The Mormon organization claims that all men and women existed in prehistory in spiritual form: “We lived as spirit children of God in a premortal existence.” Their Scripture says, “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” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:56). 

While this is contrary to the doctrine of orthodox Christianity, it is actually similar to the theories of Plato, a parallel of which Mormons are proud: “”Several philosophers from Plato through Leibniz and Kant to twentieth-century Cambridge intellectuals, dozens of poets from antiquity to Robert Frost, and numerous religious thinkers throughout the Jewish and Christian traditions, propounded a pre-earthly realm peopled by the souls of men and women yet unborn. Pre-existence has been invoked to explain ‘the better angels of our nature,’ including the human yearning for transcendence and the sublime; it suggests a reason for the frequent sensation of alienation and the indelible sadness of human existence.”

The Bible tells us otherwise. In it, Jesus tells us this: “He who comes from above 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). Of whom was He speaking? “He 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). So, Jesus existed in Heaven before His birth, but His audience had not. 

The Mormon claim of the preexistence of all men in a spiritual state contradicts the words of Jesus. He alone, as God the Son, existed before He became a man (without ceasing to be God).