Again and again passages from the writings of Mrs. Eddy...

Pacific Baptist

Again and again passages from the writings of Mrs. Eddy have been wrested from their context and placed alongside statements from the Bible in the critic's attempt to show that Christian Science contradicts the Bible. Not only has this been done, but conclusions have been drawn from these statements by our critic that are never drawn by Christian Scientists and that are impossible to one who has an understanding of the subject of Christian Science as a whole. If Christian Science really taught about God, man, Christ Jesus, sin, and atonement all that our critic claims that it teaches, I venture the statement that it would speedily collapse from lack of support or of adherents.

Christian Scientists accept the Bible as their "sufficient guide to eternal Life" (Science and Health, p. 497). They believe, in common with many other Christians, that the Bible may be considered in a twofold sense: first, as a book of sacred history, poetry, parable, and allegory; but secondly, as having a deep, a vital, underlying spiritual message, and that it is the discernment of this spiritual meaning of the Scriptures that makes possible salvation from both sin and disease. It is true that Christian Scientists believe that the mere material record of the Bible could be read indefinitely and be of no saving value to man; but when its spiritual import is grasped, as it only can be by the spiritually minded, then physical healing and salvation from the love and practice of sin inevitably follow.

To understand the statement that "sin can do nothing," one must understand what Christian Science teaches as to the nature of sin itself; and what Christian Science teaches about sin can be understood only in the light of what it teaches about God. Christian Science teaches that God is infinite Spirit, the only substance, intelligence, presence, and power, the only cause or creator, and that this Spirit, or Mind, is one, the infinite consciousness of good, precluding by its very allness an opposite called evil. Since pleasure and satisfaction are to be found in God, and in God alone, the belief that pleasure or satisfaction is to be had apart from God, or that there is anything besides God which can satisfy, is only supposition. Since God is infinite, All, He can in reality have no opposite; hence evil can only be the supposititious opposite of God. The individual who believes that there is satisfaction in entertaining a sense of resentment or revenge, awakens sooner or later to realize that he has not found satisfaction but suffering. Thus the indulgence of this false sense has proved the supposition that satisfaction could be had apart from God, to be a lie. Sin has never in a single instance proved itself able to give to the individual what it promised to give. It is a lie and a deception which, if believed, inevitably results in a sense of sorrow, suffering, and remorse.

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