Reverse the curse of degenerative conditions

from the Christian Science Sentinel

Christ Jesus reversed degeneration in every form—and said we could do what he did.

Degeneration certainly generates plenty of news these days. Who hasn’t felt pummeled by all the headlines about degenerating credit flows in global financial markets? By political news of campaigns that degenerate into personal attacks? And there’s the constant drumbeat of stories on the degeneration-prone human body and its vulnerability to debilitating conditions.

Medical news sources define a degenerative illness as a condition resulting in progressive loss of bodily function and marked by deteriorating cells, organs, or systems. From arthritis through the Zs in the catalog of degenerative conditions, the number of people suffering from such conditions is said to be on the rise.

Isn’t the whole notion of inevitable degeneration premised on a material model of life and community?

But wait a minute. Don’t these thought-pictures of bodies and social systems in decline have something fundamental in common? Isn’t the whole notion of inevitable degeneration premised on a material model of life and community? In terms of the generally accepted view of life’s basis—what we’re made of and how systems work—we may well be in the contemporary equivalent of a pre-Copernican world.

Copernicus revolutionized astronomical science by radically reorienting humanity’s view of the earth-sun relationship. Science in its divine meaning and practice is working an even more radical and all-encompassing change—in the public understanding of the God-creation relationship. Human consciousness has only begun to grapple with the proposition that we’re not made of matter at either the micro or macro level. That the essential stuff of us and the universe is idea, and that our source isn’t the human mind, but rather the divine Mind.

Spiritual idea-hood comes with profound implications. Ideas do not deteriorate, wear out, or die. After all, a 1 is a 1 and always will be. After millennia of heavy use, the number 1 has not degenerated into something less, hasn’t declined in value, and hasn’t lost any of its meaning, substance, purpose, or singularity. Even when it’s involved in a computation mistake—as in 1 + 1 = 3—the truth and integrity of 1 don’t change. Numerical ideas are distinct, unchangeable, and, we would add from a spiritual perspective, eternal.

Each of us is a unique idea composed of spiritual attributes.

And so are you. So is each woman, man, and child. To the loving God who originates us, each of us is a unique idea composed of spiritual attributes. That’s not a new concept. It’s as ancient as the first account of creation in the Bible, which speaks of the male and female whom God made as “image” and “likeness” (see Gen. 1). True, the image of a manlike god would be a material and time-bound personality—just a lesser version of a lesser deity.

Change your concept of God, however, from a bearded old-man deity to the infinite, all-creative Spirit or divine Mind—as Mary Baker Eddy’s life-long search led her to do over a century ago—and you must also change your concept of God’s creation.

As Mrs. Eddy wrote with arresting logic in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit.” As the image of limitless Mind, we must be intelligent ideas, equally limitless and spiritual. In answering the question “What is man?” she concluded, “He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; …” (Science and Health, p. 475).

Christian Science turns to Christ Jesus for a radically different, revelatory life-model.

Christian Science turns to Christ Jesus for a radically different, revelatory life-model. Science and Health calls Jesus “the most scientific man that ever trod the globe” (Science and Health, p. 313), and yet all the discoveries of organic chemistry and biophysics would come centuries after his era. The scientific truth he knew and lived—the Science of the Christ—wasn’t a product of human invention or knowledge. Jesus practiced the laws of Spirit and spiritual existence.

Luke’s Gospel describes Jesus as moving “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14), or under the supreme law of Spirit. His understanding of divine law enabled him to heal degenerative conditions—among them blindness, hemorrhage, palsy, and mental illness—and saved people lost in moral degeneracy. He reversed the age-old curse of degeneration in every form.

What the world calls “Jesus’ miracles” were instances in which the Christ revealed to those individuals and their observers something of the marvelous truth of life in God. That life is actually spiritual and by nature whole, well, vibrant, constant.

Look through back issues of the Sentinel and you’ll find verified testimonials of serious degenerative conditions healed through prayer—including arthritis, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and degenerated eyesight.

Try reading Science and Health along with the Bible. Look at life and life’s systems through this wholly spiritual lens. The whole world may not yet be ready to accept that we’re “the compound idea of God.” But let that fact’s healing power speak, and it will be heard and felt.