The Reality of Our Premortal Existence

In the Living Christ declaration by the apostles, they declared that Christ “taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come.”  I’ve been thinking about that first statement that Christ taught about our premortal existence while He was on the earth.  It is certainly one of the doctrines that we know the least about, but the scriptures do contain numerous references with hints about what took place before we came to the earth.  So what evidence do we have that the Savior taught about the premortal existence while He was on the earth? 

               Some passages in the New Testament that aren’t direct teachings of the Savior do suggest that He did teach the doctrine.  For example, we have this exchange with his disciples when they found a man born blind: “And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:1-3).  Their question presupposes a premortal existence (how could one sin before they were born without it?) and Jesus raised no objection to the implication of their question.  It may be that their understanding came because of what He had already taught them about it.  The first chapter of John also contains reference to a premortal existence: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3).  That Christ was “in the beginning” with God and that He helped to create the earth clearly implies a life before this one, at least for Christ Himself.  It very well may be because of teachings that John heard from the Savior that he was able to leave his apostolic witness about Christ in the premortal existence.  We know that the resurrected Lord spent with the apostles “forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).  Surely in all of those teachings He taught these His closest followers about the premortal existence. 

               There are a couple of direct references to the reality of our premortal existence in the gospels. The first is when He was at the temple teaching the Pharisees and Jesus said this, “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:57-58).  Christ’s testimony here was that He lived before Abraham was even born, suggesting again that there was a premortal world in which we lived.  Perhaps the most direct reference from Christ in the New Testament to a preexistence was when He said this in the great intercessory prayer: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5).  Christ was with the Father before the world was even created. 

               We definitely don’t have a lot of teachings of the Savior about the premortal world, but we have enough to know the He did indeed teach about it while on the earth.  And it’s likely that what He taught about it is far greater than what we have in recorded writ today.