Article October 13, 1923 Issue

In the ninth chapter of the gospel of John the Master...

Charles E. Heitman, Committee on Publication for the State of New York,—Johnstown

Leader-Republican

In the ninth chapter of the gospel of John the Master makes it plain that Christ is not God, but the Son of God. It will be recalled that in his discussion with the man whom he healed of blindness Jesus said, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" To which the other queried, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" And Jesus answered, "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee." And again, Christ Jesus made it plain that he did not consider himself God when he said to those who addressed him as "good": "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." In the statement, "Before Abraham was, I am," Christ Jesus was referring to his spiritual selfhood, and not to his human form and figure. It was because the Jews misunderstood this and other statements of Jesus, such as, for instance, "I and my Father are one," that they persecuted and eventually crucified him. They, of course, interpreted these statements as meaning that Christ Jesus was setting himself up as God; whereas the Master clearly meant that his real selfhood and the Father were one in nature, as a ray of light is one with the sun, but is not the sun (see Science and Health, p. 361). While Christian Science teaches the unreality of evil as a part of God's universe, it by no means ignores it as a phase of human experience. In fact, one important motive of Christian Science activity is to correct and eliminate sinful beliefs from human consciousness, and thus destroy their resultant effects—sickness and death. That it is succeeding in a most creditable fashion is evidenced by the great growth of the movement and the unnumbered thousands of people who bear grateful testimony to its healing efficacy.

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