Jesus and the Sixth
Commandment, continued:
As mentioned earlier, Jesus provided a new
and improved version of the Command-
ments. His life provided a model
for how to live them. Mrs. Eddy describes it this way,
especially
as it relates to so-called justified killing:
“Rabbi and priest taught
the Mosaic law, which said: ‘An eye for an eye,’
and ‘Whoso sheddeth
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.’ Not so
did Jesus, the
new executor for God, present the divine law of Love, which
blesses
even those that curse it.
“As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ
Jesus came to rebuke rabbinical
error and all sin, sickness, and death,
— to point out the way of Truth and
Life. This ideal was demonstrated
throughout the whole earthly career of
Jesus, showing the difference
between the offspring of Soul and of material
sense, of Truth and
of error.” (S&H 14-25)
At the end of this earthly career, Jesus
demonstrated how his refusal to call down
“legions of angels” to assist
him escape his ordeal of crucifixion, and his forgiveness
of all who
played a role in this crime, would lead to his resurrection. This
is what it
means to be a follower of Christ: complete self-abnegation
in the service of God and
mankind. We are to bless and help reform
those who fall prey to the sin of hate, anger,
greed, and murder.
We are to also help those who may be suffering from depression
or
mental illness that would prevent them from thinking rationally about
suicide or
murder. If we are not in a position to offer practical
help, we must at least show
mercy for their struggles. We are to champion
Love, not war or revenge.
This is not to say that kind of universal
brotherly love is easy. It takes self-sacrifice
and commitment to
discipline those animal instincts which mortals wrestle with, that
would cause us to react in fear and anger. In spite of his teachings
and examples of
mercy, Jesus had to rebuke his own disciples when
they thoughtlessly forgot about
the law of the Sixth Commandment.
For instance, we read this episode in Luke:
“And it came to pass,
when the time was come that he should be received
up, he stedfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers
before his face:
and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans,
to make
ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was
as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and
John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to
come
down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he
turned,
and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit
ye are of.
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives,
but to save them.
And they went to another village.” (Luke 9:51-56)
Jesus
also had to rebuke Peter when he slashed off the ear of the high priest’s
servant who had come with the soldiers to arrest Jesus in the Garden
of Gethsemane.
Peter had already been given the lesson he needed to
use in this moment, as we
read in Matthew:
“Then came Peter to him,
and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin
against me, and I forgive
him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say
not unto thee,
Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (Matt. 18:21-22)
It
is said that the number seven in the Bible symbolizes “completeness,”
in which
case Jesus is telling Peter, and us, that we must always
forgive. We must always
restrain ourselves from using violence to
get even or harm another.
Christian Science and the Sixth Commandment:
Holding
before us this ideal of forgiveness as taught by Jesus, how could
Christians
ever justify killing? Alas, there are many issues relating
to “killing” that the world still
struggles with:
War
Suicide
Abortion
Genocide
Capital punishment
Euthanasia or mercy killing
Killing in
self-defense or protection of others
Driving while under influence
of alcohol, drugs, or anger
As mankind grapples with how to apply
the Sixth Commandment to these issues,
some of which may seem justified
at times, we must never lose sight of the original
ideal put forth
by God to Moses, and then by Jesus in his teachings of mercy and
self-sacrifice.
Simply put: Thou shalt not kill. One day, humanity will have grown
spiritually to the place where there is no longer a need to justify
any form of killing.
Yielding to God’s will, we will find a better
way to peace and harmony.
We are taught in Christian Science to literally
obey the Sixth Commandment. How
this is applied in today’s society
to the various issues listed above is something
each individual must
pray about and demonstrate on his or her own. There is no
official
church stand on political and social issues. However, Mary Baker Eddy,
the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, had strong views
about war, in
particular, as we shall see in upcoming citations.
The
main thrust of Mrs. Eddy’s teachings regarding “Thou shalt not kill,”
is the spirit
of this law: We must destroy the hate and anger which
erupt in thoughts and acts of
violence. There are many ways to kill
morally and spiritually, in addition to physically.
It is not enough
to simply resist physically killing someone, if we are assassinating
his or her character in our conscience. We should also resist killing
reputations,
opportunities, livelihoods, worthy goals, or anything
that rightfully belongs to another.
