We might say at the outset that for one who knows and loves Christ as a personal Savior, Christian Science can have no charms, and few dangers. If this should sound harsh, let it be remembered that this system completely subverts the whole of Christianity ; so that he who accepts the one, must give up the other. It is an application of our Lord's words, "No man can serve two masters." That we are justified in making such a statement will be seen in a moment as we compare a few of the teachings of Scripture on fundamental truths with the doctrines of Christian Science (a most misleading name).
I. As to the Person of Christ:" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "All things were made by Him." (John 1:i, 3.) "Who is the image of the invisible God." (Col. 1:15.) "Being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power." (Heb. 1:3.)
Here we have the divinity of the Son of God taught in the most absolute way.
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14.) " He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. 2:7.) "Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." (Rom. 1:3.) Here we have "the man Christ Jesus"-His humanity. "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (i Pet. 2:22.) "Holy, harmless, undefiled." (Heb. 7:26.)
These and such scriptures teach His absolute sinlessness.
Compare with these precious truths the following statements:* "Jesus Christ entered upon our false and terrible dream, experienced our evil conditions. . . . He put off everything derived from the mother. . . . He denied, rejected, overcame, and cast out, all our race-errors, . . . race-evils, including sin, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and death, derived through Mary. *Quotations are from a pamphlet entitled "Condensed Thoughts about Christian Science."Purtz Publishing Co., Chicago.*
He thus became the divine truth, one with the Father, or the divine love. To follow Him in the regeneration is, like Him, to be delivered from the illusions of sense, the bondage of error, the false claims of matter, the promptings of self-hood-to be reunited to God" (page 15).
Such language teaches the mere humanity of Christ, that He was defiled (so far as such a thing as defilement can be said to exist), that He derived all that is evil in nature through His mother, and then rejected it, thrust it off, thus becoming, what He was not before, divine truth. No comment upon such blasphemy is needed.
II. As to the work of Christ. "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." (Heb. 10:14.) "Made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Eph. 2:13.) " Being justified by faith.". . . "justified through His blood." (Rom. 5:i, 9.) The truth of atonement by substitution, of wrath-bearing for our justification, is here taught.
Contrast with these texts the following :'' The whole question of salvation depends upon ourselves, upon when, and how soon, we see our follies and errors, renounce our delusions, disrobe ourselves of our false opinions, accept the divine truth (that there is no such thing as evil), which is the light of heaven, awake from our dream of evil, and enter into the life of Christ" (page 22).
We extricate ourselves from an evil which has no existence, imitating Christ, who did the same; and this is redemption!
III. The existence of sin and death. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." (Rom. 5:12.) "Death reigned." (Rom. 5:14.) "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (John 8:34.) " The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23.)
'' I deny that evil has any real existence or actual power in the presence of divine truth. I deny that sin, sorrow, suffering, sickness, or death, are realities or entities, or have any ground or reason to be" (page 32).
And this includes a denial of the personality of Satan and evil spirits, of hell, of responsibility before God.
IV. The word of God.'' All scripture is given by inspiration of God." (2 Tim. 3:16.)"The scripture cannot be broken." (John 10:35.)"Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." (Ps. 119:89.)
Christian Science says, '' The Spirit clothes itself with the letter, sometimes a tissue of appearances only (such as that God is angry, hell is eternal, etc.)." '' The Bible or word of God was written from this standpoint of mortal mind (the unreal state of human thought, with its misconceptions of the existence of sin, evil, suffering), and its letter often needs correction from the higher reason" (pages 14, 25).
V. The Lord's coming, heaven, etc. "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven:. . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first:then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:and; so shall we ever be with the Lord." (i Thess. 4:16, . 17.) " The hour is coming in the which all that .are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." (John 5:28, 29.) "In my Father's house are many mansions. . . . I go to prepare a place for you. … I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2, 3.)
"The second coming of the Lord is a descent, from the heavens within us, into the body of humanity, (several lines missing from p. 331)
… placing side by side these statements of light and darkness, illustrating afresh each time what we said at the beginning, that the one is the exact opposite of the other. There is an appearance of piety in some phrases, an apparent approach to truth in some, and frequent quotations of Scripture misapplied. But any simple-hearted person can see that the whole thing is antichristian. It leaves us nothing–no personal God, no atonement, no Saviour, no heaven, no Word of God. It would take from the wicked the fear of hell and of the wrath of God.
The hold it has taken upon some is its claim to cure disease. This it does by denying the existence
of sickness, suffering, pain, or death. They are only imaginations. The poor, restless heart of the suffering one, who is ignorant of the grace of Christ or blinded by Satan, grasps at every straw. And so error spreads. Man will believe anything, everything, but God's truth. The times show how quickly is hastening on that hour when those who will not receive "the love of the truth that they might be saved," "shall believe a lie."
" But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, an hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle" (2 Thess. 2:13-15).