Knowledge and a body

1. Protestant Christians, Catholic Christians, Muslims, and Jews, do not believe that we, as children of God, had a pre-mortal existence. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is absolutely alone in this doctrine! The third paragraph starts out with a declaration about the pre-mortal realm. It states that each one of us (a) "knew and worshiped God as our Eternal Father"; and (b) that we "accepted His plan". The doctrine of pre-mortality is one of those plain and precious truths lost during the apostasy.
   • Why would Satan be so concerned with eliminating the knowledge about pre-mortality? 
   • Satan's goal is to lead God's children astray from the wondrous plan God has for them. I think that an easy way to lead them off would be to show that there is no purpose in this life and it is only by accident that we are all here and apart of this world for only a brief time. If we have knowledge of the premortal life and hope for a life after this then suddenly we want to be good. Without that knowledge and understanding of more in this life there would be no inherent purpose in being a good person just because you "feel nice". It would be so much easier for the devil to then convince other to do things that are evil and to live a life that would be contrary to popular believe when it comes to being a good person. 
2. Please reflect on why it was so important that we obtain a physical body. It is one of the primary purposes of why you came to earth.
   • Joseph Smith said, "We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The devil has no body, and herein is his punishment. He is pleased when he can obtain the tabernacle of man, and when cast out by the Savior he asked to go into the herd of swine, showing that he would prefer a swine's body to having none" (Joseph Smith, Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Alma P. Burton, p.82).
   • Why do you think that the great principle of happiness consists in having a body?
   • Obtaining a physical body is beneficial to us because we wanted to become like God in every way that we could. One thing that he had that we didn't was this perfect body, he understood our desire for that and for happiness but just as is says in 2 Nephi 2:23 "And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin." We needed to know pain and suffering to understand happiness and joy. We knew what life without a body was like and we were going to appreciate it so much more when we had one. This scripture also reminds me of last week when I couldn't walk, I had a horrible spasm that happened which caused my body to fall to the ground and I couldn't move my legs. When I was able to walk after about 36 hours on my own I was truly thankful for that simple thing. I think that we knew before this life what it was like to live without a body and give the opportunity to listen to good we were ecstatic to have the opportunity to revive a body and have it for eternity.