Article November 6, 1976 Issue

The Way Out of the Matter Trap

BRYAN G. POPE

If Christianity did not mean that there is far more to life than a short span of mortal existence, its teachings would be comparatively worthless. The Apostle Paul put it pungently this way: "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain."^{I Cor. 15:14;}

The question is: How can we recapture that soaring, joyous certainty of spiritual life forever "hid with Christ in God"?^{Col. 3:3;} So much more than hopeful beliefs, this spiritual certainty enabled the apostles to face unflinchingly difficulties of many kinds—even death; it enabled hundreds of others to do likewise in the amphitheaters of Rome. Two words provide the key: spiritual understanding.

Humanity seems to have stockpiled an overplus of material knowledge, which it is almost completely at a loss to know how to control. But very few really believe it will ever be possible, even if it were wise, to genetically manipulate or chemically rejuvenate the mortal body so that it will live forever. Everyone in his heart of hearts, if he has not already found a satisfactory answer, naturally wonders what hope he has of continuing to be when the body finally returns to the dust from which it came. "Darkness and doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on materiality," states Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. And she asks, "From a material standpoint, 'Canst thou by searching find out God?'"^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 551;}