From the Platform of Christian Science
and the definitions of "mortal
mind."
West
(-11- Christ
Jesus)
XI. Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed to speak God's word
and to appear to mortals in such a form of humanity as they could
understand as well as perceive. Mary's conception of him was spiritual,
for only purity could reflect Truth and Love, which were plainly incarnate
in the good and pure Christ Jesus. He expressed the highest type of
divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age. Into the real
and ideal man the fleshly element cannot enter. Thus it is that Christ
illustrates the coincidence, or spiritual agreement, between God and man
in His image.
East
(-12- Messiah
or Christ)
XII. The word Christ
is not properly a synonym for Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus
was a human name, which belonged to him in common with other Hebrew boys
and men, for it is identical with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew
leader. On the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine
title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature. The name
is synonymous with Messiah, and alludes to the spirituality which is
taught, illustrated, and demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus
was the embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the Greek was Jesus
the Christ; but Christ Jesus better signifies the Godlike.
mortal mind
the opposite of
Spirit, and therefore the opposite of God, or good;
Recapitulation Questions
Lesson topics, and the definition of Adam
West
Question 11. - Are doctrines and
creeds a benefit to man?
ADAM = The first god of mythology.
(The test of experience)
Answer. - The author subscribed to an orthodox creed in
early youth, and tried to adhere to it until she caught the first gleam of
that which interprets God as above mortal sense. This view rebuked human
beliefs, and gave the spiritual import, expressed through Science, of all
that proceeds from the divine Mind. Since then her highest creed has been
divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehension, she has named
Christian Science. This Science teaches man that God is the only Life, and
that this Life is Truth and Love; that God is to be understood, adored, and
demonstrated; that divine Truth casts out suppositional error and heals the
sick.
(God's law destroys evil)
The way which leads to Christian Science is straight and narrow. God has set
His signet upon Science, making it coordinate with all that is real and only
with that which is harmonious and eternal. Sickness, sin, and death, being
inharmonious, do not originate in God nor belong to His government. His law,
rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished proofs of these
statements.
East
Question 12. - What is error?
ADAM = Not God's man, who represents the one God and
is
His own image and likeness.
(Evanescent materiality)
Answer. - Error is a supposition that pleasure and pain,
that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in matter. Error is
neither Mind nor one of Mind's faculties. Error is the contradiction of
Truth. Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal because
untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not. If error were true, its
truth would be error, and we should have a self-evident absurdity-namely, erroneous
truth. Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.
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