Mortal Messiah 1:29; “How long did Adam and Abraham and Jeremiah (and all men!) spend in preparing to take the test of a mortal probation? What ages and eons and eternities passed away while Christ dwelt in the Eternal Presence and did the work then assigned him? How can we measure infinite duration in finite terms? To such questions we have no definitive answers. Suffice it to say, the passage of time was infinite from man’s viewpoint. We have an authentic account, which can be accepted as true, that life has been going on in this system for almost 2,555,000,000 years. Presumably this system is the universe (or whatever scientific term is applicable) created by the Father through the instrumentality of the Son.” – Bruce McConkie
Psalm 139:13-14; “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
If God created man in the womb and Paul told us there’s no life before you got here to earth (1 Cor 15:44-47), then what is this guy talking about? What does the reference in Psalm mean if we lived for 2.5 million years before we got here?
You need not wonder where Mr. McConkie retrieved his information because in the footnote for the 2.5 billion years he had a lot to say (see note below). What’s so disheartening is how he implies you needn’t worry with the standard Mormon answer; “I’ll find out when I get there”. The leaders know more than the average man so you as a mere follower just have to accept what they say. In turn, the member typically answers “I’ll find out when I get there”.
That statement has always reminded me of Scarlett O’Hara’s response to Rhett Butler, “after all, tomorrow’s another day”. And unfortunately it’s always the answer my mother gives me when I ask her about the discrepancies in Mormon teachings – oh that’s for another day and I’ll find out when I get there. She’s right, she’ll find out when she gets there and my heart breaks every time she says it.
Just accepting the words of these men isn’t having faith in God – it means you’ve placed your faith in the hands of men. God would never tell us to just suck it up and believe what Moses said because Moses said he had a vision.
Footnote: “All of the prophets who have seen within the veil have known many things that were never preserved and passed on to their posterity and to the residue of men. Joseph Smith and the early brethren in this dispensation knew much that we do not know and will not know until we attain the same spiritual stature that was theirs. This matter of how long eternity has been going on in our portion of created things is one of these matters. The sliver of information that has been preserved for us is found in an epistle of W. W. Phelps, written on Christmas day, 1844, and published to the Church in the Times and Seasons.”
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