New Light on the Premortal World — 'We Were with God in Another World Before the Foundation of the World' (June 1835)

In the June 1835 issue of the Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, William W. Phelps — the Church's earliest periodical editor and a close associate of the Prophet Joseph Smith — bore witness of how the Restoration kept opening new understanding of the sacred scriptures. What the Church was then learning had scarcely been taught in any age: that every soul lived with God before the foundation of the world, that agency was exercised there as it is here, and that men and women may attain a kingdom of glory — becoming sons of God, even archangels — where 'the man is neither without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord.' His words, printed in June 1835: "New light is occasionally bursted into our minds, of the sacred scriptures, for which I am truly thankful. We shall by and by learn that we were with God in another world, before the foundation of the world, and had our agency; that we came into this world and have our agency, in order that we may prepare ourselves for a kingdom of glory; become archangels, even the sons of God where the man is neither without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord: A consummation of glory, and happiness, and perfection so greatly to be wished, that I would not miss of it for the fame of ten worlds."