New Book for May: Mary Baker Eddy - Years of Discovery
This is the first of Robert Peel's trilogy about the famous author and religious leader. I can't wait to get started again on this landmark book.Editor
Wednesday 30 April 2014
Paul's resistance work against the "Judaizers"
Two writers here share their thoughts in response to an assignment given during an online Bible Study course held by Principia College in the US and conducted by Madelon Maupin.
Q. The core of Galatians is Paul's resistance to the Judaizers or
Missionaries. Please explain why Paul is so theologically opposed
A Delicate Balance for Paul
What
is the delicate balancing act Paul is undertaking on his second trip to Jerusalem?
What is at stake for him in meeting with these 'elders'?
It’s been about seventeen years since
Paul’s “great light” experience on the road to Damascus. Paul has been largely on his own during this
time, carrying out his God-given mission in Syria and Cilicia. Except for one brief visit to Jerusalem
fourteen years earlier, when he met with Peter (and briefly seeing James) for
just over a fortnight, he’s carried out his mission completely separate from
those in Jerusalem.
So, when it comes time to actually show up
in person, he needs to be aware that the attitude of those “elders” toward him
may be one of suspicion, perhaps jealousy, perhaps “who does he think he
is” personal offence. Thus he needs to
speak carefully so they are not offended.
On the other hand, Paul KNOWS he has been
divinely commissioned. His authority to
work among the Gentiles has not come about by any personal agenda or human planning. It is Christ-grounded and impelled. He needs to let those in Jerusalem know that
he knows his place and stands tall in carrying it out.
What was at stake is a peaceful and
supportive relationship with fellow Christians.
Would there be animosity, derision, non-acceptance? Or could they forge a relationship that was
exalted above the human and see that the work would be a blessing for humanity
if they could accept and appreciate each others’ individual contributions.
Julie Swannell
Abraham's two children
My goodness to verses 21-31 of
Chapter 4! How clearly Paul puts the point of the covenants and the two
children of Abraham! I hadn’t realised that this is there. The
bonded and the free; the flesh and the Spirit. And How does it relate to
the Jews and the Arabs of to-day? Another case of error that needs
correcting till we see only God’s creation, as Hymn 58 has it. “Seeing
only Thy creation,/We can share Thy happiness.”
Joyce Voysey
Wednesday 23 April 2014
Sons and daughters of God
On puzzling over Gal. 4:1-7, I went
on a hunt to see what Mrs. Eddy has written about the Ten Commandments that
might satisfy my wondering about verse 5: “To redeem those who were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” I found this: “The ten
horns of the dragon typify the belief that matter has power of its own, and
that by means of an evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be broken”
Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p.563:11.
So with the coming of Christ Jesus
the time is right for us to know our true, spiritual relationship with God, not
as children or slaves, but as man, God’s very expression. And S&H
cements that truth in its every statement.
Joyce Voysey
Tuesday 22 April 2014
When was that book written?
Joyce Voysey writes: In www.freebeginnings.com, I found this chart of dates of
writing of books of the New Testament.e Beginning Home
(Ed. We can't vouch for its accuracy and present it only as a possibility. It's interesting to see Galatians is here pipped at the post by Hebrews.)
The following chart provides the dates when the New Testament books were written.
In the cases in which historians disagree on the date, we have identified the
prominent historians who support the earliest and latest possible dates.
|
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Reading the Bible together
Some years ago, when I was living in Sydney, a young Chinese
student popped her head inside our Reading Room door (it was open briefly after
church one Sunday) and said accusingly “This door is never open!” We responded
joyfully “Well it is now!”
She asked “Do you do Bible study here?” Without too much of a pause, we said “Yes! Come along on Wednesday night.” And so began a joyful time of Bible study in
that strong little church.
Our new friend had been in Australia for just a few years
and her grasp of English was not strong, but she was very determined. Her mother (back in China) had become a
Christian, so Li (sadly I can’t recall her name, so this is a made-up name) had
decided she (a devout Buddhist) needed to become acquainted with the
Bible. Actually she was keen to start
with the book of Revelation (yikes!) but we suggested the Gospels might be a
little easier place to begin.
And so it was agreed.
The next Wednesday, we explained to Li (who arrived with her
Chinese/English version of the New Testament) that we would sing a hymn, then
listen to some readings, sing another hymn, share some gratitude, and then have the
opportunity to read the Bible together. She seemed OK with that. We chose to begin with the book of Mark, and we
simply read five verses each around the circle for as long as we had available before the
end of the hour allotted to our testimony meeting. We finished with a hymn.
