Using Ecclesiastes 12:7 to emphasize a different doctrinal dimension, a number of Latter-day Saint church leaders have taught something similar to President Harold B. are taken home to that God who gave them life.вЂ™вЂќ When so employed, the вЂњspiritвЂќ mentioned in Ecclesiastes 12:7 is regularly assumed by Latter-day Saints to be an individual spirit personage that was created by God in premortality and that inhabits every humanвЂ™s mortal body. Skinner have claimed that вЂњthe PreacherвЂ™s comment that вЂthe spirit shall return unto God who gave itвЂ™ parallels the teaching in Alma 40:11 that вЂthe spirits of all men. Nelson each employed this verse in the notes of a general conference address for such support. For example, in the past decade, Apostles James E. Latter-day Saint Church leaders and authors have often employed Ecclesiastes 12:7, without making a specific connection to premortality, to emphasize that our individual вЂњspiritsвЂќ return to God at death. Latter-day SвЂ‹aint Views on Ecclesiastes 12:7 In order to determine whether Ecclesiastes 12:7 can bear the interpretation placed on it by many Latter-day Saints, I will (1) review what Latter-day Saints have claimed about the content of this verse, (2) consider 12:7 in the context of Ecclesiastes, especially chapter 12, and (3) analyze the language and meaning of 12:7 in its biblical context.

ДЄlthough the doctrine itself is not in question, this paper does question whether вЂњthe spiritвЂќ in Ecclesiastes 12:7 refers to individual spirit personages and considers the validity of employing this verse as biblical support of premortal existence. This verse has thus become one of several in the Old Testament that some Latter-day Saints have employed as support for premortal existence, a doctrine that is so important in the broader plan of salvation. Furthermore, Latter-day Saints have sometimes asserted, again citing Ecclesiastes 12:7, that a premortal spirit being can only вЂњreturnвЂќ to God because it previously came from him.

Influenced by the Restoration doctrine of premortality, some Latter-day Saints have employed the KJV translation вЂњthe spiritвЂќ in Ecclesiastes 12:7 to support the doctrine that spirit personages leave their mortal bodies at death.

(New English Translation, hereafter cited as NET) (New Revised Standard Version, hereafter cited as NRSV)ДЄnd the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the lifeвЂ™s breath returns to God who gave it. (King James Version, hereafter cited as KJV)ДЄnd the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

From dust you came scripture