Editorial August 8, 1970 Issue

Teaching the Scriptures

Carl J. Welz

Looking under the word "Scriptures" in the Concordances to Mary Baker Eddy's writings, we find many references. A study of these references inspires us to a higher than academic sense of what it means to teach the Scriptures. In one instance she says, "Rightly to read and to practise the Scriptures, their spiritual sense must be discerned, understood, and demonstrated. God being Spirit, His language and meaning are wholly spiritual. Uninspired knowledge of the translations of the Scriptures has imparted little power to practise the Word."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 238}

The question before the Christian Science Sunday School teacher as he prepares for his class is what he can do to teach the Scriptures to the pupils so that they will read them rightly and practice them —discern, understand, and demonstrate their spiritual sense. The teacher may need factual information about the Bible story the class will discuss. But in his thought and preparation he will need to subordinate all this knowledge except what throws real light on the spiritual message the story brings.

If too much emphasis is placed upon the underlying facts, the teacher will eventually run into the problem of the pupil who has enough scholarly curiosity to question whether or not they really are facts. If the teacher implies that historical accuracy is essential to the authority of the Scriptures, he is thereby inviting the inquisitive pupil to ask, for example, whether the story of Daniel and the lions' den was written to inspire people to worship God or to encourage civil disobedience. He may also challenge the record of Noah preserving "all flesh, wherein is the breath of life" by taking them "into the ark, two and two"^{Gen. 7:15} to ride out the flood. Such questioning may sound like rebellion against the truth, but it is simply the young thought doing its duty as a scholar.