According to LDS is there a fixed and finite number of human beings?
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> D&C 93:29 Man was also in the beginning with God.
It has been presented in the comments here that one LDS belief is that "*there was never a point where we did not exist. We grow & develop, but do not begin or cease to exist.*" I do not know if this is an official LDS doctrine or simply the personal belief of one studied LDS adherent. Perhaps that is question #1.
Follow-up questions would be:
#2 Does this belief indicate the eternal existence of each specific, individual human being or some sort of notional existence of each or of mankind as a whole?
#2a Prior to birth on earth is each human being spirit only?
#3 If so, was there a fixed and finite number of spirit human beings in existence prior to creation?
#3a If so, does depleting this number through the process of birth on earth usher in the end of the age?
#3b If not, does the end of the age leave some number of human beings bereft of a body for the rest of eternity?
* Apologies if I have not formulated very clear questions but this subject matter is not something I have ever entertained before and I have tried to be careful to limit the battery of questions that exploded into view :-)
An ancillary question underneath or over top of this all would be; Is there any Biblical substantiation to this doctrine in the LDS view or is this purely new revelation?
Related questions:
https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/62287/lds-belief-in-pre-existence-of-the-human-person-vs-human-physical-deformities
https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/4620/what-does-the-lds-church-teach-about-the-pre-existence-of-each-person-prior-to-c
Asked by Mike Borden
(24105 rep)
Sep 13, 2022, 12:23 PM
Last activity: Sep 17, 2022, 03:30 AM
Last activity: Sep 17, 2022, 03:30 AM