Modern Science and modern theology have both involved themselves in a very serious dilemma; and as the whole structure of modern civilization is based mainly on what is laid down by its chief thinkers, modern civilization is involved in that very same dilemma. The statements of physical science and of philosophy based upon those statements lead to one inevitable conclusion that the material senses cognize all phenomena out of focus and in reverse. For instance: Galileo has proved that the motions of the heavenly bodies are the reverse of all that the eye proclaims: Huxley maintains that mat ter is not a solid mass, but is either some form of energy or else a purely mental concept, and that the dividing line between those two theories is so fine as to be indistinguishable; while Bergson has declared that the mind is not in the brain, sight in the eye nor hearing in the ear and that the faculties of thought and perception are not ultimately dependent upon any material organ. On careful consideration, one sees that these statements destroy the whole basis upon which natural science, medicine, and modern thought are founded.— namely, the correct observance of phenomena. The senses with which this observance is made are proved to be liars, and the real existence of the phenomena they cognize becomes at least doubtful.
The theologians, however, have fallen into that same trap of accepting the reality of material consciousness. They have given up defending Adam with any great vigor; perhaps they have noticed the very obvious fact that the second and third chapters of Genesis are a contradiction or rather caricature of the first. They are, in fact, a statement of creation as seen out of focus and in reverse by the material senses. In the first chapter, God, Spirit, makes man in His own image and likeness; as the Icelandic version so clearly puts it, 'In the image of Mind made He him." Now the "image of Mind" can be nothing but idea, and man with dominion over all the earth, is thus revealed as the conscious idea of infinite Spirit, reflecting the qualities of the creative Mind. Man thus seen was expressed to mortals as Christ Jesus, who proved conclusively that the real man, the Son of God who "can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.'' is the perfect reflection of the divine character, and has dominion over all the earth. Christ Jesus gave unto all who understood the Christ to become the sons of God, born not of bloods, nor of sensual passion, nor of the will of a human father, but of God, and gave to them thereby the power to heal the sick, cast out evil, speak new tongues, handle unharmed the venomous snake, drink poison, and to do all that he did by a recognition of the truth which he had revealed.
What does modern theology make of these facts? It teaches almost the reverse. Canon Barnes, preaching before the British Association at Cardiff, theorizes as follows: "From some fundamental stuff in the universe the electrons arose. From them came matter. From matter life emerged. From life came mind. From mind spiritual consciousness is emerging." Or, briefly, spirit is the ultimate of matter. Now all this is a flat contradiction of the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. Speaking to Nicodemus at Jerusalem, Jesus drew a sharp distinction which no one can mistake: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In other words, Jesus separated the flesh from the Spirit with unerring insight. Later to a great body of his disciples at Capernaum he went even further: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." he said, thereby declaring Spirit to be the absolute and positive, and material consciousness to be a mere negation. From that point many of his disciples left him. Jesus further characterized evil as a mental product of material consciousness (out of the heart, he said, arise all evil thoughts) and stated that it was "a murderer from the beginning," because it stood not in absolute truth, because there was no truth at all in it. John distinguishes carefully between absolute truth and relative truth. In the King James Version this passage reads: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." There could not be a plainer statement of the unreality of all material consciousness, with its inevitable phenomena of sin sickness, disaster, and death; and Jesus, a few minutes before the statement last recorded, unfolded the only possible remedy for this consciousness. "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the [ absolute] truth, and the [absolute] truth shall make you free."
