Chapter XV - Genesis
Erroneous conception
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of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of existence
of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of existence
is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is
"a murderer from the beginning." Error begins by
reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the
foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality
were something which matter can both give and take
away.
Only one standard
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What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life,
What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life,
or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil,
matter, error, and death? God could never
impart an element of evil, and man possesses
nothing which he has not derived from God. How then
has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he
obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit
resigned to matter the government of the universe?
A type of falsehood
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The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as
The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as
to man's origin and character by condemning its symbol,
the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts
of the field. It is false to say that Truth and
error commingle in creation. In parable and argument,
this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently
wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and
arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: "Do men
gather grapes of thorns?" Paul asked: "What com-
munion hath light with darkness? And what concord
hath Christ with Belial?"
Scientific offspring
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The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human
The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human
power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate
the one Mind which makes and governs man
and the universe. The Science of creation,
so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest
and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his
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marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of
marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of
Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates
neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick-
ness, and death.
Cleansing upheaval
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In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I
In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I
the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to
divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its
utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re-
ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The
muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the
stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms
of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno-
rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought
to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its
effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil
and all power to sin.
Allegiance to Spirit
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Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are
Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are
Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." It
saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and
death, "God never made you, and you are a
false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The pur-
pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum-
ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe
a lie.
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Genesis iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground
Genesis iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground
an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
Spiritual and material
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Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived
Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived
in sin and "shapen in iniquity;" he is not the
type of Truth and Love. Material in origin
and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel