Subject: Water
Golden text: Genesis 1:1-2, 21st Century King James Version, copyright by Deuel Enterprises
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
II Kings 2:19-22
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, “Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth; but the water is nought, and the ground barren.”
20 And he said, “Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein.” And they brought it to him.
21 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there and said, “Thus saith the Lord: ‘I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.’”
22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spoke.
21st Century Science and Health, copyright by Cheryl Petersen
Scientific interpretation of Scriptures starts with the first chapter of the Old Testament, mainly because the spiritual meaning of the Word in its earliest articulations often seems smothered by the immediate context and requires explanation.
Genesis 1:2. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual harmony—heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth, unpredictability and error are unknown. Finiteness and limitation have no universe. Divine Science, the Word of God, says to the darkness over the face of error, “God is All-in-all,” and the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe. Hence the eternal wonder—that infinite space is peopled with God’s ideas, reflecting Being in countless spiritual forms.
Genesis 1:6. And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.”
Spiritual understanding, by which human conception, material sense, is separated from Truth, is the expanse. The divine Mind, not human mind, creates all identities, and they are forms of Mind. The ideas of Spirit are apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter, never as the so-called material physical senses.
Genesis 1:7. So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so.
In Isaiah, we read: “I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things,”[1] but the prophet referred to divine law dawning on human consciousness, causing evil and wrong thinking to surface before being reduced to its common denominator, nothingness. The infected system needs to be scanned entirely in order to clean the hard-drive. During moral purification, when the symptoms of evil and illusion are aggravated, we might ignorantly think that the Lord brought about the evil. Thinking it through metaphysically, we ascertain that the discovery of God’s law uncovers so-called sin and its effects only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.
Soul imparts the understanding which uplifts and de-materializes consciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist said: “Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea—the LORD on high is mighty.”[2] Spiritual perception is the discernment of spiritual good. Understanding is the line of separation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind—Life, Truth, and Love—and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in divine Science.
Matthew 3:13-16
Then came Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John to be baptized by him.
14 But John forbad Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me?”
15 And Jesus answering said unto him, “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John suffered Him.
16 And Jesus, when He had been baptized, went up straightway out of the water.
21st Century Science and Health
My medical researches and experiments prepared my thought for the metaphysics of divine Science. I was searching for truth and discovered that all dependence on temporal medicine failed to help. I now understand why and can see the means by which human beings are divinely driven to a spiritual source for health and happiness.
When I experimented with homeopathy, I became skeptical about alternative methods still involving drugs. Books on homeopathy, natural cures, and so on, discuss general symptoms and signs of health problems, and then suggest different remedies. Homeopathic drugs are diluted to such a degree that not a trace of active ingredient remains, making it obvious that the drug is not removing or changing the symptoms of disease.
To cure a patient dying of typhoid fever, I diluted common table-salt until the sodium chloride had “become tasteless.”[3] One drop of the attenuation in a cup of water, and a teaspoonful of the water administered at intervals of three hours, proved that the active ingredient went from matter to mind. The drug was not the curative power. This discovery leads to more light and we can learn whether human faith or divine Mind is the healer.
Luke 8:22-25
Now it came to pass on a certain day, that [Jesus Christ] went into a boat with His disciples. And He said unto them, “Let us go over unto the other side of the lake.” And they launched forth.
23 But as they sailed, He fell asleep. And there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in jeopardy.
24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we perish!” Then He arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water; and they ceased, and there was a calm.
25 And He said unto them, “Where is your faith?” And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, “What manner of man is this? For He commandeth even the winds and the water, and they obey Him!”
21st Century Science and Health
Our moral and spiritual progress is monotonously slow if we constantly bounce back and forth between futile habits and the hope of forgiveness. Selfishness and stupidity cause constant retrogression. We must wake up to Christ’s demand; however, the waking generally causes suffering. We may even feel like we are drowning and struggle to stay above water. Through Christ’s precious love our efforts are rewarded with success.
“Work out your salvation,”[4] is the demand of Life and Love, for to this end God works with you, “Until I come back.”[5] Be patient, and “Let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right.”[6] Don’t go back to error, and don’t become apathetic or offended even though you are trying hard and there are no immediate rewards. The reward will come.
When the difficult time has passed, you will experience a fullness of the good you have practiced. You will receive according to your efforts. Love is not in a hurry to rescue us from temptation, for Love means that we shall be tested and purified.
Proverbs 5:15
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
21st Century Science and Health
Superstitions and a lack of knowledge within your own human framework must be expelled to make room for spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both the human and divine framework at the same time; but isn’t this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says: “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.”[7] Are you ready to admit this?
Mind’s rule and its perfection of operation never vary in Science. If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life.
To cure a patient, the practitioner must first dismiss their own moral evils. Purification allows the practitioner to attain the spiritual freedom and ability to drive physical evils out of the patient. Healing will not radiate from someone who is so spiritually unproductive that they are unable to give drink to the thirsty or reach the patient’s thought. Mental poverty alienates faith and understanding.
Now then reader, which mind-picture or expressed thought will be real to you—the spiritual or the temporal? Both you cannot have. You are bringing out your own ideal. This ideal is either eternal or temporal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you try to have two models, then you practically have none. Like a yo-yo, you will spin and bounce between the unreal and the real.
If you float on the quiet surface of error and are in sympathy with error, what is there to disturb the waters? What is there to strip off error’s disguise?
If you dare to launch your ship on the ever-agitated but healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms. The good you do will be spoken of as evil. This is the responsibility. Be accountable.
Divine Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth which invigorates and purifies.
Genesis 1:9. And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.
Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels and unfolds these thoughts, even as Love opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear.
Genesis 1:10. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
In this verse, the human concept and divine idea seem confused by the translator, but they are not so in the scientifically spiritual meaning of the text. Even the pleasing task of finding names for all material things was supposedly passed down to Adam; however, Adam hasn’t yet appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the dry ground illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind. Water symbolizes the elements of Mind, such as beauty and grace. Spirit appropriately feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line of spiritual revelation, thus tenderly expressing the motherhood and fatherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses all.
[1] Isa. 45:7
[2] Ps. 93:4
[3] Matt. 5:13; Luke 14:34 (NASB)
[4] Phil. 2:12
[5] Luke 19:13
[6] Gal. 6:9 (Amplified)
[7] Gal. 5:17
Contemporary Christian Science Bible Study 