'Pre-existence', 'before-life' or 'pre-mortal existence' is the doctrine that each individual spirit existed before mortal conception and, at some point before birth, is placed into the body. The claim by some believers that a spirit (however it comes into existence) does not 'attach' itself to a foetus until a certain time after (but not at) conception is used by liberal Christians to justify pre-natal killing (abortion) under the pretext that it is not 'human' until that time.
Historically, the idea of human pre-existence is very ancient indeed and has been a prominent idea "in Greek religion and philosophy, in Judaism, in the early Christian Church, in the religion of India, and to a very considerable extent associated with modern thought in the West" [1]. The principle advocate of pre-existance of the 'Church Fathers' was Origen who believed that each human soul was created by Elohim (God) prior to conception. Arguing from Jeremiah 1:5 he wrote:
"How could his soul and its image be formed along with his body, who, before he was created in the womb, is said to be known to God, and was sanctified by Him before birth?" (De Principiis, Vol.1.VII.4)
The doctrine only ceased being discussed when the Second Council of Constantinople, the 5th of 7 councils, in AD 553 declared all those who believed or taught it to be 'anathema' or cursed. Though amongst Protestants Lutherans and most Anglo-Catholics accept all seven councils' pronouncements, and therefore 'officially' reject pre-existentialism, some like Calvinists only accept the first four councils. The history is complex and contentious.
The Church Father Origen supported the doctrine of human pre-existence
What Pre-Existence is Not
The doctrine of pre-existence is distinct from that of Traducianism which holds that the immaterial aspect of man - his 'spirit' or 'soul' is transmitted through natural generation along with the body, which is the material espect of human beings. Traducianism implies that human propagation is therefore of the whole being, material and spiritual, and that therefore an individual's 'soul' or being is exclusively derived from from the being of one (virgin birth) or both parents. This doctrine implies that only the soul (spirit and physical body) of Adam was created directly by Yahweh, since Eve's substance (both material and immaterial) were taken out of Adam.
Traducianism is closely linked to the Soul-Sleeping doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, Armstrongites (the cluser of break-offs from the 'Worldwide Church of God'), Seventh-Day Adventists or many Messianics who do not believe in the existence of a personal human spirit; rather, for them, the essence of man is in his physical body animated by the 'Breath of God' which departs at death leaving humans in a state of non-existence until the resurrection. This is to be distinguished from the a priori evangelical Christian assumption of 'soul creationism' (creationism of the spirit ) which holds that all spirits are created directly by Yahweh - only the material aspect is 're-created' or propagated by the parents.
Messianic Evangelicals are not Traducianists or Soul-Sleepers but Spirit-Creationists and so are closest to orthodox Christianity (Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism). We differ from orthdox Christianity on two counts which believes that:
- 1. The human 'soul' is eternal (we believe it cannot exist outside of Elohim/God and so is conditionally immortal; and
- 2. Man had no spiritual pre-existence (unlike Christ who did) and had no existence of any kind in any state prior to biological conception.
Nor do we hold to the Mormon doctrines of pre-existence (which supposes that both man and matter have always existed alongside Elohim (God) or to the heretical teachings that the 'valiant' spirits of men are desitined to become 'gods' like Yahweh Himself.
The Messianic Evangelical Belief
According to the Bible, Yahweh, the Eternal Father, has always existed, and so has Yah'shua (Jesus). But what of man? Did he have a spiritual existence prior to incarnation as a human being - a pre-mortal life? Has he also always existed or is he a special creation? What is the difference between pre-existence and reincarnation?
We are not, as Mormons teach and as previously stated, co-eternal with Elohim (God) or incarnated with matter that has always existed. Only Yahweh-Elohim (God) is eternal by nature. Aside from the Elohimhead (Godhead) of Father, Son and (Sevenfold) Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), all animated and inanimate matter, which belong to the realm of special Creation external to Elohim (God), had a beginning (though there are those who deny that Yah'shua the Messiah/Jesus Christ had a pre-existence). This is true of malakim (angels) as of mankind and all living creatures. Only Elohim (God) is uncreated and has always existed.
Chronologically, Scripture teaches that the angelic realm pre-existed man. What is in dispute is whether the spiritual essence of man (and indeed all biological life forms, though some would exclude these) comes into existence at the moment of biological conception or whether the moment of conception is an incarnation event, a point in time when an already pre-mortal or pre-existent spirit enters into union with a zygote thus formed by the joining of sperm and egg, remaining in or associated with, this conceptus, only to depart back from whence it came at the moment of physical death. Where we would partially agree with Transducianism is in the idea that parents contribute their psychic energies along with their biological DNA but not their spirit which comes from Elohim (God) alone. It is our understanding, from the little that can be gleaned from Scripture, that man actually partakes of four spheres of existence as represented in the diagram below:
Different biblical authors combine various of these elements depending on their current understanding as many truths recorded in Scripture come about only by the incremental unfolding of light and knowledge. Thus the Tanakh (Old Testament) makes only two distinctions (Spirit and Body/Belem) which constitute a living 'Soul'. The apostle Paul, in the Greek translation, subdivides each human being 'Spirit' into three elements, "spirit, soul (Heb. nefesh), and body" (1 Thess.5:23, NKJV), using (in the Greek version) 'soul' as representative of the psyche or Hebrew nefesh but making no distinction between neshamah ('higher' spirit) and ruach ('lower' spirit). Unfortunately, the Hebrews did not have a clear understanding of the various components in consequence of which many of the words thus used to create various theologies are tenuous at best as many of these words are used interchageably - see our very earliest study from 1987, The Bible Teaching on 'Soul'.
Obviously a pre-existence doctrine for mankind does not work for those comitted to 'soul-sleeping', a reason why at the very minimum it is important to at least clearly understand that the human spirit is not just the 'breath of God' but also the seat of his personality. So long as Yahweh exists, so do does the spirit of man, so we may say that the life of the spirit of man is in proportion to the degree of union he has with Elohim (God) which is a function of many things (see Salvation, Sanctification, Justification and Righteousness). One thing the Bible does not teach is that Yahweh will one day extinguish forever those souls who do not meet some criterion for spiritual life. Messianic Evangelicals are therefore not Annihilationists.
Endnotes
[1] R.Moore, Pre-existance in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James hastings (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York: 1919), Vol. 10, p.236
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