Day 271: The Purpose of 2 Stories

542:27-544:27

I didn’t think much about Christian Science Treatments or know the details until I took class instruction. That isn’t to say the information was secret; I just wasn’t interested in pursuing it. But now that I’m a few days back from annual association of class instruction, and it ended with example treatments, they are on my mind.

These two stories are so clearly different in every possible way. I’m sure there is a scholarly reason for including both, just as the four gospels recount the same stories of Jesus (sort of). But from a figurative perspective, a spiritual perspective, they appear to be parts of an original treatment.

There are two quotes in this reading that hit home for me.

…a material creation which followed the spiritual, – a creation so wholly apart from God’s, that Spirit had no participation in it.

And,

man exists because God exists

Day 270: Cain & Abel

540:25-542:26

I never did like the story of Cain and Abel. It is a childhood disagreement taken to an extreme. We want to teach our children (and people in general) to love then we, as Christians, start with these awful stories from the Bible.

Mary Baker Eddy points out two jobs of Truth:

• Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils error.
• Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon error the mark of the beast.

Then she lists what happens if error is shirked:

The avoidance of justice and the denial of truth tend to [1]perpetuate sin, [2]invoke crime, [3]jeopardize self-control, and [4]mock divine mercy.

This list makes me think MBE probably observed a lot of children because this is exactly what a child does.

Day 269: Moral Chemicalization

538:23-540:24

I think it is an interesting point that this section becomes a comparison of Cain to Jesus. Mary Baker Eddy doesn’t do it out right, she just ignores Cain, now born, altogether. And only discusses Jesus. That’s really her whole point is to not give the material one second of thought, but only the spiritual.

Point #1

In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our ignorance that the Lord hath wrought an evil, but we ought to know that God’s law uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.

This is a good point to remember in Christian Science because while I am in the chemicalization, I may not know what sin is being uncovered. I need to remember I am passing through a chemicalization when the worst of it is upon me and not in an endless mortal situation.

Point #2

The purpose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assuming a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe a lie.

I think, for me, the issue is to remember what the lie is. The little lies are easy to see through. But the one big lie is not.

Day 268: Literal vs. Inspired

536:30-538:22

In this section, Mary Baker Eddy makes several points about this second story that I want to remember.

1. Knowledge of evil was never the essence of divinity or manhood.
2. The purpose of the second story is to depict the falsity of error and the effects of error.
3. Inspired writers interpret the Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets it literally.
4. Literally taken, the story is contradictory in places.
5. Literally taken, God’s love is changeable.
6. Literally taken, Man is not allowed to reform.

Day 267: Sorrow, Desire, & Rule

535:6-536:29

Well, now. Adam and Eve get a talking to – don’t they. The 2nd Story God lays down the punishment.

The woman will multiply her sorrow, her only desire to serve her husband, and he (her husband) shall rule over her. God just made man the god of woman. So now there are many gods.

Mary Baker Eddy’s response is right on:

Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed material foundations of life and intelligence.

The material foundation are not only how man is created but how man and woman are to live, which in Science is in harmony, with only one god – God.

Then God turns to man and says he can’t eat of that tree anymore, man can eat herb of the field, bread. Ok. so why isn’t this passage (Genesis 3:17-19) taken literally if so many religions want to take Genesis 3:16 literally? Just bread for man. 

Then Mary Baker Eddy sums up what this 2nd Story God did:

The illusion of sin is without hope or God.

Day 266: Enmity between Man & Woman

533:5-535:5

When I read Genesis 3:15 in this section, I couldn’t believe it. I don’t read the second story much accept as it is used in the weekly bible lesson, so I didn’t remember the actual wording. Wow. Those are some powerful and hateful words to attribute to God. No wonder a God of Love isn’t universally accepted.

To me, this just clarifies that it is an erroneous story and the two stories combine to be the first treatment of man.

Day 265: Death

531:8-533:4

The Adam dream (the second story) has an interesting figurative twist. Adam believed he would die if he ate the apple and so he hadn’t until woman offered it to him. The death wasn’t material but spiritual. So this story has two lies to tell us. First that we are material, and second we will stay that way.