Article August 8, 1914 Issue

Man Perfect

DAVID W. BRUNDEGE

That man was created perfect is a fact generally accepted by religious men and women of today; but whether or not he had remained so, is a question that is the source of much controversy. Some in every age have held to their convictions that man could not fall from his original estate; the majority, however, believe that through disobedience man severed his connection with his Maker and is now in a state of imperfection, "fallen."

This belief of man's imperfect nature seems to have been founded upon another belief, namely, that man is subject to certain natural laws, of which he is largely ignorant and which he cannot obey, and on account of this he is sick, sinning, and sorrowful. If this were true, it would appear that man has been created to face an inevitable doom; but we cannot attribute such an arrangement to an all-loving Father. Since it is conceded that God is the only creator, material law can exist only as a belief based upon the testimony of material sense. This sense is the abettor and support of the "carnal" mind, which is "enmity against God," and does not testify to the truth. It declares that man is young and old, that he is sick and well, and that he lives and dies. This testimony is plainly contradictory, and any belief founded upon it is therefore false. It is this false belief which has caused human suffering and despair.

Those who still cling to the theory that man is imperfect, believe in the possibility of his improvement, so that at the change called death he will be ushered into heaven. Human troubles are largely traceable to this false belief, and salvation can be obtained only by correcting it, by denying the false testimony of the physical senses, and by discerning the perfect man through spiritual sense. Being born of God, the evidence of spiritual sense is never contradictory and is always true.

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