IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON October 4, 2010 Issue

THE CHRIST MAKES US FREE

BETH CAREY

THE QUESTION this week's Bible Lesson asks, "Are Sin, Disease, and Death Real?" has been answered in a variety of ways through the centuries. Hundreds of years before Christ Jesus came to destroy these evils, the oral tradition of the northern tribes of Israel dealt with this type of question. And their answer appears in the first chapter of the Bible.

In about 850 B.C. the Israelites' ideas were written down in what has since been referred to as the "E" document, the Elohistic document, of the Old Testament (Bernard Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament, p. 424). One sentence from this document, included in Section II of the Lesson, reads, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31, citation 6). This Biblical concept, that God's creation is and always has been all good, is—as this Lesson makes clear—the basis for the unreality of sin and sickness, as well as death.

Mary Baker Eddy studied the Bible in depth after injuries pronounced fatal. Based on her study and her own healing, she eventually came to the realization, which is stated in Science and Health, that "sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of good, God" (p. 525, cit. 8). She proved this true by healing other people, and spent the rest of her life teaching others how to apply these healing truths in their lives. We, too, can understand and prove the unreality of sin, disease, and death today, and we understand how through the spiritual truths found in this Lesson.

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