Article March 21, 1914 Issue

Under the caption "Takes Issue with Christian Scientist,"...

John L. Rendall

The Mason City (Iowa) Times

Under the caption "Takes Issue with Christian Scientist," I find in a recent issue a series of objections to Christian Science by one who signs himself "Subscriber." It seems strange to me that the ordinary theological thought is so impregnated with the belief that the second chapter of Genesis contains the only account of creation as to ignore completely the account given in the first chapter. These two accounts are distinctly opposed to each other.

Christian Scientists reasonably conclude that the account given in the first chapter of Genesis is the one which is consistent with the thought of God as infinite Spirit. There we read, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air," etc., and in the following verse, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." It is difficult to understand how the image and likeness of God could be "fallen man." The best authorities are practically united in the conclusion that the second chapter of Genesis, wherein the "dust man" appears, is allegorical, and written for the purpose of trying to account for the supposed "origin of evil."

Now, as a matter of fact, what the critic may believe or what a Christian Scientist may believe, unless this belief be based upon understanding, and therefore susceptible of demonstration, does not in the least alter or affect the infinite reality. The Christian Scientist contends that man, created in God's image and likeness, began in "original good" instead of in "original sin." That which Christ Jesus came to redeem is the false sense of man, calling itself sinful, sick, and unregenerate. The Bible said of Jesus that he came to "destroy the works of the devil." That is, his mission was to eradicate from human thought the sum total evil, which comprises all there is of the devil. He recognized as part of this sum total of evil all the varied manifestations of disease which were presented to him, and which he destroyed or healed through his understanding of the absolute reality of being and of what man really is in his true relation to God.

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