This is an edited excerpt from a program that aired recently on the Christian Science Sentinel—Radio Edition. The participants in the discussion come from various walks of life, but they all share a deep love for the Bible. They are Edward Little and Caroline Robertson, both from Bellevue, Washington, Glynis Burgdorff from Summit, New Jersey, and Douglas Keith from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Edward Little: It's clear from the discussion about the book of Genesis in the media in recent weeks that people have many different ways of interpreting the Bible.

We'll be examining the Bible and particularly the book of Genesis from the standpoint of the spiritual interpretation of it in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

Caroline Robertson: She says there that "the one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual" (p. 320). We need the spiritual understanding of the Bible in order to make it relevant in our lives, in order to have healing in our lives.

Glynis Burgdorff: Mrs. Eddy was an avid Bible student. When she was forty-five years old, and at the point of death, she opened to one of the healings in Christ Jesus' ministry, in the New Testament, and at that moment she glimpsed a new sense of something that perhaps she had read many, many times before. The spiritual sense of that story completely healed her.

Douglas Keith: I think that's why she could write, "You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct interpretation of Scripture" (ibid., p. 547).

EL: Let's get to the book of Genesis. What's important about that book?

DK: Well, for me Genesis is the foundation of the Bible.

GB: As a mom, I really want to be able to explain the richness of the Bible stories to my children. And before I was able to see Genesis unfolding through the Bible stories, a lot of these stories were isolated miracles to me. They happened a long time ago to people I didn't know. But by understanding Genesis and by seeing the principles of Genesis unfold in those stories, you realize that there is a demonstrable Principle going on now that was going on then. You can repeat it. Those stories come to life.

DK: There is a wonderful statement in the Key to the Scriptures section of Science and Health that refers to Genesis and Revelation as containing "the deep divinity of the Bible" (p. 546). Let's take a look at the first verse in Genesis and see what it is saying to us. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

GB: There is an interesting explanation of "the beginning" in Science and Health. It says: "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" (p. 502).

DK: We get a hint of God's nature in that word beginning. In the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Latin Vulgate Bibles, beginning is translated "in Principle." So, God is Principle. Since this sense of beginning doesn't mean a point in time but is meant to signify the only, this Principle is something that has existed forever. It is self-existent.

GB: There was never a time when God wasn't when His spiritual universe wasn't, so this sense of "beginning" isn't a manufacturing process, something sprung out of nothing. It's really revelation. "In the beginning" is the revelation of God's creation, of a creation that has always been, is now, and always will be.

CR: This is Principle revealing itself to us.

EL: So when we are thinking about Principle, it's not static at all. It's doing something. We could think of Principle's purpose as self-revelation.

GB: That would also answer the question "Is God knowable?" I think what the Bible is saying and certainly what we find through out Science and Health is that the principle of the Principle, or the purpose of the Principle, is God making Himself known to us. So how can it be said that God is unknowable?

EL: So, this Principle is revealing itself, and the manifestation of that action is God speaking. That's a refrain over and over again in the first chapter of Genesis: "And God said ... and God said ... and God said ..." Well, if this Principle is speaking to us, we could say that's God self-explanation.

We can almost think of that first verse of the Bible as standing all by itself—as a banner over the entire Bible—having a complete statement about God's nature as the only creator of the universe.

Science and Health says, "The creative Principle—Life, Truth, and Love—is God" (p. 502).

GB: To me, Truth is God's Word revealing to us what our life is. Love speaks of God's motherhood. It's beautifully expressed in Isaiah: "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (65:24). Love is God's motherhood unfolding creation to us, answering our questions before we even ask.

EL: So Principle is not only Life, but the provision of Love, supplying all the needs for life. It's life-producing.

GB: And life-producing right here and right now. It's not a life out there or when we die or when we go to what most people call "heaven." It's really revealing heaven here, already within us.

CR: That leads us then to the second verse of Genesis: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

EL: This sounds like something quite the opposite of the first verse of Genesis. What is this darkness, this void?

