Why is the church first?

When God first created anything, time began. On the sixth day of His creation, God created Adam. The moment Adam began to be, the Lord had His Church.

When God later created Eve, from Adam's side, the family was formed.

One might say that civil government was also formed, with the creation of the second human being, (although it might be more proper to say that the formation of multiple families constituted it).

All three of these institutions: the church, the family, and the state, are good; and they are ordained of God.

The family and the state are temporal institutions, in that they will cease to exist, at the end of conventional history, i.e. at the last coming of Christ, the resurrection of the body, the great judgment, and the eternal state.

The church, however, will always remain, throughout all of history, "temporal," and eternal.