WE live in perilous times, and one feature of such times is that “many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (I. John, iv. 1), whose activities are of Satan, and who have in view the turning of men’s minds from the great truths of the Word of God, and the undermining of belief in the doctrines of grace and salvation, proclaimed in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to sin-ruined man. One of the most dangerous and subtle false prophets of modern times was the late Mrs Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of “Christian Science,” who has left behind her many disciples to propagate her unscriptural, un-Christian and soul-deceiving and ruining doctrines.
Mrs Eddy wrote “Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,” which is the text-book of her followers, and, as such, is given an equal (if not higher) place than the Bible. She and her disciples claim that all her published writings were divinely inspired, and form a complete and divinely logical system, and yet they abound with statements and principles entirely opposed to the teaching of God’s Inspired Word. Mrs Eddy herself is considered to be even superior to the Lord Jesus, as it is now asserted that she “discovered and gave to the world her revelation of Christian Science. . . which had been the basis of Christ Jesus’ life and acts.” It is stated, “She has placed the Cause of Christian Science within the keeping of her followers, that “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.” This is but a mild display of the arrogance and blasphemy of the cult in comparison with other recorded views, only a few of which we can refer to in such an article as this.
Mrs. Eddy in her teaching, to those ignorant of the Bible and the unwary, assumes the garb of “an angel of light.” There are references in Christian Science periodicals to the Father, Jesus, the Spirit, to faith, prayer, and sin, etc.; but let no one think that these terms are interpreted according to the Scriptures of Truth. And as we cannot handle every point here, let us take, for example, the view of the Trinity. “Life, Truth, and Love constitute the Divine God or triple Divine principle;” and “The theory of three persons in one God suggests heathen gods.” These are the recorded views of Christian Science on the glorious and fundamental truth of the Trinity—a foundation truth of the Christian Faith; as Christ declared, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” (Matt. xxviii. 19).
The basic principle of this evil creed is that God is All—a type of Pantheism. They say that “all that really exists is God and His spiritual and perfect creation”; and by belief in this assertion an individual gains dominion over the beliefs of evil—impurity, fear, sin, sickness, and sorrow. Sin and sickness do not exist at all by their way, but only in one’s believing in such things. No wonder they teach the blasphemy that man is God’s pure and perfect manifestation and. . . “is never in need of. . . repentance, reformation, or salvation, for he is eternally at one with God,” (Christian Science Journal, June, 1949). Yet the Scriptures declare that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” (Rom. iii. 23), and that man by nature is ungodly, wholly unlike God, by reason of the moral and spiritual ruin which the Fall and sinning hath wrought in his soul; and further, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God,” (Isaiah, lix. 2).
Professed healing of mind and body is obviously the sum and substance of the “gospel” of Christian Science. The reality of sin as the most terrible disease of all is denied and brushed out of the way by subtle arguments and plausible words. The atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the divine remedy for the taking away of sin, is completely barred and ignored. Christian Science teaches that “Jesus never ransomed man by paying the debt that sin incurs,” and, “That God’s wrath should be vented upon His Beloved Son, is divinely unnatural.” Such utterances cannot but pain the heart of the tender child of God, but we purposely quote them to inform our readers of the depths of evil inherent in this anti-Christ, erroneously designated Christian Science. The pre-eminent message held forth zealously is for the sick, diseased and troubled, which state of affairs they admit and deny at one and the same time. When confronted with the problem of disease or disaster, the “gospel” they apply to the situation is a “persistence in the denial of the error involved and affirmation of the opposite truth,” and “That one should let the good work continue until he feels that conviction which enables him to say, ‘I am healed, and I know it.’ This denial and affirmation is the basis of Christian Science practice,” (“Christian Science Sentinel,” July, 1949). Thus this evil system proscribes the use of lawful means for the healing of the sick, such means along with prayer being consistent with the guidance of God’s Word. Godly Hezekiah was sick unto death. He gave himself to prayer, to God; and ultimately we read, “For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover,” (Isaiah xxxviii. 21).
In this brief review, we can but touch on one more feature of this cult, that is, their interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. In their writings, Christian Scientists quote from the Old Testament and New Testament freely, such portions of Truth as they perceive can be made to bear the interpretation which Mrs. Eddy’s writings require to be given. For example, the Bible narrative regarding Jacob wrestling with the Angel at Peniel, is said to be his struggle with error, and so he persisted unto the break of day, when the strength of the error finally broke. The error being his fear of Esau. Then the “Christian Science Sentinel” continues, “He received the blessing. . . and the breach with Esau was healed.” Truly, spiritual darkness prevails over, and is loved by, the deceived disciples of the dupe of the devil, Mrs. Eddy; their Bible and guide being Mrs. Eddy’s “Key to the Scriptures,” and not the inspired and infallible Word of God.
We have been influenced to write these limited observations, inasmuch as we have reason to conclude that Christian Scientists in Scotland are becoming somewhat more active and aggressive in seeking to influence those outside their organisation by correspondence and literature, especially such as are in trouble on account of sickness or sorrow, and with whom they may have some legitimate contact by relationship or passing acquaintance. Let our readers give no place to this un-scriptural, Christ-rejecting and wicked system, no, not for an hour, if and when confronted with its teaching. “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God . . . If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed,” (II. John ix. 10).