and the healing
I just described, are related to the distinction Christian Science
makes
between God's man and Adam's man.
To clarify this, let's consider
the first and second chapters of Genesis in the Bible. The
first chapter
of Genesis records God's creation, the one He beheld as "very good."
Let
me read what this account says about man: "So God created man
in His own image, in
the image of God created He him, male and female
created He them."
The second chapter of Genesis tells the story of
Adam and Eve. It gives the impression
of an entirely different creation,
one in which the Lord God made man of the dust of the
ground. But
there's a verse in that second chapter that's significant to this
discussion. It's
this one: "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to
fall upon Adam, and he slept."
As you may know, there are quite a
few theories set forth about those first two chapters
in Genesis.
But Christian Science takes a radical view of both. In Science and
Health
Mrs. Eddy explains that the first chapter of Genesis records
the one and only creation of
the universe, and this is a spiritual
creation. What's the basis for this view?
One reason is that Jesus
himself defined God as Spirit, adding, "...and they that worship
Him
must worship Him in Spirit and in truth." So, if God is Spirit, His
creation would be
a spiritual creation. Certainly the man He created
in His own image would be a spiritual
kind of man.
This means that
the second chapter the allegory of Adam and Eve represents a false
concept of creation. It describes a sinful mortal living in a matter
world, all of which is
a misconception of the real man, made in God's
image.
This clarification about the two accounts of creation was a
turning point for me. But I
gained further insight when I read Mrs.
Eddy's definition of the deep sleep. You see,
she refers to the deep
sleep that fell upon Adam as the "Adam-dream." This term so
fascinated
me that I checked it out for myself. I went through those passages
in Genesis,
and made an interesting discovery: there's no indication
that Adam ever woke up!
Things really fell into place then. I saw
there had never been two kinds of man God's
man and Adam's man. There
was only one God's man. And the false concept known
as the race of
Adam was only a belief that man is a mortal. Think about this: the
word
mortal means death. It comes from the root word "mors." Really,
could mortality be
what God, divine Life, has bestowed upon His precious
children?
So, the only existence Adam's man has is in ignorant mortal
thought, or belief. And
belief has a hypnotic hold on thought, until
thought is enlightened by understanding.
It's interesting that the
definition of hypnotism is deep sleep. When we sleep,
whatever we
dream seems absolutely real, until we wake up. So, we might say,
we
dream the dream of Adam until the Christ awakens us.
Surely this must
be what the Apostle Paul meant when he exclaimed, "Awake thou
that
sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light!"
This provides an insight into some of the misconceptions the public
has about
Christian Science. Many of these misconceptions stem from
a misunderstanding
of what we're saying about those first two chapters
in Genesis. But our standpoint
remains clear and consistent.
Mrs.
Eddy writes: "Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity between
God's idea and poor humanity, ought to be able to discern the distinction
(made by
Christian Science) between God's man, made in His image,
and the sinning race of
Adam."
THE CHRIST AWAKENS US FROM THE ADAM
DREAM
You've already seen examples of what the Christ does. Now I
want to clarify just
what the Christ is, according to Christian Science.
The Christ is God's redeeming
message and healing power. Jesus is
our Way-shower. He has shown us all the
way of salvation. It's through
his life that we see what is meant by the expression
"son of God."
Though Jesus the man was crucified, rose from the grave, and
ascended,
the Christ is eternally with us.
Another way of explaining the Christ
is that it's the divine influence in human
consciousness which shows
us our link with God. Whenever we feel the impulse
to be kind, to
refrain from anger or revenge, this hints at the presence of the Christ.
Whenever we yearn to know more about God, to draw closer to Him, the
Christ
has touched our consciousness.
Sometimes the Christ comes dramatically.
Paul's conversion on the road to
Damascus is an example of this. But
the effect of the Christ can also be gentle
and gradual.
Someone may
be wondering at this point: if the Christ has never left the earth,
why
hasn't the world been regenerated by now? Why hasn't mankind awakened
from
this Adam-dream? That's a good question. The answer, of course,
is the deep
sleep.
Let me illustrate. Have you ever been sound asleep
in a dark room and someone
came in and switched on the overhead light?
Some of us might not notice the light
-- we'd just keep on sleeping.
Or, we might become conscious of it gradually and after
a bit open
our eyes. It's quite possible that some of us would be pained by the
light
and pound the pillows in protest. Then again, someone else might
throw a pillow
and break the light so it could never again interrupt
his sleep!
This analogy indicates the resistance of mortal thought
to yielding to spiritual
existence. And it gives a clue as to why
spiritual healing was lost by the third
century A.D. Spiritual healing,
as surely as spiritual awakening, depends on how
totally we let the
Christ break through the dream of material existence.
