The Bible In The Light of Christian Science, Vol. I: Genesis

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Paperback, 124 pages Level: SUBJECT(s): The Bible in the Light of Christian Science RELATED RECORDINGS: M-33, The Days of Creation Become the Numerals of Infinity (4 hours, audio) C-1G, CH. XV, Genesis, The Structure of the Christian Science Textbook—Our Way of Life (26 hours, audio & video) SYNOPSIS: Over the centuries the Bible has been studied bit by bit, but not as a coherent, structural whole. These bits have been interpreted from the standpoint of personal inspiration, beliefs, or theological dogma. In the late 1930s, John W. Doorly, CSB London,(1878–1950), Kappeler's teacher, laid the foundation for the discovery of the spiritual structure underlying the Bible through his deep study of the divine categories of God as presented in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Kappeler's series of four books on the Bible reveal the structure, symbolism, and Science of the Bible. Volume I: Genesis sets the seed plot for the entire Bible based on the first record of creation, the second record of creation, and the seven 1000-year periods in biblical history. Genesis closes with the story of Joseph. CONTENTS: Introduction to Scientific Text-interpretation Chapter 1: The First Record of Creation Chapter 2: The Second Record of Creation Chapter 3: Noah Chapter 4: Abraham Chapter 5: Isaac and Jacob Chapter 6: Joseph EXCERPT: From Max Kappeler, The Bible in the Light of Christian Science, Vol. 1: Genesis, pp. 29–35. Teaching through symbols How does the Bible teach the divine nature through the standard of ideas? Spiritual values, spiritual ideas, can be explained to human consciousness only through symbols. "Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols" (S&H 575:13). Consequently, the Bible, which deals with all the problems of life, makes copious use of symbolism. Practically everything that the Israelites encountered was used as a symbol for teaching spiritual facts. Mountains, seas, animals, birds, trees, stars, tents, cities, food, drink, countries, kings, wars, sagas, legends, etc. furnished manifold symbols for illustrating their spiritual message. Contact with the Chaldeans, the ancient masters of mathematics and astronomy, provided the exact symbols of numbers which the biblical writers used to symbolize states of spiritual consciousness, but not as esoteric forces as did the numerologists. Thus it is evident that the Bible must be interpreted symbolically; it cannot be interpreted literally. Taken literally, the Bible not only contradicts itself but also provides no spiritual insight. The ideas of God I have assumed that all who are present here today know the main features of the first record of creation and have studied well my work: "Compendium for the Study of Christian Science, No. 2: The Seven Days of Creation." Therefore I can be brief. The first and true record of creation aims to explain God in its fundamental nature; accordingly what we read in this first creation account is a matter of symbols and not of natural history. Like every textbook, the Bible expounds the basic elements of its subject at the beginning in order to illustrate later how these elements unfold and diversify. The seven days of creation (the first record, Genesis 1:1–2:3) show us, with the aid of the symbolism of that time, the same thing that Mary Baker Eddy presents in the definition of God: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (S&H 465:9). God is incorporeal because God is spiritual and not material; divine, not human; supreme over matter and everything earthbound; and infinite, not bound to space and time, but infinite in possibilities, faculties and applications. If we translate biblical symbolism into the more abstract symbols of today, what does the first record of creation teach us of the divine nature? The first day (light) symbolizes Mind, and the ideas characterizing Mind are: creator, parent Mind, cause, basis, power, action, manifestation, ideas, wisdom, intelligence, guidance, law, will, control, influence, Mind-healing, medicine, all showing that Mind is All-in-all. The second day (firmament) symbolizes Spirit, and the ideas characterizing Spirit are: separation, unfoldment, good, reality, strength, worship, reflection, likeness, purity, understanding, baptism, order, nature, birth, fruits, substance, showing that Spirit is the only. The third day (dry land) symbolizes Soul, and the ideas characterizing Soul are: identity, naming, sinlessness, unchangeability, the exchanging of illusions for ideas, transforming illusions into ideas, freedom, satisfaction, spiritual understanding, safety, spiritual sense, rule, joy, bliss, balance, showing that Soul is never "in" anything but contains all divine identities within itself. The fourth day (the stellar system) symbolizes Principle, and the ideas characterizing Principle are: government, interpretation, principled relationships, absolute and imperative power, demonstration, impersonality, proof, fundamental spiritual power, indivisibility, unity, system, harmony. The fifth day (birds and fish) symbolizes Life, and the ideas characterizing Life are: multiplication, fullness, exaltation, eternality, everlasting existence, father, love, individuality, provider, method, indestructibility, deathless being. The sixth day (animals and man) symbolizes Truth, and the ideas characterizing Truth are: consciousness, standard, dominion, affirming power, heir, Christ, manhood, son, health, remedy, ideal, form, that which uncovers and destroys error and so is the victor. The seventh day (peace and rest) symbolizes Love, and the ideas characterizing Love are: completion, rest, peace, universality, fulfillment, salvation, perfection, mother, holiness, glory, all-inclusiveness, plan, impartiality giving and forgiving all. With this list I have briefly summarized the most important ideas of God characterizing each day of creation, without giving a more exact explanation of how this compilation was accomplished. Briefly, it is the result of thorough research into the Christian Science textbook, the findings of which are given in booklets Nos. 4-10 of the "Compendium for the Study of Christian Science" (seven booklets, with one booklet devoted to each of the seven synonymous terms for God). The numeration table of Christian Science But what do we gain through this study? What can knowledge of the seven synonymous terms for God through their characteristic ideas do for us? In arithmetic, the pupil must first learn the numbers from 1 to 10, in order to bring each of these numbers into a certain relationship with every other. In this way, the student gains the tools to calculate and thereby solve problems. The numbers cease to be abstractions confined in watertight compartments and instead become practical, living realities. So with the system of spiritual ideas. We must learn the simple numeration table represented by the seven days of creation, before we can experience these days as living spiritual values operating to restructure understanding. We must cultivate the tools of