Article March 8, 1975 Issue

Heaven Here and Now

ALAN A. AYLWIN

Christ Jesus' conception of heaven was very different from that of his contemporaries. To the master Christian, heaven (or the kingdom of God) was not a ghostly habitation, a locality—nobody knows where—that hopefully we enter after the change called death. To Jesus, this kingdom was attained through an inner illumination, a subjective sense of spiritual harmony that we can experience here and now. He said: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."^{ Luke 17:20, 21;}

It seems evident that Jesus is telling us that we don't need to put off experiencing heavenly harmony to some future time. It is God's will for us now because God is Love, and He holds man's real identity in joyous perfection within Himself, now and forever. True manhood is a spiritual idea conceived by, and living in, the divine Mind. This infinite consciousness, or Mind, is the very essence and selfhood of strength, health, gladness, and abundant Life, and it is our birthright to reflect, or express, God's boundless goodness eternally. In reality each of us is an individual manifestation of Love's heavenly harmony.

The kingdom of heaven is experienced on earth in the degree that the foregoing spiritual facts are understood and their moral implications practiced in everyday life. Mrs. Eddy defines "heaven" as "harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul."^{ Science and Health, p. 587;}