Article June 6, 1959 Issue

CHRIST DESTROYS ERROR

DORIS M. SMITH

There are many people who do not make a distinction between the words "Christ" and "Jesus," and thus they use the words as synonymous terms. Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 333): "The word Christ is not properly a synonym for Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human name, which belonged to him in common with other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature."

Further enlightenment is gained in this definition (ibid., p. 583): "Christ. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."

There is one God and one Christ. A function or office of the Christ is to express the divine nature of God. God is ever present; therefore Christ, God's divine manifestation, is also ever present. The unity of God and His Christ is indestructible. We read in the Bible (John 1:1), "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Word—the Christ, Truth—is coexistent and coeternal with God.

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