Article February 6, 1915 Issue

The teachings of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament,...

W. D. Kilpatrick

Owosso (Mich.) Press-American

The teachings of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament, are the teachings of Christian Science, for it is founded unreservedly and unalterably on the Bible, and there is no divergence of thought or intent between the two. Christian Science is an explanation of the spiritual import of the Bible which has been accepted by thousands of thinking people of the world, and this simply because it practises what it preaches and it preaches what Jesus taught.

Our critic says that the Christian Scientists' view of atonement is not Scriptural. She possibly means "orthodox." There is nothing clearer to the unbiased reader than the fact that the Christian Science views of Jesus' atonement accord with Scriptural teachings. If our critic holds to the idea that the persecutions, the trials, the suffering on the cross, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus removed the sin and suffering of the world, how does she account for the world's sin and suffering today? How does she account for her illness, which she admits Christian Science cured? The very fact that the world is full of sin and suffering should be sufficient evidence that the trials and triumphs of Jesus were necessary wholly as an example and proof to mankind that as one follows his teachings and practices he can be freed from the thraldom of these man-made bonds. There is nothing in Scripture to indicate that because Jesus suffered we are to be spared by simply believing on him. "Faith without works is dead." His lesson to us was not so much in his trials as in his triumphs, and they show us that sin, sickness, death, and the grave have absolutely no power or authority when combated with that clear understanding of God and man's relation to Him as taught by the Nazarene.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 18) Mrs. Eddy says: "Atonement is the exemplification of man's unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage. His mission was both individual and collective. He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals,—to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of single responsibility." On page 23 she further says: "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. The atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scientific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suffering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love." In Timothy we read, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" in Thessalonians, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ;" and in Hebrews, "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure."

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February 6, 1915
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