Start with God!


Notes and References 11/5/00 Start with God


In this week’s lesson, Adam and Fallen Man, several very familiar passages from Genesis give us a clear view of our true individual natures. But let’s parse the words and reveal some other, more subtle revelations.

Notice in the passage below the plurality of God in the words, "us" and "our". Notice also that we are made male and female in the image of God. This would imply that God is both male and female and that we each possess feminine and masculine characteristics.

Gen 1:26,27 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

The original Hebrew name for God is EL. After that we see the name EL SHADDAI. Shad is interpreted to mean mountain or power. Dai means breast or motherhood. Thus the earliest definition of God is male/female; mother/father; feminine/masculine. We have as much right to refer to God as She or Her as Him.

Further on into Genesis 2, (the material account of creation, written 100 years before Genesis 1) is a small compromise that is analogous to compromises we make every day. God had told Eve she would "surely die" if she ate the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden. When asked by the serpent she did not use those words. She said she could not eat of the tree or she might die. (Lest I die). The serpent came right back and emphasized the word again by saying, ye shall not SURELY die!

Gen 3:1-4 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Here is where we need to be absolute in our daily life. In matter we will die but in Spirit we live. We can never mix the two (Spirit and matter).

One other thought we can get from Genesis is the difference between being made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1) and being created from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2)

Go to the end of the Concordance section of the word God and look at all the synonyms for God. They are all capitalized with the exception for the word creator. Maker is capitalized and creator used to be in her original edition of Science and Health. Why did she take away the capital letter on the word creator? Well, logically, you make something from something else. You create from nothing. God has made each of us from His own substance. Our life did not begin when we were born and does not end when we die. We are the infinite expression of God, infinite Life.

When practicing Christian Science always start with God. The Bible starts with God. So does the lord’s Prayer. Look at the Platform of Christian Science. It starts with God’s supremacy the definitions of God. It is found on page 330:8


"When the following platform is understood and the letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine metaphysics will be demonstrated. …"

Look at the Doctrine of Christian Science on page 304:9,

"This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death. The perfect man — governed by God, his perfect Principle — is sinless and eternal."

Notice that the Doctrine of Christian Science talks about God (divine Love) not being deprived of your perfect image and likeness infinitely expressed. Can you be deprived of seeing the same thing? Sure. Just close your eyes to God.

To heal we must examine our thinking (our consciousness). Look at MBE’s definition of health in Rudimental Divine Science on page 11:13-15

"Health is the consciousness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, the absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else. "


One other citation from this morning reinforces the idea of true creation and your perfectibility in Science:

My 262:1 "God creates man perfect and eternal in His own image. Hence man is the image, idea, or likeness of perfection — an ideal which cannot fall from its inherent unity with divine Love, from its spotless purity and original perfection."


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