We Weren’t Trained Before Birth—But Our Lives Still Have Purpose
There’s something deeply appealing about the idea that we lived with God before we were born—that we were trained, assigned roles, and sent here with a mission already in hand. It gives people a sense of identity and significance. It tells us we were chosen because of who we already were. But that idea, however meaningful it may feel, isn’t what the Bible actually teaches. Scripture does say that God knew us before we were born. In Book of Jeremiah 1:5, God tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.” That’s often taken as proof of a premortal life. But read carefully—God is not describing Jeremiah’s past experience. He’s describing His own knowledge. An eternal God doesn’t need us to exist beforehand in order to know us fully. That distinction matters. The Bible consistently presents God as the one who plans, calls, and appoints—not based on what we did before birth, but based on His own will. In Epistle to the Ephesians 1:4, it says we were chosen “before the foun...