In the eighth chapter of John's Gospel is recorded a scene in which a number of Jesus' countrymen displayed marked hostility to his teachings. In derision they called him a Samaritan and boasted of themselves that they were of the seed of Abraham. In reply Jesus said (verse 58), "Before Abraham was, I am." This apparently infuriated them, for it is recorded that they took up stones to cast at him. They were unable to harm him, however, even though he passed through the midst of them, so greatly endowed was he with the Christ.
Christian Science reveals that man's real existence does not commence at the time of material birth and that the phenomenon called life in a material body, believed by many to be an endowment of Deity, is an illusion of the carnal or mortal mind. This Science also reveals the incontrovertible truth that God is Life and that man is God's likeness and has always existed as the spiritual reflection of this omniactive Life. The mortal concept of man is the Adam-dream of life and intelligence in matter and is as far removed from the true, spiritual concept as light is from darkness. It is likened by Job to "a shadow," which "continueth not"; and on page 14 of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes: "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak 'as one having authority.'"
To speak with authority in Christian Science presupposes the ability to prove by demonstration the truth of that about which one speaks. This cannot be done so long as one considers himself to be mortal and material. However, a point which Christian Science makes quite clear is the fact that humanity does not have to remain in "the belief and dream of material living." Indeed all must, sooner or later, awake to the perception of God as the only Life and of man as God's image and likeness—spiritual and immortal.
