What Was Our Level Of Intelligence And Knowledge In Premortal Life?

[Peppermint Patty]

D&C 93:29 tells us, "Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be." (also refer Abr 3:18)

I had a really sweet opportunity this last month to attend my niece’s Patriarchal Blessing. My niece is a very gentle, sweet and kind soul. She was also born with Down Syndrome. She is very creative and loves learning, but obviously she has severe limitations in doing so.

In her blessing, she was told that she was a “noble one” in the pre-existence and even “assisted in creating the earth”. This started me thinking if there is any knowledge that we could possibly learn here on earth that we didn’t already know in the pre-existence.

I think most of us had great knowledge (far surpassing any knowledge available on earth) before we were born into this world—sufficient to assist in creating the heavens and the earth. After all, we lived with God, and learned, directly from Him for countless eons in the premortal world.

I know that we are taught that the Glory of God is Intelligence, and whatever Principle of Intelligence we attain in this life will rise with us in the Resurrection. What is the difference between knowledge and intelligence? I have a hard time believing that my graduate degree will be of any assistance in the next life, or any knowledge that I can obtain here.

Any thoughts?

[selek1]

I suspect that this goes to the difference between "wisdom" and "learning".

Men think that when they are learned, they are wise- and very often it just ain't so.

There's also a vast difference between booksmarts and first hand-experience, between knowing something "in theory" and having lived it.

If memory serves, you are a mother.

Did your prenatal courses and any babysitting experiences prepare you for the reality of giving birth and then holding your child in your arms?

We might have understood the theory of mortality in the preexistence- but we needed to (pun intended) "live it" in order to fully comprehend.

Edited February 13, 2012 by selek1

[Peppermint Patty]

I suspect that this goes to the difference between "wisdom" and "learning".

Men think that when they are learned, they are wise- and very often it just ain't so.

There's also a vast difference between booksmarts and first hand-experience, between knowing something "in theory" and having lived it.

If memory serves, you are a mother.

Did your prenatal courses and any babysitting experiences prepare you for the reality of giving birth and then holding your child in your arms?

We might have understood the theory of mortality in the preexistence- but we needed to (pun intended) "live it" in order to fully comprehend.

Great comment, Selek. Yes, no amount of babysitting prepared me for motherhood.

I'm sure that during the eons and eons that we lived with, and learned from God, that we had many hands on experiences.

Do you think there is any secular learning here on earth that we didn't already know in the pre-existence? I'm guessing that even the least intelligent spirit in the pre-existence knew far more than Einstein, Newton, Gallileo or Stephen Hawking combined.

[The Nehor]

I suspect we knew more about very different things. I for one want to get out of this dung heap and get on with combining the two.

[ERayR]

I am pretty sure I made genius level.

[Maidservant]

We came here for the knowledge of good from evil . . . which as has already been mentioned, is a "live it" sort of knowledge. The knowledge of good from evil in its fullness is also known as charity, something that must be obtained by experience. We came here to obtain seed (children) also, not available to us previously. I do not equate the term information and knowledge in my vocabulary. I suspect we had all information or at least access to all information (the celestial version of the internet). We did not come here to get information. We came here to know ourselves, know others, and to know God. We came here to have the fulness of the Father revealed to us (and endowed upon us), which fulness involves a struggle: a fall, a redemption.

[inquiringmind]

I suspect we knew more about very different things. I for one want to get out of this dung heap and get on with combining the two.

You said that well.

[rodheadlee]

One reason we came here was to suffer pain and learn compassion.

[Storm Rider]

I had a really sweet opportunity this last month to attend my niece’s Patriarchal Blessing. My niece is a very gentle, sweet and kind soul. She was also born with Down Syndrome. She is very creative and loves learning, but obviously she has severe limitations in doing so.

In her blessing, she was told that she was a “noble one” in the pre-existence and even “assisted in creating the earth”. This started me thinking if there is any knowledge that we could possibly learn here on earth that we didn’t already know in the pre-existence.

I think most of us had great knowledge (far surpassing any knowledge available on earth) before we were born into this world—sufficient to assist in creating the heavens and the earth. After all, we lived with God, and learned, directly from Him for countless eons in the premortal world.

I know that we are taught that the Glory of God is Intelligence, and whatever Principle of Intelligence we attain in this life will rise with us in the Resurrection. What is the difference between knowledge and intelligence? I have a hard time believing that my graduate degree will be of any assistance in the next life, or any knowledge that I can obtain here.

