possible that he could be back.

 

[Miriam1947]

Question:

Wasn’t there a thread posted to continue this conversation? I looked but cannot find it. Has it been pulled?

 

[Telstar]

Yesterday, when I read Parker’s response to my last post to him, I knew I needed to cool down and gather my thoughts before I made any attempt at answering it. At the time, all I wanted to do was… :banghead: … because it seemed like that was what I was doing whenever I made a sincere effort to explain anything to him. All I ever got for my effort was his twisting of my words, or subtly insulting me (and anyone else that made a salient point that he couldn’t refute) through his condescending tone, as if I was a 2 year old that didn’t have the mental capacity to understand the “truth” of Mormonism, or the guidance of the Holy Spirit because I reject LDS ‘doctrine’.

I came here, today, to respond to that post, but I guess it’s too late for that, now. Although, I’m sure he’ll probably still be reading all of the LDS threads on the forum. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he “reincarnated” under a new user name in the future, either. I’m still debating whether I should respond to those posts or not. If I don’t, he might get his ego all puffed up by thinking he won the “argument” by default, because he got the last word in.

 

[1voice]

Originally Posted by 1voice
It is my understanding that, according to LDS belief/ teaching…
each person has an eternal essence that has always existed.
Joseph Smith taught that…
“God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all.”

How does that fit with the Bible which states:
For by him (Jesus Christ) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: Col 1:16

1voice,

The subject of the “intelligence” has been discussed.

Here is the statement made by Joseph Smith:

“…God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God Himself could not create Himself. Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle.”

So the context shows more than the one phrase from the single sentence. The context, along with other teachings of Joseph Smith about an “intelligence”, and also another comment which states “Anything created cannot be eternal; and earth, water, etc., had their existence in an elementary state, from eternity.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 158), shows that Joseph Smith was talking about the “elementary state” of the spirit, which he described as an “intelligence”.

I had already agreed with that concept. The “intelligence” is different than our created spirit, and was the precursor of the spirit and had a uniqueness from one to another.

So, When the Bible states:
For by him (Jesus Christ) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible (Col 1:16)

… the word “all” does not mean “all” in this passage?

 

[Eric_Hilbert]

I guess we can safely shut this thread down now.
1voice has started a new one for those interested