We do not control or manipulate
the lives of others for personal power. We do not
break or kill the
“spirit” of anyone, especially children.
The world needs to grow into
the spiritual maturity which will fulfill the Sixth Command-
ment.
If someone stands in the way of what we think we want, we must learn
to bow
in humility to God’s will, and wait for the proper flow of
events that will bless everyone.
We must recognize the power of Love
in the law behind the
Golden Rule. Christian
Science gives us the
mental tools to work with.
For a complete presentation of Christian
Science, I recommend you read
Mrs. Eddy’s primary work, “Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures.”
This is necessary to understand
the basis upon which the citations and statements
in this essay are
based.
What does Christian Science bring to an understanding of the
Sixth
about God and man that
has been demonstrated by thousands of spiritual healings.
Research
within the published testimonies of healings will show that many people
have found Christian Science an aid in forestalling violence or recovering
from the
effects of it. Many have been healed of the hate and anger
which could have
exploded into harmful acts. People in wartime have
been protected by an under-
standing of the ever-presence of divine
Life and Truth and Love.
One truth that Christian Science proves is
that God is infinite Spirit and is perfect,
and man, His “image and
likeness” (as the Bible teaches), is therefore spiritually
perfect.
God’s creation is therefore spiritual only, leaving what is called
“matter” to
have no real substance, life, or intelligence, except
in the realm of mortal mind beliefs
and illusions. Therefore, in spiritual
reality (the only reality) man cannot kill or be killed.
Any attempt
by a mortal to kill will be proven ineffective, since man never really
dies.
Life is eternal, because God is eternal. Man reflects this eternal
Life as God’s “image
and likeness.” If, from humanity’s earthly point-of-view,
a loved one is killed, we can
take comfort in the fact that God has
preserved his or her life, in spite of what we
seem to experience.
This may be a tough fact to grasp, but many people have been
healed
of severe grief by accepting that Life is eternal. Jesus proved this
for all time
through his resurrection from the grave and his ascension
above all material beliefs.
Ultimately, mankind will be able to prove
this as well. “Thou shalt not kill” means also
“Thou cannot kill.”
One
unique Christian Science interpretation of the Sixth Commandment can
be
found in Gilbert Carpenter's book "Mary Baker Eddy: Her Spiritual
Precepts,
Volume IV." In it he writes: "Once Mrs. Eddy
interpreted the Commandment,
'Thou shalt not kill, ' as '. .
. shall not kill our insight into spiritual things -- it
would be
the commission of the greatest sin, to kill the spiritual insight.'"
The whole of Christian Science itself is unique to other teachings
and
systems, not just in its Founder's interpretations of the Commandments
and
other Bible verses. Mrs. Eddy explains:
"What is the
cardinal point of the difference in my metaphysical system?
This:
that by knowing the unreality of disease, sin, and death, you
demonstrate the allness of God. This difference wholly separates my
system from all others. The reality of these so-called existences
I deny,
because they are not to be found in God, and this system is
built on Him
as the sole cause. It would be difficult to name any previous
teachers,
save Jesus and his apostles, who have thus taught."
(Un. 9:27)
Does God cause death?
People often suggest that someone’s
death may be “God’s will.” This is not a
teaching of Christian Science.
God is Love and Love never kills. We read in
Science and Health:
“God,
divine good, does not kill a man in order to give him eternal Life,
for
God alone is man's life. God is at once the centre and circumference
of
being. It is evil that dies; good dies not.” (S&H 203:31)
“Does
God send sickness, giving the mother her child for the brief space
of
a few years and then taking it away by death? Is God creating anew
what
He has already created? The Scriptures are definite on this point,
declaring
that His work was finished, nothing is new to God, and that
it was good.
“Can there be any birth or death for man, the spiritual
image and likeness
of God? Instead of God sending sickness and death,
He destroys them, and
brings to light immortality. Omnipotent and infinite
Mind made all and includes
all. This Mind does not make mistakes and
subsequently correct them. God
does not cause man to sin, to be sick,
or to die.” (S&H 206:19-31)
“In one sense God is identical with
nature, but this nature is spiritual and
is not expressed in matter.
The lawgiver, whose lightning palsies or
prostrates in death the child
at prayer, is not the divine ideal of omnipresent
Love. God is natural
good, and is represented only by the idea of goodness;
while evil
should be regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the
