Explorations Class #30 

Christian Science

Christian Science was founded by Mary Baker Eddy. She was born Mary Ann Morse Baker in New Hampshire in 1821, the daughter of a New Hampshire Congregationalist church member. As a child, she was frequently ill and highly emotional. At age 22, she married George Glover who died seven months later. She then married Dr. Daniel Patterson, but that marriage failed in divorce. In 1862, while suffering from an illness, she visited a man named Phineas Quimby. He taught that the mind had the power to heal the body and became a significant influence on her thinking regarding spiritual matters.

In 1866, Mary was seriously injured and not expected to recover. Apparently after reading Matthew 9:2 ("And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.") she experienced a miraculous cure. It was this experience that convinced her of the truth of Christian Science.

Mary first published "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in 1875, at age 54. She claimed it was the final revelation of God to mankind and asserted that her work was inspired of God. The word "Key" in the title of her book is in reference to HER being the woman of Revelation 12; that she is the key to unlocking the Bible which she called a dark book. She claimed the Bible had many mistakes and that her writings provided the "Key" spoken of in Rev. 3:7.

Mary married Asa Eddy in 1877. In 1879, four years after the first publication of S&H, Mary Baker Eddy and some of her students voted to organize the church of Christ (Scientist) in Boston Massachusetts. Of course, like all cults, it claimed to be the restoration of the original New Testament Church. In 1881 she opened a metaphysical college and charged $300 for 12 healing lessons. The Church was reorganized in 1892, and the Church Manual was first issued in 1895 which provided the structure for church government and missions.

Mary Baker Eddy died in 1910, a millionaire.

 Key Beliefs:

The following are a few of the key beliefs of the CS church as complied by Matthew Slick.

The CS church does not have pastors, as such. Each congregation elects readers who serve for three years. These readers read selected passages from the Bible and S&H, which are called the two pastors of the church. No study outside of the selected passages of the Bible is encouraged, although all of S&H is recommended. This is because the Bible is considered to be full of errors. Further, the CS church has no seminary, and no substantial theology beyond the bare bones listed above. Those who wish to study further can take a two week course in spiritual healing.

The CS church regards the Bible as not referring to a literal set of events and issues, but as a metaphorical book with no physical import. All of its teachings are transferred into a figurative world of spiritual "reality." The problems this poses to the Christian attempting to witness are severe. Yet, the CS church leaves us an opening. It publishes the six Tenets of Christian Science:

Since TCS #1 states that the Bible is in fact a guide to eternal life, we can use it to begin to examine certain key issues in CS. We will begin with the nature of Jesus and his birth. (S&H quotations are page and line numbers, already supplied by the text for easy reference.)

Christians and CS (Tenet 1) agree that the Bible is the word of God communicated to mankind via the transcription of the prophetic voice through the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 3:16, 2 Pet 1:19-21).

"The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing evil and mistaking fact for fiction, - predicting the future from a groundwork of corporeality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by one Spirit.

"Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee and foretell events ." S&H 84:3-16

Mary Baker Eddy considered herself to be a prophet.

"I have set forth Christian Science and its application to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them. I have demonstrated through Mind the effects of Truth on the health, longevity and morals of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only authority. I have had no other guide in 'the straight and narrow way' of Truth." S&H 126:22-31

"Christian Science is unerring and Divine." S&H 99:15-16

1. Describe the CS understanding of the process of becoming a prophet. Did Paul fit this pattern? (Acts 9:1-6)

"There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to the authorities in Rome: 'The disciples of Jesus believe him the Son of God.' Those instructed in Christian Science have reached the glorious perception that God is the only author of man. The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and gave to her ideal the name of Jesus - that is Joshua, or Saviour." (S&H 29:12-19)

2. What is the nature of the Jesus' conception? (Luke 1:28-31, 35)

"It is contrary to Christian Science to suppose that life is either material or organically spiritual." S&H 83:21-22

"(Christian Science) teaches that matter is the falsity, not the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs, and so forth, have - as matter - no intelligence, life, or sensation.

"There is no physical science ." S&H 127:19-23

".the Father Mind is not the father of matter. The material senses and human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic God, instead of infinite Principle, . is the father of the rain." S&H 257:14-19

Speaking of Gen 2:7, "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being," Eddy says, "Is this addition to His creation real or unreal? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and God? It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground." S&H 361:11-13

3. According to CS, matter and flesh is literally not real. What is the Biblical nature of man? (Gen 2:7) Did Mary Baker Eddy believe what she said in S&H 126 (above)?

