Christian Science distinguishes between Christ and Jesus: the Christ-idea is eternally pre-existent in the Mind of God as the divine principle of Truth, but Jesus as a historical person did not pre-exist his birth. The Christ is the eternal expression of God's nature; Jesus was the manifestation of that Christ-principle in human form at a particular time.

This allows for the affirmation of Christ's eternality while maintaining that Jesus had a particular historical beginning. The pre-existence of the Christ as an idea in divine Mind differs fundamentally from doctrines of the pre-existence of Jesus as a divine being.