To go with this week's CedarS "Met" Application Ideas, I put together some insights
from Cobbey Crisler on select citations from the Christian Science Bible Lesson on
“Soul and Body" for November 19, 2017.
Hope you enjoy them! Warren Huff
Warren’s (W’s) PS#1—Cobbey Crisler on Psalms 138.8 (RR)—God perfects everything about you!
“Psalms 138.8 Despite the fact that many of these psalms come de profundus, right out of the depths, out of the pits, to use a modern term, Verse 8 of Psalms 138 says, “The Lord will perfect [that which] concerneth me.” What’s the goal? To obviate all need for healing is the goal in the Bible. Not to have you come back and make more appointments for newly-arrived-at diseases, but to obviate healing completely. Do you remember the inhabitants of the spiritual city of Zion in Isaiah? What it says about the inhabitants? “You shall not say I am sick” (Isaiah 33:24)”.
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms” by B. Cobbey Crisler
W’s PS#2—Mary Baker Eddy and Cobbey Crisler on Paul’s words in Athens (B4, Acts 17:28):
**“St. Paul said to the Athenians, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” This statement is in substance identical with my own: “There is no life, truth, substance, nor intelligence in matter.” It is quite clear that this great verity has not yet been fully demonstrated, but it is nevertheless true. If Christian Science reiterates Paul’s teaching, we, as Christian Scientists, should give to the world convincing proof of the validity of this scientific statement of being. Having perceived, in advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to ourselves and to the world a struggle for its demonstration.” Retrospection and Introspection, 93: 17]
Also, Cobbey Crisler shared these insights on the context of Paul’s words to the Athenians in Acts 17 (B4): “Well, now Paul is heading for the cultural capital of civilization, Athens. And you can’t even go to modern day Athens without appreciating somewhat of what Paul saw, looking around at the remnants of that great city and “the columned buildings that were dedicated to so many gods. It must have moved Paul.” …
“And so he opens his mouth and begins right away to talk in Athens. Now this is a tough area in which to introduce Christianity, except at least they were willing to listen because everybody talked about anything. I mean there were a lot of weirdo sects and ideas that they welcomed without question in Athens because everybody liked to dispute these ideas anyway.
“He’s in the market, the agora, as well as in the synagogue. He runs into Epicureans; he runs into Stoics.” Now Tarsus where Paul came from happens to be a Stoic stronghold. So he must have been certainly aware of that philosophy…
“They bring him to Areopagus, the hill of Mars or Aries, and they asked him to explain what he has to say.” …
Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Paul, standing there, shows how a lecture can be tailor-made to any environment. And, it’s better than uniformity if you want to get the ear of the locals. And in this way, you will find at no point does Paul mention the Old Testament. Why? (Pause) What would that mean to the Athenians? (See below, Acts 17:23, paraphrased)
Instead, he kind of says, “On my way to the forum…you know. In other words, here I was, and I saw something you had back here. And, it says TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” (See Acts 17:23 …
“Would everybody be listening? It relates. He’s picked up something locally. And, would you also be listening if he said “That monument you put ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’, I want to tell you a little something about him. He’s unknown to you, but here’s some information that might be helpful… “And then, in Acts 17, verse 24, he describes “that God who made all, and therefore, couldn’t dwell in temples made with hands.” …
We’re reminded of whom? Yes, but since Jesus, we heard that from Stephen, remember? As Saul, himself, he had heard that.
“He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” (repeated paraphrased)
What do you think that comment does when you’re looking at the Parthenon and buildings like it? “God doesn’t dwell in all of this. He made everything. How can you contain Him?” … Very interesting point.
Have we even arrived at that point today in our thinking? … I doubt the Athenians had either.
“The search where God is…” will end up with the conclusion in the last line of Acts 17, verse 27, “that He’s not very far from every one of us.” And then Paul very cleverly introduces lines from local poets: “In him we live, and move, and have our being” and “for we are also his offspring” – parts of poems we have identified, and they even know the authors. (See below, partial)
Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being**; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
After the Master, What? The Book of Acts, by B. Cobbey Crisler
W’s PS#3—Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 71: 18 (between B8 verses) strength & power in old age:
“Those interested in geriatrics. It’s in Psalm 71, Verse 18. That’s also been isolated out as a special problem. No one ever expects that old age is going to be like it is until one arrives. No preventative medicine has been taken. Nothing seems to be possible. Once again, it is submission to the inevitable. Verse 18 shows that’s also included in biblical therapy. “Now also when I am old and gray headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed” two things that seem to be taken from those in that category, “strength and power.”
