Article June 15, 1946 Issue

"Saved with an everlasting salvation"

ESTHER K. MARKO

A bible dictionary describes salvation as "deliverance ... from sin and its consequences." The Bible instructs us to work out our own salvation, or deliverance from evil (see Philippians 2:12). In the generally accepted doctrines of Christianity the prerequisite to salvation is to believe that Christ appeared as the Son of God and came to save us.

The interpretation of salvation in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy invests the word with far greater import. The Glossary of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," gives the spiritual definition of the word (p. 593): "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin sickness, and death destroyed." Thus ultimate salvation, or deliverance, is directly dependent upon the student's own understanding and demonstration of Life, Truth, and Love. For instance, a healing may be a deliverance from physical discomfort or disease, but unless there is a corresponding regeneration in one's thinking, true salvation has not been attained.

Jesus healed disease and sin in their worst forms, but there is no record that those who received his gracious help were immediately translated into sainthood. Similarly, there are those who have been raised from their deathbeds through the ministrations of Christian Science yet have never accepted its teachings nor departed from their materialistic thinking. Jesus worked out his own salvation and proved the divine Principle of his being, and his followers must do the same.

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