Mary Baker Eddy & Creation: Right or Wrong?

A discussion paper

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (S&H) Mrs Eddy says that there is only one creation and that one is the creation of the spiritual realm. It follows therefore that God did not create the material world nor did He create the man known as Jesus.

"There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities…." (S&H 502:29).

"Hence the Father Mind is not the father of matter" (S&H 257:14).

God overrode the physical laws (S&H 29:20) which He had already set up at the creation of the world relating to conception and birth to allow Mary to conceive and give birth to the man Jesus. Was this creation or just an intervention for good in Mary's life?. This situation is similar to when we pray to God to intervene in our human lives in order to effect a healing. So, God didn't father the man Jesus as we humans understand fathering. He made the birth of Jesus possible just as He did for the evolution of mankind when He created the universe.

In the New Testament the Apostles John and Paul have made it quite clear that God did create all things 'that are in the heaven and in the earth'.

"All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made"(John 1:3).

"For by him were all things created, that are in the heaven, and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities: all things were created by him, and for him" (Colossians 1:16).

These statements corroborate the earlier account in Genesis that God created the physical world. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1).

Which of these two explanations of creation should we take as the gospel truth? Are there one or two creations?

Genesis gives two accounts of the creation of mankind.

"So God created man in his own image" (Gen. 1 :27) 'In the beginning' God 'created' a being in His image and likeness.

Then after seven days it is recorded that the lord god formed man from the dust and woman from man's rib.

"And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" ( Gen. 2:7).

How can a being made from the dust of the earth be the image of God? To make sense of these somewhat conflicting accounts we have to look at the revelations of Jesus in the New Testament.

Firstly we are told that Jesus brought a new dispensation replacing all the old laws, the prophets and the Old Testament. The account of creation in Genesis and the Mosaic laws are to be interpreted in the light of the law of truth and spirit as given by Jesus.

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1: 17).

"The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached" (Luke 16:16).

"because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth" ( I John 2:8).

Secondly, we are told that Jesus revealed a truth which had been "hidden from the foundation of time" (Matt. 23:35). This truth is that we are the spiritual children of God. "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" (James 1:18).

Finally, when reading the Old Testament we must remember that its authors had a very limited understanding of the world they lived in or the supreme being to which they attributed creation.

So how can we explain what appears to be two creations of mankind described in Genesis?

God is not a corporeal being. He is divine Thought, divine Mind. The spiritual realm is entirely made up of God's ideas. Therefore the first being mentioned in Genesis as made in His image and likeness can't be a physical man. The child of God is a spiritual being reflecting His ideas. God by definition is supreme and eternal, without beginning or end. Likewise, His reflection, His child, must also have no beginning or end. Furthermore, an idea is a conception of the mind and not a creation in the physical sense. "In the beginning", before anything else existed, there was only God and His ideas, His children. Something which has always existed can't be said to be created.. There was no spiritual creation at least not in the ordinary sense of the word 'creation'. 'Conceptualized' might be a better way of describing something which is beyond our comprehension. God and His realm just is, and always will be! The author of Genesis had no other way of explaining the existence of the spiritual world other than to depict it as a 'creation' which occurred in the beginning of the human time scale. Jesus's life, resurrection and ascension is the absolute proof of the existence and the eternal nature of the spiritual man made in God's image and likeness.

So that just leaves the creation of the physical universe and mankind. Again, the authors of the Old Testament have used allegories to describe something which was beyond their comprehension or experience. Genesis and the disciples tell us that God created the universe in the beginning. God created the building blocks and the physical laws from which in time mankind and all the flora and fauna would evolve. These laws continue to govern us until we override them with the Grace and Truth of Jesus Christ: until we ask God to intervene.

Genesis records that the physical man was not created immediately in 'the beginning' but after the seventh day, i.e., sometime after the original creation of the world. This supports the claim by physical science that what we know today as mankind evolved over time.

Our physical being is nothing more than an intelligent organic robot governed by a set of laws based on the theory of chaos. God has put our spiritual being (or soul) in temporary control of this robot during this stage of our soul's spiritual development. Our mission in this life is to "let this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. ( Phil. 2:5-9). When we achieve a complete understanding of God we will have no need of our body. We may not achieve this perfect state before death overtakes us in which case we must continue our spiritual evolution in the hereafter. In the meantime, while we still have this body, we can ask God to prolong or improve our human life.

If we are listening to mortal mind or human ego to control this robot there will be chaos. If we are listening to divine Mind then everything will function correctly and we will be progressing spiritually. When things go wrong it is a signal to our spiritual being that we are not in tune with God and that we need to do something about it. This should lead us to pray for a better understanding of God. Indeed this is what Jesus has told us to do: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). Through prayer God will intervene for good in our lives. And so we proceed in this life until it is time to move to the next stage of our spiritual development.

In the light of Jesus's revelations the material creation is of no real importance in the scale of eternity. It is the spiritual realm which counts. It doesn't really matter what form the material man takes or how or when came into existence. What is important is that this life is just a step in the process of seeking to know God and attaining that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus. It's part of the process of progression to spiritual perfection in divine Mind.