The theory that Jesus will return to earth in person undoubtedly stems from a literal interpretation of several of his statements. Such a theory is in opposition to Jesus' own summary of his mission. In prayer to God he said (John 17:3,4): "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."
Christian Science teaches that the purpose of the Scriptures is to reveal the wholly spiritual, perfect, and harmonious nature of God and man and mankind's necessity to glorify God in repudiation of the material concepts which have darkened human thought.
In explaining God as the Principle of all being, and man as God's idea or reflection, Christian Science rejects the belief that man is of material origin, subject to sin, disease, and death, and declares man's true nature to be spiritual, perfect, and wholly good. It also proclaims that Christ is not corporeal, but is the divine nature reflected by man. Because of the common belief of life in matter, however, these facts must be individually understood and proved before the harmony they bring is experienced.
The true nature of God and man was revealed in a degree by such God-inspired individuals as Moses, Elijah, and Elisha. But Christ Jesus revealed God as Spirit, the loving Father, whose government is beneficent and not punitive, and man's true selfhood as the Christ, or true idea of sonship. It was his pure Christly nature which enabled Jesus to heal the sick, cast out sin, and raise the dead. His mission on earth was to demonstrate to mankind the unreality of discord and the harmony of true spiritual being.
Thus the first coming was the advent of the Christ to human understanding, revealing the truth of being through Jesus' healing works. When Jesus overcame death and ascended, he proved his true spiritual status, and his mission on earth was completed. But before he left, he indicated clearly that God would continue to guide men into a full knowledge of true being. He said (John 14:26), "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
When the Christly nature of Jesus as God's idea is distinguished from his status as a corporeal person, it will be realized that the Comforter which he foretold is the reappearance of the Christ, Truth, or the advancing revelation of the true and complete nature of God and man. Jesus presented God's fatherhood. But before the erroneous material concept could be eliminated from the human mind in its entirety and God and man be understood, it was necessary that God's motherhood also be revealed and that true manhood and womanhood be understood to be qualities of God united in the true Christlike being of every individual and not divided personalities.
The Revelator envisioned an angel that came down from heaven with an open book in his hand "being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. ... And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (Rev. 12:2,5).
Christian Science has revealed the complete nature of God and man and is demonstrating the works of the Christ by healing the sick and casting out all manner of discords. These facts prove that divine Science is the promised Comforter, the second coming of the Christ, the final revelation of the true nature of God and man. In the presentation of divine Science in Science and Health, Truth's revelation is ensured throughout the ages as the means through which men may find salvation from discord and experience harmony. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 70), "The second appearing of Jesus is, unquestionably, the spiritual advent of the advancing idea of God, as in Christian Science."
To accept divine Science as the second and final presentation of the Christ, Truth, is to be awakened to the need of progressively demonstrating its demands. This awakening means the spiritualizing of thought and life by the elimination of materialism, including fear, hatred, belief in sickness, and all evil, and the cultivating of such Christlike qualities as spirituality, understanding, integrity, love, and intelligence. Nor does this awakening permit of apathetic waiting for a more opportune time to be Christlike. It demands that here and now individuals put off the sins of the flesh and demonstrate Christlikeness in daily life by being loving, kind, understanding, unselfish, strictly honest with their fellowmen, and Christianly scientific in every phase of their human experience. It calls for the rejection of evil, or animal magnetism, which claims to be present to deceive, enslave, and destroy the morals of men and nations and thus postpone or frustrate salvation.
Instead of apathetically awaiting a second coming of the physical Jesus to bring freedom, security, salvation, and harmony, Christian Science provides a Christianly scientific basis by which all may demonstrate their true Christlike nature now and glorify God as ever-present Principle, Life, Truth, Love. It is important also to recognize that the coming of the Christ to human understanding does not mean that the Christ has ever departed, or that the facts of being have ever changed. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1900, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 7): "Is there more than one Christ, and hath Christ a second appearing? There is but one Christ. And from everlasting to everlasting this Christ is never absent."
