"The way things really are"
/2) In your own words, what would you say is meant by “the spiritual meaning of the Bible”?
It is what the Bible is really saying. It tells us the way things really are. This meaning can only come to us from on high. We each have access to this meaning but we must awaken to it. Science and Health, which itself has come from on high, has opened the way for us.
3) Give three examples of passages or stories in the Bible (other than the Lord’s Prayer SH, pp16-17) for which Science offers a spiritual interpretation. And please explain each spiritual interpretation that you select.
Because of a healing I had last fall [see #4, below], I became interested in the story of the man by the pool at Bethesda. Jesus told him to “rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” I interpret his command “to rise” as rising to a higher sense than the material or human; “take up thy bed” means to lift up your sense of life, your prospects, where you find comfort or misery, and handle these things from a lifted-up sense, not from the prone sense of incapacity and helplessness; “and walk” means to proceed from this lifted-up sense to demonstrate the truth which heals.
4) Identify some practical benefits to you individually as a practicing CSt from searching the Scriptures, reading the weekly Bible Lesson, and becoming more familiar with the Key to the Scriptures.
As a practicing CSt from searching the Scriptures, reading the weekly Bible Lesson, and becoming more familiar with the Key to the Scriptures, I don’t just read the Lesson, I really study it. I find it very helpful to take notes on what I think the passages mean. Articulating my thoughts this way helps to sharpen my thinking about them. I ask myself questions about particular words or phrases used. I also mark a passage that stands out as a prayer to be lived that day or through the week. It is amazing how the Lesson always seems to address something that needs healing attention, be it personal or for the world.
I started doing this two years ago when I broke my wrist, which was for me a wake-up call to get back to more disciplined study and practice of Science. Although I quickly regained use of my hand for general things, the one thing I could not do was to play the violin — I could not turn my arm/wrist into position to play. This was pretty devastating to me, but right from the beginning, I knew I was not going to accept this; I was going to make the whole incident about demonstrating the truth in Science, and that before I left this world I was going make this demonstration.
Then, last September (more than a year later), a friend from our small local orchestra emailed me, lamenting for the umpteenth time that I was not playing with the group anymore. And, for the umpteenth time, I went to fetch my violin, unable to accept that I could not play. To my utter astonishment, I was easily able to bring my hand right around into position! I could play across all four strings and in all positions up and down the fingerboard!
My thought immediately went back to an article I had read recently in the Sentinel, about the man by the pool at Bethesda. The author had pointed out that when Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed, the man gave all kinds of reasons why he could not be. This is how material thinking works — it argues for the error, not for the good! I realized that I had been thinking God wanted me to “learn” something before I could be healed, and I was trying to find whatever it was, when actually His healing goodness is available to us every moment it is needed, and we need never put restrictions on our healing. Jesus saw the man at Bethesda as whole already, with his lifted-up sense of the truth about this man — this was the “rising up” and it came first; then, having risen, the man was able to take up his bed and walk. God had enabled me, too, to take up my bed and walk — I had been doing it all along, right from the beginning when I “rose up” and categorically refused to accept that I would never play the violin again. At the time of the Sentinel article, I felt a turning in thought, something I have come to recognize and cherish because these are moments of actual, concrete growth in spiritual understanding, when we glimpse a higher view, and it is something that can never be taken from us.
Although the healing with my wrist is not complete and there is still visible evidence of this, it has not hindered me from playing anything I want on the violin, and, in fact, I play significantly better now than I have ever played before.
But the real healing here is about the spiritual turn-around for me. I am not where I was two years ago. I find my thought now is more anchored in a lifted-up way of thinking that has become more and more my natural mental habitat. It is more natural to “tune” my thought correctly, like my violin, because I am already there with my daily study and practice of Science, bolstered by the many moments of spiritual insight and healings along the way. There is nothing like seeing results from your efforts, to build conviction in Science. This doesn’t mean that all is smooth sailing now — far from it! I am learning really, really hard lessons — lessons about self-will and self-righteousness and a few other selfs. This is “taking up my bed and walking,” this is demonstration.
5) Why should the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures be our “only preachers”? Would you say that was old fashioned? What’s the purpose behind it?
Is it old-fashioned to say that two plus two equals four? Should we try a different number for a little variety and freshness?
The problem isn’t with our preachers. What is stale is mortal mind’s way of looking at them — as “closed books” that cannot be understood, because…“I don’t really have time for them right now.” Mortal mind does not want to be destroyed just yet. When grappled with, those two books open up wonderful adventures in learning, and they are as fresh as the first time we opened our thought to them.
6) What does Christian Science have to offer those who value the Bible but are put off or confused by Biblical criticism which seems to invalidate Bible accounts such as the resurrection of Christ Jesus or “miracles” of healing of sickness.
Christian Science offers a changed perspective in which to view the Bible. It is as simple as that.