The Intelligent Compound Idea

In Christian metaphysics all is divine Mind and its manifestation. Male and female are God-created, therefore they are ideas in divine Mind, the seed within itself, made manifest as man and the universe. The plural words “us” and “our” used in the creative command of Elohim, God, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” are true to the etymology of the word Elohim, which combines “Eloh,” a feminine plural, with a termination which is used in connection with masculine words, thus conveying a fundamental meaning of Father-Mother Deity which is fully realized in the understanding of the essential nature of Mind’s trinity in unity—Life, Truth, and Love.

Christian Science accepts the first chapter of Genesis and the first three verses of the second chapter as an authoritative and scientific account of creation, and on this basis posits that man, the image or idea, being male and female,—”male and female created he them,”—the creating Mind includes and spiritual individual man expresses and individualizes the male and female Father-Mother qualities, faculties, and attributes of the Godhead, Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the true individual is complete in Mind and body in the individuality of the Father-Mother God, in the oneness of Mind and its idea. On page 48 of her book “Unity of Good” Mrs. Eddy writes of God: “He sustains my individuality. Nay, more —He is my individuality and my Life,” and the apostle Paul wrote: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him.”

With God’s spiritual creation established and everything that was made pronounced “very good,” let us look in on Adam and Eve as they dwell in the garden “eastward in Eden.” Of course the story of the garden of Eden is an allegory, but where in all literature can be found a tale so fraught with inherent possibilities to rend asunder the bonds of human enslavement by bringing the mortal face to face with the lie of his own mortality and thus to unmask the subtle wiles of a mythical talking serpent or carnal mind? When this allegory, instead of being believed literally, is understood metaphysically, man will no longer appear to be material in the likeness of Adam and Eve, for he will be seen spiritually as the image of God.

In this beautiful garden of Eden, so the story runs, grew every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. Then there was seen in the midst of the garden “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Here a talking serpent appears “more subtil than any beast of the field,” saying: Evil is, and by knowing this evil mankind can usurp the powers of Deity, become gods, male and female creators; Eve, instead of God, being, in the words of Adam, “the mother of all living.”

What is this evil, knowing which the serpent said, “Ye shall be as gods,” and the Lord God said, “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die”? Is it not merely a false conception of a power and presence apart from God, a lusting after something that admittedly is not Spirit, the All-in-all of being? Is it not the lying serpent or carnal mind saying male and female are not spiritual qualities of the one divine Mind which are fully possessed and enjoyed by man, but instead are personal creators becoming so through carnal knowledge? This sense which would separate the idea of God into male and female material minds or persons is the “mist” that arose, as depicted in the second chapter of Genesis. Out of this mist came the generations of Adam, and with this procreation, or Adam and Eve family, came all the woes that the flesh is heir to. Judgment was pronounced on Adam and his progeny because, as the apostle James said, “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” The generations of the Adam and Eve conception are plainly the generations of sin, sickness, and death, for “in Adam all die;” but the Scriptures also declare that “in Christ shall all be made alive.” This is so because the mist of materiality does not change spiritual reality. The children of God have never ceased to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” No intruding sense of Adam and Eve mortals changes God’s perfect creation, for there is no lapse in the expression and continuity of Mind’s idea.

Did it ever occur to the reader that man never had an animal body as Adam’s progeny seems to have? Man never was, as the psalmist relates of mortals, “shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Man is conceived and brought forth by Mind, God, and God is not animal, material, or human. Birth is the unfolding of Mind’s idea. Adam was created from the dust, says mortal mind; Eve from Adam’s rib; and the human Cain and Abel from the serpent’s knowledge. Now the carnal mind and all it suggests is a lie from beginning to end. Any one can see, if he will, that if there existed no sense of separating man into male and female persons, if every individual, by seeing man as the complete spiritual expression of God, utterly failed to hear the call of the serpent—and Jesus so taught and lived, as our Exemplar—there would be an end of the Adam generation. But this does not mean that the generation of God, Mind’s spiritual idea, would cease. On the contrary, to the extent that the carnal mind is overcome through spiritualization of thought, clearer views will be obtained of the real sons and daughters of God. Mrs. Eddy says on page 68 of Science and Health: “Proportionately as human generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually discerned,” and on page 268 of “The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” she says, “Look long enough, and you see male and female one—sex or gender eliminated; you see the designation man meaning woman as well, and you see the whole universe included in one infinite Mind and reflected in the intelligent compound idea, image or likeness, called man.”

God never joined matter or mortals. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,” was truly said because God is Spirit, His creation spiritual, and all reality is joined in Spirit and in Truth. The true oneness is purely spiritual. As it exists now and eternally, it may be realized now. Material things and conditions of thought are, however, the counterfeits of spiritual facts or true ideas; so human men and women evidence, by a process of reversal, the existence of the eternally united male and female of God’s creation. The offspring of the Adam-mind are mortals. The offspring of the Father-Mother God is immortal.

Christian Science opens to its students the way to immortality by demonstrating that all healing results from replacing the false concept with the true or spiritual idea. Spiritualization of thought and desire is the process of destroying false beliefs by reflecting or expressing the pure nature and qualities of the divine Mind. Blessed indeed are the pure in heart, for to them it is given to see Life as the all-consciousness of being, Truth the strong Almighty Father, Love the tender, all-compassionate Mother, and man the immaculate idea bearing perfect witness to the Father-Mother Mind. With this understanding we can discern what the Revelator meant when he wrote, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come…. Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Here, a statement from page 372 of Science and Health deserves serious thought. It reads: “When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely, he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject to matter, nor disobey the law of God. Therefore he will be as the angels in heaven.” It was the Master who said, “Be ye therefore perfect.”