We have no warrant from Scripture to think that we did.
The Bible is not a complete book covering all matters. Genesis is not a science book. The Bible is quiet and feint on so many things. It seems Jesus saying only He came down from Heaven means we did not.
God formed us in the womb, literally creating us there and then or unfurling us into our bodies? Think of God's equity and the forming of a prostitutes baby over nine months with God's Spirit staying with her and doing the creative work. Having chosen the time and place for the infant to be born that it may reach out to apprehend God. Biblegateway, NKJV Acts 17.
25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one [
j]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
Psalm 139 NKJV.
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You [
f]covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for [
g]I am fearfully
and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And
that my soul knows very well.
15 My [
h]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When
as yet there were none of them.
God formed his body with DNA and his mother's blood. Unfurling the bound up spirit with the fetal body growth.
NKJV Genesis 2:7
7 And the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
NKJV Isaiah 42:5
Thus says God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
Our hearts are more than breath in a body, more than a fire in our mitochondria. Our hearts are eternal, they reason.
NKJV 2 Corinthians 5.
5 For we know that if our earthly [
a]house,
this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our [
b]habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in
this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing
is God, who also has given us the Spirit as [
c]a guarantee.
6 So
we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
The Judgment Seat of Christ
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things
done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.
NKJV Luke 5.
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts?
Our hearts of our spirits from His breath contain the Spirit of God, reason, have conscience and love...
Job speaks of morning stars and sons of times long ago before the Earth was made. Who are these sons and daughters?
NKJV Job 38:7
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
NKJV Ecclesiates 12.
6
Remember your Creator before the silver cord is [
b]loosed,
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
People in NDEs mention the silver cord, and in creation Adam was made of clay and breath, but the Spirit returns to God.
NKJV Ephesians 1.
3 Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
GNT Wisdom 8:19-20
19 I had a pleasant personality even as a child. I had been fortunate enough to receive a good soul, or rather, I was given a sound body to live in because I was already good.
YLT Zechariah 12:1
12 The burden of a word of Jehovah on Israel. An affirmation of Jehovah, Stretching out heaven, and founding earth, And forming the spirit of man in his midst.
YLT Jeremiah 1:5
5 `Before I form thee in the belly, I have known thee; and before thou comest forth from the womb I have separated thee, a prophet to nations I have made thee.'
Jeremiah seems to have existed before conception for God to have known him rather than have foreseen or foreknown him.
Looking at the formation of spirit, heart, that has faith and receives the Spirit of God. It is more than a brief breath out but ancient and unfurling into this life with a commission.
YLT Psalm 24.
3 Who goeth up into the hill of Jehovah? And who riseth up in His holy place?
4 The clean of hands, and pure of heart, Who hath not lifted up to vanity his soul, Nor hath sworn to deceit.
5 He beareth away a blessing from Jehovah, Righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 This [is] a generation of those seeking Him. Seeking Thy face, O Jacob! Selah.
7 Lift up, O gates, your heads, And be lifted up, O doors age-during, And come in doth the king of glory!
8 Who [is] this -- `the king of glory?' Jehovah -- strong and mighty, Jehovah, the mighty in battle.
9 Lift up, O gates, your heads, And be lifted up, O doors age-during, And come in doth the king of glory!
10 Who [is] He -- this `king of glory?' Jehovah of hosts -- He [is] the king of glory! Selah.
Christ Jesus is the King of Glory, our gates are ancient. Wooden gates are never ancient.
- Origen: the soul must open its gates for Christ to reign.
- Augustine: “Lift up your heads, you gates — you who are lifted up by confession and faith, that Christ may enter your hearts.”
- Cyril: the “ancient gates” are the mind’s faculties, long closed by sin, now opened to the Redeemer.
I am persuaded to see these qualities in our human spirits our hearts, by stories of people who have returned to life after meeting Jesus and their angels of light. They recall life before conception and see their silver cords in their NDEs. In the end all our beliefs will be tested by us, when we see the reality, our goal of discerning while on Earth.
