Editorial September 25, 1976 Issue

From All Eternity

Peter J. Henniker-Heaton

Preexistence, as a word, appears comparatively rarely in Mrs. Eddy's writings; but the concept of preexistence permeates her teachings. A right understanding of it is most helpful to the effective practice of Christian Science healing. Preexistence, spiritually understood, reveals our relation to eternal Spirit and Spirit's eternal creation; it identifies us as sons and daughters of God, coexistent with our divine Father-Mother from all eternity.

Recognition of this preexistence starts to free us at once from a whole range of mortal beliefs. It takes each of us back beyond physical birth and conception. Beyond material inheritances and the incidents and accidents of the natal and prenatal period. Beyond family, tribal, and national backgrounds. Beyond theories that we've been formed in response to climatic, historical, or global environments. Beyond formation of our earth some four and a half billion years ago and of our universe some fifteen billion years ago. Beyond the whole material cosmos.

Spiritual preexistence also places us beyond the reach of the pseudoscientific superstitions of astrology that focus on the moment of physical birth. Or of reincarnation that claims we are repeatedly reborn on earth into a succession of physical bodies and personalities. It takes us back beyond all such falsities, beyond all material forms and concepts to original spiritual reality.

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September 25, 1976
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