Pre-existence

The first time I heard about the "pre-existence" I laughed.   I thought "Who could believe such a thing?"

In truth, it is one of the greatest treasures of the Restoration.

There in the pre-existence is set the stage for some of our most cherished beliefs:

The Fatherhood of God

Our divine nature as His children

The purpose of life on earth

Jesus' role as part of the plan created for our progression

The truth of who the Godhead is

The gift of agency

If you want to really study how the doctrine was lost and how its loss affected Christian doctrine during all the centuries before that spring day in 1820 when young Joseph walked into the woods to pray, I recommend "The Christ Who Heals" by Terryl and Fiona Givens.

I remember the first time I heard William Wordsworth's poem " Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood". It stirred something within me. I have come to love this poem that reminds us that we came from God. . .

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.