Article March 6, 1943 Issue

Translation

ROBERT A. CURRY

We are all familiar with the statement of Enoch's remarkable experience, "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." This is alluded to in the New Testament as translation, or the ascension of the individual above the material sense of existence without undergoing death. Elijah was similarly favored(II Kings 2:11), and Jesus also (Luke 24:51). Some may believe that St. John overcame mortality in the same manner, because there is no proof of his having died. The event, then, is not impossible of accomplishment.

Mary Baker Eddy, writing in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 67, 68), answers the question, "Do you believe in translation?" There she refers to the removal of a person to heaven without his going through the experience of death, in part as follows: "I believe in this removal being possible after all the footsteps requisite have been taken up to the very throne, up to the spiritual sense and fact of divine substance, intelligence, Life, and Love. This translation is not the work of moments; it requires both time and eternity. It means more than mere disappearance to the human sense; it must include also man's changed appearance and diviner form visible to those beholding him here."

Translation is to be believed in. It is the spiritual alternative to death on this plane. Man's identity is not swallowed up through translation; otherwise Elijah and Moses could not have been visible to the disciples with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. Christian Science teaches mortals how steadily to overcome matter with Spirit each day, through healing. Thus the end is kept in view and the steps toward that end are progressively taken.

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