The Pre-Mortal Christ of Mormonism

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In a previous article we compared the Mormon Jesus to the Biblical Jesus and showed that Mormonism teaches many things about “Jesus” that cannot be found in the Bible. When an LDS missionary told me that he was a Christian and that he believed Jesus Christ is the Son of God and his Savior I asked, “Is the Jesus you believe in the literal spirit son of God the Father and a Heavenly Mother in a pre-mortal spirit world?” He replied, “Yes.”

So, I asked if that Jesus was literally the spirit brother of Lucifer and all other spirits born to the Heavenly Father and Mother in the pre-mortal spirit world and who were later born on earth with physical bodies. He again answered, “Yes.”

Then, I asked if that Jesus became a god by obeying all of the same laws and ordinances of the gospel by which he and other Mormons can ultimately become gods. He again said, “Yes.”

I assured him that I didn’t question his sincerity or his right to believe anything he wanted to about “Jesus.” But I also told him that the Jesus he had described was not the Jesus of the Bible and that it was the Jesus of the Bible who declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

He insisted that there is only one Jesus. So, I asked him to read 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 where the apostle Paul told the Corinthian Church that he was afraid they would be deceived just like Eve was deceived by Satan if someone came to them preaching another Jesus or another spirit or another gospel because they would tolerate it or even accept it. That context shows that accepting a different Jesus may lead to accepting a different spirit and a different gospel. And Paul made it very clear in Galatians 1:7-8 that those who accept or teach a different gospel are ac­cursed.

The LDS missionary’s answers above weren’t just his own ideas, they are LDS doctrine as the following quotations show:

God the Eternal Father, our Father in Heaven, is an exalted, perfected, and glorified Personage having a tangible body of flesh and bones (Doctrine and Covenants [D. & C.] 130:22). The designation Father is to be taken literally; it signifies that the Supreme Being is the literal Parent or Father of the spirits of all men (Heb. 12:9). All men, Christ included, were born as His children in pre­existence [pre-mortal life] (D. & C. 93:21-23; Moses 1; 2; 3; 4; Abraham 3:22-28). This is the reason men are commanded to approach Deity in prayer by saying, “Our Father which art in heaven.” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 278, by LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie)

Under the direction of the LDS General Authorities, Milton R. Hunter of the LDS First Council of the Seventy wrote The Gospel Through the Ages. It says,

The holy (LDS) scriptures give an account of a great council which was held in the spirit world before man was placed on the earth. This meeting, known as the Council in Heaven, was presided over by God our Eternal Father; and those in attendance were His sons and daughters … The principal purposes of the great gathering were to consider carefully the problem of the eternal progression of man and to present to the assembled throng the “Great Plan of Salvation.” The law of growth or progression is one of the eternal laws of life. All other laws contribute to it. Our Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation and Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression… God the Eternal Father, who was the supreme intelligence at the great council, being more intelligent and more powerful than all the rest of the group combined, desired that His spirit-children should attain the same degree of glory that was then His… Our Heavenly Father proposed as the center of the plan of salvation that one of His sons be appointed to be the Savior of the world… Only in and through His name could men be brought back into the presence of their Heavenly Parents… In that assembled throng there was “one like unto God.” This glorious personage volunteered to be the Savior of the world, humbly declaring “Father, Thy will be done, and the glory be Thine forever.” Thereupon the Father accepted His offer and foreordained Him to this great mission. This individual, while acting as the mediator, was none other than Jehovah of the Old Testament, and when He lived in mortality He was Jesus Christ of the New Testament. Michael the archangel, commonly known to us as Adam, was appointed to be the first mortal man; and Eve, a spirit of comparable brilliance and faithfulness, was assigned to be his helpmate—the “mother of all mortals.” Abraham, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joseph Smith and others of the holy prophets were foreordained to positions of leadership in their respective dispensations, and Mary was chosen to be the mother of the Son of God… The appointment of Jesus to be the Savior of the world was contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, son of the morning. Haughty, ambitious, and covetous of power and glory, this spirit-brother of Jesus desperately tried to become the Savior of mankind. (The Gospel Through the Ages, pp. 12-15).

Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie said,

Christ… is the Firstborn of the Father. By obedience and devotion to the truth He attained that pinnacle of intelligence which ranked him as a God, as the Lord Omnipotent, while yet in His pre-existent state [pre-mortal life] (Mormon Doctrine, p. 129).

LDS scripture declares that those who fail to get married for all eternity (in an LDS temple) “are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever.” It also says that those who marry a spouse “by my word which is my law, and by the new and ever­lasting covenant… Then shall they be gods” (D. & C. 132:17-20). According to LDS doctrine, Christ had to have been married (by the power of the LDS priesthood in a Mormon temple) in His pre-mortal life or He couldn’t have become a God as Mor­monism says He did (see Mormon Doctrine, p. 482). Such doctrines are not found in the Bible and are just plain heresy to Bible believing Christians.

For those who would like to read more on this subject from a Christian perspec­tive, we suggest The Trinity by Edward Henry Bickersteth, published by Kregel Publications of Grand Rapids in 1963. Our next article will discuss the LDS view of Christ on this earth.