I conducted a Celebration of Life service for a dear relative last Saturday. He lived to a ripe 90 years old, and there was no reason to be sad about his departure. He lived a good life and made his mark. The mood of the service was quite positive with people remembering the helpful and humorous ways he touched their lives. It was a good experience as far as funerals go.
But I made the most interesting discovery in my own spiritual outlook when I was busy ahead of time preparing comments to share with a very public and diverse audience of people representing a wide variety of religious faiths.
The vast majority of the group was Christian, I believe. And a common Christian belief is that when you have accepted Christ, you have acquired your ticket to heaven. You die, then up to heaven you go. You’re set.
This relative was a very religious man, certainly followed Christ and believed in the teachings of Jesus Christ. So he wasn’t in any doctrinal trouble there. And that wasn’t my worry.
My difficulty was in reconciling what I’d learned in Christian Science over the years about salvation, to this frequently held Christian belief that accepting Christ through confession is all it takes to gain eternal life.
Christian Science explains that salvation requires more than confessing Christ. Death is not a portal to heaven. Spiritual life is the route to heaven. Following Christ in deed through conquering sin, disease and death, is the route to heaven. And this demonstration is accomplished through growing in divine Life, not from acceding to death.
But what can happen in the mind of the student of Christian Science when pondering the demand to conquer death through Christ, rather than give into it, is the belief that misery and mortality continues after death, because, mortal mind concludes, “They died. They did not yet ascend. So they must be continuing on in a mortal form with a material experience until their thought is fully spiritualized.”
And Mary Baker Eddy did write,
“’In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.’ So we read in Ecclesiastes. This text has been transformed into the popular proverb, ‘As the tree falls, so it must lie. As man falleth asleep, so shall he awake. As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be after death, until probation and growth shall effect the needed change.” (Science and Health, p. 291)
But then I had my Aha moment. “My relative is not a mortal!” Believing he is a mortal who died and had more lessons to learn was not an inspired, Christ-like view of his identity in God’s image. It was a carnal mind view, the wrong view, a limited view. And I needed to discard it! As Christian Science vehemently teaches, God made man spiritual. We are spiritual. We are not mortal. We are in Christ and Christ is in us—not in matter, not in mortality, but in Spirit, in God, where all is well and life is forever.
When Eddy wrote “As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be after death,” she included the key words “mortal man.” She didn’t say man, or God’s man, but mortal man. And anyone who studies Science and Health quickly learns that mortal man is not man at all, but a set of false beliefs about man, beliefs which Christ, Truth, dispels.
Man is immortal. Man is spiritual, made in God’s image.
And suddenly it became crystal clear to me that my relative was alive and well in heaven. That’s where he had always been and always would be. He was God’s image. God’s image does not degrade into a mortal mess that needs to be saved and ejected from matter through death. God’s image is eternally well, healthy and strong. He did not die. It was a false concept of him that died. He was alive and well and always had been in Spirit.
With this broadened view, it was easy for me to get up in front of a diverse group of people, many of whom were devout Christians, but not Christian Scientists, and talk about this dear one as being safe and sound in God’s care, loved and protected, healthy and well, living his eternal life with Christ. There was no pain where he was, no suffering, no disease and no evidence of death. Christ had him covered in all ways, enabling him to enjoy enduring health and eternal being.
I knew that this freedom did not come to him through death. It was given to him by Christ, the Spirit of God that had been at work in his being from before the beginning of time. He was not a mortal. He was an immortal!
He had always been in Christ, and still was. Nothing had changed between him and his God.
No more confusion on that subject!
Wonderfully helpful Evan!
Once again, this grand Science pours into my receptive thought and I immediately feel its cleansing, healing effects…reaching into every claim that I am a struggling woman-mortal, trying to become what I already am: spiritual! Always was, always will be!
WHEW!!!!
This is wonderful and very timely for me now. Of course, man is immortal! I so enjoy not only your ideas, Evan, but the ideas of those who comment. I appreciate knowing that I’m not a “struggling woman-mortal,” trying desperately to become immortal. I am already and always have been spiritual. Same for my neighbor! Thanks so much.
Wrtten in this article is “We are IN Christ and Christ is IN us—not in matter, not in mortality, but IN Spirit, IN God, where all is well and life is forever.
I need clarification on the use of the “IN”. I was under the impression the corrected CS substituted preposition is “WITH” with reference to God. P 588: 22
To above,
I’ve never heard anything about the substitution of “in” for “with.” The below is what I refer to…
From John 14:19,20
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
This is Christian Science…
This was so helpful and made me realize I must study more closely our Leader’s exact words. It was so clear to me for the first time that that paragraph did talk about mortal man and that we are the real man created by God and have always been in perfect harmony at-one with our creator. Thank you very much. Vicki
My teacher has just passed on and we are all shocked. I have cried a lot and miss him so much. How can we overcome that sense of loss? I can’t pick up the phone to talk to him anymore and it feels like such an empty spot now. His passing came totally unexpected, so I did think for a moment that death & matter might have won in the end anyway, you know, despite his great understanding of CS…What if there is just oblivion and all our deeds and thoughts vanish? Would one not be tempted to think that CS might not be the absolute truth?
Thank you, Evan for these very helpful ideas – I had to attend a funeral this morning and found your comments uplifting – enabling me to see beyond ‘mortal man’ and behold ‘in Science the real man’ –
To above, per teacher passing,
My heart certainly goes out to you. But this is your opportunity to put into practice everything you have learned from your teacher. I’m sure he taught you to find Life in Spirit. That’s where he is right now! And he is alive and well, marching forward, triumphing in the power of good and living his eternal spiritual life. Also, I’m sure he taught you not to get attached to matter, to person, even to him. That would be a material sense of dependency that inevitably has to be weaned. Lean on God. Call on God. He always answers.
As far as whatever he was struggling with, evil seems awfully big and intimidating at times, but like David staring down Goliath, listening for God’s direction, and then toppling the giant to nothingness, we too must never be impressed with the claims of evil, no matter how large they seem to be at the time. We must look them down fearlessly, lean on God, and the giant will come tumbling down. I’m sure your teacher was and is doing this and will be totally successful. His righteous prayers will be answered 100%.
One of the giants today is the belief held by many that evil has more power than God, good. This takes the outward form of evil appearing to gain the upper hand at times. But don’t believe it. Don’t get influenced by it. Jesus didn’t. Stand strong with Truth, continue in your own demonstration, and prove step by step the finality of Truth that evil is not real and powerful and Good always has the final say. This would make your teacher very happy!
Lots of love,
Thank you so much, what a blessing this site is.
I think the comment above about “in” may refer to Mrs. E’s definition:
IN. A term obsolete in Science if used with reference to Spirit, or Deity. (Science and Health 588)
Dear Evan and All! Wonderful present to opent your site today and find this deep and complet sharing of understanding about what the real man is! Much love to all!!!
It is true that Spirit, God cannot be “in” anything because God is the biggest entity of all. There isn’t anything bigger that God could be “in.” But when referring to Christ, and thinking of Christ as the power and presence of God at work in all of us, just as Christ was at work in Jesus and through Jesus, it seems to work.
I suffered greatly with the recent lesson “Probation After Death”. I had been sucked in to the idea that when we die we keep the crap with us. Thank you for helping me to see that that was the mortal man and not the Spiritual man. I loved your explanation. Don’t worry I know I still have a lot of correcting to do and needing to increase my understanding of my true Spiritual self but I am grateful to know that it will pay off.