In Reply to: Salvation posted by Lyle on April 27, 2003 at 23:21:45:
Hmmm, I'm not so sure we have always existed. Even the angels haven't always existed, but were created at some point.
If our spirits had existed before we were born, which is something Berg taught I guess you knew, I presume we would have been in heaven for the duration. Then came back to earth and well, where to go after we die except back to where we came from, which would be heaven? But that's not the impression I get from the Bible. It seems each person is created new and fresh here on earth, and then given a choice.
Berg really got into the "existed in heaven" doctrine, admitting that he borrowed that one from the Mormons. It doesn't mean the doctrine is necessarily wrong just because Berg and the Mormons believe it, tho it does make is suspect. But I just don't see any support for it in the scriptures.
Remember the verse in Ecclesiastes where it says "God has PLACED eternity in their hearts"? Seems like eternity (an eternal spirit) wasn't there all along but had to be placed there. Like when God placed a new fresh eternal spirit into our human body at conception or whenever He did that.