IN writing of St. John's revelation at that point where he saw "a new heaven and a new earth," Mrs. Eddy says, "This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material" (Science and Health, p. 573). She concludes by adding, "This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness." The paramount word in the above is consciousness, and this makes it apparent that in reality it was not a new heaven and a new earth, in the sense of something newly created, that was seen, but a new concept, purely spiritual, of the same heaven and earth which appeared to the unillumined human mind as matter. In other words, matter had disappeared to St. John through his realization of all things as created spiritually.
Although there is no authentic record of the translation of St. John, it is little wonder that many, from a thorough study of his revelation, should believe that he never experienced death. He had seen a new heaven and a new earth, had seen the destruction of death and hell, and had the invitation of the angel, "Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife," the bride which Mrs. Eddy defines (Science and Health, p. 582) as "a sense of Soul, which has spiritual bliss and enjoys but cannot suffer."
At a recent Christian Science lecture the speaker told of the different states of consciousness held by a civilized person and a savage on viewing an aeroplane. Totally different concepts of the same thing would be held, according to the varying states of individual consciousness. Jesus, giving a reason for making "a man every whit whole on the sabbath day," said, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment;" and through this righteous judgment he turned the water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee and fed the multitudes with five loaves and two fishes, thereby proving that the source of all supply is purely mental and spiritual, not material.
