The Prophetic Telegraph - No.104
PRE-EXISTENCE
(PART FIVE)
FINAL THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
We have some very fine
Christian friends of many years standing, men and women whose integrity is
without question, and whose love and care has been afforded us time and again.
Differences of understanding on odd points of Biblical interpretation hove
never demolished the trust and care we have for each other. And this has been
said as a prelude to one such point - the subject of SOUL SLEEP. The fact that
they believe in it and we do not will make the reading of these papers on
pre-existence a possible bone of contention, but we are assured that if will
make no difference to our fellowship. Indeed, we all aspire to 'keep
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace'
Advocates of SOUL SLEEP
take texts like Psalm 115:17 as definitive.
"The dead praise not the Lord, neither any
that go down into silence"
Or Eccles.9:5
"The living know that they shall die, but
the dead know nothing, neither have they any reward, for their memory is
forgotten."
Or again, Psalm 88:10-12
"Will You show wonders to the dead? Shall
the Rephaim [i.e. fhe fallen angels] arise and praise You? Shall Your
lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or Your faithfulness in Abaddon?
[meaning 'destruction'] Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your
righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?"
Taken on face value, these
texts would seem to indicate that after death we are in a state of sleep until
fhe resurrection, hence fhe expression SOUL SLEEP. But our own
understanding is that these verses give only a limited view of things. Just as
our pre-existence theme has continually suggested a veil of forgetfulness as we
come to fhe earth, so with many there will be another such veil of
forgetfulness at the point of death. As Psalm 31:17 declares,
"Let the wicked be ashamed; let them be
silent in Sheol"
And Psalm
"The wicked shall return to Sheol, even
all the nations that forget God."
And Hezekiah, faced with
imminent death, cried to the Lord, saying
"Sheol cannot praise You, death cannot
celebrate You. Those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for Your truth.'"(lsa.38:19)
There is a strong
suggestion that only the wicked dead are in such a condition, a state referred
to by our Lord as OUTER DARKNESS, and if it is
"outer" then it is excluded from somewhere that is "inner",
and if it is "darkness" then it is the antithesis of
"light", and such light may very well be a figurative expression for
truth and knowledge, thereby explaining Hezekiah's words. He must have reviewed
his past life and recognised failure, and saw the Lord's words to him as a
final judgment. He asked for an extension of life to enable him to show God a
new faithfulness and then to die in accordance with other texts.
As an example, we quote
freely from the O.T. Apocrypha, feeling that its expressions are a sure guide
to Hebrew thought and knowledge of those days. Take for example Wisdom 3:1
"The righteous souls are in the hand of
God, and there shall no torment touch them."
And again,
'They are in peace - - their hope is full of
immortality - - in the time of their visitation they shall shine forth - - they
shall judge nations and have dominion over peoples, and the Lord shall reign
over them for ever." (Wisdom 3:3-8)
Another example may be
found in Wisdom 4:7
"A righteous man, though he die before his
time, shall be at rest."
The "rest' spoken of
here is not "sleep" any more than the children of
"The righteous man perishes and no man
lays it to head, and godly men are taken away, none considering that they are
snatched from the evil to come. He enters his peace; they rest in their beds;
each one walks straight before Him."
Notice here -
"peace", "rest", and "walking", all epithets of
the after-death slate. Contrast this with Wisdom 4:19
"But the wicked shall be in perpetual
desolation, they shall be in anguish, and their memory shall perish."
What shall perish? Their
MEMORY! Total amnesia of that which could bring them hope - until the Lord
intervenes. Surely this is portrayed by our Lord when He spoke about the rich
man and Lazarus. There was a great gulf of separation between them. The rich
man was tormented by the recollection of his own past folly, and the flame was
burning that organ which had been the most responsible for his waywardness -
the tongue. But no water was allowed. He had to endure the results of his folly.
It is our own understanding that this great gulf was fixed, not for eternity,
but until God decides to close it. Judicially it has already been accomplished,
as the old chorus put it -
Oh the love that drew salvation's plan,
Oh the grace, that brought it down to man,
Oh the MIGHTY GULF THAT GOD DID SPAN, at
Mercy there was great, and grace was free,
Pardon there was multiplied to me,
There my burdened soul found liberty, At
It is our strong belief
that a time will come, after the close of God's
Getting back to the issue
of pre-existence, we see immediately the necessity to have investigated soul
sleep, because if it has the ring of truth, then ALL cases of after-death
experience would have to be spurious, no better or more informative than the
wierd dreams that we all have during sleep. But the growing catalogue of
case-histories, running into thousands, tells quite a different story. Men and
women, young people and children, all have similar accounts to tell, whether they
be from backgrounds as diverse as Buddhists from Christians, as Red Indians
from Zulus, or atheists from God-fearing souls. Dr Raymond Moody speaks of
Betty Eadie's account as "the most profound and complete
near-death experience ever." Prior to this, George Ritchie's
experience, told in "Return from Tomorrow" was
probably the most revealing. More recently, the testimony of Ian McCormack in
"A Glimpse of Eternity" has held us all spell-bound as we
watched his Video. Some of our readers have read Betty Eadie's book, "Embraced
by the Light," and we have already had correspondence relating to
the issues she raised. But perhaps most of those who are now reading these
pages will not have had this opportunity, or indeed the time, to have read the
book. We still wish to encourage a thorough reading, if only to obtain the
"feel" of her amazing story, and what it did for her when returning
from the dead.
