Article February 25, 1922 Issue

One who subscribes himself "A Reader" takes exception,...

Brigman C. Odom

Wichita Falls (Tex.) Record-News

One who subscribes himself "A Reader" takes exception, in your paper, to the Christian Science teaching on some fundamental questions, such he death, matter, sin, atonement, a final judgment; and he sustains his objections on the ground that the Bible is misinterpreted on these questions by Mrs. Eddy. Christian Scientists read, study, and apply the same Bible as do other Christians, although they may not interpret the Bible in all respects as do others. But surely Mrs. Eddy had the same right to interpret the Bible as had Wesley, Calvin, or any other spiritual thinker. The writer seems somewhat perturbed because it is claimed that Christian Science is a restatement of primitive Christianity. It is certainly based on the Bible, on the word and works of Christ Jesus, although a much-worn criticism against Christian Science is that Christian Scientists reject the Christ of the Bible. The honest seeker for the truth about this will find that Jesus the Christ is accorded greatest reverence throughout all of Mrs. Eddy's writings. Christian Science destroys fear, reforms the sinner, heals the sick; it inspires a search for wisdom and spiritual understanding and shows how to apply them in everyday life.

Concerning death Jesus said: "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." If the Christ had really died he could not have promised immunity from death to others. "And this is life eternal," he also said, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." The Christian Science teaching in regard to matter is nothing novel or shocking when looked at intelligently. This teaching classes what is called matter as a human concept; it says that so-called matter is not what it seems. Even physicists call it sense-phenomena. They reduce it to force or energy, and no one is amazed at this treatment of it. The teachings of Christian Science explain sense-phenomena as human beliefs, human concepts, which when viewed in the light of Truth disappear, and spiritual reality comes to light.

Christian Scientists do not deny that sickness and sin exist as sense-phenomena, but they do deny that these are real in the sense of being God-ordained. They see them as illusions of the human senses, as false beliefs, and are proving that God's law rightly understood, which is the true idea of Life, destroys them. In its broad sense sin is a belief in other gods, a belief in other powers, a belief in something apart from God. This belief violates the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." One's sense of sin is the thing with which he must grapple. This sense being overcome by the consciousness of the allness of God, good, the sin is destroyed or forgiven.

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