Christian Science and the Bible
History
Mary Baker Eddy was born in 1821 in New Hampshire to Congregationalist parents. She was very sick during her childhood, and had physical problems throughout her life. At the age of 22 she married, but her husband died 7 months later. She married again, but that marriage ended in divorce.
In 1866, she slipped on an icy sidewalk and fell, seriously injuring herself. She was given 3 days to live. On the third day, she asked for a Bible, and read Matthew 9:2 which speaks of Christ healing a man of the palsy. She was then miraculously cured, and realized she had been healed of God. She began studying the Bible to understand how she was healed, and she gave this healing ability the name Christian Science. In 1875 she published the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures which explained what she had discovered. Much of what she wrote in Science and Health she “borrowed” from P. P. Quimby, whom Eddy first met in 1862. He called his ideas “Science of Health.”
In 1879 Mary Baker Eddy and some of her students started the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass.
In 1881 she started a college for which she charged $300 per student. The church manual was published in 1895, and the Bible and Science and Health were declared the “pastor” of the church. Mary Baker Eddy died in 1910 with over 3 million dollars in her estate.
The church grew rapidly in the early 20th century, but scandals and an inability to attract new members caused the church numbers to shrink in the late 20th century.
Beliefs
Christian Science: Bible
They claim that the Bible is their sole basis of authority. However, they also claim that the Bible has been corrupted and can only be understood with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. This book was declared by Mrs. Eddy to be given of God and to be used to interpret the Bible, a “key” which unlocks the meaning of the Bible. Science and Health is in reality the main authority for the Christian Science church.
Biblical Teaching
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matt 24:35)
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17)
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” (2 Pet 1:3)
“but the word of the Lord remains forever .” (I Peter 1:25)
Christian Science: God
Christian Scientists refer to God with titles like Father-Mother, divine Love, infinite Mind. God is not a person, but a principle. The belief is basically pantheistic, claiming that God is everything.
“(1) God is All-in-all. (2) God is good. Good is Mind. (3) God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter.” (S & H, p. 113)
“God. The Great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.” (S & H, p. 587)
Christian Science denies the Trinity
“The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a personal Trinity or Triunity) suggests polytheism, rather than the one ever-present I am.” (S & H, p. 256)
“Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person called God” (S & H, p 331.)
Biblical Teaching: Personality of God
God remembers (Is 43:25), speaks (Gen 1:26), hears (Ex 2:24), sees (Gen 6:5), creates (Gen 1:1), knows (2 Tim 2:19), and has a will (1 Jn 2:17)
Salvation is a relationship with God, which means he must be a person
- “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (Jn 17:3)
God is separate from His creation
- “because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Rom 1:25)
Christian Science: Jesus Christ
Christian Scientists deny the Jesus was God or even that he was the Christ. Rather, he was a man who embodied Christ, or Divinity, in a greater way than most.
“A Christian Scientist “virtually unites with the Jew’s belief in one God and recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself declared, but is the Son of God” (S & H 361).
“Christian Science teaches that Jesus embodied the divinity of God but that he himself was not Deity” (FAQ, www.christianscience.com)
Biblical Teaching: Jesus Christ
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Is 9:6)
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’” (Jn 8:58)
Christian Science: The Atonement of Jesus
Though Christian Scientists claim that Jesus is their redeemer and savior, their writings actually deny both. They also claim to believe in His death and resurrection but again their writings deny that He truly died.
“The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon ‘the accursed tree’ than when it was flowing in His veins as he went daily about his Father’s business.” (S & H, p 25)
“One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin.” (S & H, p 25)
“Jesus’ students, not sufficiently advanced to understand fully their Master’s triumph, did not perform many wonderful works until they saw him after his crucifixion and learned that he had not died.” (S & H, p 45-46)
“His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demonstrating within the narrow tomb the power of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense.” (S & H, p 44)
“The efficacy of the crucifixion lies in the practical affection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind ( S & H, p 24)
Biblical Teaching: The Atonement of Jesus Christ
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” (Lev 17:11)
“For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt 26:28)
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (Jn 1:29)
“But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.” (Jn 19:33)
Christian Science: Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is referred to as Divine Spirit and is basically synonymous with Christian Science, which is the Comforter Jesus promised to send.
Biblical Teaching: Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is indeed a person and a part of the Trinity. In Acts 5:3-4 the Holy Spirit is called God.
- “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?…You have not lied to men but to God.’”
The Holy Spirit is said to be able to teach (John 16:13), to comfort (John 15:26), to be blasphemed (Matt 12:31) and grieved (Eph 4:30). All of these show that the Holy Spirit is a person.
Christian Science: Sin, Sickness, and Death
“Sin, disease, and death do not originate in God, good. They are not ultimate realities of God’s creation and are to be overcome as Jesus taught and illustrated. Those evils result from the belief that man is separated from God and that life and substance are in matter, therefore limited and temporal. Instead, life and substance are seen as Spirit, God, therefore unlimited and eternal.” (taken from www.tfccs.org in 2002)
“Evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a false belief.” (S & H, p 472)
“The only reality of sin, sickness, and death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human erring belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not true because they are not of God” (S & H, p 472)
“Sin, sickness, and death are to be classified as effects of error. Christ came to destroy the belief of sin.” (S & H, p 473).
Biblical Teaching: Sin
Sin must exist, because death exists (to deny the existence of death is to deny reality.) The Bible specifically teaches that death is a payment for sin
“The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23)
“Death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom 5:12)
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 Jn 1:7-8)
Christian Science: Healing
Healing is one of the key tenets of Christian Science. They have “practitioners” and “nurses” who come to the aid of those who are sick but do not want to be treated with modern medicine. What they try to do is convince you that sickness and pain are not realities. All you need to do is be conscious of God and that you are His spiritual child. That will alleviate whatever the sickness or disease is.
“The sick are not healed by merely declaring there is no sickness, but by knowing that there is none” (S & H, p 447).
“Christian Science starts with God and the conviction that God’s goodness embraces each of us, all the time… Christian Science does not involve pleading with God to heal the sick and then accepting His will, good or bad. Nothing in Christian Science theology says it’s God’s will that anyone suffer, be sick, or die. Christian Science shows God to be entirely good, and therefore His will for each individual is only health and life.” (FAQ, www.christianscience.com)
Biblical Teaching: Healing
Use of Physicians
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mk 2:17)
Luke himself was a physician, and didn’t leave that profession to become a spiritual healer upon salvation.
God’s will for Christians includes suffering
Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Pe 4:19)
“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)
Christian Science: Heaven and Hell
“Heaven and hell are not regarded as specific destinations one reaches after death, but as states of thought, experienced in varying degrees here and now, as well as after death.” (taken from www.tfccs.com in 2002)
“The sinner makes his own hell by doing evil, and the saint his own heaven by doing right.”(S & H, 266)
Biblical Teaching: Heaven and Hell
“Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Mt 22:13)
“And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Re 20:10)
“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” (Rev 20:14)
“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46)
Conclusion:
Only when we recognize the reality of sin, sickness, and death, can we find its true answer.
Rather than denying the reality of suffering, we must seek the true solution through the death of Jesus Christ.