Editorial December 31, 1984 Issue

Getting off to a good start

CAROLYN B. SWAN

At the turn of the year, when 1984 seems final history and 1985 speculative prediction, our progress will surely be enhanced if we will consider what God, good, has revealed Himself to be. The book of Revelation declares, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."^{ Rev. 1:8.}

Saying that God is Alpha and Omega is the Greek version of saying that He is everything from A to Z. Or, as a Bible dictionary puts it: "Alpha was the first, and Omega the last letter of the Greek alphabet, as Aleph and Taw were the first and last of the Hebrew. In the Talmud, 'From Aleph to Taw' meant 'From first to last,' including all between."^{ James Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963),  }^{p. 23}^.

Of course, the common definitions of beginning and ending don't literally apply to God, illimitable Spirit, or to His creation, including spiritual man, the true selfhood of each of us—forever perfect in His image. A spiritual sense of Scripture helps to explain the "beginning" that is described in Genesis 1:1. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy offers this explanation: "The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only,—that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe."^{ Science and Health, p. 502.}