"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." So writes Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 468, 469). We sometimes hear it said that we do not live in the past or in the future, but only in the present. When making such a statement, if one believes that there is just the present because the past has gone and the future has not yet come, he is believing in the reality of time. If, however, he believes the Bible statement, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (II Pet. 3:8), he is realizing that time is unreal and that there is just the eternal now. Mrs. Eddy gives the spiritual interpretation of the first verse in the Bible (Gen. 1:1), "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Science and Health, p. 502): "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."
Someone may be wondering what harm there can be in believing that time is real. There is just as much harm in believing in the reality of time as there is in believing in the reality of matter. In fact, the two are so closely related that Mrs. Eddy includes the term matter in the definition of time in the Glossary of Science and Health. We early learn in our study of Christian Science that matter is unreal because it is not of God. In our prayerful metaphysical work we need to know the unreality of time as well as the unreality of matter. The failure to solve a human problem may sometimes be traced to one's belief in the reality of time. Yet time cannot even be perceived through the physical senses. Only the results of believing in time can be seen or felt through changes in matter. To spiritual sense there is only eternity with no change.
Diseases are often classified as belonging to children or to adults. It is well to know the unreality of time in the treatment of conditions said to be prevalent among individuals of certain ages. Christian Science teaches that man, God's image and likeness, is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, or decay. He is not subject to age beliefs of any sort. Since man is never born and never dies, he can never experience a mortal existence ranging between these two beliefs. Man is spiritual and has existed forever in his Father's kingdom, "for in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Man is incorporeal and eternal because he is coexistent with Spirit, God. He is also timeless as well as matterless and limitless.
