Every religion seeks to answer the question: “Where did we all come from?”

The LDS Church teaches that all people preexisted in heaven with the Father before we were born on earth.

But the Bible teaches something very different.

First, the Bible teaches us that man did not have life until after God created the world.

The Bible says that when God created the world, He 

formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Gen. 2:7).

In other words, Adam was NOT a living being until after he was created by God, and was filled with the breath of life.

The LDS church says that we were spiritual beings first, and then were born into natural bodies. But the Apostle Paul says the exact opposite. In comparing Adam and Jesus, he teaches us that, 

…it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.  The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.” (1 Cor 15:46-47).

Our physical, natural birth precedes any spiritual existence, not the other way around.

Jesus teaches that no one has ever seen the Father but Him. He says, 

And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen” (John 5:37).

Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father” (John 6:46).

Jesus tells his opponents that God is NOT their Father and that they have never even known him:

Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.'” (John 8:42).

So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.’” (John 7:28-29).

Jesus even explicitly explains that He came from heaven and we did not.

He said to them, ‘You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world'” (John 8:23).

The point of these verses is to show that Jesus, in His divinity, is entirely unique from us, in that He is from heaven, and we are from earth.

This is what makes the incarnation so amazing. Jesus, who was not one of us, was sent to earth to become one of us, to die for our sins.

This doctrine is so significant because it shapes the way we view God and man.

Consider the nature of family responsibilities. A Father may take care of his children because he loves them, but it is also his moral obligation. In fact, if a parent does not rightly provide for his or her child we call it neglect or abuse. This is why a father can be legally forced to pay child-support, even against his will. He is indebted to his children.

Some people feel comforted by the thought that we existed with our Heavenly Father before coming to earth. But the fact that we were not born children of God means that He is not indebted to us! He owes us nothing! And yet He has provided a way for us to become spiritual children of God through adoption.

When the Father offers us redemption He does not do it out of obligation, but out of love.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

Verse References
  • Genesis 2:7
  • 1 Corinthians 15:46-47
  • John 5:37
  • John 6:46
  • John 8:42
  • John 7:28-29
  • John 8:23
  • John 3:16

“Our physical, natural birth precedes any spiritual existence, not the other way around.”