Editorial August 28, 1926 Issue

God the Only Cause

Duncan Sinclair

Christian Science is in harmony with the Bible when it declares that there is only one real cause. It is in entire agreement with the words of John, to be found in the first chapter of his Gospel: "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made," and with those of Paul to the Romans: "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things."

Christians generally, and many others besides, will readily admit theoretically that God is the cause, origin, or source of "all things." They are quite ready to agree that there is a Supreme Being, and that because this Being is supreme He must be the originator of everything that exists. Thus a great number of the human race believe that God is the cause of what they believe to be the universe of Spirit and at the same time of the universe of matter, and that He is the source of all phenomena, spiritual and material. It is important for the present purpose to note that this is the attitude of the generality of thinking people outside of Christian Science toward the creator and creation, in order the better to understand the distinction which Christian Science draws between this view of creation and the truth which Christian Science reveals about creation.

Christian Science declares that God is Spirit or Mind. Beginning with this declaration, it logically maintains that God's creation must be like God, and thus must be altogether spiritual. Further, Christian Science holds that God is infinite, and that therefore He is all-inclusive. Hence it concludes that God must be the cause — the one and only cause—of the real or spiritual universe. But what of the so-called material universe? Christian Science does not admit that any such universe exists as reality, maintaining that infinite Spirit or Mind could not create anything unlike itself, anything the opposite of itself.

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