However, certain quotations
from the book will be apposite in this final number on pre-existence. Betty is
the daughter of a Sioux Indian mother, and she has eight children. The account
of her death relates back to November 1973 when she was 31 years of age, and in
hospital awaiting a hysterectomy operation. After actually dying, the first
thing that was revealed to her concerned her own family. She saw them back at
home, and relates her feelings thus -
"As I watched them individually, a preview
of sorts ran through my mind about them, enabling me to see ahead into each of
their lives. I came to know that each of my children was on earth for their own
experiences, that although I had thought of them as "mine", I had
been mistaken. They were individual spirits, like myself, with an intelligence
that was developed before their lives on earth. Each one had their own free
will to live their life as they chose. I knew that this free will should not be
denied them. They had only been placed in my care. I knew that my children had
their own life agendas and that when they had completed them, they too would end
their stay on earth."
How important a revelation.
How important for each one of us, to know that our children are only
"lent" for a season, with a heavy burden of responsibility placed on
our shoulders to present them back to the Lord by the time they have reached
the age of discretion, and never to look upon them as our POSSESSIONS. The fact
that all of us were independent freely created spirits before coming to this
earth goes to reinforce our individuality, and realise that we belong ONLY to
God as Creator. All the relationships that obtain on earth in families should
go to enhance this truth, and help us to relate to God as Father. As Jesus said
to His disciples, "Call no man your father upon the earth, for One
is your Father who is in heaven." (Matt.23:9) We are not
advocating that children should cease calling their parents Mummy and Daddy,
but rather understanding the tenor of what the Lord meant by these words.
The next point that Betty
makes concerns her meeting with the Lord Jesus, and in her words,
"I knew that I had known Him from the
beginning, from long before my earth life, because my spirit REMEMBERED
Him."
And then she said,
"Things were coming back to me from long
before my life on earth, things that had been purposely blocked from me by a
"veil" of forgetfulness at my birth."
She went on to say how she
learned that many different situations had been allowed to develop on earth,
even different religions, and that, as she put it,
"There IS a fullness of the gospel, but
most people will not attain it here. In order to grasp this truth, we need to
listen to the Spirit and let go of our egos."
On contemplating the
purpose of life on earth, she was taken back to the creation and witnessed a
replay! This is how she described it.
"I REMEMBERED the creation of the earth. I
actually experienced it as if it were being re-enacted before my eyes. This was
important. Jesus wanted me to internalise this knowledge. He wanted me to know
how I felt when the creation occurred. And the only way to do that was for me
to view it again and FEEL what I had felt before. All people as spirits in the
pre-mortal world took part in the creation of the earth. We were thrilled to be
part of it. We were with God , and we knew that He created us, that we were His
very own children."
The next lesson was about
pre-mortal planning.
"Each spirit who was to come to earth
assisted in planning the conditions on earth, including the laws of mortality
which would govern us. These included the laws of physics as we know them, the
limitations of our bodies, and spiritual powers that we would be able to
access."
Further to this thought was
the following -
"I was told by the Saviour that the spirit
creation could be compared to one of our photographic prints; the spirit
creation would be like a sharp, brilliant print, and the earth would be like
its dark negative. This earth is only a shadow of the beauty and glory of its
spirit creation, but it is what we needed for our growth. It was important that
I understand that we all assisted in creating our conditions here."
She continued,
"I saw that in the pre-mortal world we
knew about and even chose our missions in life. I understood that our stations
in life are based upon the objectives of those missions. Through divine
knowledge we knew what many of our tests and experiences would be, and we
prepared accordingly."
Remember how we spoke about
Judas Iscariot, and how ill-advised he was in asking to come to the earth at
that time and for the purpose he so strongly demanded. Truly "it
would have been better for him had he not been born". [i.e. born
at that time etc.] Betty continued on this theme, -
"God made the promise that He wouldn't
intervene in our lives UNLESS WE ASKED HIM. And then through His omniscient knowledge
He would help us attain our righteous desires. We were grateful for this
ability to express our free will and to exercise its power. This would allow
each of us to obtain great joy or to choose that which will bring us sadness.