Li faithfully came along for quite a few months. In the
meantime, something extraordinary happened: we all fell in love with reading
the Bible together and I couldn’t wait for the next week so we could resume
from where we left off the week before. It was like a
thrilling journey of discovery. Often
our reading would be interrupted as one of us would ask: what do you think that
means, and we would search a commentary or another translation to see if we
could discover new insight. Other times,
someone would break in to give a testimony that had come to thought during the
reading together.
I am so grateful for this reading together. It was a holy time and I’m grateful that it
continued for some time after I moved to Queensland. I know of at least one other group who have
been inspired by this method of learning more about the Bible. May there be many more who get together for
this purpose of reading the Bible together.
Monday 21 April 2014
Sabbath
It’s interesting that both Jesus and Paul were misunderstood
and persecuted.
Both men were raised and trained in the Jewish faith. They knew Scripture (what we now call the Old
Testament) very well indeed. We read
that Jesus quoted the Psalms and the prophets; Paul certainly spoke about
Abraham and Moses.
But there is a difference between knowing the words, and
understanding the spirit behind the words.
Jesus knew that Jewish “law” prohibited work on the Sabbath. But he went ahead and healed the lame man at
the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day anyway, knowing that God’s work carries
on without interruption day by day – “My Father is working straight through,
even on the Sabbath. So am I” (John 5:
17 The Message). This was not how the
Jewish elders expected a “good” Jew to behave; they were furious; Jesus had
disobeyed their “law”.
Julie Swannell
Friday 11 April 2014
Opening the Scriptures
It seems impossible that for 14
years Paul was off on his own, teaching what had been revealed to him, with
only a 15 day visit to Peter after 3 years. He was preaching to the
Gentiles, people who had never been Jews. So he would have had to open to
them the Jewish Scriptures which he knew so well as a Pharisee.
Wow! Hadn’t thought of that before!
Peter and the other apostles
confined their teaching to the Jews – with all their traditions. Once
again I think of Christians coming to Christian Science from other religions,
and the ‘hang ups’ they have to overcome. Perhaps they can be compared to
the apostles’ struggles with the Jews, while Paul’s experience with the
Gentiles, what were the ‘hang ups’ there? Other gods?
Chapter 3 of Galatians is big on
‘faith.’ It seems that Paul is saying that the Law of the Old Testament
does not include faith. He is concerned that the Galatians are deserting
the life of the Spirit which he has taught them for that of outward observance
of the Law, which he seems to relate to the merely human striving to be better
by trying to obey the “Thou shalt nots.”
Verse 16 clears up a point: The New
King James Version has, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises
made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to
your Seed,” who is Christ.” And Dummelow’s Commentary of the Bible says,
“Now God’s gracious promise to Abraham and his descendants is realised only in
and through Christ, in whom all believers are one.” (p. 951) The
Holy Land is a state of mind open to all.
Joyce Voysey
Joyce Voysey
Monday 7 April 2014
A change of heart
I love to read about Paul’s coming to Christianity. He
says, “I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through
the revelation of Jesus Christ.” It seems to me that he joined up all the dots
of that silver thread of the Christ which runs through the Old Testament and
which his training in the Jewish faith had set in his consciousness. The
Christ, Truth, was then separated from the Pharisaical traditions which had so mesmerised
him that he had persecuted the followers of Jesus. He took three years for
solid, solitary thought about it all in the wilderness of Arabia before he went
to Jerusalem to see Peter and James, Jesus brother.
I have had a couple of
occasions lately where it was appropriate to tell of my coming to Christian
Science. It seems fitting to repeat the story here. It proves
that to-day the Christ can still come to us directly.
Although I attended
Sunday School as a child, I gained no comprehension of what it was to be a
Christian. When I had children of my own, I sent them to a Church of
England Sunday School, reasoning that they had the right to accept the teachings or
not. I sometimes accompanied my Aunt to Communion Services
at the same church. People who actually believed in God seemed strange to
me, although some of my good friends fell into that category.
Then one night in bed
a most wonderful feeling came over me that God is real and an influence on my
life. It was a beautiful, warm feeling around the heart. I
immediately started to pray to God – to this feeling of what God is, I suppose
it could be called. Again in bed, each evening I asked God to fix various
things in my life. The next evening I would thank Him and proceed to more
things. I say “things” because I do not recall what I asked for.
The request and the thanks are what I remember.
I went to the minister
of the church and asked him to tell me something about God. He merely
gave me some International Bible Lessons. They did nothing for me.
