A Mormon Woman's Reflections on Life and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

This first question was posed by Scott, a writer on the St. Louis Civil Religion Blog, and I thought it merited attention here as well. The question was, “Do you believe in reincarnation?” The blog author made the astute observation that the Savior saved us, and that the idea of reincarnation suggests a multiple need for multiple saves, so to speak.

Scott remarked:

“More importantly, I cannot square it with my faith in Christ. Does Jesus save, or not? If Jesus saves, I don’t think it would be good enough to do it after 1000 lives. What would he be waiting for?”

Scot himself does not believe in reincarnation, but wondered about those who suggest they have some recall of pre-earth life events.

For anyone asking the same question, here’s my own short response.

Trailing Clouds of Glory

Thanks for your post. You’re right, many recall things from a time before this mortal life. I just finished reading a compilation of first-hand accounts of those who believe they recall some of their premortal experiences. Their descriptions are remarkably similar. The unanswered questions about a a pre-earth life time have led many to construct the idea that we must have come to earth before in some other form–i.e. that we are reincarnated. However, there is another explanation to which I personally adhere (and which is Mormon belief) that accounts for those moments and experiences–recollections of a former time (even Wordsworth alluded it, saying we come “trailing clouds of glory”)–and which reveals so much more.

We actually are eternal beings, and our spirits (our intelligence, the core of who we are without the physical element added upon us) lived pre-mortally with our families and with God and the Savior. We are literally “children” of God. We have eternal parents. In that realm, we progressed to a point. We had the opportunity to come to the earth and gain a body, which is necessary to experience opposition and to prove ourselves as we act on our own agency out of the direct presence of God, but with His influence to guide us.

There is a veil of forgetfulness, if you will, that comes with our birth, but we retain, as spirit children of God, the ability to communicate with Him and respond to His influence, just as children are born with the innate ability to speak which develops over time. Some recall moments in that premortal realm. The veil can be thinned, so to speak, at certain times in our lives. But there is only one mortal experience for each of us, and compared with the eons of time we lived before and that we will live after this life, this space is small, like a dot on a long piece of string. The consequences of our lives, though, are eternal. We chose to come, to follow the Savior’s plan for our progression–which centers in His atoning sacrifice for our sins–and now we have the opportunity to walk the talk, to find Him in faith and follow Him. The rewards come here, in many ways, but in many more ways, they will come when we are resurrected and then have both our spirit and a perfected glorified body, which is required for a fulness of joy. So reincarnation takes a piece of the truth and wraps it around a myth. Thanks for letting me share this. I invite sincere questions and comments.

Please feel free to visit lds.org or mormonbeliefs.org for additional information as well.

Tags: body, civil religion blog, lds.org, life before, Mormon beliefs, mormon premortal life, mormonbeliefs.org, Mormons, purpose of life, reincarnation, spirit, st. louis blog, who are we, why are we here

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Life Notes, Questions & Answers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.