What happens to believers in the first natural then spiritual pattern?
Believers first enter as natural sons of Adam, born of the flesh. After experiencing salvation, they are born from above and become spiritual. This follows the scriptural pattern: the natural comes first, then the spiritual, as with Adam then Christ, Cain then Abel, and similar examples.
Les teaches that the format of all of God's dealing is first the natural and then the spiritual. He illustrates this with Cain the natural and Abel the spiritual, Esau the natural and Jacob the spiritual, Ishmael the natural and Isaac the spiritual, and King Saul the natural and King David the spiritual. He then applies it to believers: as sons of Adam, we are born natural, of the flesh, but after we have experienced salvation, we have been born from above and are now spiritual. He also notes that the Antichrist will come as the natural man, and then Christ will come as the spiritual. Paul refers to this pattern in 1 Corinthians 15:46-47, where the first is natural and afterward the spiritual, and in Romans 5 regarding Adam and sin. This is the Law of Scripture: first the natural, Adam, then the spiritual, Christ.