"(Christian Scientists) celebrate their Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh after death, its exemplification of human probation, and his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh, when he rose out of material sight." S&H 35:14-18

4. According to CS, Jesus left this world (Acts 1:9) for a purely spiritual existence. What does the Bible say about Jesus' present form? (Col 2:9)

"Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person called God, - that is, the triply divine Principle, Love. They represent a trinity in unity, three in one, - the same in essence, though multiform in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual Idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter. These thee express in divine Science the threefold, essential nature of the infinite. They also indicate the divine Principle of scientific being, the intelligent relation of God to man and the universe.

"Father-Mother is the name for deity.

"Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness. The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual.

"Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God." S&H 331:26-332:20

"Holy Ghost. Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love" S&H 558:8-9

5. Describe the CS Trinity.

"The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a personal Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests polytheism, rather than the one ever-present I AM." S&H 256:9-11

6. Based on our studies in earlier sections (JW, LDS) describe the Biblical concept of the Trinity.

"Born of a woman, Jesus . was endowed with the Christ, the divine spirit, without measure" S&H 30:5-8

"He unveiled the Christ, the spiritual idea of divine Love." S&H 38:25-26

"The word Christ is not properly a synonym for Jesus, though it is commonly so used." S&H 333:3-4

7. What is the nature of "Christ" in CS?

8. What is the nature of "Christ" in the Bible? (Dan 9:25, Matt 16:16, John 4:25-26)

9. What was the mission of Christ? (Rom 5:6-10)

"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 so prove its unreality." S&H 447:24-27

"Both sin and sickness are error, and Truth is their remedy. The truth regarding error is, that error is not true, hence it is unreal. To prove scientifically the error or unreality of sin, you must first see the claim of sin, and then destroy it. Whereas, to prove scientifically the error or unreality of disease, you must mentally unsee the disease; then you will not feel it, and it is destroyed." S&H 461:23-230

"From the first to the last the supposed coexistence of Mind an matter and the mingling of good and evil have resulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demonstrations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothingness of evil." S&H 269:3-8

10. What is the nature of sin (and disease) in CS?

11. What is the Biblical nature of sin? (1 John 2:3)

"Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal belief, and 'with his stripes [the rejection of error] we are healed.'" S&H 20:14-16

"The eternal Christ, (Jesus') spiritual selfhood, never suffered." S&H 38:24-25

12. Describe the method of interpretation used by CS.

13. Stripes (Greek molops) means a wound that trickles blood. What does Peter mean by the use of this term? (1 Pet 2:24, cf. Isa 53:3-4)

"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, 25:6-8

"One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made." S&H 23:3-7

"Another's suffering cannot lessen our own liability." S&H 40: 14-15

14. Describe the effect of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross in the CS schema.

15. What does that Bible tell us about the value of Jesus' sacrifice and the blood it involved? (Heb 9:12, 22-26, 1 John 1:7)

"(Christian Scientists) celebrate their Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh after death, its exemplification of human probation, and his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh, when he rose out of material sight." S&H 35:14-18

16. What probation did Jesus undergo after the cross? (John 19:30, Eph 1:18-20)

"The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from his foes, a place in which to solve the great problem of being. His three days' work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time. He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate. He met and mastered on the basis of Christian Science, the power of mind over matter, all the claims of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.

"He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon to heal the torn palms or bind up the wounded side and lacerated feet, that he might use those hands to remove the napkin and winding sheet, and that he might employ his feet as before.

"Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature to sustain Jesus in his proof of man's truly derived power? It was a method of surgery beyond material art, but it was not a supernatural act.

"His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive.

"Paul writes: 'For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.'" S&H 44:5- 45:13

"Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to understand 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 45:32-46:3

17. What is the CS doctrine of the death and resurrection of Jesus?

18. What does this say about the Biblical record? (1 Cor 15:3-4, Rom 5:10)

Definition: "Salvation: Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed." S&H 593:20-22

19. Contrast the CS idea of salvation with the Biblical standard. (John 17:3)

20. We cannot close without addressing spiritual healing. CS teaches a two week course on healing, after which the student is an accredited healer. How does this compare to the Biblical teaching on healing? (1 Cor 12:4-11)

21. What respect do we see that Mrs. Eddy had for the Bible?