The choice would be ours through our decisions."
In returning to the theme
of creation she said that
"upon receiving the plan of creation, we
sang in rejoicing and were filled with God's love."
Doesn't this remind us of
the verse in Job 38:7 quoted before, about the creation of the earth, "when
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
Of great value and instruction is what Betty had to say next.
"In the spirit world no one is made to
feel uncomfortable by being forced to do or accept things for which they are
not prepared. Patience is a natural attribute there. I'll never forget the
Lord's sense of humour, which was as delightful and quick as any here - far
more so. Nobody could out-do His humour. He is filled with perfect happiness,
perfect goodwill. There is a softness and grace in His presence, and I had no
doubt that He is a perfect man. I KNEW Him, His spirit, His feelings, His
concern for me. I felt His kinship with me, and I knew that we were family. I
felt that His relationship to me was both like a father and an older brother.
He was close to me, but there was also an element of authority. He was tender
and good natured, but also responsible. I knew with a sure knowledge that He
would never misuse His authority, that He would never even desire to do
so."
Another important passage,
later in the book, concerns our earth life. She writes as follows:-
"I was told that our prayers can benefit
both spiritual beings as well as persons on the earth, if there is reason to
fear for a departed person's spirit, if there is reason to believe their
transition may be difficult or unwanted, we can pray for them and enlist
spiritual help. They [i.e. her ministering angels] told me that it is important
for us to acquire knowledge of the spirit while we are in the flesh. The more
knowledge we acquire here, the further and faster we will progress there.
Because of lack of knowledge or belief, some spirits are virtual prisoners of
this earth. Some who die as atheists, or those who have bonded to the world
through greed, bodily appetites, or other earthly commitments find it difficult
to move on, and they become earth-bound. They often lack the faith and power to
reach for, or in some cases even to recognise, energy and light that pulls us
toward God.
These spirits stay on the earth until they
learn to accept the greater power around them and let go of the world. When I
was in the black mass before moving towards the light, I felt the presence of
such lingering spirits. They reside there as long as they want to in its love
and warmth, accepting its healing influence, but eventually they learn to move
on to accept the greater warmth and security of God. Of all knowledge, however,
there is none more essential than knowing Jesus Christ. I was told that He is the
door through which we will ALL return. He is the only door through which we CAN
return. Whether we learn of Jesus Christ here or while in the spirit, we must
eventually accept Him and surrender to His love."
Near the end of her story,
Betty had this to say,
"A time was established for each of us to
complete our earthly education. Some spirits would come only to be born, to
give experience to others and then pass quickly out of this world. Some would
live to an old age to complete their goals and benefit others by allowing them
opportunities to serve. Some would come to be our leaders or followers, our
soldiers, or our rich or poor, and the purpose for their coming would be to
provide situations and relationships that would allow us to learn to love. All
who would be led into our paths would lead us to our ultimate achievement. We
were to be tested under challenging conditions to see how we would live the
most important commandment of all - to love one another."
"During this view of the pre-mortal
existence I was impressed by the beauty and glory of each spirit. I knew that I
had been there before, that each of us had, and that we had been filled with
light and beauty. Then the thought came to me, referring to us all, 'If you
could see yourself before you were born, you would be amazed at your
intelligence and glory. Birth is a sleep and a forgetting.'"
And with that, we will
close this chapter. The brief quotes from Betty Eadie should have been
sufficient to whet the appetites of our readers, to want to see the whole of
her book.
One thoughtful
correspondent wrote to us with a word of caution, saying that she had learned
that Betty Eadie had connections with the Mormon Church at some stage of her
life, and this may have coloured her testimony, knowing that the Mormons also
believe in pre-existence. I obtained information from a friend about this, and
will now quote what is printed on one of the Mormon leaflets entitled
"Eternal progression."
PREMORTAL LIFE
Many people have wondered, 'Did we exist before
our birth? Why are we here on earth? Where will we go after death?' The answers
to these questions have been revealed by our Father in Heaven. We are literally
His children. We lived with Him as spirits before we were born. We were
individuals and were created in the image of our Father.
Various Scriptural quotes
are then given, ones that we have had occasion to refer to ourselves, together
with a text from one of their own books
And so we conclude this
series of five papers on the subject, and hope that they will be received with
interest and an enlargement of faith. May the Lord enable each one of us to
know where we stand in relation to the subject of pre-existence, and how the
knowledge should affect our lives.
[Once again, we ask our
readers to correspond with us on these important issues. Our purpose is not
that of the philosophers on Mars Hill, always looking for "some new
thing" to toss around in conversation, but rather to approach any new
issue that may arise and research it to see whether it holds some vital truth
to stimulate our faith, and help us in our daily walk. Please may we therefore
have some feedback on this issue. Thank you.]