Got references to back this up? My contention is biblical: souls are not pre-fabricated.
Here is one that all three of you may ponder: from How are Human Souls Created, a Christian site (with my emphases): Answer: There are two primary views on how the soul / spirit is created. (1) Traducianism is the theory that a soul is generated by the physical parents along with the body. Support for Traducianism is as follows: (A) In Genesis 2:7 God breathed the breath of life into Adam, something which did not happen again. (B) Adam had a son in his own likeness (Genesis 5:3). (C) God did no further creating (Genesis 2:2-3). (D) Adam's sin affects all men -- both physically and spiritually -- this makes sense if the body and soul / spirit come from the parents. (2) Creationism is the view that God creates a new soul / spirit when a human being is conceived. Creationism was held by many church fathers and also has Scriptural support. First, Scripture differentiates the origin of the soul from the origin of the body (Ecclesiastes 12:7, Isaiah 42:5, Zechariah 12:1, Hebrews 12:9). Second, if God creates each individual soul at the moment it is needed, the separation of soul and body is held firm. The ultimate answer to the question is that the soul / spirit does not exist before it inhabits the body. Whether the Traducianist view is correct or the Creationist view is correct, both agree that the soul does not exist prior to conception. Recommended Resource: In His Image by Brand & Yancey. Question: "How are human souls / spirits created?”
The pre-existence theory is decisively non-Christian, and non-Jewish: it is Gnostic and pagan. Among the more (in)famous Gnostics were Valentius, the almost-pope (c 175 AD), and Origen (c 200 AD). They both taught pre-existence of the souls.
The fact that +Paul teaches is it simply shows what most Christians are not aware of: that, I am sorry to say, many of his statements appear to smack of Gnosticism.
Hmmmm....I've been rather busy lately but I noticed this conversation and thought it was rather interesting. Actually Dr. E and 1000's remark took me by surprise and I had to look it up. They have a very good point that souls were created before the world. Here is a rather interesting article about the two views:
While I think Dr. Turretin makes many valuable points, I think one of the most interesting verses is:
This would indicate that the spirit is given to us (like Adam) and returns to God. One has to apply this to our Lord Jesus who gave up His Spirit. Did Christ's spirit exist before He was created and, how exactly is Christ's spirit created?
I believe Dr. Turretin brings up a number of very valuable points showing the human soul being created in the beginning, not propagated.
Personally, I don't understand how any of this is "Gnostic". It is a fun term to throw around.