Plan of salvation with premortality

What it is: This belief teaches that human beings lived with God before earthly birth and participate in a plan of salvation involving mortality, moral agency, redemption, and eternal destiny.

How the tradition understands it: Earthly life is seen as a stage of testing, learning, and choice. Premortality helps explain spiritual identity, the purpose of embodiment, and continuity of the divine plan.

Textual or traditional basis: Abraham 3, Jeremiah 1, and other readings about preexistence are used together with the movement's own texts.

Historical context: The formulation matured within the movement's theological expansion in the nineteenth century.

Common objections: Critics observe that the doctrine does not correspond to the dominant formulation of historic Christianity.

Internal variations: The belief is widely taught in the main church, although detailed explanations about premortal life are limited and cautious at certain points.