So I began to wonder if the Eastern religions could hold the answer for
me. I went to the public library. Right next to the Eastern-type
religious books was a biography of Mary Baker Eddy – Lyman Powell’s Mary
Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait. I took it home and devoured it,
coming to the conclusion that here was the perfect religion. Mary
Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was
right next to the Powell book, so, of course, I borrowed it.
This was some 53 years
ago. The perfect religion it has proven to be.
I looked up Lyman Powell on JSH
Online. It seems the book was published in 1931.
Here is what I found:
After so much misinformation having been
spread abroad...
by Oscar Graham Peeke, Committee on Publication
for the State of Missouri,
From the July 11, 1931 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Independence Leader
After so much
misinformation having been spread abroad regarding Mrs. Eddy, it is gratifying
to know that an authentic history of her life and work has been written by the
Rev. Dr. Lyman P. Powell, rector of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in New
York, and has recently been published by The Macmillan Company. This book
presents a truthful picture of Mrs. Eddy throughout, and gives a correct and
comprehensive account of the Christian Science movement from the time of its
organization by Mrs. Eddy. Dr. Powell has aptly named his book "Mary Baker
Eddy: A Life Size Portrait." Although an Episcopal minister, Dr. Powell
was eminently qualified to write Mrs. Eddy's biography. Besides his work as
rector of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, he has to his credit a great many
books and magazine articles, and is widely known as a speaker of note. Dr.
Powell commenced to study Mrs. Eddy's work many years ago, and has devoted to
his subject a vast amount of time and thought.
It should be known that besides Mrs. Eddy's autobiography in
"Retrospection and Introspection," the authorized or approved
biographies of this great religious Leader are Sibyl Wilbur's "The Life of
Mary Baker Eddy" and Dr. Powell's book as hereinbefore mentioned.
So, by 1931, it seems there had been only two biographies of
Mary Baker Eddy published. I would be interested to have a time-line of
publishing dates for all of the many biographies we have now.
Joyce Voysey
Sunday 6 April 2014
Moving On
It seems that the
Galatians ran into doctrinal trouble between and after Paul’s visits.
Contention on how Jews could be practising Christians and how Gentiles could
become Christians directly without first becoming Jews, brought disagreement
about circumcision.
On thinking about
circumcision, I realised that it only applied to the males. And yet, I
understand that it through the female line that the Jewish faith is passed
down. Interesting!
I am wondering if some
people who come into Christian Science from other religions or beliefs find it
difficult to let go of the old practices. And I am reminded that Mrs.
Eddy’s first student, Hiram Crafts, who practiced Christian Science under her
guidance, could not let go of the belief that he had to put his physical hands
on his patients to manipulate them.
The Pioneer alone: a mission revealed
1866-1868
– Yvonne Caché Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck – April 1995 Christian Science Journal tells
us:
In the
spring of 1867, the Crafts and Mrs. Patterson moved to Taunton. There, Hiram
advertised his services as a healer. In later years, he wrote of Mrs. Eddy's
teaching:
Mrs. Eddy
never instructed me to rub the head, or body, or manipulate in any forme. But
when I was a Spiritualist, I used to use water and rub the head, limbs and
body. So, sometimes when I was studying with her I would try it, but I did not
say anything to her about it. . . .
We used
nothing outside of the New Testament, she had no manuscripts of any kind until
after I had been studying six months.
While Hiram eventually gave up his belief in spiritualism, his
wife could not. Mrs. Crafts came to resent her husband's teacher, and Mary saw
the wisdom of moving on.
Joyce Voysey
Saturday 5 April 2014
The Galatians were no wimps!
Galatia (click to see map)
In trying to pin down just who the
Galatians were, I am dazzled by the migrations of huge numbers of people.
For example I found that Gauls/Celts had come from what is now Eastern Europe,
in c. 278/277 BC. Wikipedia says: Three tribes crossed over
from Thrace to Asia Minor. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about
the same number of women and children.
(I have recently been
amazed to learn that the Vikings got themselves to Austria! How intrepid
were these people. I reckon they carried no spare fat on their bodies!)
So the Galatians were
no wimps. They were fighting men; they were hired as mercenaries in those
warring times. They were called Galatians because their ancestors were
Celts who had come from Gaul. No doubt there was also a healthy mix of Greek as
well.
I wonder if the
“churches of Galatia” could be at least some of the Seven Churches of
Revelation.
There is just too much
to learn! I’ve just looked up Gaul in my big Bible Atlas.
