Brent L. Top - The Life Before

Preface

Preface

A scriptural and theological examination of man's pre-mortal existence and its impact on mortality is, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell has expressed it, "one of the doctrinal roads least traveled by." However fragmentary our veiled mortal knowledge may be, there is something in each of us that seeks for expanding enlightenment regarding our origins. President David O. McKay taught that "everyone is possessed with an irresistible desire to know his relationship with the Infinite." Knowledge of one's literal relationship to God and of one's premortal heavenly associations can, as President McKay continued, "urge him to rise above himself, to control his environment, to master the body and all things physical and live in a higher and more beautiful world."

It is often thought that because a veil is drawn and we cannot remember, there must not be very much known about that spiritual realm. Some also seem to regard it as a topic that is "off limits." Yet there are many things that we naturally wonder about concerning that former abode. The expansive understanding that we once possessed has since been muted, leaving only intimations, suppositions, and partially answered questions. To attempt to answer all of the questions would be impossible, since the Lord, in his infinite wisdom, has withheld much regarding our premortal home. However, the scriptures and, particularly, the inspired writings and utterances of latter-day prophets have parted the veil just enough to provide impelling insights. The Brethren have written or spoken much more on this subject than most of us imagine. The scriptures, likewise, speak to us in sometimes indirect ways to teach us about our life before mortality. The purpose of this book is certainly not to speculate or theorize about things hidden from our view but rather to compile and organize those scriptural and seeric statements that can inform and inspire, and to draw reasonable conclusions therefrom. The more we can learn about the life before, the more we will be motivated to live worthy to return to the presence of our Eternal Father.

There will remain many unanswered questions. The veil will yet be drawn. It is my hope, however, that this book will help to answer some questions and, more important, to stimulate your thinking-for as you ponder and study, more questions will arise, followed by greater spiritual insight. "Knowledge is of no value unless used," said President Spencer W. Kimball. That is the objective of this book-to provide information that will enlighten the mind and prepare the heart for the inspiration that can change our lives and buoy us up spiritually as we pass through this second estate.

Acknowledgments

Several people have helped to shape the words and ideas of this book. I extend to each of them my appreciation for their important input. Thomas F. Olmstead, coordinator for the Church Educational System in the Richmond, Virginia, area, first encouraged me to seriously pursue this project. I appreciate the research ideas he shared with me. I also appreciate my former colleagues of the Church Educational System, U.S. Northeast Area, who served as sounding boards for many of my ideas.

Several of my colleagues from the BYU religion faculty also helped in a variety of ways with this project. I appreciate the input of ideas, editorial suggestions, and critical feedback that I received from Robert L. Millet, Stephen E. Robinson, Kent P. Jackson, Joseph F. McConkie, and Art Bailey. I am especially grateful for the "extra-mile" service of my colleague, friend, and mentor, Larry E. Dahl, who continually encouraged me in my research and writing. He unselfishly shared not only much of his own research but also his time in reviewing the manuscript and offering valuable suggestions. My association with all of my colleagues of the BYU religion faculty has influenced this work indirectly. I am daily touched by their enormous collective and individual knowledge of and love for the gospel, and by their deep commitment to religious education and gospel scholarship.

I am deeply grateful for my four children and for the contribution they have unknowingly made to this book. Their love, their character, and their questions have stimulated my desire for research on this subject. While carefully observing them, I have gained many insights about our premortal existence. In them I can see that, in a spiritually significant way, as Tiffany said, their "insides are older than their outsides."

Most important, I extend my love and appreciation to my wife, Wendy, for her assistance in this work. She has unwearyingly reviewed, edited, and improved the manuscript. She not only has given significant editorial service but also has influenced my ideas with her own inspired insights. I deeply needed and profoundly felt her support and encouragement. With this project, as with other more eternally important endeavors we share, she has been an inspiration in my life.

1 Man's Search for His Spiritual Roots

Several years ago, Alex Haley captivated the American public with his epic novel, Roots, and its subsequent television miniseries. That monumental work aroused a new fascination with genealogies and family histories. Soon many became fervently involved in tracing family "roots" and in delving into the annals of ancestors. Like Haley, others felt that discovering their own biological and cultural heritage would lead them to greater understanding of their own identity. It is undeniably true that our roots help shape the trunk, branches, and limbs that make up not only ourselves and our posterity but also, ultimately, all of mankind.

Just as the discovery of our earthly genealogy, enhanced by familial and cultural history, can guide us to a greater understanding of our temporal selves, perhaps even greater insight into the eternal nature and destiny of man emerges from a search for our spiritual roots or eternal lineage. In virtually all mankind there is some sort of innate yearning to know what was before this life and how it affects man in his earthly sojourn. Eliza R. Snow, in the familiar hymn "O My Father," expressed this yearning for a knowledge of spiritual roots:

For a wise and glorious purpose Thou hast placed me here on earth And withheld the recollection Of my former friends and birth; Yet ofttimes a secret something Whispered, "You're a stranger here," And I felt that I had wandered From a more exalted sphere.

This feeling or intimation of a former existence, described by Eliza R. Snow as a "secret something," is not unique to Latter-day Saints. Several surveys conducted during the last three decades among peoples from many countries in the Western world-countries whose cultures and religions generally reject the notion of a premortal life of man-found substantial numbers of the population who felt strongly that there was a life or existence before their present life on earth.