Editorial July 27, 1987 Issue

New Testament Christianity and Christian Science

Michael D. Rissler

Have you ever been reading in the New Testament and wondered about the people who made up the early churches and how Christ Jesus' teachings ever survived? There are passages that suggest some of the Christians of those days were a pretty rough lot! For example, Paul said in his epistle to the Christians in Rome, "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying." Rom. 13:13. And the author of the Epistle of James reminded those to whom he wrote that they were "heirs" of Christ's kingdom. Yet in the next breath he declared, "But ye have despised the poor." James 2:6. And John's messages to the churches in Asia Minor in the book of Revelation didn't paint an entirely encouraging picture.

Pondering such candid descriptions, even in the light of the tremendous sacrifice of the early disciples of Christ Jesus and their wonderful healing works, we might well wonder what it was that preserved the vision of Christ and the Gospels. Was this result, in the final analysis, simply the historical outcome of a small group of dedicated primitive scholars who saved the record, or the result of large political changes that blended Christianity with the authority of the declining Roman Empire?

Mary Baker Eddy didn't think so, and she certainly didn't think those who were faithful to Christ labored only to have history write of their sacrifice. There was a divine impulse that was at work, about which she wrote: "In no other one thing seemed Jesus of Nazareth more divine than in his faith in the immortality of his words. He said, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away;' and they have not." In a statement strong with promise for the future she continued: "The winds of time sweep clean the centuries, but they can never bear into oblivion his words. They still live, and to-morrow speak louder than to-day. They are to-day as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight God's paths; make way for health, holiness, universal harmony, and come up hither.' The grandeur of the word, the power of Truth, is again casting out evils and healing the sick; and it is whispered, 'This is Science.' " Miscellaneous Writings, p. 99.

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