DK: We need to see the difference between the immortal sense of God—of Life, Truth, and Love—and the mortal, material sense of creation. Science and Health says: "The problem of nothingness, or 'dust to dust,' will be solved, and mortal mind will be without form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds himself God's reflection, even as man sees his reflection in a glass" (p. 126). It seems to me that what this is telling us is that it's this mortal thought, this sense of looking at everything materially, that is ultimately without form and void.

EL: Can we think of some examples of how people experience voids in their lives today?

GB: Anything that seems to take away your sense of yourself, your sense of identity, your sense of purpose. That's a void.

CR: And frequently that feeling of emptiness, that feeling of the void, can open your heart to be prepared for moving forward spiritually. When we break through that sense of darkness to see the revelation of God, it is a glorious view, indeed.

EL: So the void experience needn't be hopeless. Is that true?

DK: Absolutely. We've said the earth was without form and void, but then see what happens? The verse says that the spirit of God moves (see Gen. 1:2). That's where the hope lies. The spirit of God is ready to move us into something new.

EL: Well, let's ask the question, then, Is the void something that's true or real? Did God create the void?

GB: No, God didn't create the void because as we read next, "God said, Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3). God did not say let there be darkness. He said, "Let there be light." So what we have to understand, perhaps, is that there are not two separate creations. There's not a spiritual creation that is light and is real and then another real creation that is dark and material and needs to be made null and void in the sense of some sort of future obliteration or disaster. The way this darkness is removed is through the revelation of the light.

DK: I agree, Glynis, and I think you raised a very important question, Ed, Did God create this darkness? I know that this is a common thought. But if we are talking about a God who is wholly spiritual, wholly good, who is defined by the words Life, Truth, and Love, then how can that God create exactly the opposite of Himself? He couldn't create the darkness. He couldn't create sickness. He couldn't create death.

EL: Yes, in fact, if we go to the last two pages of Scripture at least as the Christian community reads it, John in Revelation says about the new heaven and new earth that there was no night there (see 22:5). So what's happened to the darkness between the first page of the Bible and the last page is that as this revelation continues from God, the darkness disappears. It's not from God. It's wholly antithetical to His nature. It just disappears.

GB: And not only does the darkness disappear, Ed. The light that dispels the darkness has a twofold function. As we see that the darkness is nothing, the light also brings into view what is, what has always been.

EL: We don't want to get the impression that light is over here and darkness is over there.

That leads us back to the phrase in the second verse, "And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." That indicates that the presence of God as Spirit is right where there appears to be a void.

DK: Yes, and it indicates the nature of God as Love because right where darkness appears to be, this sense of love is ready to take care of us.

GB: Also, in Hebrew that word moved means to brood, as a mother hen would brood over her young. While God doesn't know darkness, He is always with us, brooding over us.

EL: So the spirit of God moves on the face of the waters. It's present and it's uttering the Word of God. Divine Spirit moved, and God said, "Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:3). What is that light?

CR: The light is healing. It's what happens when God is revealed in our lives. It's very practical.

EL: Is there some Scriptural text that would tell us that this is the light of healing?

GB: There certainly is Scriptural authority, if you will, for connecting light to healing. In Isaiah, chapter 58, we read, "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily" (verse 8).

CR: It's the light of God revealing Himself that results in healing.

EL: I had an interesting experience in this regard. I had what appeared to be some form of stroke where I lost a good number of the functions of my body. I went eleven days and eleven nights without being able to eat or sleep, stand or walk, and it seemed to be accompanied with a great deal of nervousness. On the eleventh night, I thought that I might die. So I called the person who was praying with me and just said, "I don't think I can make it through the night." She declared to me just one simple truth. She said, "You are immortal."

It's very difficult to describe what that meant to me at that moment. But I got a glimpse of this spiritual creation that I'd never seen before. I got a glimpse of what man is, of what my own nature is in relation to God. With that statement that man is immortal, I saw something of that eternal creation right there present in the void, and I was instantly healed. All of my functions returned, and I slept very peacefully that night. That whole disease vanished just as the darkness vanished at the appearing of the light.