Where Did We Come From?

[desi2007]

My understanding is As God, He knows everything and He can direct our paths without taking away our freedom as to whether to follow that path. Because God is love and He knows us so well.

[Guest]

There Is Only

 

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Isaiah 44:6

 

One

 

For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. Isaiah 54:5

 

~

 

So, I haven't read the Bible cover-to-cover yet, but I'm comfortably familiar with it. There are a few things that have me confused.

 

Here's one. In Jeremiah 1:5 (KJV), I read this.

 

"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

 

It says that God knew Jeremiah, not just before he was born, but before he was even conceived. Could that mean that we all existed in some kind of pre-birth state? Were we... I don't know... some kind of self-aware entity, maybe like a spirit, before we were born here on Earth? That's what it sounds like to me, anyway, and, so far, I haven't found anything that proves it wrong, but every pastor I've talked to about this says that it's impossible for any human to have existed before now.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

The LORD Jesus

 

Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors.

 

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,

 

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

 

Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

 

Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness:

 

I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. Isaiah 46:8-13

 

Knows

 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

 

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
 

In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22

[HawaiianShirts]

Well, Willamina, you summed that up rather well. And it looks like everyone here agrees with you.

 

I'm still not 100% convinced, though. I mean, yes, God is all-knowing and all-seeing. I get that. God knows what I'm going to do with my life because he can see it all evn though I can't. I get that, too, and I'm totally on board with it. But even the Psalms that bopeep1909 quoted above don't stand to me as a clear statement of, "You didn't exist until I created you as a fetus in your mother's womb."
 

Part of the reason I ask has to do with some personal experiences I've had. There have been people that I have met in my life who somehow seem familiar to me. One of my friends in high school, for example. He's a die-hard atheist; I'm a (slightly confused) believer. He uses Linux; I use Windows. Our interests and personalities are quite different. But I met him once, on a class field trip, and after maybe two minutes of conversation between museum exhibits, we were best friends. There was something inexplicably familiar about him, and to this day, I just can't shake the feeling that I knew him before I met him.

 

To me, experiences like that and the verses in Jeremiah suggest that, just maybe, we did exist before mortality began. Maybe we were just God's thoughts, and maybe we just happened to bump into each other at some point.

 

Does anybody think it's even possible, or am I way off track here?