IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON April 12, 2010 Issue

YOUR CLOSENESS TO GOD

BETH CAREY

IN CONSIDERING this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson on "Doctrine of Atonement," it's helpful for us to look at the first paragraph on this subject in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible.

That dictionary explains that the English word atone is derived from the phrase "at one": "To be 'at one' with someone is to be in harmonious personal relationship with him or her. Similarly 'atonement' originally means 'at-one-ment' or 'reconciliation' " (p. 309).

This "at-one-ment" flows right through the Lesson, with an early call to action coming in Section I: "The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought out in life-practice ..." (Science and Health, p. 202, citation 5).