Thus, when we are elected to certain mortal chores, we are elected “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Pet. 1:2). When Abraham was advised that he was “chosen before thou wast born,” he was among the “noble and great ones” (Abr. 3:22–23). Through the revelation given to us by the prophet Joseph F. Smith, we read that the Prophet Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, “and other choice spirits” were also reserved by God “to come forth in the fulness of times to take part in laying the foundations of the great latter-day work” (D&C 138:53.) These individuals are among the rulers that Abraham had described to him centuries earlier by God. They were to be “rulers in the Church of God,” (D&C 138:55), not necessarily rulers in the secular kingdoms. Thus, those seen by Abraham were the Pauls, not the Ceasars; the Spencer W. Kimballs, not the Churchills. Wise secular leaders do much lasting and commendable good, but Paul observed to the saints in Corinth that (as the world measured greatness and wisdom) “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (1 Cor. 1:26).

President Joseph Fielding Smith said,

“In regard to the holding of the priesthood in the pre-existence, I will say that there was an organization there just as well as an organization here, and we there held authority. Men chosen to positions of trust in the spirit world held the priesthood.” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1956, Vol. 3, p. 81.)

Alma speaks about foreordination with great effectiveness and links it to the foreknowledge of God and, perhaps, even to our previous performance (see Alma 13:3–5).

The omniscience of God made it possible, therefore, for him to determine the boundaries and times of nations (see Acts 17:26; Deut. 32:8).

Elder Orson Hyde said of our life in the premortal world, “We understood things better there than we do in this lower world.” He also surmised as to the agreements we made there that “it is not impossible that we signed the articles thereof with our own hands,—which articles may be retained in the archives above, to be presented to us when we rise from the dead, and be judged out of our own mouths, according to that which is written in the books.” Just because we have forgotten, said Elder Hyde, “our forgetfulness cannot alter the facts.” (Journal of Discourses, 7:314–15.) Hence, the degree of detail involved in the covenants and promises we participated in at that time may be a more highly customized thing than many of us surmise. Yet, on occasion, even with our forgetting, there are inklings. President Joseph F. Smith said:

“But in coming here, we forgot all, that our agency might be free indeed, to choose good or evil, that we might merit the reward of our own choice and conduct. But by the power of the Spirit, in the redemption of Christ, through obedience, we often catch a spark from the awakened memories of the immortal soul, which lights up our whole being as with the glory of our former home” (Gospel Doctrine, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977, pp. 13–14; italics added).

As indicated earlier, this powerful teaching of foreordination is bound to be a puzzlement in some respects, if we do not have faith and trust in the Lord. Yet if we think about it, even within our finite framework of experience, it shouldn’t startle us. Mortal parents are reasonably good at predicting the behavior of their children in certain circumstances. Of this Elder James E. Talmage wrote:

“Our Heavenly Father has a full knowledge of the nature and disposition of each of His children, a knowledge gained by long observation and experience in the past eternity of our primeval childhood; a knowledge compared with which that gained by earthly parents through mortal experience with their children is infinitesimally small. By reason of that surpassing knowledge, God reads the future of child and children, of men individually and of men collectively as communities and nations; He knows what each will do under given conditions, and sees the end from the beginning. His foreknowledge is based on intelligence and reason. He foresees the future as a state which naturally and surely will be; not as one which must be because He has arbitrarily willed that it shall be.” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977, p. 29.)

Another helpful analogy for students is the reality that universities can and do predict with a high degree of accuracy the grades entering students will receive in their college careers based upon certain tests and past performances. If mortals can do this with reasonable accuracy (even with our short span of familiarity and with finite data), God the Father, who knows us perfectly, surely can foresee how we will respond to various challenges.

While we often do not rise to our opportunities, God is neither pleased nor surprised. But we cannot say to him later on that we could have achieved had we just been given the chance! This is all part of the justice of God.

One of the most helpful—indeed, very necessary—parallel truths to be pondered when studying this powerful doctrine of foreordination is given in the revelation of the Lord to Moses in which the Lord says, “And all things are present with me, for I know them all” (Moses 1:6). God does not live in the dimension of time as do we. Moreover, since “all things are present with” God, his is not simply a predicting based solely upon the past. In ways which are not clear to us, he actually sees, rather than foresees, the future—because all things are, at once, present, before him!

In a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord describes himself as “the same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes” (D&C 38:2). From the prophet Nephi we receive the same basic insight in which we likewise must trust: “But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men” (1 Ne. 9:6).

It was by divine design that the marvelous Mary became the mother of Jesus. Further, Lucy Mack Smith, who played such a crucial role in the rearing of Joseph Smith, did not come to that assignment by chance.

One of the dimensions of worshipping a living God is to know that he is alive and living in the sense of seeing and acting. He is not a retired God whose best years are past—to whom we should pay a retroactive obeisance, worshipping him for what he has already done. He is the living God who is, at once, in the dimensions of the past and present and future, while we labor constrained by the limitations of time itself.

It is imperative that we always keep in mind the caveats noted earlier, so that we do not indulge ourselves or our whims simply because of the presence of this powerful doctrine of foreordination, for with special opportunities come special responsibilities and much greater risks.

But the doctrine of foreordination properly understood and humbly pursued can help us immensely in coping with the vicissitudes of life. Otherwise, time can play so many tricks upon us. We should always understand that while God is not surprised, we often are.