Article December 17, 1932 Issue

Replying to "J. H.," let me say that Christian Science...

H. Ernest Vincent, former Committee on Publication for the Province of Natal, South Africa,—Pietermaritzburg

Natal Witness

Replying to "J. H.," let me say that Christian Science does not teach that "God is a principle or law," but rather does it define God as divine Principle; and there is a vast difference between these two statements.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 465), Mrs. Eddy states that "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." It will be seen, then, that the term "Principle" is one of seven synonyms used by Mrs. Eddy, in her statement of Christian Science, "to express the nature, essence, and wholeness of Deity" (ibid.). A dictionary defines "principle" as "beginning, foundation, source, origin, ultimate element or cause." It is admitted by all Christians that God is the source, cause, or origin of all that really exists. He is therefore the infinite divine Principle; for all that is real exists in and of Him. Paul declares, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being."

In conformity with Scriptural teaching Christian Science attaches no corporeality to God. If God were personal in a physical sense, He would necessarily be limited, and this would deny His omnipotence and omnipresence. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 116): "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 distinction 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. An infinite Mind in a finite form is an absolute impossibility."

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