Chapter XV - Genesis
Garden of Eden
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rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in-
rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in-
finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and
keep it, – to make it beautiful or to cause it
to live and grow. Man is God's reflection, needing no
cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.
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Genesis ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com-
Genesis ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com-
manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
No temptation from God
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Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting
Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting
man, but the Apostle James says: "God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any
man." It is true that a knowledge of evil would
make man mortal. It is plain also that mate-
rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti-
tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God,
good, made "the tree of life" to be the tree of death to His
own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un-
real because it is a lie, – false in every statement.
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Genesis ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God
Genesis ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God
[Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl
of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he
would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that was the name thereof.
Creation's counterfeit
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Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but
Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but
doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask-
ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the
Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his
dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man
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that dust should become sentient, when all being is the
that dust should become sentient, when all being is the
reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares
that God has already created man, both male and
female? That Adam gave the name and nature of
animals, is solely mythological and material. It can-
not be true that man was ordered to create man anew
in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream,
a myth.
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Genesis ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah]
Genesis ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah]
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and
He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead
thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had
taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto
the man.
Hypnotic surgery
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Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing
Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing
a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a
surgical operation on him and thereby create
woman. This is the first record of magnet-
ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light,
– materially rather than spiritually, – error now simu-
lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar-
ing what great things error has done. Beholding the
creations of his own dream and calling them real and
God-given, Adam – alias error – gives them names.
Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the
creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them
mankind, – that is, a kind of man.
Mental midwifery
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But according to this narrative, surgery was first per-
But according to this narrative, surgery was first per-
formed mentally and without instruments;
and this may be a useful hint to the medical
faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden