Editorial September 5, 1994 Issue

"...before the world was"

Mark Swinney

The possibilities of what we can see of creation are unlimited. That's because creation itself is unlimited. It's the outcome of God, divine Spirit, infinite Life, not of physiology, genetics, or material evolution. Can something as wholly spiritual as divine Life cause anything to exist that is not spiritual? Never. Divine Life's outcome, or substance, is entirely spiritual. Material existence is no part of Life's manifestation. It is only the apparent inverse of the reality that is God's creation.

Does Life's creation ever even touch what seems to be its inverse—materiality? This question is best answered by the Discoverer of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy. She writes: "The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight line. The circle represents the infinite without beginning or end; the straight line represents the finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal Mind and temporary material existence never unite in figure or in fact" (Science and Health, p. 282).

Because "real Life, or Mind" and its representative—spiritual man and the universe—are "infinite without beginning or end," they couldn't have any material associations or they would ultimately disintegrate and die. Mind, divine Life, though, is continuous. It has no historical point of genesis and includes no termination point. Neither does the creation that reflects it. This explains something of why Christ Jesus prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5).

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