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IVAN - Were the "sons of perditions" all men or was there women also?

JOEL - "Sons of perdition" is just a general term, like "mankind", that would include all people(male and female). There is no evidence in the scriptures or what past prophets have said that would exclude women from this term.
"Sons of perdition" include all those spirits who followed Satan in the pre-earth life and were cast out to earth without receiving bodies. They are also the few mortals who have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost.
According to Joseph Smith the only people living on this earth who will end up as sons of perdition are those who have "received the Holy Ghost, have the heavens opened unto him, and know God, and then sin against him. After a man has sinned against the Holy Ghost, there is no repentance for him. He has got to say that the sun does not shine while he sees it; he has got to deny Jesus Christ when the heavens have been opened unto him, and to deny the plan of salvation with his eyes open to the truth of it;" (Joseph Smith, King Follett Discourse)
Few individuals have been identified as sons of perdition. For example, although Judas is often so regarded, there is a question whether he had received the Holy Ghost sufficiently to sin against it at the time of his betrayal of Christ. Only God can make a judgment on who these people are.

IVAN - Besides the refrence if the King Follett Discourse, is there other refrences to back up that there were both male and females that followed that are "sons of perdition"?

JOEL - There is no evidence in the scriptures or what past prophets have said that would exclude women from this term (Sons of perdition).
We know that our spirits look like our physical bodies do now (Moses 6:8-9, Ether 3:15-16), which means there were male and female spirits who were there in the pre-mortal life who made the choice to follow Satan or the Father's plan.
In asserting that sex is eternal, John A. Widtsoe wrote: "A wiser power than any on earth understands why a spirit in the far off beginning was male or female." (Priesthood and Church Government, p. 90)

Orson Pratt said:
"As our Father and God begat us, sons and daughters, so will we rise immortal, males and females" (JD, August 20, 1871, 14:242.)

"The tabernacle of flesh is formed in the image and likeness of the spirit that gives it life (see D&C 77:2; TPJS, p. 373). Thus our first estate, or spirit existence, was very much like this one. We knew each other by appearance and as male and female." (Joseph Smith: The Choice Seer", Joseph Fielding McConkie, Robert L. Millet)

If there were both male and female spirits there, it's hard to believe that the one third of the spirits who followed Satan were all male. Just as both men and women mortals on earth have the ability to choose good or evil in this life, so it was in the pre-mortal life.

Besides this, I see nothing in the scriptures or from general authorities that explicilty states that the pre-mortal sons of perdition includes or does not include both male and female spirits; I would guess that most people simply assume it is so.



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