Article September 18, 1937 Issue

The writer of an article in your esteemed newspaper...

Percy Hisson Tamm, Committee on Publication for Sweden,—Stockholm (translation)

Svenska Morgonbladet

The writer of an article in your esteemed newspaper maintains that Christian Science is neither science nor Christian. First of all, then, what does the word "science" mean? The immediate definition of this word is knowledge, in this case the knowledge of the teachings of Christ Jesus and their practice. A dictionary gives among others the following definition of the word "science": "Systematic knowledge as to the discovery and understanding of truth," and this is just what Christian Science means.

The article states that Christian Science is not a Christian philosophy because not based upon the Bible, and yet the first tenet of Christian Science reads (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497), "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life," but when the writer would assert that the cornerstone of Christianity is a belief in sickness, sin, and death, we must definitely take issue with such an opinion. If sin, sickness, and death had been "living realities" to Jesus, he would never have been able to overcome them, and it was because of his understanding of their unreality, their nothingness, their inexistence in the realm of God, good, that he was able to master them. And did he not also give his disciples the command to "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils"?

It is this command, hitherto for the most part disregarded by the Christian church in general, which the Christian Scientists try to follow, relying upon the promise in Mark 16:17, 18, upon which Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, comments as follows in her textbook, Science and Health (p. 38): "Jesus said: 'These signs shall follow them that believe; ... they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.' Who believes him? He was addressing his disciples, yet he did not say, 'These signs shall follow you,' but them—'them that believe' in all time to come."

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