Mormon Premortal Life, Divine Council and Mother Goddess Asherah

Описание: This video compiles scriptural passages, historical commentary, and scholarly opinions on the LDS doctrine of human preexistence, its development, and its ancient parallels.

There is an extensive discussion of Asherah or as some Mormons call her, Mother in Heaven. You can jump to the 3-hour-50 minute-mark, 3:50:00, if you are only interested in that topic.

This video traces the evolution and interpretation of premortal existence (the belief that human spirits existed with God before earthly birth) in Latter-day Saint theology, comparing it with biblical, ancient Near Eastern, and classical philosophical sources.

Job 38:4–7, Jeremiah 1:5, and Ecclesiastes 12:7, are interpreted differently by Mormons compared to most Christians. Joseph Smith’s JST (Joseph Smith Translation) and Book of Moses add “spiritual creation before physical creation,” implying preexistence.

D&C 93 (May 1833): Introduces the concept that human “intelligence or light of truth was not created or made.”

Abraham 3–5 (1842): Expands this, describing “intelligences organized before the world was.”

King Follett Discourse (1844): Smith teaches that the “spirit of man had no beginning” and is “self-existent.”

Church leaders like Neal A. Maxwell, Joseph Fielding Smith, and John Taylor interpret these texts as restoring truths lost from the Bible.

Scholars such as Blake Ostler, Grant Hardy, and Terryl Givens note that premortal life appears only later in Mormonism, and is not explicit in the Book of Mormon.

Biblical scholars (Craig Blomberg, Kenneth Mathews, Tremper Longman, etc.) affirm that Judaism and early Christianity generally did not teach the preexistence of human souls, viewing life and the soul as the union of body and breath.

Origen (3rd century CE) taught preexistence but it was condemned as heresy in the Second Council of Constantinople (AD 553).

Greek and Hellenistic thought: Plato and Philo described the soul’s preexistence and descent into bodies.

Eastern religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Baha’i contain cyclical or eternal-soul ideas.

New Age parallels: Teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra echo the soul-as-consciousness theme.

Modern scholars (Robert Alter, John Goldingay, Leslie Allen) interpret Jeremiah 1:5 and Job 38:4–7 as referring to divine foreknowledge or election, not literal preexistence.

Passages like Deuteronomy 32:8–9 reveal a divine council where Yahweh was one among the “sons of El Elyon,” the most High-God, connecting ancient Israel to Canaanite religion.

Psalm 82 depicts a council of gods, reinterpreted later in monotheistic terms.

The video references El Elyon, Yahweh, and Asherah, suggesting that Israel’s early religion shared traits with Canaanite pantheons, later absorbed into monotheism (per Mark S. Smith and others).

This background informs Latter-day Saint interpretations of a heavenly council and a Mother in Heaven.

The Mormon idea of premortal life crystallized between 1833–1844, rooted in new revelation rather than inherited biblical exegesis. Biblical texts generally reflect God’s foreknowledge rather than literal preexistence.

Ancient Near Eastern, Greek, and modern spiritual traditions provide parallels but not direct lineage.

The divine council imagery (Deut. 32, Ps. 82) and Asherah traditions illustrate how ancient Israel’s theology evolved toward monotheism—concepts that later Latter-day Saint thought re-contextualized in its own cosmology.