Did the spiritual come first?
Paul says specifically here that the SPIRITUAL DID NOT COME FIRST, BUT THE NATURAL".
- So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that
is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.”- 1 Corinthians 15:42-49
It says he chose us before the creation of the world, which I believe. But I don't see anything here that says we had any kind of spirit bodies that were with Him then. In fact, in Job 38 God challenges Job, asking him "where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?" And the implication of that challenge is that Job wasn't there.
38 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
2 “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?
Quotes of William Branham
This is from 53-0403 The Cruelty of Sin and the Penalty that it Costs to Rid Sin from our Lives (what a mouthful). But there are several places he said the same thing. Pay particular attention to 51-53.
43 What's He doing? He's writing His first Bible. The first Bible was ever written, was written in the skies, the zodiac. It starts out with the virgin; that's how He come first. It ends up with Leo the lion, the second coming. And He's writing His first Bible. The second Bible was written, was written by Enoch, and put in the pyramid. The third Bible was written, and the last one, is this One. [Brother Branham indicates his Bible—Ed.] God always does things in threes. God is perfect in three. He's perfect. [Brother Branham clears his throat—Ed.] Pardon me. He's perfect in Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He's perfect in justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit. He's perfected in His threes. We are in His making, so we are perfected in three: soul, body, and spirit. And our body's controlled of—of nerves, of blood, and of cells (flesh): three. All perfected in three… 48 Then He said, after He had got all of that made, before He'd ever done anything else… I can see this little Halo move over—over this world, which was merely a cinder, frozen, hanging out there like a great iceberg. And He moved it over near the sun. And He begin to turn it like that, around the sun. It begin to melt, and the big ice glaciers tore loose. Texas was being formed, and the plains there; as we're taught how the icebergs come down through there, best chronologists can figure out. And then the whole world, after it run down into the Gulf of Mexico, and so forth, begin to berm up with water. "And the world, without form, and void…" Now we're in Genesis 1. See? Now then, God moved and separated the firmament from the waters. And He made the lights. And then He created all His creations. Then after He made it, all the trees come up, and the plants, and so forth. What a beautiful setup He had. He loved it. It was beautiful. And He thought that was fine. 51 So He couldn't just leave it in that state; He had to leave something with it. So He said, "Let us (plural) make man (plural) in our own image. Let us make man in our own image." So then when God made His first man, He was a spirit man. He was something on the order of God, or the Son of God, the Logos. That was the first man. Then He gave the man jurisdiction over the—to lead all the animal life, just like the Holy Spirit leads the believer today: "Go here. Do this." Now, if we were perfect in submission to the Holy Spirit, God would lead us by the Holy Spirit, just like Adam led the animals of that day. 53 So He—He made them. And then, when He did, He begin to move upon—upon the idea then that—that He had made man out of the dust of the earth. There was no man to till the soil, no one to do work, no physical being. So He made man out of the dust of the earth. Now, there's where I think that a—a botanist, or—or science and Christianity, does not conflict one with another. Because science says, the man came from different a life; and we say, when you look at a man here, he's in the image of God. This is, was not the image of God to begin with. This was the image of animal life. And he… And the evolutionists argues that we… I don't believe in the chain of evolution the way they do, all coming from the single cell. But I believe we evolute, certainly, the evolution one man from another. But then when God made all of that, and got—put the man in the… 55 Made him out of the dust of the earth, now, not in His Own image. He had already made the man. Then He breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. So the soul of man is the nature of the spirit. Now, when you're reborn, you don't get a new spirit. You get a new nature of that spirit. It's the same spirit, but a new nature of it. You take two men, stand them together, both look alike; and one of them is a sinner, and one of them is a Christian. One man say, "I got a spirit the same as you have." See? But one of them is a different, his soul, his nature's different. He's been changed. 57 So then He breathed into this man. Now, I don't know how—how He made him. He—He put him in five senses so he could contact his earthly home, and see, taste, feel, smell, and hear. And He made him in that manner. Now, those senses was not to contact God. His sense to contact God was his spirit, his soul was to con… "The soul that sinneth, the soul shall die." Now, I'm going a long ways around to get something, but I hope you get every point of it, so you can see exactly what God had to do at Calvary. 53-0403 - The Cruelty Of Sin, And The Penalty That It Cost To Rid Sin From Our Lives
Footnotes