Blogger of Jared

The attached document is a talk given by Orson Pratt on the chapters of Ether dealing with the Brother of Jared entitled:

“Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, The Faith and Visions of the Ancient Saints—The Same Great Blessings to Be Enjoyed by the Latter-Day Saints”

.. here is an excerpt:

There are many principles contained in the words which I have just read. Jesus, for instance, stood before the brother of Jared, not in his body of flesh and bones, not as an infant, not as a small spirit one foot or two feet high, but a full grown spirit; and when the brother of Jared beheld the finger of Christ he beheld a full-sized finger as of a man, for says Jesus, “When I shall take a body of flesh and bones and redeem my people I will appear as thou now seest me, but this is the body of my spirit; I show myself in the spirit, you behold it, you see that it is of the size of a man.”

“All men in the beginning have I created after the body of my spirit,” as much as to say that “you, the brother of Jared, did not receive your existence a few years ago here in the flesh, that was not your origin, but all men, all those that I will show you that have existed or will exist upon this earth, in the beginning have I created after the image of the body of my spirit.” They were all spiritually organized before they came here.

This is the only place in the Book of Mormon where pre-existence is clearly spoken of, and this was revealed before the organization of this Church, and is a doctrine which was not in the possession of the Christian world, hence it shows that it was dictated by a Spirit capable of revealing a doctrine unknown to the Christian world—the pre-existence of man.