It's encouraging
to know we don't have to have a deep understanding of all these
things
in order for the Christ to shatter this dream. I had a lovely proof
of this early
in my experience. One morning as I was helping my little
girl get dressed, I noticed
an ugly ringworm on her body. I'd seen
spots similar to this on neighbors' children.
But I refused to be
alarmed. Just that morning, I'd read the Christian Science Bible
Lesson
on the subject, "Adam and Fallen Man," and the inspiration of that
study was
still with me. Suddenly, this thought came to me: "Are you
going to believe this child
is a mortal with material flesh that can
be diseased? Or will you accept her perfec-
tion as God's image? And
I began to see that because God didn't create disease -- it
certainly
wasn't there in the first chapter of Genesis -- I didn't have to fear
it or honor
it. But, I saw something more. I couldn't picture her
with a healthy matter body any
more than a diseased matter body.
When
this clear realization came to me, along with it came a wonderful
sense of
peace. My daughter called me back shortly. By then I'd forgotten
about the
ringworm, until I realized I was looking at the very place
it had been. There was
no longer the slightest trace of it. And, she
never had another one.
I had glimpsed just a little of the distinction
Christian Science was making between
God's man and Adam's man.
I wish
I could say that every healing in Christian Science is this simple
and clear-cut
and quick, but I've come to see that underlying every
spiritual healing are the same
three factors I brought out in the
beginning. There must be a mental readiness for
the healing, and a
willingness to yield to the influence of the Christ, and an
acceptance
of the revelation of the truth of God and man.
DIVINE MIND, NOT THE
HUMAN MIND, IS THE HEALER
One of the most progressive steps in our
awakening from the Adam-dream is to
learn what the Apostle Paul meant
by "putting on the Mind of Christ."
You see, the belief in a material
body includes the belief of a material brain. Most
people assume that
brain is their source of thought. But this is a limited sense of
what
true intelligence is, a false belief about omniscience, which is God,
divine
Mind.
But the belief that man has a personal mind deludes a
lot of people into thinking the
human mind can cure. Such mental methods
as mind control, psychic healing,
witchcraft, are all, more or less,
projections of human willpower, springing from the
human mind. There's
nothing new about methods that rely on mental manipulation.
Only the
names for them change.
Some people who're familiar with the mental
methods I just named, but who're not
familiar with the spiritual nature
of Christian Science healing, sometimes confuse it
with one of these
methods. Even hypnotism.
For example, I've been asked to explain on
several occasions how Christian Scientists
knew for sure they weren't
using hypnotism when they prayed for themselves and
others. Perhaps
we were merely hypnotizing people into believing they were well.
I
pointed out that people hypnotize themselves into believing they're
sick. And the
truth about the spiritual perfection of God and His
man, dehypnotizes them. It
wakes them up from the dream that existence
is material.
This false concept of a mortal personality with a personal
mind isn't easy to give up.
It was just one reason so many resisted
the Master's teachings. They were convinced
that Adam's man was really
the image of God. And this caused them to overlook the
Christ right
in their midst.
At one point, Jesus' healings were labeled the works
of Beelzebub. That was a
popular name in those days for the devil.
But the Master's response to this
accusation clearly separates the
human mind's attempt to heal from the spiritual
method of the Christ.
Let me read this from Matthew: "Every kingdom divided against itself
is brought
to desolation; and every city or house divided against
itself shall not stand. And if
Satan cast out Satan, he is divided
against himself; how shall then his kingdom
stand? . . . But if I
cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God
is come
unto you."
So you see, Adam's man has no power to regenerate himself.
Only the Christ can
save mankind from its deep sleep, with its sins
of the flesh.
SPIRITUAL SENSE ENABLES US TO UNDERSTAND THE SPIRITUAL
This is why awakening from the Adam-dream is not a one-time event.
It's an
on-going process. Mrs. Eddy says, "A grain of Christian Science
does wonders for
mortals so omnipotent is Truth. But more of Christian
Science must be gained in
order to continue in well-doing."
But awakening
is not just a matter of reading the Bible and Science and Health.
It
isn't just a matter of saying we're God's man. Awakening is something
you become.
It's letting your nature, your character, your very being,
yield to the Mind of the
Christ.
Sooner or later, for instance, we'll
understand that God's man doesn't live in matter.
Of all the teachings
of Christian Science this seems the hardest to accept. And it's
no
wonder because we seem to live in a matter body in a matter world.
However, a basic tenet of Christian Science is the nothingness of
matter. On the
surface this sounds abstract, unrealistic. But a casual
glance at Christian Science
often leads to superficial conclusions.
For instance: some time ago I spoke to an interdenominational prayer
group. One of
the women present at that meeting had been confused
for sometime about this point.
Her minister had explained that when
Christian Science says, there is no matter, it
wipes out the entire
universe: the sun, stars, trees, grass and says, it just isn't there!
Now that's a casual glance.
Click here to continue
