IN Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there" (p. 291). Sin being disobedience to spiritual law, heaven may be said to be a harmonious mental state characterized by obedience to spiritual law.
In the ten commandments, which tell us what mankind should not do if they would live in harmony, Moses essayed to declare the laws of Spirit. In order to show that these laws worked according to cause and effect, he described the good results of obeying them and the evil results of disregarding them. (See Deut. xi.)
Ever since Moses' time, mortals have misinterpreted and disregarded his statement of the effects that follow obedience and disobedience of the ten commandments. Believing God to be an arbitrary ruler, men have set up a belief in a system of rewards and punishments that has endured to this day. Finding mankind unable to realize harmony here through this belief, scholastic theology has relegated heaven to a hypothetical place and state after death, and has taught that it is a reward for obedience to moral and ecclesiastical laws here. Seeing much ignorance and disregard of the decalogue, and therefore fearing the loss of moral standards, some theologians have added specific rules of conduct, and threatened any who should disobey with dire punishments, including consignment after death to a place of eternal torment.
