I had a friend tell me the other day he believed in the preexistence of the soul. This doctrine teaches all souls existed prior to being born in a human body. Some believe our souls existed from eternity past just as God has. Others believe our souls were created but created prior to our birth.
It’s not a Christian doctrine because the Bible doesn’t teach it. I believe the doctrine of preexistence of the soul comes from a misunderstanding of God’s foreknowledge.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer. 1:5)
Passages like this seem to imply preexistence of the soul, but, again, the reader must read into the passage their preconceived belief. One of the most basic rules in biblical interpretation is to compare a passage with the entirety of the Bible. The Bible is the best commentary on itself.
Maybe it would be good here to briefly discuss the omniscience of God. God knows all things past present and future.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. (Ps. 147:5)
He also knows all things that might come to pass if conditions were different:
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. (Luke 10:13)
Since God knows all things past, present, and future; and even what might happen, it’s to be understood that He knows us before we were born. We didn’t exist yet, but in God’s mind He knew us. God exists in the eternal now.
Let me go back to an analogy I’ve used before. God’s foreknowledge is like a father who has watched a video of his daughter’s fifth birthday party so many times he knows every move, every word spoken, every leaf moved by the breeze.
God’s foreknowledge is like that. He knows for certain what will happen in the future just as the father knows what will happen before he slides the DVD into his player. In God’s case, the DVD is all of history past, present, and future. As it plays out, there is nothing God does not know or expect. When He says He knew us before He formed us in our mother’s womb, the response is “of course He did. He knows all.”
We become living souls upon our birth or creation:
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Gen. 2:7)
The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, (Zech 12:1)
Why is this important?
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified (2 Cor. 13:5)
We need to make sure our faith is as pure and as accurate as possible. Looking at counterfeit doctrine should only strengthen what we already know to be true. Knowing the genuine faith protects us from being fooled and from drifting from the Truth. It is our job as Christians to test everything no matter what, the strange doctrines we hear from others and even the familiar doctrines we hold ourselves. Our God is a God of truth.
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard. (Heb. 2:1-3)
Believers Armed and Dangerous 