spiritual consciousness through the symbols of the seven synonymous terms for God and their ideas, before we can witness the exact combination and calculation of these spiritual values to solve every possible problem. As we do this and drill ourselves in the fundamentals, we realize that an idea cannot be limited to locality or time. Every idea is there where every other idea is also; every idea reflects every other idea. Thus infinite relationships among spiritual values are formed; we could call them "spiritual computations." This spiritual computation is at work in the Bible. The first record of creation shows us the first great "computational" law of Spirit, the law of divine creativity. When an idea reveals itself to our consciousness, this is a manifestation of divine Mind. We touch the creative tone of the first day of creation: "Let there be light." However, since an idea can never be separated from all other ideas, an idea of Mind also reflects the ideas of Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love. As we know what these ideas are, we can consider an idea of God, not as a fragment, but in its complete fullness—in its relation to the whole of the divine nature. For example, let us consider the idea "health." If we are subject to beliefs of sickness, then the inspired realization that you have the right to health, often comes as light (1st day). As we ponder this inspiration and hold fast to it, it unfolds itself in our consciousness. In this way, we separate ourselves from the beliefs of sickness and claim for ourselves all divine qualities (2nd day). But health only becomes definite, certain, and irreversible when we go a step further and completely identify ourselves with the nature and essence of God (3rd day). As an idea of divine Principle, the new vision of health is completely impersonal and has the spiritual power of proof: it governs beliefs in sickness (4th day). Life imparts to the idea "health" eternality and maintains health as indestructible and deathless (5th day). Thus the idea becomes a spiritual fact and forms the consciousness of man (6th day). Until finally, the idea fulfils its perfect work in the plan of Love (7th day). In this way, the law of unfoldment in the first record of creation shows us how we must learn to understand an idea in its wholeness, namely from the standpoint of the seven days of creation. If a new, divine thought (idea) finds place in our consciousness and we let it work (1st day), then this thought unfolds itself to us. As it unfolds and as we ponder it more and more (2nd day), the divine thought becomes definite; its divine value appears (3rd day). At this point, we cannot help but recognize the operative power of idea and its unlimited potentialities for application (4th day). This secures a certain sense of the boundlessness and infinity of Life; we see that this divine thought is as eternal as God and maintained by God (5th day). Then we recognize that because it is a fact of the All-consciousness, it is also a fact of the spiritual man (6th day). In this way, what was once a faint vision of divinity becomes a perfect idea working in the plan of God (7th day)…. The little word "but" Now you may say: Yes, this is all well and good, "but"…. With this, we come to the second record of creation, which begins with the "but." The human mind wants to object: "but" this first record of creation is supernatural and pure fantasy; "but" man finally stands in the harsh struggle for life, in the struggle for the means of existence; "but" we have family difficulties, but, but…. The first record of creation shows clearly and beautifully that "to be spiritually minded is life and peace." However the "but" in us—that which arises from mortal mind and is "carnally minded"—wants to divert our gaze from the real. What purpose does the second record have? It by no means wants to show us that there is another creation, that another creation is real; rather, its purpose is to show what happens when we say "yes, but," when we let ourselves be taken unawares by the testimony of the human, material senses. How? The second record of creation shows the exact opposite of the first. About the second record of creation Mary Baker Eddy points out: "The second chapter of Genesis 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" (S&H 521:26). Mary Baker Eddy does not just say that it states the opposite but the exact opposite, just as a specific lie counterfeits every truth. Opposing every error—envy, hatred, heredity, sickness, despair, etc.—is an exact truth, not just any truth. For example, opposing the error 5 x 5 = 26 are not many truths, only one, namely, 5 x 5 =25. The fact 6 x 6 = 36 cannot correct the error 5 x 5 = 26. The Science of being operates with equal precision. The second record of creation shows the reverse of the first record of true creation by symbolizing those illusions which are the exact counterfeits of the ideas of the first record. "This second record unmistakably gives the history of error in its externalized forms, called life and intelligence in matter" (S&H 522:12). "Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal" (S&H 502:9). The purpose of this second record is to depict the falsehood and the effects of error, to show what follows from beginning falsely. "No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this allegory—this second account in Genesis—is to depict the falsity of error and the effects of error" (S&H 537:19). "The purpose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assuming a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe a lie" (S&H 540:21). By a lie, we understand not just a false statement, but everything false. The first lie is that which begins falsely and so drags an entire chain of lies in its wake. In this way, "the Science of the first record proves the falsity of the second" (S&H 522:3, italics added). The first record is scientific, for the seven days of creation have an ordered structure, a lawfulness. The Bible begins with this first record, as if to say: I will show you the Truth, and when you see the Truth, this Truth will analyze and uncover everything that is false. Before one recognizes God in its true nature, one is not able to judge what is real and what is unreal. In bookkeeping, in accounting, in linguistics, etc., no errors can be uncovered before one first knows the truth about these subjects. By means of analysis, the false can be uncovered with the true; the error can be set forth as false. Why is this process of uncovering error with Truth so important? Why can we not just stay with the factuality of the first record? If the Bible is to give us a solution to the problems of our life, then it must not only show us what God is (the first record of creation), but also show us how, with this knowledge of the true, we can analyze, uncover, and annihilate what God is not (the second record of creation) … The two records are set in exact contrast to each other in order to show how every idea is counterfeited by an illusion—not just by any illusion, but by the exact counterfeit. View Comparison of the Two Records of Creation