The Veil of Forgetfulness

Elder Renlund recently stated, “To ensure that we would exercise faith and learn to use our agency properly, a veil of forgetfulness was drawn over our minds so we would not remember God’s plan. Without that veil, God’s purposes would not be achieved because we could not progress and become the trusted inheritors He wants us to be.”  That we have forgotten our experiences in the premortal world is a key teaching of Church leaders about the Plan of Salvation.  For example, President Monson said, “How grateful we should be that a wise Creator fashioned an earth and placed us here, with a veil of forgetfulness on our previous existence, so that we might experience a time of testing, an opportunity to prove ourselves and qualify for all that God has prepared for us to receive.”  Because of the veil we are allowed to be fully tested in mortality to see if we will do all things the Lord commands.  Elder Maxwell commented, “But mercifully the veil is there. It is fixed by the wisdom of God for our good…. Without the veil, we would lose that precious insulation which would constantly interfere with our mortal probation and maturation. Without the veil, our brief mortal walk in a darkening world would lose its meaning—for one would scarcely carry the flashlight of faith at noonday and in the presence of the Light of the World. Without the veil, we could not experience the gospel of work and the sweat of our brow.”  The principle these and other leaders taught is that we needed to forget some things about life before this earth in order to fully exercise our agency here.  In the same manner that having the test answers in front of us while we take a test for school negates the validity of the exam, so too would a perfect knowledge of our experiences with God before earth negate our ability to fully exercise our agency on earth.

               Given the importance of this principle, do we find the concept of a veil of forgetfulness anywhere in the scriptures?  Paul perhaps was alluding to this when he suggested that we “now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).  Our vision is darkened here on earth because we cannot remember where we have come from.  Other modern scriptures refer specifically to a veil that separates us from God; for example, we are admonished to “prepare for the revelation which is to come, when the veil of the covering of my temple, in my tabernacle, which hideth the earth, shall be taken off, and all flesh shall see me together” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:23).  There is a veil now between us and God that separated us when we came to earth.  But the Lord promised in another section that through repentance and humility, “the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am,” confirming that there is a veil now upon us but that it will not always be so (Doctrine and Covenants 67:10).  One for whom this veil was rent was the brother of Jared, “And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord” (Ether 3:6).  Moroni commented that he “could not be kept from within the veil” and so the brother of Jared was able to see the Lord (Ether 12:19).  The term “veil of forgetfulness” is not in the scriptures exactly, but perhaps this verse is really referring to the same thing: “The day soon cometh that ye shall see me, and know that I am; for the veil of darkness shall soon be rent, and he that is not purified shall not abide the day” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:8).  We all have been affected by this “veil of darkness” as we came to earth, but we will one day know as we have known and see as we once saw in the presence of our Father.