Christianity was spread back to Gaul from this Asia Minor area. To quote:
Relations between Asia Minor and south-east Gaul (France) remained close: it
was from Asia Minor that Gaul was evangelised. When the churches of
Ludgunum (Lyons) and Vienna, in the Rhone Valley, suffered a severe persecution
in AD 177, it was to the churches of Asia Minor that the survivors wrote with
details of the persecution; and it was from Asia Minor (probably from the
vicinity of Smyrna) that the new bishop of Lyon was brought to replace the
bishop who had died in the persecution. The new bishop, Iranaeus, was a
theological writer of the early church.
Joyce Voysey
Friday 4 April 2014
You've got mail - an impassioned letter from Paul
How lovely to be back with Paul. We last caught up with him in April/May 2013 when we read the book of Acts, which we now know is part 2 of the gospel of Luke. There we learned about Paul from another writer. Here in Galatians, we are hearing from Paul himself as he writes an impassioned letter of greeting, of instruction, and of warning, to the church members in Galatia.
I've started my reading of Galatians this time with The Message. It's so interesting to know a little about Eugene Petersen's reasons for giving the world this new reading of the Bible. In "A User's Guide to the Remix" at the beginning of my copy of The Message is this:
The Message was paraphrased over a period of ten years, straight from the Bible's original languages (Greek and Hebrew). The idea of The Message isn't to water down the Bible, making it easier to digest. The idea is to make it readable -- to put those ancient words that their users spoke and wrote every day into words that YOU speak and write every day.
So, turning to Petersen's Introduction to Galatians we read:
When men and women get their hands on religion, one of the first things they often do is turn it into an instrument for controlling others... Paul of Tarsus was dong his diligent best to add yet another chapter to this dreary history...
But this colossal character Paul one day suddenly saw a different path forward. It changed his life and it changed the world. Not that it was easy. Traditions (disguised as law) can bind people in outmoded beliefs and practices. But the spirit of GRACE and FREEDOM Paul discovered as a newly minted disciple of Jesus (he was a contemporary of Jesus but never met him in the flesh) was so profound, that nothing would stop him in his mission to preach this good news to as wide a field as he could outside the Jewish world.
And so we begin in the Roman province of Galatia.
I've started my reading of Galatians this time with The Message. It's so interesting to know a little about Eugene Petersen's reasons for giving the world this new reading of the Bible. In "A User's Guide to the Remix" at the beginning of my copy of The Message is this:
The Message was paraphrased over a period of ten years, straight from the Bible's original languages (Greek and Hebrew). The idea of The Message isn't to water down the Bible, making it easier to digest. The idea is to make it readable -- to put those ancient words that their users spoke and wrote every day into words that YOU speak and write every day.
So, turning to Petersen's Introduction to Galatians we read:
When men and women get their hands on religion, one of the first things they often do is turn it into an instrument for controlling others... Paul of Tarsus was dong his diligent best to add yet another chapter to this dreary history...
But this colossal character Paul one day suddenly saw a different path forward. It changed his life and it changed the world. Not that it was easy. Traditions (disguised as law) can bind people in outmoded beliefs and practices. But the spirit of GRACE and FREEDOM Paul discovered as a newly minted disciple of Jesus (he was a contemporary of Jesus but never met him in the flesh) was so profound, that nothing would stop him in his mission to preach this good news to as wide a field as he could outside the Jewish world.
And so we begin in the Roman province of Galatia.
Wednesday 2 April 2014
The nascent Christian Church
Greetings fellow readers!
We
have been inspired by Madelon Maupin’s wonderful Bible insights shared at the
Northern Australia Church Alive Summit, so we will follow her lead and read Paul’s letter to the Galatians this month.
Who were the Galatians? Why did
Paul write to them? What was his basic
message? What does it say to us today?
Last
month we read Mary Baker Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for
1900. A passage that caught my attention was on
page 6 where Eddy talks about the “so-called fog of this Science”:
“Any mystery in Christian Science departs when dawns the spiritual
meaning thereof; and the spiritual sense of the Scriptures is the scientific
sense which interprets the healing Christ.
A child can measurably understand Christian Science, for, through his
simple faith and purity, he takes in its spiritual sense that puzzles the man. The child not only accepts Christian Science
more readily than the adult, but he practises it. This notable fact proves that the so-called
fog of this Science obtains not in the Science, but the in material sense which
the adult entertains of it.”
Now let's launch ourselves back into the world of the nascent Christian church...
Julie Swannell
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