=28.= No Christian doubts the pre-existence of the Savior, or questions His position as one of the Godhead before He came to earth as Mary's Son. The common interpretation given to the opening words of John's Gospel sustains the view of Christ's primeval God-ship:--"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We read further, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."[594] The sayings of the Redeemer Himself support this truth. When His disciples dissented concerning His doctrine of Himself, He said, "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?"[595] On another occasion He spoke in this wise:--"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father."[596] And His disciples, pleased with this plain declaration confirming the belief which, perchance, they already entertained at heart, rejoined, "Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb ... by this we believe that thou camest forth from God."[597] To the wicked Jews who boasted of their descent from Abraham, and sought to hide their sins under the protecting mantle of the great patriarch's name, the Savior declared:--"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."[598] In a solemn prayer to His Father, the Son implored, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."[599] Yet Christ was born a child among mortals; and it is fair to infer, that if His earthly birth was the union of a pre-existent or antemortal spirit with a mortal body, such also is the birth of every member of the human family. [593] Pearl of Great Price: Abraham iii, 26. [594] John i, 1, 14. [595] John vi, 62. [596] John xvi, 28. [597] Verses 29-30. [598] John viii, 58. See "Jesus the Christ." pp. 37, 411. [599] John xvii, 5. See also II Nephi ix, 5; xxv, 12; Mos. iii, 5; xiii, 33-34; xv, 1. =29.= But we are not left to mere inference on a basis of analogy only; the scriptures plainly teach that the spirits of mankind are known and numbered unto God before their earthly advent. In his farewell administration to Israel Moses sang, "Remember the days of old.... When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel."[600] From this we learn that the earth was allotted to the nations, according to the number of the children of Israel; it is evident therefore that the number was known prior to the existence of the Israelitish nation in the flesh; this is most easily explained on the assumption of a previous existence in which the spirits of the future nation were known. [600] Deut. xxxii, 7-8.