Chapter X - Science Of Being
Messiah or Christ
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XII. The word Christ is not properly a synonym for
XII. The word Christ is not properly a synonym for
Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human
name, which belonged to him in common with
other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical
with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On
the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine
title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal
nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and al-
ludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and
demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the
embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the
Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better sig-
nifies the Godlike.
The divine Principle and idea
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XIII. The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the
XIII. The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the
first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is
without beginning of years or end of days.
Throughout all generations both before and
after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spirit-
ual idea, – the reflection of God, – has come with some
measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive
Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets
caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which
baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of
Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and
ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God.
Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus:
"Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are
one;" "My Father is greater than I." The one Spirit
includes all identities.
Spiritual oneness
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XIV. By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the hu-
XIV. By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the hu-
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man Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or
man Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or
Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham;
not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the
Father, but that the spiritual idea, Christ,
dwells forever in the bosom of the Father, God, from
which it illumines heaven and earth; not that the Father
is greater than Spirit, which is God, but greater, infinitely
greater, than the fleshly Jesus, whose earthly career was
brief.
The Son's duality
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XV. The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the
XV. The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the
so-called personal senses, whereas Jesus appeared as a
bodily existence. This dual personality of the
unseen and the seen, the spiritual and mate-
rial, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest
in flesh, continued until the Master's ascension, when
the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared,
while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in
the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins
of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before
the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes.
Eternity of the Christ
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XVI. This was "the Lamb slain from the foundation
XVI. This was "the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world," – slain, that is, according to the testi-
mony of the corporeal senses, but undying in
the deific Mind. The Revelator represents the
Son of man as saying (Revelation i. 17, 18): "I am the
first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead
[not understood]; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,
[Science has explained me]." This is a mystical state-
ment of the eternity of the Christ, and is also a reference
to the human sense of Jesus crucified.
Infinite Spirit
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XVII. Spirit being God, there is but one Spirit, for
XVII. Spirit being God, there is but one Spirit, for
there can be but one infinite and therefore one God.