Article August 4, 1917 Issue

Christian Scientists do not endeavor to isolate themselves,...

Thorwald Siegfried

Tacoma (Wash.) Tribune

Christian Scientists do not endeavor to isolate themselves, nor do they endeavor to avoid contact with the rest of humanity; on the contrary, Christian Science is becoming universally known as the one religion which its adherents take into and apply to every human activity every day and every hour. It is, therefore, not as a means of achieving or maintaining a splendid isolation that Christian Scientists wish to have the clear distinction between their religion and others preserved, but rather as a means of avoiding confusion in the public thought as to what Christian Science really is.

Confusion is peculiarly likely to result if the statement goes unchallenged that Christian Science and New Thought are similar, because the latter "affirms the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God," and is "affirmative from beginning to end." There is just enough superficial similarity in the mere form of words between such a statement and the declaration of truth as taught in Christian Science, that the unwary may be ensnared by them; and it may fairly be pointed out that the allness of God, considering now merely the form of words, is a doctrine that is held by the most outspoken pantheism, on the one hand, and by the purest monotheism, Christian Science, on the other, not to enumerate varying shades of belief that lie between.

Whether any system that affirms the allness of God is teaching, wholly or partially, a pantheistic doctrine of confusion, or whether it is teaching pure monotheism as Christian Science does, may be clearly seen not only in what it affirms but also, and from a human viewpoint often more definitely, in what it denies. Thus we understand better what Christ Jesus meant by the statement that Spirit gives life, because of the annexed denial, "The flesh profiteth nothing." We know better that all true action is of God, because Christ Jesus coupled with a statement of his obedience to divine Spirit a denial that he could do anything of himself. Likewise, when Balak sought out Balaam and wished him to exercise hypnotic power against the children of Israel in the desert, the latter found himself powerless; in the book of Numbers we have a graphic account of his effort to explain the futility of Balak's desire to him, and it is instructive to note what emphasis Balaam laid upon a denial of Balak's misconceptions, as the best means of setting him right. Thus he said, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent ... He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel ... Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel." These denials cleared the ground, so to speak, for an intelligible affirmation of God's all-inclusiveness in the words, "He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it."

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors