Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📖

material.

521:21 Genesis ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth,

and watered the whole face of the ground.

 

The story of error

 

The Science and truth of the divine creation have been 521:24 presented in the verses already considered, and now the

opposite error, a material view of creation, is

to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene-521:27 sis contains a statement of this material view of God and

the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of

scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error 521:30 or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence 522:1 of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction

to the true.

 

The two records

522:3 The Science of the first record proves the falsity of

the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are

antagonistic. The first record assigns all 522:6 might and government to God, and endows

man out of God’s perfection and power. The second

record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, - as hav-522:9 ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit

of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science

explains as impossible.

522:12 This second record unmistakably gives the history of

error in its externalized forms, called life and intelligence in matter. It records pantheism, opposed to the 522:15 supremacy of divine Spirit; but this state of things is

declared to be temporary and this man to be mortal, -

dust returning to dust.

 

Erroneous representation

522:18 In this erroneous theory, matter takes the place of Spirit.

Matter is represented as the life-giving principle of the

earth. Spirit is represented as entering mat-522:21 ter in order to create man. God’s glowing

denunciations of man when not found in His

image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide 522:24 with revelation in declaring this material creation false.

 

Hypothetical reversal

 

This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which

portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in 522:27 constructing the universe, is based on some

hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just preceding declares God’s work to be finished. Does Life, 522:30 Truth, and Love produce death, error, and hatred? Does

the creator condemn His own creation? Does the unerring Principle of divine law change or repent? It can-523:1 not be so. Yet one might so judge from an unintelligent

perusal of the Scriptural account now under comment.

 

Mist, or false claim

523:3 Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved

by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that

God knows error and that error can improve 523:6 His creation. Although presenting the exact

opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The creations of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from 523:9 mystification, and not from the firmament, or understanding, which God erects between the true and false.

In error everything comes from beneath, not from above. 523:12 All is material myth, instead of the reflection of

Spirit.

 

Distinct documents

 

It may be worth while here to remark that, according 523:15 to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two distinct documents in the early part of the book of

Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because 523:18 the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other

document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is

always called Jehovah, - or Lord God, as our common 523:21 version translates it.

 

Jehovah or Elohim

 

Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three

verses of the second, - in what we understand to be the 523:24 spiritually scientific account of creation, - it is

Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth

verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called 523:27 Jehovah, or the Lord. The different accounts become

more and more closely intertwined to the end of chapter

twelve, after which the distinction is not definitely trace-523:30 able. In the historic parts of the Old Testament, it is

usually Jehovah, peculiarly the divine sovereign of the

Hebrew people, who is referred to.

 

Gods of the heathen

524:1 The idolatry which followed this material mythology is

seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish 524:3 god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites,

in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro—

dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities.

 

Jehovah a tribal deity

524:6 It was also found among the Israelites, who constantly

went after “strange gods.” They called the Supreme

Being by the national name of Jehovah. In 524:9 that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God

seems almost lost. God becomes “a man of war,” a

tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine 524:12 Principle to be lived and loved.

 

Genesis ii. 7. And the Lord God [Jehovah] formed man

of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils 524:15 the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

 

Creation reversed

 

Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite

deity, that he should now be called Jehovah? With

l8 a single command, Mind had made man,

both male and female. How then could a

material organization become the basis of man? How 524:21 could the non-intelligent become the medium of Mind,

and error be the enunciator of Truth? Matter is not

the reflection of Spirit, yet God is reflected in all His 524:24 creation. Is this addition to His creation real or unreal? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and

God?

524:27 It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground.

Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter

ability to sin and suffer? Is Spirit, God, injected into 524:30 dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter?

Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature 525:1 and omnipotence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to become there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of 525:3 God? In this narrative, the validity of matter is opposed,

not the validity of Spirit or Spirit’s creations. Man reflects God; mankind represents the Adamic race, and is 525:6 a human, not a divine, creation.

 

Definitions of man

 

The following are some of the equivalents of the term

man in different languages. In the Saxon, mankind, a 525:9 woman, any one/; in the Welsh, /that which rises

up/, - the primary sense being image, form; in

the Hebrew, image, similitude; in the Icelandic, mind. 525:12 The following translation is from the Icelandic: -

 

And God said, Let us make man after our mind and

our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after 525:15 God’s mind shaped He Him; and He shaped them male and

female.

 

No baneful creation

 

In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were 525:18 made through the Word of God, “and without Him [the

logos, or word] was not anything made that

was made.” Everything good or worthy, God 525:21 made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not

make, - hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis

we read that He saw everything which He had made, 525:24 “and, behold, it was very good.” The corporeal senses

declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the

history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural 525:27 record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the

material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed

as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.

525:30 Genesis ii. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God

[Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, 526:1 and good for food; the tree of life also, in the midst of the

garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

 

Contradicting first creation

526:3 The previous and more scientific record of creation

declares that God made “every plant of the field before it was in the earth.” This opposite 526:6 declaration, this statement that life issues

from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chapter, - namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than 526:9 understanding. Belief involves theories of material hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the five senses.

The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death, 526:12 follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent

matter.

 

Record of error

 

The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural 526:15 text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced

good all that He created, and the Scriptures

declare that He created all. The “tree of 526:18 life” stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which

guards it is the type of divine Science. The “tree of

knowledge” stands for the erroneous doctrine that the 526:21 knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as

the knowledge of good. Was evil instituted through God,

Love? Did He create this fruit-bearer of sin in contra-526:24 diction of the first creation? This second biblical account

is a picture of error throughout.

 

Genesis ii. 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] took the 526:27 man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and

to keep it.

 

Garden of Eden

 

The name Eden, according to Cruden, means pleasure, 526:30 delight. In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate-527:1 rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor infinite Spirit into finite form to dress it and 527:3 keep it, - to make it beautiful or to cause it

to live and grow. Man is God’s reflection, needing no

cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.

527:6 Genesis ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou

mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good 527:9 and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou

eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

 

No temptation from God

 

Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting 527:12 man, but the Apostle James says: “God cannot be

tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any

man.” It is true that a knowledge of evil would 527:15 make man mortal. It is plain also that material perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, constitutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God, 527:18 good, made “the tree of life” to be the tree of death to His

own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is unreal because it is a lie, - false in every statement.

527:21 Genesis ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God

[Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl

of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he 527:24 would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living

creature, that was the name thereof.

 

Creation’s counterfeit

 

Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but 527:27 doing so materially, not spiritually, and asking a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the

Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his 527:30 dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man 528:1 that dust should become sentient, when all being is the

reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares 528:3 that God has already created man, both male and

female? That Adam gave the name and nature of

animals, is solely mythological and material. It can-528:6 not be true that man was ordered to create man anew

in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream,

a myth.

528:9 Genesis ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah]

caused a deep sleep to fall upon