Question from a reader:
I’m reading Randy’s book Heaven. My question is, when does the soul enter the body?
An acquaintance of ours died tragically. His wife is pregnant with their baby. Is the soul of the baby in Heaven with his father until the mother gives birth? Or was the soul in the body when it was conceived so it’s always been with the body? I’ve often heard people say that your person in Heaven held your baby before he or she was born.
My granddaughter never met my mom, but my daughter was pregnant with her when my mom died. She has this sense of closeness to my mother and cries because she never saw her face here on Earth. Was her soul in Heaven with my mom for several months before she was born, and that’s why they are so close?
Answer from Stephanie Anderson, EPM staff:
I’m responding on Randy’s behalf. Thanks for sharing and for your questions. How tragic for that family; may the Lord comfort his wife and children as they grieve.
When people say something like, “Your loved one in Heaven held your baby before she/he was born,” I’m sure they are trying to provide well-meaning comfort. But this sentiment is not supported by Scripture. The Bible does not teach that human souls are in Heaven prior to a child being conceived and born. Here’s what Randy writes related to this topic:
The unbiblical doctrine of pre-existence is taught by the Mormon Church:
“We were first begotten as spirit babies in heaven and then born naturally on earth” (Journal of Discourse, Vol. 4, p. 218).
“Life for you did not begin here on earth. You lived before you were born; you will live on in the spirit world after your mortal life is ended.” “We all once lived in the presence of God the eternal father. In the world before you were a spirit child of his. With this divine parentage, your destiny, through righteous living, is to become like your Father in Heaven and return to his presence” (The Mormon Purpose of Life Pamphlet handed out at the Temple on BYU campus).
“In your life before birth, before the earth was created God presented a plan to his children for their advancement. You were free to accept or reject this plan of salvation. Those spirit children who accepted his plan were given the opportunity to live on earth; those who rejected his plan were not privileged to enter mortality” (Mormon Purpose of Life Pamphlet). [See more on this at http://letusreason.org/LDS24.htm]
The Bible disagrees (each passage is followed by my comment):
Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature (Genesis 2:7).
Adam didn’t come from Heaven to Earth, but was created on Earth, from the earth. That we all sinned in Adam is a Bible doctrine dependent on the fact that we come from Adam, not from elsewhere, and certainly not from Heaven (Romans 5:12-21).
But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
Note that not only was the first man from the earth, but so are all other people. Only Christ is “from heaven.”
He who comes from above [Jesus] is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. (John 3:31).
Christ alone came to Earth from Heaven; other human beings do not.
Jesus said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world (John 8:23).
The teaching that we too came to Earth from Heaven undercuts the uniqueness of Christ’s claim to be the only human who has done this.
So when does the soul enter the body? Randy also writes, “The Scriptures teach the psychosomatic unity of the whole person—body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Wherever there is a genetically distinct living human being, there is a living soul and spirit.”
Just as God breathed into Adam’s body and he became a living soul, so when He creates an unborn child, he or she has both a living soul and a body from the very beginning. It’s such a beautiful mystery we’ll never understand this side of Heaven, but how amazing to think of God’s intimate involvement with every conceived child! (See Psalm 139.) Each one is precious to Him. (For those who claim that an unborn child doesn’t receive a soul until a specific given point other than conception, the burden of proof really is on them. It then becomes subjective and arbitrary.)
That’s very sweet to hear of your granddaughter’s love for her great grandmother. Since, as we shared above, her soul didn’t exist in Heaven prior to her conception, I would say that such a love and connection is a gift from our heavenly Father. Just as we can be homesick for Heaven, a place we’ve never been, couldn’t we also miss loved ones we’ve never personally met yet? I never met my grandfather, who died of a heart attack before I was born, but I find myself missing him as my family members share about him.
I think of stories of identical twins separated at birth, who are reunited later in life and find they have so many characteristics and likes and mannerisms in common. It seems this is another example of how we are not just a body; there is something that is passed on in conception that transcends our material existence. We are body and soul combined together so masterfully by our Creator. So it seems possible that certain likenesses and perhaps even a sense of connection with our loved ones who have come before us could also be part of our makeup, just as we inherit physical characteristics from our ancestors. And for those who love Jesus, it’s especially sweet to consider that one day we will have the opportunity to get to know our relatives we never met in this present life, but who also trusted Him for eternal salvation.
God bless you and your family.
