Subject — Adam And Fallen Man

16.     Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

17.     Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

18.     And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand.

22.     For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

17.     Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

1.     John 1: 1-5, 9-14, 17

1     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2     The same was in the beginning with God.

3     All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4     In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5     And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

9     That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10     He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11     He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12     But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13     Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14     And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

17     For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

2.     Genesis 1: 1, 26 (to :), 27, 28 (to 1st ,)

1     In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

26     And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

27     So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28     And God blessed them,

3.     Genesis 2: 1, 6, 7, 15, 21, 22

1     Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

6     But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7     And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

15     And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

21     And the LORD God 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;

22     And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

4.     Genesis 3: 1-6, 9-13, 16, 17, 23

1     Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2     And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3     But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4     And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5     For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6     And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

9     And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10     And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11     And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12     And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13     And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

16     Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17     And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

23     Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

5.     Matthew 4: 23

23     And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

6.     John 14: 9 (to saith)

9     Jesus saith…

7.     John 15: 1

1     I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

8.     John 3: 14-17

14     And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15     That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16     For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17     For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

9.     Psalm 37: 37

37     Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

1.     515: 11-15

Genesis i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

2.     516: 4-13, 19-23

The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere.

God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light. …Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's dominion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.

3.     519: 7-21

Genesis ii. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Human capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God's creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till, in the language of the apostle, "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ"?

4.     521: 18-14

The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is, but the continued account is mortal and material.

Genesis ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

The Science and truth of the divine creation have been presented in the verses already considered, and now the opposite error, a material view of creation, is to be set forth. The second chapter of Genesis contains a statement of this material view of God and the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction to the true.

The Science of the first record proves the falsity of the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are antagonistic. The first record assigns all might and government to God, and endows man out of God's perfection and power. The second record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, — as having broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science explains as impossible.

This second record unmistakably gives the history of error in its externalized forms, called life and intelligence in matter.

5.     523: 3-7

Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that God knows error and that error can improve His creation. Although presenting the exact opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth.

6.     529: 21-4

Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the animal kingdom which represents the species described, — a talking serpent, — and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, because we know that they are worthless and unreal.

Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of material mind. He begins his reign over man somewhat mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days become shorter. In this development, the immortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest as forever opposed to mortal, material sense.

7.     545: 27-1

Truth has but one reply to all error, — to sin, sickness, and death: "Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness] shalt thou return."

"As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth] shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a myth, for man is immortal.

8.     259: 6-14, 19-21

In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow, — thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration.

Understanding this, Jesus said: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

9.     476: 28-5

When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.

10.     521: 5-11

All that is made is the work of God, and all is good. We leave this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation (as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, — joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy, omnipotence, and omnipresence.