Article February 8, 1941 Issue

A recent issue of the Gemeindeblatt contains some remarks...

Meinrad Schnewlin,—Olten (translation)

Evangelisches Gemeindeblatt

A recent issue of the Gemeindeblatt contains some remarks on Christian Science. It is said that this teaching declares sickness, sin, and death, yes, the whole material world, to be "imagination." The word "imagination," as it is used here, is misleading.

In the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, referring to the passage in Revelation 21:1, writes: "The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see,—that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness" (p. 573). Christian Science does not teach that both these states of consciousness are manifestations of divine Truth. On the contrary, it teaches that the material view is not an eternal, divine fact, and that therefore in the presence of Truth it is dissolved into its nothingness. Christian Science agrees with the writer when he says that sin is a revolt against God's mercy and against Christ. The consciousness of sin disappears before the Christ, Truth, and then the government of sin comes to and end.