How I Found Christian Science August 19, 2013 Issue

Salvation for everyone

C. Richard Hopkins

My dad introduced us to Christian Science when I was ten years old. Both of Dad’s parents were Christian Scientists, and his grandmother was a practitioner, listed in The Christian Science Journal starting in 1926. Earlier, Dad had drifted away from Science—from churches altogether, it seemed—so Mom had been taking us to church services of another denomination. But when Christian Science helped Dad gain employment and healed long-standing recurring headaches, the whole family began attending the local Christian Science church.

I can honestly say that Christian Science made absolute sense to me. I remember asking my Sunday School teacher in the other Protestant church about salvation of the “ignorant masses,” and received this less-than-promising answer: “If they don’t know and accept
Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, they must end up in hell.” That answer did not sit well with my sense of justice. But when Dad rediscovered Christian Science, my siblings and I were allowed to attend both churches. The services were held at different times, so we first attended one Sunday School, then rushed across town to the Christian Science church.

The answer to my salvation question was right there in the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy: Salvation is for all God’s children—right now, in fact!