Returning from the mount of transfiguration, the disciples asked Jesus why the scribes said that Elias must first come. He replied (Matt. 17:11), "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things." Elias represents prophecy. Prophecy is spiritual seeing. A portion of the definition of "Elias" in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy is, "Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold" (p. 585). Spiritual discernment must come to human thought and restore all things to Spirit before the reign of harmony in divine Science can be established in our lives.
Prophecy replaces material sense with spiritual sense by bringing human experience under the control of Christ, Truth. "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man," writes Mrs. Eddy, "who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick" (ibid., pp. 476, 477).
Christian Science holds steadfastly to the fact that man is spiritual only, and he is the perfect image and likeness of God. It shows that sinning mortal man is not that man, nor is he another man. He is but a misrepresentation of what man really is.
