2 Timothy 4
These are the last words of Paul. He again tells how the church will fall into apostasy, not because of forces from without the church, but from within. He knows he is going to die but also knows that he did his best and completed all that he was supposed to do, something we all hope we can say at the end of our life. You can sense the contradiction of feelings in what he writes, his frustration with those who do not stay faithful, and his exulting in the gospel and those who stay true. Timothy is evidently coming to Rome to be with Paul and Paul asks him to bring the scriptures and/or his own writings. Nero, who had already begun what would become a savage persecution of Christians, had Paul beheaded and a short time later crucified Peter who requests to be upside down on the cross because he felt unworthy to be crucified as the Savior was.
Titus 1
Verse 2 is obviously a clear reference to a pre-mortal life. Paul says that we were given a promise of eternal life before the world began. There are many references to the premortal life of our spirits in the Bible. One of my favorites is in Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. Speaking of our death it says, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.” You can’t return to somewhere you haven’t been. President Harold B. Lee once said that our greatest death was in our mortal birth because of the veil. Leaving our pre-mortal life, we were not only separated from Heavenly Father and the Savior, but we said goodbye to prophets, apostles, great men and women, and friends, and because of the veil we would lose all memory of them. President Lee then talked about death being our greatest birth because the veil is removed and we are reunited with family and friends into a far better life.
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