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< Mormonism and scripture interpretation
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== Why does the LDS Church teach that man first existed as spirits in heaven when 1 Corinthians 15:46 says that the physical body comes before the spiritual?
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here
In context, Paul is clearly talking about the physical resurrection from the dead. For example, earlier in the chapter he has written:
Paul clearly believes, then, that the physical body with which we die will be resurrected.
He then tells the Saints that:
The "spiritual body" to which Paul refers is the resurrected physical body which has been glorified.
The "natural" body is the weak, corruptible mortal body that is "sown in weakness." The "spiritual body" is the glorified, resurrected body "raised in power." But, this does not mean that it is not also a physical, or corporeal body—Paul has just spent several verses insisting upon the reality of Christ's resurrection, and using Him as a model for the resurrection of the Saints. And, clearly Jesus' body was tangible and physical following the resurrection:
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When Latter-day Saints speak of God creating our "spirit bodies," we do not mean the glorified, physical "spiritual body" of the resurrected. We refer to God's role as our Heavenly Father before our mortal lives.
Biblical statements indicate that God is the father of our spirits and we were known to him before our birth (e.g., Jeremiah 1꞉5). This is a separate doctrine from the doctrine of a glorious resurrection, which is clearly Paul's topic.
It is unfortunate that critics find it necessary to distort and twist the clear meaning of scripture in an attempt to make the Latter-day Saints "offenders for a word."
== Notes == None
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