Christian Science.
The fundamental principle of Christian Science is that sin and disease have no real
existence.
In fact, matter does not exist; mind is everything.
According to its teachings, God is an impersonal being; He is infinite mind. Prayer
to a
personal God is a hindrance; true prayer, according to Mrs. Eddy, being a soliloquy
or auto-
suggestion. The Lord Jesus Christ was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious communion
with God. To accommodate Himself to immature ideas of spiritual power, Jesus called
the body, 'flesh and bones'; which utterance shows the concession He was willing
to make to popular ignorance.
Concerning the resurrection of the Lord, we have the following blasphemy :
'The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from His foes', and there 'He
met and
mastered, on the basis of Christ Science, all the claims of medicine, surgery and
hygiene'. When
'Jesus' students ... saw Him after His crucifixion' they 'learned that He had not
died'. 'We were
reconciled to God by the (seeming) death of His Son' (Science and Health, pp. 44 and
46).
As to sin, Christian Science teaches that it is an illusion, and as to the atoning
efficacy of the
precious blood of Christ, it is altogether denied. Mrs. Eddy states that the blood
of Christ was of no more avail when it was shed upon the cursed tree, than when it
was flowing through His veins in daily life.
Christian Science is one of the cults that deal in healing. Its aim and method is
to persuade
the patient that he is not ill, but that he only thinks that he is. Cures are effected,
but they are of the
same nature as those wrought at Lourdes, or at Pentecostal healing campaigns. Mrs.
Eddy herself
went to the dentist to have a tooth extracted, and even had local anaesthesia. A
beloved fellow-worker in Christ, who is also a medical practitioner, said, 'Christian
Science heals all the diseases which do not exist', and one has only to become acquainted with folk to know how many ailments are imaginary or mental. Christian Science
has not succeeded in raising the dead. It did not prevent its founder from bowing
to the death which comes upon all men, 'for that all have sinned'. These are limitations
which cannot be surmounted.
' ... they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men'
(2 Tim. 3:9).