Article May 24, 1924 Issue

Heaven and Earth

JULIA M. JOHNSTON

In the first verse of the Bible we read that "God created the heaven and the earth." The succeeding verses of this marvelous chapter unfold the various identities of this creation. Finally, there is introduced the compound idea, man, whose dominion was over all the earth and over every living thing on the earth.

Throughout this whole account of creation no mention is made of heaven as being more spiritual or more eternal than earth. Moreover, there is no mention of evil in connection with the earth, or with that which was to come forth from it. The dominion which was given to man was, therefore, not dominion over evil in the earth any more than in heaven; for evil is no part of God's creation. Man's dominion was that of the greatest idea of God over all His lesser ideas, insuring the reign of harmony for heaven and for earth throughout eternity. In this first account, God, heaven, earth, and man coexist in unified spiritual perfection.

Beginning with the sixth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, and on through the third chapter, runs the false account of creation. In this tale there is no mention of earth or heaven; only the statement that a mist appeared. Mortality is spoken of as being formed from the "ground," a definition of which is "point of view; opinion; belief." It follows that both the spiritual heaven and earth are equally unknown to error.

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