Article September 18, 1920 Issue

The difference existing between so-called orthodox religion...

Joseph Coffer

Frederick (Okla.) Leader

The difference existing between so-called orthodox religion and Christian Science is easily understood. One attempts to interpret Scripture from both spiritual and material bases, while Christian Science squares everything from the spiritual basis only. Our critic, using an excerpt from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," edition of 1902, takes exception to Mrs. Eddy's declaration that "man is incapable of sin" (p. 475). This, like all else that he has said, is unwarranted. Mrs. Eddy had reference, as every Christian Scientist knows, to the spiritual man, the real image of God, that must necessarily reflect God, and therefore cannot sin. The revivalist's apparent acceptance of the statement that the "soul that sinneth, it shall die," if taken to mean that the spiritual, the divine man, perishes, does away not only with the doctrine of future punishment but also with the doctrine of immortality.

Christian Science lays great emphasis on the Bible teaching that "God is light." Because God is omnipresent, we are always in the light and at no time deviating from the inspired word of the Bible. To believe in God as a person, in the ordinary sense of the word, is to limit His power, circumscribe His knowledge. The belief in a personal God and a personal devil has been the bane of Christianity, in which fable and superstition have flourished throughout the ages. These false beliefs are being rapidly cast aside as mankind attains spiritual understanding. The Christian Science God is the God of the Bible; and Mrs. Eddy, in Science and Health (p. 587), in a definition says: God is "the great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." And on page 332, in referring to Jesus, she says: "Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God—the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth ... Jesus was the son of a virgin;" and on page 333 she says further: "Jesus was a human name, which belonged to him in common with other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and alludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better signifies the Godlike."

The Bible record clearly shows that Jesus did not claim to be God. On the contrary he iterated and reiterated the fact that he was not God but the "Son of God." He constantly admonished his disciples to desist from personal worship, saying, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works," and, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father."

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