First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w170426a
What is error?
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
The Bible   
  1. Gen 3:1-15

    1Now 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?

    2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

    3But 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.

    4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

    5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

    6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

    7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

    8And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

    9And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

    10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

    11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

    12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

    13And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

    14And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

    15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

  2. Ex 3:1-4, 9, 10

    1Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

    2And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

    3And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

    4And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

    9Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.

    10Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

  3. Ex 4:1-4

    1And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.

    2And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

    3And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

    4And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

  4. Ex 20:1-5 (to :)

    1And God spake all these words, saying,

    2I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

    3Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

    4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

    5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:

  5. Rev 12:1-17

    1And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

    2And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

    3And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

    4And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

    5And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

    6And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

    7And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

    8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

    9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

    10And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

    11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

    12Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

    13And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

    14And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

    15And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

    16And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

    17And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

  6. Rev 21:1-4

    1And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

    2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

    3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

    4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

  7. Rev 22:3-5

    3And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

    4And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

    5And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.


Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy

  1. 594:1 (to SERPENT), 2

    594:1Serpent ... Subtlety; a lie; the opposite of Truth, named error; 3the first statement of mythology and idolatry; the belief in more than one God; animal magnetism; the first lie of limitation; finity; the first claim that there is an oppo-6site of Spirit, or good, termed matter, or evil; the first delusion that error exists as fact; the first claim that sin, sickness, and death are the realities of life. The first 9audible claim that God was not omnipotent and that there was another power, named evil, which was as real and eternal as God, good.

  2. 92:11-16, 21-29

        In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around 12the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve. Knowledge of good and evilThis represents the serpent in the act of commending to our first parents the knowl-15edge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter, or evil, instead of from Spirit.

    21    Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you. Until the fact concerning error — namely, its nothingness — Opposing powerappears, the moral demand will not be met, 24and the ability to make nothing of error will be wanting. We should blush to call that real which is only a mistake. The foundation of evil is laid on a belief 27in something besides God. This belief tends to support two opposite powers, instead of urging the claims of Truth alone.

  3. 564:24-26, 28

    24    From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and death, envy, hatred, and revenge, — all evil, — are typi-Doom of the dragonfied by a serpent, or animal subtlety. ... The serpent is perpetually close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning 30to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typi-fies mortal mind, “more subtle than any beast of the 565 565:1field.” In the Apocalypse, when nearing its doom, this evil increases and becomes the great red dragon, swollen 3with sin, inflamed with war against spirituality, and ripe for destruction. It is full of lust and hate, loathing the brightness of divine glory.

  4. 529:21

    21    Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the Mythical serpentmetaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the 24animal kingdom which represents the species described, — a talking serpent, — and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and 27has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be-cause we know that they are worthless and unreal.

  5. 530:13-4

    Genesis iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day 15ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

        This myth represents error as always asserting its su-18periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and Error’s assumptionsaying, through the material senses: “I can open your eyes. I can do what God has not 21done for you. Bow down to me and have another god. Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de-24sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be mine.” Thus Spirit and flesh war.

        The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream 27has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the Scriptural allegorydreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real. First, this narrative supposes 30that something springs from nothing, that matter pre-cedes mind. Second, it supposes that mind enters matter, 531 531:1and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent. The order of this allegory — the belief that everything 3springs from dust instead of from Deity — has been main-tained in all the subsequent forms of belief.

  6. 269:3

    3    From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind and matter and the mingling of good and evil have re-sulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus’ demon-6strations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothing-ness, of evil.

  7. 306:32-8

        The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, 307 307:1the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter. 3The serpent’s whisperThis pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, in-sists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying, “Ye shall be as gods;” that is, I will make error as real 6and eternal as Truth.

        Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that there is more than one intelligence or God.

  8. 307:20

    If we regard matter 21as intelligent, and Mind as both good and evil, every sin or supposed material pain and pleasure seems normal, a part of God’s creation, and so weighs against our course 24Spiritward.

  9. 321:6

    6    The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of making the people understand what should be revealed Fear of the serpent overcometo him. When, led by wisdom to cast down his 9rod, he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled be-fore it; but wisdom bade him come back and handle the serpent, and then Moses’ fear departed. In 12this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter was shown to be a belief only. The serpent, evil, under wisdom’s bidding, was destroyed through understanding 15divine Science, and this proof was a staff upon which to lean. The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him, when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really 18but a phase of mortal belief.

  10. 532:10, 17, 28

    Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed; and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con-12demns material man and remands him to dust.

        Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material 18sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame. Shame the effect of sinAshamed before Truth, error shrank abashed from the divine voice calling out to the cor-21poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased: “Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of 24good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but one God, hence one Mind?”

    In the allegory the body had been naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error 30demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the five senses. The first impression material man had of 533 533:1himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost man’s rich inheritance and God’s behest, dominion over 3all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on Adam.

  11. 533:10, 26

        Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors directly or indirectly to God, or good, as if He were the 12The beguiling first liecreator of evil. The allegory shows that the snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam, 15alias mortal error, charges God and woman with his own dereliction, saying, “The woman, whom Thou gavest me, is responsible.” According to this belief, the rib taken 18from Adam’s side has grown into an evil mind, named woman, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?

        Truth, cross-questioning man as to his knowledge of 27error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She False womanhoodsays, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;” as much as to say in meek penitence, 30“Neither man nor God shall father my fault.” She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence 534 534:1she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter 3enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to mani-fest the deathless man of God’s creating. This enabled 6woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.

  12. 534:26

    24The 27serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of the woman, — will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head 30of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding 535 535:1a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, — yea, 3the seed of Spirit and the seed of matter, — are the wheat and tares which time will separate, the one to be burned, the other to be garnered into heavenly places.

  13. 535:10

        Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma-terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol-12Judgment on erroratry. A belief in other gods, other creators, and other creations must go down before Chris-tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in 15sickness and death. When will man pass through the open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is 18indeed “the way.”



From the Christian Science Hymnal  
Hymn 120: “How beauteous on the mountains” 
Hymn 412: “O dreamer, leave thy dreams for joyful waking”
Hymn 179: “Love one another, - word of revelation”