Editorial April 12, 1919 Issue

Predestination and Choice

Annie M. Knott

When Christian Science makes its appeal to people through its healing ministry, they soon find themselves called upon to adjust their religious concepts so as to come into line with the requirements of Principle. Material rites, now as in Jesus' time, give place to more spiritual ideals, and doctrines predicated upon the belief of evil as a factor in the divine government of man and the universe give place to the recognized fact that as God is infinite good, evil can have no place in the divine purpose.

It is reassuring to know that as we loosen our hold upon erroneous beliefs about God and man, the truth of being, as eternally established, bears witness to the divine will, which is good, and good only. While it is true that the doctrine of predestination is no longer believed in as at one time, yet it has an important place in Scripture, and so deserves our attention. The belief that God had, before man appeared on this planet, predestinated some to eternal happiness and others to eternal sin and misery, is at variance with the demand for choice, which is so insistent in the Bible.

From the Christian Science viewpoint the divine purpose respecting man is fully presented in the first chapter of Genesis, and though the heavens should fall, this purpose can never fail. The divine intent is further stated in the eighth chapter of Romans, where we read: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." If a mortal should blindly choose to descend to the depths of hell, even there this glorious purpose would pursue him, until the long and dark dream of materiality ended in an awakening to the fact that neither height nor depth can "separate us from the love of God."

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