The belief in a premortal life existed long before Joseph Smith.

Did you know that most Christians today reject the idea of a premortal life, even though many early Christians once believed it? Most people think the idea of a premortal life started with Joseph Smith. But that's not true. Latter-day Saints believe verses like Jeremiah 15 point to a life before birth. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And while many Christians today interpret that as simply God's fornowledge, some of the earliest Christian leaders believed it literally meant we existed before coming to earth.

One of those leaders was Clement of Alexandria. He lived nearly 1900 years ago. And while commenting on Jeremiah, he wrote that faithful people were known by God before the foundation of the world. Not just Jeremiah, us. Another early Christian thinker was origin of Alexandria. He lived in the 200s AD, long before modern Christianity existed in its current form. Origin taught that life on earth was connected to a premortal existence.

He believed our spirits existed before birth and that choices made before this life affected our experience here on earth. He even pointed to the biblical story of Jacob and Esau. Why was Jacob chosen over Esau before they were even born? Origin said it was because of the merits acquired before this life. In other words, this idea wasn't foreign to early Christianity at all. It was openly discussed and debated and it was believed by many.

But over time, things changed. By the 6th century, belief in a premortal life was officially condemned. An edict connected to Emperor Justinian and Pope Viglas declared the teachings heresy. And after that, the doctrine slowly disappeared from mainstream Christianity. But the idea didn't only exist among early Christians. Ancient Jewish groups believed it, too. The Jewish historian Josephus described a group called the Essins, a group living around the same time as Christ.

He said they believe spirits existed before mortality and that earthly bodies were like temporary prisons for the soul. And today, the Dead Sea Scrolls have added even more evidence that these beliefs existed in the ancient world. Now, none of this proves the doctrine is true, but it does prove something important. The belief in a premortal life did not begin with Joseph Smith. It existed centuries before him among early Christians and ancient Jews.

And according to Far, who provided the research for this video, that historical record matters because one of the biggest criticisms against Latter-day Saints is the claim that these teachings are completely new. But history tells a very different