Bible Study from May 23rd, 2020
The Day of Pentecost
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Soul and Body
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Bible Study Questions and Readings
Jesus was “the way;” that is, he marked the way for all men. In his final demon-stration, called the ascension, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the material senses saw him no more.
His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Science, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment of Jesus’ teachings and demonstrations, which gave them a faint conception of the Life which is God. They no longer measured man by material sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master, they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter, but on the divine Principle of their work. The influx of light was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming power as on the Day of Pentecost.
From Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy page 46-47: 25-9
Topic: The Day of Pentecost4
Moderator: Betty from California
Bible Readings: Acts 1 & 2
Additional Readings: John 20 & 21; Luke 24
Questions:
- What was Jesus doing for his disciples between his resurrection and ascension?
- What happened on the Day of Pentecost?
- What issues did Peter address in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost? Do we have any of these same issues today?
- What happened as a result of his sermon? What can we learn from this today?
Notes from the Discussion
Regarding vaccination; there is only the mental vaccination;. I would take the point of Spirit which is Truth and prick the human affections, then inoculate with divine Love, circulating the system of thought, and the liability of contagious disease, sin, or sickness will cease.
— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 269
From Christian Science, Its Clear, Correct Teaching by Herbert Eustace, pages 310-311
Epidemic is a disease in itself.
It illustrates how wholly mental disease is.
The epidemic of influenza during the closing days of the World War spread to places where no possible contagion by physical contact could be traced.
Epidemic is fear-contagion.
Is not fear-contagion purely mental suggestion in its impersonal sense?
A claim of epidemic is handled in exactly the same way in which you would release the victim of a hypnotist.
In the latter case, you would not deal with a wrong thing. Your attention would be devoted to destroying the belief that there is malicious mind to control or govern.
Knowing that God is the one Mind, that He is all the Mind there is, you cannot be duped into attempting to deal with another mind.
This realization would break the claim of hypnotism and free the victim.
An epidemic is dealt with in exactly the same way.
Fear, contagious belief, is both the hypnotist and the hypnotism.
It is not contact, nor any form of matter, that has to be destroyed for the claim is purely mental suggestion–in other words, hypnotism.
Do not be deceived into arguing down any of the various symptoms, as in an ordinary case of sickness; contagion has none, in that sense. Epidemic is pure hypnotic contagion; it is fear, not physical contact.
Symptoms have no more to do with contagion than have the motions of the hypnotized victim’s arms and legs, in swimming on dry boards under the influence of the hypnotist, anything to do with the real claim.
The man is not in water, and therefore is not really swimming. Nor do you think he is; so you do not consider either swimming or water.
You handle hypnotism.
You do the same with epidemic and destroy it through the realization of God as the one and only Mind.
The only authority is God.
— from Bible Study
Church is essential.
— from Bible Study
CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle. The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.
— from the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 583
Article — The Pentecostal Wind and Fire NO. 1619 By C. H. Spurgeon
FIRE. Fear; remorse; lust; hatred; destruction; affliction purifying and elevating man.
HOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love.
WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipotence and the movements of God’s spiritual government, encompassing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal passions. The Greek word for wind (pneuma) is used also for spirit, as in the passage in John’s Gospel, the third chapter, where we read: “The wind [pneuma] bloweth where it listeth. . . . So is every one that is born of the Spirit [pneuma].” Here the original word is the same in both cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other passages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly to employ words of material significance in order to unfold spiritual thoughts. In the record of Jesus’ supposed death, we read: “He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost;” but this word ghost is pneuma. It might be translated wind or air, and the phrase is equivalent to our common statement, “He breathed his last.” What Jesus gave up was indeed air, an etherealized form of matter, for never did he give up Spirit, or Soul.
— from the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 586, 588, 597-599
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
— Joel 2:28-32 in the King James Bible
Poem — Vainglory by Mary Baker Eddy
Article — Love Your Enemies by Mary Baker Eddy
Article — Taking Offense by Mary Baker Eddy
Article — Pond and Purpose by Mary Baker Eddy