Ensign, “A More Determined Discipleship”, February 1979, pg 70; “…not being ashamed of the of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ…In some ways, our second estate, in relationship to our first estate, is like agreeing in advance to surgery. Then the anesthetic of forgetfulness settles in upon us. Just as doctors do not de-anesthetize a patient in the midst of authorized surgery to ask him again if the surgery should be continued, so, after divine tutoring, we agreed to come here and to submit ourselves to certain experiences; it was an irrevocable decision.” – Neal A. Maxwell
2 Timothy 1:9-10; “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
The Bible is very clear and never misleading – PTL for that! Mormons like to believe and subsequently teach that the soul of man is immortal.
Smith taught that before the earth was created God “came down in the midst of souls” (Abraham 3:21-23) and discovered himself amongst pre-existent souls and that some were “noble and great ones”, meaning Lucifer, Jesus, Abraham Joseph Smith and a few others.
From this passage we learn the soul of man is eternal (according to Joseph Smith) and God had nothing to do with creating man or the soul of man.
So when we’re witnessing to our Mormon friends and loved ones we need to be loving, but also very clear and truthful about teachings such as these.
Man is not immortal. The immortality of man can be a gift to us from God, but only God is immortal. We can gain eternal life through His Son when we believe in Him and then our life from the time of heaven onward becomes immortal or eternal. However, man is subject to death here on earth, thus negating the idea that we’re immortal.
Holman Bible Dictionary lists pre-existence of souls and then refers the reader to the definition of immortality. You can read their submission for this here;
“Thus, eternal life is not ours because we have the inherent power to live forever; eternal life and immortality are ours only because God chooses to give them to us. Most of the time, we are given immortality after death. Those who did escape death—Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:10-11)—did so only by the power of God and not by some inherent power they had to live forever.”
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