Article January 31, 1925 Issue

A recent issue of your paper gives an interview with an...

Lester B. McCoun, Committee on Publication for the State of Nebraska,—Omaha

Bee

A recent issue of your paper gives an interview with an Episcopalian clergyman on the subject of spiritual healing, in which the teaching of Christian Science regarding a personal God is inadequately stated. I do not understand the clergyman to have had any unkind thought towards Christian Science; but, for the sake of accuracy, I am submitting the following explanation. On page 116 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy has stated: "As the words person and personal are commonly and ignorantly employed, they often lead, when applied to Deity, to confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity and its disctinction from humanity. If the term personality, as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is infinite Person,—in the sense of infinite personality, but not in the lower sense."

This definition of a personal God, as understood in Christian Science, is consistently adhered to by Mrs. Eddy throughout her writings. On page 3 of her Message to The Mother Church for 1901, addressed to her church, on "God is the Infinite Person," she has given an extended explanation of the manner in which God is to be thought of as infinite, incorporeal Spirit, or Person. Mortals are so accustomed to think in terms of material form that they do not readily respond to the spiritual requirement of thinking in terms of quality or nature. As long as they insist that they must see a finite form with the eyes in order to apprehend God, they thereby shut out the understanding of God as infinite Being or Person. When, through correct understanding of Christian Science, they bring spiritual sense to bear, thus rising above the restricitons of finite physical sense, they can understand how God, as Spirit or infinite Person, can be everywhere. To the Christian Scientist God is not an indefinite, absent power, but an ever present, definite Mind or intelligence,—the one infinite Being. Christian Science holds that a mental state which does not identify God as being everywhere is not a true state of consciousness.

With reference to God's knowledge of good only, Christian Science reverts to Biblical authority, including this saying of Paul, "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure." And God is certainly pure. Christian Science points to the exclusively good works of Christ Jesus as proof of the oneness of God's nature, and to the character of our deeds when we are conscious of serving God "in spirit and in truth." If God were aware of evil, then the existence of evil would be chargeable to God, and good would not be omnipotent. The Bible tells us to "overcome evil with good," showing that good is the power. Man's natural habitation is the realm of good only; otherwise, there is no heaven for man. Wherever God is, good is. Evil seems to prevail only in thought unaware of God's presence and power.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

A recent issue of your paper gives an interview with an...

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access