THE BIBLE
GENESIS
1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
26 ¶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
JOHN
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
PSALMS
66:5 Come and see the works of God:
136:1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good:
5 To him that by wisdom made the heavens:
6 To him that stretched out the earth above the waters:
7 To him that made great lights:
8 The sun to rule by day:
9 The moon and stars to rule by night:
33:6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord:
9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
FROM THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE: HEBREWS
11:1 And what is faith? Faith gives assurance to our hopes, and makes us certain of realities we do not see.
3 By faith we perceive that the universe was fashioned by the word of God, so that the visible came forth from the invisible.
AND AGAIN FROM THE KING JAMES VERSION: PROVERBS
3:19 The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
18 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her:
II CORINTHIANS
4:18 … we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
5:1 … we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
ISAIAH
55:6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
8 ¶For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
ECCLESIASTES
3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it:
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been;
II PETER
3:8 … beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
JOHN
8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
II CHRONICLES
29:11 Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.
13 … therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.
I TIMOTHY
1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
SCIENCE & HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
BY MARY BAKER EDDY
SH 502:22-28
Genesis i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
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. The creative Principle — Life, Truth, and Love — is God. The universe reflects God.
SH 262:30
Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal mind, or in physical forms.
SH 502:29-3
There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and
forever reflected.
SH 479:21
In the vast forever, in the Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit
and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding, and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of
nothingness.
SH 517:22
Even eternity can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit to infinitude or to its reflections.
SH 335:12
Spirit is the only substance, the invisible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal are insubstantial.
SH 264:20 (only)
Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being.
SH 71:5-7
The identity, or idea, of all reality continues forever; but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not in Spirit’s formations.
SH 266:27-29, 30
Man is the idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light. Man is deathless, spiritual.
He does not cross the barriers of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with God and the universe.
SH 468:27-3
Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of matter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal.
SH 330:11
God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man. Eye hath neither seen God nor His image and likeness. Neither God nor the perfect man can be discerned by the material senses.
SH 331:18-24
God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Principle, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and there is no other self-existence. He is all‐inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind.
SH 333:26-30 (to ;), 32-3 (to ;)
The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God.
Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus: “Before Abraham was, I am;” “I and my Father are one;”
By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the human Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham;
SH 349:31
In Christian Science, substance is understood to be Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe substance to be matter. They think of matter as something and almost the only thing, and of the things which pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very far removed from daily experience. Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view.
SH 278:12
That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a supposititious mortal consciousness. Hence, as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the consciousness of matter. The admission that there can be material substance requires another admission, — namely, that Spirit is not infinite and that matter is self‐creative, self-existent, and eternal. From this it would follow that there are two eternal causes, warring forever with each other; and yet we say that Spirit is supreme and all-presence.
SH 287:4-5, 27
All creations of Spirit are eternal; but creations of matter must return to dust.
The five material senses testify to truth and error as united in a mind both good and evil. Their false evidence will finally yield to Truth, — to the recognition of Spirit and of the spiritual creation.
SH 598:21-24
“One day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” (II Peter iii. 8.)
One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.
SH 260:7
The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through many generations human beliefs will be attaining diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God’s creation will finally be seen as the only true conception of being.
SH 471:17-20
Man is, and forever has been, God’s reflection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirituality of the universe is the only fact of creation.
Publications Quotation
“In the Beginning God”
By Peter G. Howard
Christian Science Sentinel
December 15, 1951
“The opening words of the Bible sound the keynote for all harmonious human endeavor. These words are, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.’
“God, good, has existed forever, and man, God’s idea or expression of Himself, eternally witnesses to this fact.
“Since it is impossible to delineate God, the supreme cause and source of all being, in terms of a finite beginning, it must also be impossible to define man, who is made in His image and likeness, in terms of limitation. The wholeness and completeness of Deity preclude any beginning whatsoever for an idea of God. All belongs to the one creator, who has created all and is All. Spiritual being has always been complete.”
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