Christ Jesus was the model Christian of all time

Thomas E. Boland

Meadville (Pa.) Tribune-Republican

Christ Jesus was the model Christian of all time. He was such because he possessed the knowledge of God which enabled him to see things in their true relationship to one another. His spiritual understanding was used to acquaint mortals with the goodness, wisdom, justice, mercy, love, and power of God. His teachings were impressed upon human comprehension by the most remarkable object-lessons the world ever saw. Jesus' works in proof of God's omnipotence and availability showed how null and void were the accepted beliefs of mankind relative to the power of sin, sickness, disease, deformity, and even the "last enemy" itself.

Today Christian Science is teaching God's immanence, power, and goodness. It is teaching that God's creation is entirely good, as is stated in the first chapter of Genesis. It is teaching that evil is not and can not be a part of God's creation or plan; that evil in none of its many phases actually has any source or inherent power or activity of its own, and therefore is not able, when so detected and understood, to govern or injure man. Christian Science is proving that when the false nature of evil is understood, it is as powerless now as in Jesus' time, for this faith is regenerating the sinner, healing the sick, and releasing the suffering through spiritual means. On page 97 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy has well said, "Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apostolic work of casting out error and healing the sick."

Christian Science acknowledges the immaculate conception of Jesus and the divinity of the Christ-nature that animated him, which Mrs. Eddy has perfectly expressed in Science and Health (p. 25): "The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus." It also accepts the whole Bible, including the accounts of the ministry, crucifixion, atonement, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Christ, although in some respects it does not agree entirely with present-day theological views.

When, therefore, the critic declares that this religion antagonizes "every fundamental of the gospel of Christ," it is impossible to see where any basis for such an assertion is to be found. Christian Science closely follows the Bible, and especially the gospels. It does not accept today's theology in every detail; but theology changes, while, as Peter declared, "the word of God . . . abideth forever." It is certain that Christian Science differs from prevalent theology in the vital matter of spiritual healing, so continuously emphasized by the Saviour but discarded now as a practice by theologians. This, however, can hardly be urged as an objection to Christian Science without also criticizing the work of the great Nazarene himself. Only recently another minister in a near-by city frankly declared, "Many churches, indeed, have become dry as dust in their practical services to the lost world, and some of them more than dry in their spiritual beliefs and works." Such a condition all Christians, regardless of denomination, would surely wish to see remedied, and Christian Science is a genuine and remarkably successful attempt to restore the simple, practical, sufficient truth which Christ Jesus taught, and so to revitalize religion.

In the mean time it may be well to bear in mind that no church hastens the fulfilment of Jesus' petition, "Thy kingdom come," by endeavoring to pull down another church.

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