CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

by Dr. Hank Lindstrom

Christian Science Notes

I. General Information:

A. Founder:  Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy (1821-1910)

B. Textbook:  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

C. The members are usually older people.

D. It is called Christian Science but it is neither "Christian" nor "Science".
          --Like Grape-Nuts, neither "grapes" nor "nuts"

E.     Basic Theology:  Pantheism-God is ALL or EVERYTHING

II. Your Approach When Witnessing:

     A.     Understand the major premise or formula regarding their approach to God, salvation, etc.
              1. God is Love...God is Life...God is Good...God is Spirit...God is ALL.  Therefore, since the Good God is ALL, there can be no evil; since God is Spirit and God is ALL, nothing unspiritual such as matter can exist; since God is Life and God is ALL, there is no death; since God is Love and God is ALL, there is no hate.
              2. Refutation-God is Love, Life, Good, and Spirit, but God is NOT ALL.
                  a.     "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1)."  (not that God is but that God created)
                  b. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you...(Isaiah 59:2)"  (note that God is separate from his creation).

     B.     Give the gospel in love, "avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith (I Timothy 6:20-21)."
              1.     Many are attracted to this cult because they don't want to believe they are accountable for the sins they have committed, and they fear death.  Christian Science denies both, giving them a false sense of security.
              2.     By giving them the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, you give them real security.

III. Christian Science and the Bible:

A. Christian Scientists affirm that the Bible is God's Word, and they quote Mrs. Eddy to "prove" that their whole religion is based upon the teachings of Scripture.  Mrs. Eddy said, "the Bible has been my only authority.  I have had no other guide in the 'straight and narrow' way of truth."
     (Science and Health p.126)."

B.     Quotes from Christian Science literature to show what they really believe regarding the Bible.
         1.     "The literal rendering of the Scriptures makes them nothing valuable, but often is the foundation of unbelief and hopelessness.  The metaphysical rendering is health and peace and hope for all."
                  (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings pg. 169)
         2.     Mrs. Eddy acknowledged an additional source of truth: "The testimony of the material senses is neither absolute nor divine.  I therefore plant myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind."
                  (Science and Health, pg. 269)
         3.     Mrs. Eddy claimed to be the recipient of divine revelation.  In the January 1901 issue of "Christian Science Journal", she said, "I should blush to write of Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures as I have, were it of human origin and I apart from God its author, but I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of heaven in divine metaphysics, I cannot be super-modest of the Christian Science textbook."
               a.     If the original edition had been given by God, why so many changes since?
                    1.     In 1875 it had only 8 chapters-currently it has 14.
                    2.     The first edition had only 456 pages-the present has 700!
                    3.     The present edition is not the one said to be from God, and apparently the first one wasn't from God either, or it would have been true without correction!
               b.     In Science and Health she boldly says, "No Human pen nor tongue taught me the Science contained in this book."
                     --Walter Martin produces documentary evidence of dependence upon and plagiarism from the writings of P. Quimby, Murray's Reader, the ideas of Shakerism, and James Henry Wiggin.

IV     Christian Science and Jesus Christ:

     A.     To see what they believe regarding Jesus Christ, examine the following quotes:
            1. Christian Science Sentinel, December 22, 1984, p. 330.
            --"Christian Science is doing much to clarify the thoughts of men regarding the great Way-shower.  Among other things, it is correcting the fallacy that Jesus is God."
            2.     Science and Health, pp. 336, 473, 29, 316, 332, 53, 45.
                 a. "God is indivisible.  A portion of God could not enter man; neither could God's fullness be reflected by a single man, else God would be manifestly finite, lose the deific character, and become less than God."
                 b. "Jesus is the human man, and Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the Christ."
                 c. "The Christ dwelt forever an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the man Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea, though at first faintly developed."
                 d. "The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and gave to her ideal the name Jesus."
                 e. "Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self conscious communion with God."
                 f. "Mary's conception of him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth and Love."
                 g. "Jesus bore our sins in his body.  He knew the mortal errors which constitute the material body, and could destroy those errors; but at the time when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of spiritual power."
                 h. "Our master fully and finally demonstrated divine Science in his victory over death and the grave�The persecutors had failed to hide immortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre."
            3.     More quotes from Science and Health:
                 a. "Jesus is the name of the man who, more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true idea of God, Healing the sick and the sinning and destroying the power of death.  Jesus is the human man, and Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the Christ."  (p. 473)
                 b. "Jesus was born at Bethlehem; Christ was eternal." (p. 29)
                 c. "Jesus suffered; Christ never suffered." (p. 38)
                 d. "Jesus finally disappeared; Christ continues to exist in the eternal order of divine Science."      (p. 334)
                 e. "Jesus was a human being; Christ is Truth, a spiritual or divine idea." (p. 18 & 334)

     B. Christian Scientists may say many wonderful things about Jesus, but they never affirm that Jesus is the Christ.
            1. They will say concerning Jesus, "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe (Science and Health, p. 313)."  Or, "Jesus was the best Christian on earth (Ibid. p. 360)."
            2. Scripture affirms that Jesus is the Christ and declares this affirmation to be of the genuine Christianity.
                 a. "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of antichrist (I John 4:3)."
                 b. The Gospel of John was written "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ (John 21:31)."
                 c. "and Paul....reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ (Acts 17:2,3)."
                 d. The angel, not Mary, said, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11)."
                 e. "And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb (not in her mind), and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus (Luke 1:31)."

V. The Christian Scientist and Sin:

     A.     Quotes from Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures.
            1. "If God, or good, is real, then evil, the unlikeness of God, is unreal." (p.470)
            2. "All sin is insanity in different degrees." (p. 475)
            3. "Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death." (p. 475)
            4. "Being destroyed, sin needs no other form of forgiveness... Since God is All, there is no room for His opposite... therefore evil, being the opposite if goodness, is unreal... for the sinner is making a reality of sin, making that real which is unreal... only those who repent sin, and forsake all evil, can fully understand the unreality of evil� To get rid of sin, through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind or reality and never to admit that sin can have intelligence or power, pain or pleasure.  You can conquer error by denying its verity." (p. 234)
            5. "To put down the claim of sin you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin, and prove its unreality." (p. 444)

     B.     The Bible certainly teaches contrary to this, both regarding the reality of sin and the way of forgiveness.
            1. "As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Romans 3:10-12)."
            2. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)."
            3. Sin is described in the Bible 5 ways:
                 a. Transgression     I John 3:4
                 b. Unrighteousness     I John 5:17
                 c. Omission of Known Duty     James 4:17
                d. Anything not of Faith     Romans 14:23
                e. Thought of Foolishness     Proverbs 24:9
           4. Forgiveness of sin does not come from deceiving yourself of its reality, but by believing (placing trust, relying upon) the person Jesus Christ.  "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; And by him all that BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED FROM ALL THINGS, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses (Acts 13:38-39)."
           5. The Bible plainly states that the person who says he has no sin is the one who is deceiving himself, not the one who says he has sin.  "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (I John 1:9)."