Article May 19, 1923 Issue

Christian Scientists believe in the God of the Bible: they...

Brigman C. Odom, Committee on Publication for the State of Texas,

Daily Times

Christian Scientists believe in the God of the Bible: they adore the God of the Bible. It is their prayer and effort to understand the God of the Bible and to walk in His ways. They oppose and resist the devil, which, the Bible states, Jesus defined as "a liar, and the father of it." In John it is recorded, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." This expresses the Christian Science sense of God, and the manner of worship by Christian Scientists. In I John it is written, "God is love." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 140) this statement may be found, "The Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine Love."

Jesus the Christ uttered these words: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Surely he did not mean that one would see God in the figure of a person, through the organ of physical sight, but certainly he did mean that as one gained spiritual understanding, he could grasp, in a measure, the nature and character of the infinite good God, who is Spirit and who is Love. Just what the form of God is should be of little concern compared with His wonderful intelligence and goodness. In Science and Health (p. 255) Mrs. Eddy writes: "The human form, or physical finiteness, cannot be made the basis of any true idea of the infinite Godhead. Eye hath not seen Spirit, nor hath ear heard His voice." Therefore to know God as He really is one should seek to become acquainted with His true individuality; and by this is meant His infinite divinity, embracing all His attributes, such as intelligence, wisdom, and power.

The devil, evil, can be better understood when considered as impersonal. When Jesus healed a certain person who was a lunatic, it is said he did it by rebuking the devil, "and he [the devil] departed out of him." Evidently what Jesus cast out could not have been something in the nature of a person, but must have been a mental condition or state, a product of the so-called carnal mind, which is "enmity against God." Christian Scientists are not unmindful of the fact that evil, the devil, tries and oftentimes appears to accomplish its ends, through human personalities. This does not prove that the devil is personal; nor does it show that because goodness often seems to be expressed through human personality, that God, good, has the form of a person.

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