Any thoughts?

Patty, I think there is more than one reason for the 13th Article of Faith. On another hand, one of the purposes of this life is to learn how to merge a physical body with the spirit body in such a way that carnal desires do not overwhelm the whole; that they are kept in subjucation to the will fo the spirit. We are learning things on various levels and all will be useful in the eternities.

[CV75]

this started me thinking if there is any knowledge that we could possibly learn here on earth that we didn’t already know in the pre-existence.

What is the difference between knowledge and intelligence?

I believe that, however advanced, a spirit still lacks the knowledge and intelligence of being and functioning as a soul, and especially a soul that is inseparably connected in the resurrection (D&C 88:15; 93:33).

In the resurrection, the spirit will have the knowledge and intelligence from the pre-mortal life (assuming it hasn’t been lost or taken away through disobedience), additional knowledge and intelligence gained by functioning faithfully in a fallen world with a physical mortal body, and the glory/light/intelligence granted him by God’s grace in the kingdom he inherits (the fullness of joy he is willing to receive).

I believe the scriptures show that, on one level, knowledge is information and skill, regardless of how it is applied (Ether 8:9 vs. D& 88:49). Intelligence, however, is always aligned with truth as explained in D&C 93. While “truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” knowledge is not necessarily truth because it can be of things as they are not, and as they were not, and as they are not to come (2 Timothy 3:7).

[thesometimesaint]

Whatever we learned in the former life is not accessable to us in this.one. The veil of forgetfullness is a blessing to see for ourselves what we will be.

[CV75]

Whatever we learned in the former life is not accessable to us in this.one. The veil of forgetfullness is a blessing to see for ourselves what we will be.

I find this interesting in that it is often said that there are certain traits, talents or other qualities that come with us from the pre-mortal experience that contribute to our fulfilling foreordained roles (Alma 13:5, Abraham 3:22,23, Abraham 3:27). I'm not sure if these things qualify as "knowledge" in the traditional sense, but they must somehow be propelled from behind the veil into our personality or consciousness in this life, and so on some level they seem to represent information and skills inherent in our spirits and carried with us into this life from the pre-mortal life.

[Nofear]

Also, to CV75's list we can add D&C 138:56

Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.

Personally, I am of the mind that much in the same way that the "same spirit with doth possess" my body will be the same spirit that exists after death -- the same principle applies to before birth.

[thesometimesaint]

CV75:

I don't know. My feeling is that basic personality type(what we came with) really isn't accessable. For instance I'm basically a pessimist by personality type. But I've learned enough in this life to deal effectively with it.

Edited February 13, 2012 by thesometimesaint

[CV75]

Also, to CV75's list we can add D&C 138:56

Personally, I am of the mind that much in the same way that the "same spirit with doth possess" my body will be the same spirit that exists after death -- the same principle applies to before birth.

I agree; I keep going back one basic definition of man, that “man is spirit” (D&C 93:33). I am spirit, clothed in flesh, but basically spirit, the same spirit that existed before, as you point out.

[CV75]

CV75:

I don't know. My feeling is that basic personality type(what we came with) really isn't accessable. For instance I'm basically a pessimist by personality type. But I've learned enough in this life to deal effectively with it.

In the right time and place, a pessimistic personality is really a valuable asset and might be considered a talent developed in the pre-mortal life!

Also, perhaps a more fundamental personality type is the one that drives a person to learn to deal effectively with the more superficial one. Practically speaking, I would say that dealing effectively (harnessing, leveraging and channeling our talent for the Lord's glory) is what counts.

[rpn]

What we knew is of course speculation. But spirits cannot know a lot of things without the body, which has the sensory mechanisms and allows touch and smell and hearing (I tend to think that spirits have sight, but maybe not the same kind of sight, before birth.) For instance, we all know that we can have a testimony of fasting, but not have enough control over our bodies to actually fast regularly and happily as we are taught to do. It is one thing to talk about losing a child to death, and quite another to experience it. I happen to think that when we agreed to come to earth, we had no way to know how very hard it would be sometimes to honor agency generally and specifically when it has been used for evil. Etc.

[ERayR]

Whatever we learned in the former life is not accessable to us in this.one. The veil of forgetfullness is a blessing to see for ourselves what we will be.

Not my experience. My experience tends more towards Wordsworth when he speaks of coming to Earth trailing clouds of glory.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 60 Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come 65 From God, who is our home:

Edited February 14, 2012 by ERayR