“In my father’s
house are many mansions.”
- John 14:2
“Divine Love…brings back the wanderer to the Father’s house in which are
many mansions, many welcomes, many pardons for the penitent.”
- The
First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany (p. 132: 3) by Mary Baker Eddy
Dummelow’s One Volume Bible Commentary makes an
interesting point: “There are various degrees of glory in heaven, and
various employments, suitable to the deser(ving) and capacity of each … The
word used, which sometimes denotes a place of refreshment for travellers, is
thought by Westcott to suggest that heaven is a state of continual progress,
but this is unlikely.”
Mary Baker Eddy’s
advanced thought would not agree with Dummelow. She has given the world a
whole Lesson-Sermon, twice a year, on the topic Probation after Death.
She tells us that if we do not overcome difficulties on this plane of
existence, we will meet them again in the hereafter.
A useful study is to look
up all the references to hereafter in the Concordance to Eddy’s book Science & Health with Key to the
Scriptures (S&H). Here are some examples.
·
Page 296: 4-9: “Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man,
through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal. Either here or hereafter,
suffering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self.”
·
Page 427:29-30: “The dream of death must be mastered by Mind here or hereafter.”
Yes, there is definite room for progress in the
hereafter, though, according to S&H (page 587), there is only the here and
now of heaven – “Heaven. Harmony; the reign of Spirit;
government by
divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul.”
Joyce
Voysey
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