Once we begin to see God as He really is—as Spirit, the All-in-all, the one creator—and man as the idea—the reflection—of God, at one with God, we read the Bible with an enlightened point of view. We read it expecting to learn more about the kingdom of God. With this expectancy we begin to grasp the divine message.
Most of us, as Christian Scientists, have had the experience of reading a particular passage over and over again. Then one day the passage is seen in a new light, and we may exclaim, "Why, it's so clear to me now! Why didn't I see that before?"
The reason the deeper meaning wasn't perceived earlier in an individual's study is that we are each going through stages of growth in our understanding of God. Not that God's man—our true identity— goes through stages. He is perfect now. But we prove this perfection increasingly as we put off old beliefs for new understanding. As the old beliefs are put off, the new perceptions grow in our thought. Mrs. Eddy puts it this way when she explains why it was John saw the new heaven and new earth: "The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see,—that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness."Science and Health, p. 573
