Chapter FourIt has been apparent from our survey of the Christian Science cult that the basic principle of Christian Science is that of negation. Christian Scientists talk much about having "faith in God," but they negate the God of the Bible, depersonalize Him and reduce Him to an abstract Principle. The eager disciples of Mrs. Eddy speak constantly of "prayer," indeed their radio and television programs as well as their literature consistently place stress upon the necessity of "prayer." However, a closer examination of the Christian Science definition of prayer, as previously noted, reveals that it is nothing more than a negation of the great Christian doctrine of personal communion with God; and since Mrs. Eddy's entire system denies the personality of God, therefore the term "prayer" becomes meaningless for any careful student of the Scriptures. The Christian Science religion, then rejects historic Christianity, but does it in such a subtle almost painless and decidedly inoffensive manner, that many Christians are lulled to sleep by the eloquent disciples of Mrs. Eddy's thriving business enterprise. Today the Christian Science religion boasts well over thousand "practitioners" whose task it is to convince sick people that they are not sick and to convince the dying that there is no death, in the tradition of their long dead founder. In addition to this the Scientists number over a million, own one of the most efficient and respected newspapers in the world (The Christian Science Monitor) and are doubtless one of the richest of all the cults, as their numerous churches and reading rooms throughout the nation and internationally attest. Christian Science, then, is definitely a "going proposition," and the once uncommon phrase, "Why not try Science?" has become more and more familiar as this pseudo Christian religion sweeps countless souls to spiritual destruction. The religion of Christian Science, beyond a doubt, fulfills the condition stated in verse three, for it was no less an authority than Mary Baker Eddy who said, "If God is spirit and God is all, surely there can be no matter. .. . According to Christian Science the first idolatrous claim of sin is that matter exists: the second that matter has substance: the third that matter has intelligence, and the fourth, that matter being so endowed produces life and death. . ." (Unity of Good, pp. 39 and 40, edition of 1898). In addition to this Mrs. Eddy also stated, "Matter has no life to lose... therefore it is neither substantial, living, nor intelligence." (Science and Health, p. 171). It is evident from these statements that according to Mrs. Eddy matter is nonexistent, an illusion, and since the body is composed of matter in the form of flesh Mrs. Eddy categorically denied the existence of flesh through that very same previous denial of matter. The Apostle John wrote that those who were "antichrist" could be identified by their denial that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh, and this Christian Science denies emphatically, as any study of Mrs. Eddy's writings will speedily reveal. The cult of Christian Science, therefore, is nothing more than a continuation of one form of the old gnostic heresy operative in the first century of the Christian Church, and all of Mrs. Eddy's borrowing from Quimby, Hegel, Lieber, and Wiggin cannot change that fact. Christian Science is an eclectic conglomeration of disjointed propositions and syllogisms rolled into a palatable ball and simmered over the flames of gnosticism, properly seasoned and bottled for distribution through the writings of that great religious alchemist of the nineteenth century, Mary Baker Eddy. Mrs. Eddy's religious medicine to this day continues to be dispensed by the Christian Science Church and it is still a system of anti-Biblical and anti-Christian heresies which is operative and apparently hearty, and constitutes a real problem for Christ's Church in our day. To those who are interested in studying further this problem of Christian Science, I suggest my textbook The Kingdom of the Cults, chapter five. As always it is prayerfully hoped that the Lord may continue to bless richly the propagation and defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in whom and through whom alone is there redemption for all mankind. |