How much of an understanding of the premortal existence did Lehi have? 2 Nephi 2:16

How much of an understanding of the premortal existence did Lehi have? 2 Nephi 2:16

Lehi is talking to his children before he dies. He is preaching about the purpose of life and the plan of salvation. He wants his children to understand that agency was a necessary aspect of the plan.

Lehi testifies that God created all things in the heaven and the earth. He testifies that opposition had to exist, good and evil had to exist. He testifies that mankind had to be given the option to choose between good and evil. This is called agency and it is a foundational doctrine of the restored Church on the earth today.

In this verse, Lehi says: "Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other."

It occurred to me as I read this verse that Lehi knew an awful lot about the plan of salvation. Where did he gain this knowledge?

This verse reminded me of the temple endowment ceremony - well, at least, the previous version of the endowment ceremony. I heard that around the first of January the ceremony was changed slightly. It will be so interesting to go to the temple and learn how, but it is difficult to arrange with sick children, snowstorms, and unreliable vehicles.

Lehi could have gained his knowledge from the brass plates which Nephi took from Laban. We already know that there are Old Testament prophets like Zenos and Zenock whose original prophecies have been lost to time; why not other writings by other ancient prophets that were also lost, but which also testified of the premortal existence and the council in heaven?

One of the most interesting books of scripture that we have is the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. This is a translation of a book that used to be part of the Old Testament writings of Moses. It reads extremely plainly about the plan of salvation, for example in Moses 4. The entire book of Moses reminds me of the temple endowment ceremony as well. If you are interested in learning about Latter-day Saint temple rituals, I'm sure you could just go to YouTube or some place like Wikipedia or something to find the entire text and perhaps the old (outdated) video, but please do not do that. It is highly offensive and disrespectful and would cause me great distress and feelings of sadness. Instead, just read the book of Moses. It's not long and it's very interesting, especially when compared to the first part of Genesis.

Answer:
I don't know, but if I study more, I might find out.

I can carefully study what Lehi understood and compare it to the writings of the Old Testament and the writings of the Pearl of Great Price, so that perhaps I can determine whether or not the Brass Plates also contained the lost book of Moses or other lost scripture that we don't have in the Old Testament that have information about the premortal existence.

By the way, some churches have books of scripture which are not in our canon, for example the book of the Maccabees which is apparently "a historical document of the highest importance." Certainly this and other apocryphal writings are good deal more useful to read than like, the Song of Solomon #OldTestamentporn.

I'm personally totally okay with the idea that scriptures, like any other physical, human-made writing, is copied, disseminated, misinterpreted, concealed, contaminated by any other number of human-created imperfections - and sometimes even lost or destroyed. I also believe that ancient scripture can be discovered, revealed, retranslated, and restored.

I understand that this is not a belief that I share with all Christians, and that is also okay.

I personally don't worship the Bible itself. I worship the God of the Bible. As I am amazed to continually discover through highlighting the words in both the Old and New Testaments (this week I was reading some really, um, pleasant chapters in Deuteronomy as well as Matthew 1 and Luke 1), that is Jesus Christ, his Father, and the Holy Ghost. I really love them.