If you *return* to a place, that means you've been there before. If we had only existed before this life as a THOUGHT in the mind of God our Father...it wouldn't say our SPIRIT returns. If we BEGAN in the womb, there wouldn't be a recognition that we RETURN to God, the Father of our spirits. This is why I tend to bring up both of those verses together... because Hebrews 12:9 makes it clear that our physical bodies (knit in our mother's womb) are from our earthly fathers - but our SPIRIT (which gives us life and animates these physical bodies of flesh) comes from our Father in Heaven. So, the Saints' understanding of this is: we are eternal beings. Eternal... having no beginning and no end. Which is why - when our physical body dies - it returns to the earth (Eccl. 12:7) but our eternal SPIRIT *returns*...meaning our spirits once lived with our Father (the Father of our spirits) in a premortal existence. And yes, we come here without a memory of before (a "veil of forgetfulness") which is part of God's perfect plan. Something else to consider... I've talked to countless believers over the past 30+ years, who say that when they die they will live eternally with God in Heaven. They tell me they "will" be ETERNAL. Here's the thing... the very nature of being "eternal" is to be without beginning OR end. In other words, we wouldn't die and then suddenly START being eternal. The reason we pass to the next life (again, RETURNING to our Father) as eternal beings enjoying eternal life... is because we truly ARE *eternal beings.* Notice in Ecclesiastes 12:7, how it says "the dust (our flesh) RETURNS to the earth *as it was* (where IT came from)... and likewise, our eternal spirit- which has no beginning or end - RETURNS to God (where IT came from). In the resurrection, our physical body (made from the dust - physical elements - of the earth from whence it came) will be reunited with our spirit (which is eternal - and after passing away is separated from the physical body - RETURNING to the heavenly realm from whence it came - and has thus been in a place of rest, where ALL spirits of our Father await the resurrection. Sorry that was a crazy long sentence at the end... 😜
2025-10-15 07:01:16
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