Editorial July 6, 1940 Issue

Immortality a Divine Fact

George Shaw Cook

Some Biblical passages, regarded literally, might indicate that their authors believed it possible for God, the creator of man, to be eternal, but for man, His creation, to be temporal. It is quite possible that some of the Old Testament writers may have entertained this illogical belief, but it is also possible that through inadequate translations they have been made to appear to say things that they did not actually believe.

In considering the question from the standpoint of divine logic as well as from that of human reason, it is readily seen that it would be utterly impossible to have a mortal, finite, perishable effect from an eternal, infinite, indestructible cause. Effect must of necessity be like cause, and to argue otherwise is to stray into by-paths of inconsistency and illogic. Mary Baker Eddy, in her definition of "ark" on page 581 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," shows that "the idea, or reflection, of Truth [is] proved to be as immortal as its Principle."

No one questions the eternal, changeless nature of Truth, and Christian Science teaches that Truth in its deific nature is synonymous with God, the creative divine Principle of man and the universe. It logically follows that spiritual creation, existing as the idea or expression of Truth, is as eternal and changeless as Truth. Man, the idea of God, is therefore immortal, because he expresses the nature of his immortal Principle. And Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 81), "In Science, man's immortality depends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary consequence of the immortality of good."

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