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Know that Christian Science is both new and "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever."
[This is the first and best Christmas gift that keeps on giving!]

Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson:

“Christian Science”
December 31, 2017

By Christie C. Hanzlik, C.S., Boulder, Colorado
ccern@mac.com / 720.331.9356

Introduction:

This week’s Bible Lesson on "Christian Science" emphasizes the ideas of Christ and newness. How appropriate for a Bible Lesson that we read on both Christmas day and New Year’s Eve! The Lesson includes themes of newness, discovery and freshness while also emphasizing Christ’s eternal comfort, which always has been and always will be. I love to ponder the fact that Christ is simultaneously new and fresh while also “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”

Before we delve into the Met, here are five key terms defined with citations culled from the lesson:

Christ / Holy Ghost / Comforter:

• Christ is… “Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love” (S12)

· Christ is… "the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness. (S24)

• Christ is… "the spiritual idea, — the reflection of God,” (S1)

• Christ is…“inseparable from the divine Principle, God.” (S1)

· Christ is…"the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" (B3, S3)

· Christ is… “the godliness which animated him [and us]”

· Christ is… “the spiritual idea… which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being.”

· Christ is…the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (B16)

· Christ is…the divine idea of God — the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth. (S24)

· Christ is…new views of divine goodness and love. (S25)

Christ Jesus:

• Christ Jesus is…"the way, the truth, and the life”

• Christ Jesus is…"the highest human concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from Christ, the Messiah, — the divine idea of God outside the flesh.” (SH 482:19-22)

Christian Science:

• Christian Science is the "precise nature of the teaching and demonstration of God, divine Mind, in His more infinite meanings” (S1)

• Christian Science is "spiritual rules, laws, and their demonstration"

• Christian Science is the…“proof of Christianity…working out the harmony of Life and Love.” (S4)

• Christian Science is "no form or system of religion and worship” (S4)

• “Christian Science and Christianity are one.” (S5)

• Christian Science is the…“definite rule for demonstrating this Principle of healing and preventing disease” (S7)

• Christian Science is the… “divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love” (S8)

• Christian Science is the… “final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.” (S8)

Christianity:

• “Christian Science and Christianity are one.” (S5)

• Christianity is…“the basis of true healing” (S12)

God:

• God is the “Principle of all harmonious Mind-action” (S10)

Golden Text (GT) and Responsive Reading (RR) — the revelation that makes all things new

Looking at the whole citation surrounding the Golden Text, we see that it is about finding our identity in Christ. From the NLT, the citation reads, "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (GT, NLT)

It is through the example of Christ Jesus—his words and works—that we can best discover Christ. As we come to understand the full meaning of the Science of the Christ (eat up the little book), we find the “new heaven and a new earth”. (RR) We are able to look beyond “fading finite forms” and see the full view of creation. We can discover that there is no beginning, no ending, no limitation. It is Christ—"the divine message from God to men”—that makes “all things new.” (RR)

The author of Revelation saw a new vision of Christ-truth, which made it clear that Christ always has been present and always will be present. Similarly, Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery of the Science of the Christ showed her that the “divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love” were both new and always true—the new heaven and a new earth that always have existed.

Section 1 —new, always known, and also increasing in wisdom and stature

We can find at least 24 references to “new” throughout this week’s lesson. In the first section, the citations encourage us to let go of stubborn ways—“former things…things of old”—and be willing to accept the new. And already, we see the recurring concept of the new-eternal idea—the “child is born…the son is given” and yet, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Furthermore, Christ Jesus was simultaneously new and always known, and he also "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” (B4). He was new, always known, and progressing.

Christ Jesus is our way-shower. He shows us the way. When we follow his example, we begin to see that we too can be 1) new, 2) always known, 3) increasing in wisdom. Only in Spirit can we be both complete and unfolding, always-existing and new. Wouldn’t life be boring if we weren’t progressing, growing, “increasing in wisdom?” And yet we are already whole. Both can be true. We can be whole and discovering our wholeness. We can be new and discovering our newness. And we can be always perfect, and discovering our always-perfection.

