Does life begin with material conception? Are chance and happenstance involved with creation? Are the many forms of life simply the products of complicated physical genetic interactions that have been taking place for countless aeons? Is life material, and is it under the control of a complex array of material laws?
In Christian Science we are taught that God, Life, expresses Himself in life that is spiritual and eternal; in other words, without beginning or ending. Man in God's image has always been, is now, and will ever be at one with Him.
However, in pondering this fundamental concept we are apt to find ourselves in a puzzling situation. This dilemma is the result of our having to accept the fact of preexistence—in the sense of life before birth—before we can begin to understand that life does not start with material conception, or, for that matter, with any laboratory experiment of the "new" biology. The acceptance of preexistence is a prerequisite to understanding the fraudulence of the many and varied claims of materiality. Understanding the falsity of these claims opens the door to the wider spiritual vision we seek in our study of Science. "Mortals will lose their sense of mortality —disease, sickness, sin, and death—" Mrs. Eddy states, "in the proportion that they gain the sense of man's spiritual preexistence as God's child; as the offspring of good, and not of God's opposite,—evil, or a fallen man." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 181;
Since we have no memory of existing prior to what seems to be material conception and birth, preexistence may seem to be a questionable concept. This is understandable. Why should preexistence be such a blank? Why does our memory customarily appear to go back merely to the time when we were small children and then simply stop? Why this barrier?
These questions start to dissolve when we consider how we are trying to find some hint of what went on before our material birth. Are we not trying to find this evidence of preexistence by looking deep within human memory? But should we expect to find such evidence there?
Seeking clues of preexistence within mortal memory is somewhat like searching the "memory" of a modern electronic computer to locate some information that was never put into the computer in the first place. The electronic computer will accurately "remember" whatever it has been programmed to. It will not recall information that was never fed into it.
In some respects the human memory can be compared to the memory of an electronic computer. This is an oversimplification, but one that will suffice for our present reasoning. Our mortal memory is virtually a blank when we are born. As it stores events and happenings, this information is indexed by associations and, to a large degree, by its removal in time; we can remember something only when it is removed in time from the present. Mortal memory is always time-based.
Time is an aspect of materiality. It is an awareness we have because of our apparent involvement with materiality. Because material memory is a product of time, and since time is a facet of materiality, such memory is not caused by God, Spirit, Mind. Whatever was—and is—outside the material dream can never be remembered by what seems to be a human memory.
The key to our dilemma is that divine Mind knows. We think that we know many things that we actually are merely remembering: facts, historical happenings, family events, and so on. But what we understand, we know. We know, rather than simply remember, love, intelligence, purity, goodness, and similar characteristics.
God does not have to remember to love us. He loves us because He is Love. When we truly know something, we can never forget it. When something is merely remembered, it can easily be forgotten, and often is. How precarious our situation would be if God had to remember to love each one of us!
Preexistence, being found in Spirit, God, is free from materiality; it is also free from time. Being free from time, it is also free from mortal memory. Therefore whatever knowledge and understanding belongs to preexistence—timeless coexistence with God—we can know and understand now. And when, through Christian Science, we are able to brush away the cobwebs of materiality and time, we will be fully conscious of having all this understanding and true wisdom.
What, then, happens to time after death? As the dream of materiality fades, so also does the concept of time fade. And as the concept of time yields to a sense of eternity, there will no longer be any consciousness of a time-based memory. In her definition of "time" in Science and Health Mrs. Eddy speaks of it in part as "that which begins before, and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal disappears and spiritual perfection appears." Science and Health, p. 595;
With less consciousness of a time-based memory, there is less painful yearning for someone or something from the past. The sadness of separation is replaced by the timeless knowing and understanding of the love and happiness and satisfaction that belong to each of us as a child of God, coexistent with Him.
This love has been represented by that which has gone out to us from husbands and wives, from mothers and fathers, and from others we have been close to. But the memory based on time that includes the pain of separation (which is always a function of time) will no longer be part of our consciousness. This understanding of our true spiritual being frees us from time-based sorrows and lifts us to the joys of the heavenly characteristics, which are eternal, and which our loved ones share with us. This is the true happiness we are all seeking, and it is completely free from the torments of materiality. Mortal anguish is based on mortal memory with its associated time factor, and mortality alone includes lack, disappointments, personal separations, and anxiety over lost or past years or the declining of abilities.
Once when Jesus was speaking in the treasury of the temple, he showed his own understanding of preexistence in a discussion of his relationship to Abraham. Speaking to the Jews, Christ Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." This statement brought ridicule from his audience, who reminded him that he was not yet fifty years old, and wondered how he could possibly have known Abraham. In answer to their derision Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." That this statement of Jesus' was a shock to the people is apparent from the record. They took up stones to throw at Jesus rather than accept what he told them as factual.See John 8:56-59;
Further evidence of Jesus' understanding of the eternality of his life was displayed during the transfiguration, when Peter and James and John saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elias, who both antedated Jesus by centuries. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The meek Nazarene's steadfast and true knowledge of preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of God and man,—made him mighty." Mis., p. 189.
For us to make any substantial progress in emulating Jesus' mighty works, as Mrs. Eddy admonishes us to do, we need to accept the concept of preexistence and begin, step by step, to acquire a practical understanding of its vast potentialities. Any understanding of preexistence opens wide the door to the realization of man's spiritual nature and his true relationship to God. Man coexists with Him, now and forever.
