In the Christian Science Bible Lesson April 11, 2011 Issue

The blessings of unity

For the lesson titled "Doctrine of Atonement" from April 11-17, 2011

Beth Carey

Oneness leaps off the pages of this Bible Lesson titled “Doctrine of Atonement.” The Golden Text opens, “There is but one God,” and follows with the fact that there is “one Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 8:6). And Jesus, the Way-shower, focused on oneness when he declared, “I and my Father are one “ (I John 10:30, citation 5).

The oneness of all humankind is also stressed in a variety of ways throughout this Lesson. The last section includes a portion of the Bible sometimes called the “hope of unity,” which seeks this oneness. The prophet Ezekiel is in Babylon with those who have been taken captive from both northern and southern Israel. He is pleading with them no longer to think of themselves as separate “sticks,” or tribes, Ephraim, Judah, and so forth, but to unite themselves into one stick: “And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel” (Ezek. 37:22, cit.17). He is seeing a unity of the tribes of Israel that will bless everyone.

The Apostle Paul’s life and writings bring out this same unity. The account in Section IV tells of a time Paul is sharing Christianity and is in Antioch of Pisidia, modern-day Turkey. Jews had spread to many of these cities. Paul’s custom was to go to the Jewish synagogue and start preaching there.