As Mary Baker Eddy explains, "the Christ is without beginning of years or end of days” (S1) The “prophets of old” searched for the full meaning of Christ, and caught glimpses of it for certain, but it was Christ Jesus who revealed the full Christ and led to the discovery of the Science of the Christ. The Science of the Christ is the "precise nature of the teaching and demonstration of God, divine Mind, in His more infinite meanings.” (S2)

What Christ Jesus showed us were the "spiritual rules, laws, and their demonstration,” which had always been true but not fully demonstrated until his ministry. (S3) Christ Jesus showed us "the way, the truth, and the life.” (S4) He revealed for the world the Science of the Christ. Christian Science—"the precise nature of the teaching and demonstration of God”—was not new in 1866 when Mary Baker Eddy discovered it. The "precise nature of the teaching and demonstration of God” were always and forever true. (S2) And yet, the "precise nature of the teaching and demonstration of God” was revealed to Mary Baker Eddy, and can now be made new to us each day as we learn and grow and understand it more and more. (S2)

To advance in our understanding of the Science of the Christ, we must be willing to let go of old stubborn ideas, and allow the newness of Christ to transform us, reveal our true natures. We need "to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new.” (S6)

Section 2 — new, always known, and discoverable

Christ Jesus told his disciples that he did not want to destroy the Christ-idea that the prophets before him had glimpsed, but rather to “fulfill”—demonstrate it. And thus he used the “law” of God written in his “inward parts” and in his “heart" to heal "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” (B5, B6, B7)

Christ Jesus demonstrated that the Law of God—Love—heals absolutely, and taught his students the “generalities of its divine Principle to his students,” but a “definite rule” for healing seemed to be missing. This “definite rule” is Christian Science. Christ Jesus used Christian Science—"divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love,”—to heal, but he didn’t call it that nor did he teach it to his students in these terms. (S7)

Almost 2000 years later, Mary Baker Eddy discovered the “definite rule” of healing that was both “new” and “always” and “growing in wisdom and stature.” Only in Spirit, can those three concepts be true simultaneously.

Here are the truths that she discovered:

1) "all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and

2) Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present;

3) the opposite of Truth, — called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, — is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter;

4) this false sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit." (B9)

Her discovery was new and yet it was the discovery of truth that has always been true—the birth of a new-eternal idea.

I have a friend who is learning about the Science of the Christ. When we talk, she frequently says things like, “yes! This is what I’ve always known, and yet I didn’t have words for it. It’s like it’s always been true and I knew it but didn’t know it.” Perhaps we can identify with my friend’s comments. As I learn new things about the Science of Christ, I often feel like I already knew it and yet am discovering it. This is how I imagine Mary Baker Eddy felt as she was writing Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It was a discovery that she knew she didn’t invent. It felt new, and yet it felt like it had always and forever been true and available. I believe there were days when her pen couldn’t move fast enough. And this is how I imagine that the author of Revelation felt as well as the new-eternal Christ-truth came so clearly as a vision.

Section 3 — new, always known, and provable

This section brings in the whole citation for the Golden Text, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (B10) It explains that we can follow Christ Jesus' example and demonstrate “the power of Christian Science to heal mortal minds and bodies.” (S11, S12) As proof of this, Mary Baker Eddy used the Science of the Christ to heal over and over again. This section includes the example of her healing Mr. Clark, who was dying. She saw through the old-limited view of him as a sick and dying moral and her clear view of his eternal being healed the sick. She loved him purely by seeing him correctly. She loved her neighbor as herself. (S26) She proved that the Science of the Christ, which she knew was true for Christ Jesus, was also true for her, and is also true for us today. (S12, S13) It is the same “yesterday, and to-day, and forever,” and yet we are also constantly discovering it anew, and coming to understand it with more and more “wisdom and stature."

It is the Science of the Christ—not an individual person or personality—that heals. As Mary Baker Eddy explains, "Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind." (S14, W’s PS#6 application in healing) It isn’t the person that heals; it is the Comforter.

Again, it isn’t a person that heals, nor does someone have to have a lot of brain-power or concentration in order to heal spiritually. It is Christ—the spiritual idea—that heals. It is the Christ-Law, the Christ-truth, the Science of the Christ that heals. Not person. "Hold perpetually this thought, — that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being.” (S16)

Section 4 — let’s let go of old-limited ideas to speed our progress toward understanding the new, and always known truth

This section includes Jesus’ parable about not putting new wine into old bottles—new wine must go into new bottles so both are preserved. This parable explains why we need Christian Science, a new “inspiration; understanding” that cannot be put into an old-material system of ideas. (S18) Christian Science brings new wine (inspiration; understanding) and we cannot take in this inspiration and add and stir it into existing thought if we want to progress. As we take in the Science of the Christ, it makes us new—reborn. We are new bottles. We must let go of the old bottles…mortality…the old and limited ways of seeing and knowing. As we take in the Science of the Christ, we must not “put new wine into old bottles, Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite.” (S19)

We have to cast out the “old belief”—the limited sense of time, space, and reality—to let in the inspiration, which transforms us and works “to change our standpoint.” (S19)

To take in the wine (“inspiration; understanding”) is not always easy. Mary Baker Eddy warns, "never believe that you can absorb the whole meaning of the Science by a simple perusal of [Science and Health]. The book needs to be studied, and the demonstration of the rules of scientific healing will plant you firmly on the spiritual groundwork of Christian Science.” (S20)

We grow fastest in “wisdom and stature” as we “[study] thoroughly the letter" and imbibe the wine (“inspiration; understanding”), while, of course, being quick to let go of old-limited ways of seeing and knowing. (S21) We can all imbibe “the spirit of Christ,” and thus "demonstrate Christian Science, cast out error, heal the sick, and add continually to his store of spiritual understanding, potency, enlightenment, and success.” (S22)

Section 5 — The Comforter is here now, and is both new and the same “yesterday, and to-day, and forever”

Now, and in each moment, we are awakening to Christ’s comfort that is new, has always been, and is unfolding to us. We can all discover it anew…now. "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Our first and primary instruction to move forward is that we love one another as Christ Jesus has loved us. (B15) Christ Jesus loved purely, not seeing personality or limitation, but rather seeing the truth of our being as new, always, and progressing. We are all new, always perfect, and progressing.

We have the Comforter, the truth, the Science of the Christ with us forever. Once we glimpse it, we can’t lose it. Even though the world—in terms of years—only saw Christ Jesus for a brief span of time and in a relatively small area of the globe, the Christ-comfort that he demonstrated cannot be lost. Christ Jesus told his disciples, "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (B16) The blessings Christ Jesus taught would be meaningless if only true 2,000 years ago and for a select group of people. But Christ-truth did not stop with Christ Jesus. Christ isn’t a man. "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness.” (S24)

Jesus’ role was to demonstrate Christ, to prove "that Christ is the divine idea of God — the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth.” (S24) And the Holy Ghost is still here, comforting us, bringing understanding, wisdom and peace. We may not understand this new-eternal idea in its entirety now, but "Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.” (S25) Each experience unfolds new views of Christ.

The truth that Jesus demonstrated is immortal—"the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” “And yet, it is constantly discoverable…and provable. Truth is already true and new. "Truth’s immortal ideas are sweeping down the centuries.” The Holy Ghost blesses in every time in every space. (S26)

"The time for the reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time.” (S26) The time for the reappearing is now and always and forever. The time for the reappearing of what is already true is now and always. Divine Science—the Science of how God works, of how Christ comforts, of how Love loves—is our Comforter, and it is here now—"the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever."


Click here for Warren Huff’s additions of insights and healing application ideas by Cobbey Crisler on some citations in the Christian Science Bible Lesson for December 31, 2017. More to follow in email.


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