Article November 21, 1914 Issue

Our critic asserts that it is not through personal antagomism...

Willis D. McKinstry—Burlingame, Kan.

The Enterprise

Our critic asserts that it is not through personal antagomism that he is impelled to take up the discussion of Christian Science, but that he is actuated only by a sense of "duty to stand up for Christ and his gospel." We consider it our brother's Christian duty to stand for Christ's ministry, but to maintain this stand requires a true knowledge of "Christ and his gospel." What constitutes this scientific or spiritual knowledge is not a personal question, and its answer must be based upon the law and the testimony to be correct. Christ's words came from his right understanding of the law and the testimony, and brought results, even his works of healing. Christian Science teaches that his words and works cannot be separated, that a religion based upon "Christ and his gospel," the law and the testimony, permits of no such separation, and that the Christian of today must compass the destruction of sin, disease, and death as Jesus did, to be his follower, thus bringing to light the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, good. Even the casual reader of the Christian Science publications readily detects that our critic is sitting in judgment upon a subject of which he has a misapprehension.

To detach a sentence in Science and Health from its original paragraph, regardless of its context, is to destroy the original or spiritual meaning conveyed by the author, and Bible quotations when used in like manner become contradictory. Our critic says that Mrs. Eddy teaches that God is Principle and not a person. Here he mistakes the spiritual meaning of the words Principle and person as used in Christian Science. A proper understanding of the term Principle, and its metaphysical usage, removes from it any harsh or physical abstractness which the human sense may have attached to it. Principle is causation; it is primary, or that from which something proceeds. We have divine authority for declaring that God created all that is created, hence He must necessarily be the cause or Principle of the universe. The Scriptures also teach that "God is love." This teaching Christian Science emphasizes by declaring that the source, the basis, the cause, the divine Principle of all true being, is infinite Love. The teachings of Christian Science affirm the infinite personality of God, and impart a demonstrable understanding of His completeness and divine nature; they also declare that infinite, omnipresent Love is not a person in an anthropomorphic sense, and that infinite Spirit cannot be classified as a finite material organism humanly known as person.

Our critic is also much exercised over his misconception of what Christian Science teaches about sin. He says Young's concordance uses six columns to show where the word sin occurs in the Bible. It is quite true the word sin appears many times in the Scriptures, but the spiritual record of God's creation as given in the first chapter of Genesis declares that when it was completed He pronounced it "very good." If, as our critic thinks, sin exists as an entity, and is true and real, it must be immortal. As all that is immortal is of God, what right, then, would mortals have to try to destroy or overthrow that which is of Him? The teachings of Christian Science are in accordance with those of Christ Jesus, and affirm that sin is not of God, hence its claim of existence is without basis, substance, or law, its pretense is a lie, and it is the father of itself. It was from this false claim of evil, operating in human consciousness, that Christ came to redeem mankind.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Our critic asserts that it is not through personal antagomism...

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access