“The New York Herald Tribune many years ago came out with a study that originated in the De Couri Clinic in Cincinnati. The opening line in the article repeating their findings is “Time is not toxic.” It has no effect in bringing about degenerative disorders. Anyone who thinks that because he or she is getting along in years, that loss of vigor, disability, or degenerative disorders should be experienced is suffering from a time neurosis which may be more effective in physical conditions in producing the effect of fear. It went on [along] that [line]. So there’s another discovery. Again, as Dr. Paul Rausch said in Suburbia Today magazine, “We’re waking up to things that have been really known inherently all along.” The Bible has never budged from its position. We have vacillated. God hasn’t moved.”
Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms, by B. Cobbey Crisler
W’s PS#4—Cobbey Crisler on Matt. 4: 17 (B14) “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
“Verse 17. After Matthew the prophesies [in verses 15 and 16 from Isaiah 9:1, 2) of the coming of the Messiah], Jesus’ opening word, according to Matthew’s gospel is “Repent.” Change your concept. Again, just as John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:2, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That is radical good news for mankind.
“It’s not a far-off event. Many denominations have left the impression that heaven is something attainable in the far-off future. But, the opening words of John the Baptist, as well as of Jesus, are “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” right here. That means that we must be able to do something with it and about it. And, apparently that had something to do with the changing of our concept, even theologically, that heaven can do something about the problems that that seem to be at hand.
“There’s your next division (Division number 2). Are the problems at hand, or is heaven at hand? That’s the test question that Jesus met so beautifully as a sovereign over it in the wilderness. He proved that heaven was at hand.”
Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, by B. Cobbey Crisler
W’s PS#5—Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 6.22-23 (B15): the light of the body is the eye
“(Verse 22). Should we be surprised when it says, ‘The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single’? Haven’t we been prepared for that in Jesus’ theology up to now?
“Single, not double vision, duality. Commitment to something other than one God, dividing our sight between what is corrupt and what is pure. Because “if our eye is single,” here’s an equation again. You can make that into an equation. “if thine eye be single”, how does the body respond? Your body is whole. Your body’s single too. Not fragmented.
(Verse 23) But, ‘if your eye is evil,’ see the parallelism? His definition of evil is what? The opposite of single. ‘If your eye is single,’ he says, on one hand, on the other hand, he says, ‘if your eye is evil.’ So evil is something other than single. He is showing that it’s the devil’s outlook, ‘diabolos’ in Greek, the attempt to put dualism on the throne, or have a divided throne.
Isn’t that why in the Book of Revelation (4:2), one of the greatest revelations vouchsafed to John as a seer, was the fact he saw a throne in heaven and one sat on the throne. Just that single vision, according to Jesus, would result in instantaneous healing in our bodies, to see the throne in heaven and only one on it. No one, or no thing, or no thought other than what comes from God can have ascendancy or sovereignty, then, in our being, because ‘our body is full of light’ from the one that sits on the throne. (Matthew 6:22)
There’s something about divine logic that always coincides with divine revelation. The divine logic that Jesus is showing here was coincident with the revelation that John got.”
Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report, by B. Cobbey Crisler
W’s PS#6—Cobbey Crisler on Luke 4:14 (B19)
“Luke indicates that he understands this [Jesus’ period of temptations in the wilderness] has been a power test for Jesus because in Verse 14 he uses that word, "Jesus returned" not in any form of power that Satan had tried to impose upon him [“to To take personal power, political power, and priestly power”]. But rather, "in the power of the Spirit into Galilee"—[“in the law that relates man directly to God, the source of the only power there is.” (CC)]
Luke the Researcher, by B. Cobbey Crisler
**You can buy your own transcripts and audio recordings of most of Cobbey’s 28 talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk
Please email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com]
W’s PS#7—Warren’s Christian Science Class Instruction notes say that when Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health the passage about “the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a skyward flight” (S28), no one knew about this behavior in the natural world. However, it was discovered that this is what happens with young Australian Brush Turkeys as the following video illustration relates https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Australian+Brush+Turkey&&view=detail&mid=D18F12E1C492D412064AD18F12E1C492D412064A&FORM=VRDGAR
