Pre-existence
The footnotes in Mr. Monson’s teaching above listed two verses from John’s gospel as proof for the pre-existence or premortal life of man. So let’s take a look at what he said, those footnotes from the Apostle John and their context to show how the LDS interpretation and theory doesn’t fit.
John 6:62; “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?”
John 3:13; “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”
In the sixth chapter of John we find Jesus questioning His own disciples who were fixin’ to walk out on Him because of His teachings in the synagogue about partaking of His flesh and blood. He asked them in vss 61-63 if what He had said offended them and said if that offended them then what are they going to think when they see Him ascending into heaven from where He came.
Now from ONE verse Joseph Smith, Thomas Monson and everyone else in Mormonism has erroneously taught that man existed with God before coming here to earth.
Dr. Walter Martin’s teachings are in agreement with all other reputable theologians when he said the cults will build an entire doctrine upon one verse in the Bible. This is a classic example of that!
In John chapter three we see the more well known passage of when Nicodemus was questioning Jesus about being born again. Let’s look back just a few verses into the text and see what’s going on.
Jesus told Nicodemus in order to enter the kingdom of heaven he must be born again vs 5. As we read on in the exchange Jesus asks him if He talks to him about earthly things and he (Nicodemus) doesn’t understand how would he ever understand the heavenly things.
Then in vs 13 Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one has gone to heaven except for He (meaning Jesus) that came down from there. The implication here is that Jesus, the Son of man is the only man who was in heaven before the earth came into being.
There’s nothing tricky in His teaching and nothing hidden. He alone resided there because He’s God and He alone is the only One that has descended from heaven.
Again, we see how the Mormon Church has taken one verse and built a doctrine upon it. They’ve taken this verse out of context, misinterpreted its meaning and tried to pigeon-hole it into something it’s not.