Article April 28, 1917 Issue

Christian Science arouses its students from their sense of...

Peter V. Ross

Willows (Cal.) Journal

Christian Science arouses its students from their sense of suffering and breaks up their evil desires and pursuits. Health and righteousness then follow. The Christian Scientist does not, as the evangelist declares, "deaden his soul to the reality of matter, evil," and so on; rather does he awaken more and more to the unreality of matter and to the unattractiveness and powerlessness of evil. Thereby his soul is restored, as the psalmist says; that is, his spiritual sense is quickened so that he begins to realize his true selfhood, which is above and beyond sin and disease.

The evangelist critic concludes that Christian Science is not Christian because it "denies the existence of sin or evil," and also because it presents what he believes to be a wrong concept of the atonement. It is true that Christian Scientists do not accept the doctrine of the vicarious atonement. As Mrs. Eddy says, "Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting because of another's goodness, suffering, and triumph, that they shall reach his harmony and reward" (Science and Health, p. 21). Each individual must bear the responsibility of his own sins; he cannot shift the responsibility upon Jesus or upon any one else, and it is astonishing that anybody should ever have desired such a thing or supposed it possible. Jesus showed us how to overcome the consequences of our wrong-doing and how to work out our own salvation as the Bible commands, but he did not do these things for us. He "taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father" (Science and Health, p. 18). Then he left it for every other person to demonstrate that oneness for himself, and thereby accomplish the destruction of his own sins.

Christian Science, it is true, denies that sin and evil have any real existence. It is admitted, of course, that they seem real to human sense, just as the earth seems flat and the electric light larger than a star of the first magnitude; but this is because human sense takes a perverted or distorted view of all things and does not see them as they are. The Bible says very definitely that God made all that was made, and that He "saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." The Bible also makes it clear that God is everywhere present. Where, then, can there be any place or possibility for evil?

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Christian Science arouses its students from their sense of...

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access