III.

The Answer of "Christian Science." (Continued from p. 390, Dec., 1929)

In the earliest days of Christianity, the truth of God was opposed by a system of Satanic deception known generically as Gnosticism, though divided into several warring cults.

Gnosticism was an effort to combine oriental philosophy with the doctrine of Christ. Against this evil combination parts of Colossians and John's first epistle were largely directed, and to this Paul evidently refers when he warns Timothy against "oppositions of science, falsely so-called."

The Gnostics were not all alike in their teachings. They had many sects, and differed widely in their views of Christ. According to some the body of Jesus was not corporeal-not material- but simply an appearance, a phantasm. Christ was a divine emanation who came into the world and appeared to men as a Man, but never actually united Himself to flesh and blood. According to others Jesus was the natural son of Mary and Joseph:Christ was the divine enlightening Spirit who took possession of Him at His baptism and left Him at the cross. In one of the Gnostic Gospels-a perverted copy of Matthew-the Lord is represented as crying on the cross, "My Power, My Power, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" The Christ, they declared, was deathless; Jesus only could die. They did not confess that Jesus is the Christ, and that Christ had come in flesh. Therefore they were antichristian. This is what John warned the elect lady against, in his second epistle. He was not warning against real Christians with imperfect views, unintelligent as to the divine mystery of the incarnation, but against enemies of the truth who taught what was utterly subversive of Christianity.

Gnosticism, as such, ceased long ago to be a power in the professing church, but the leaven is still working.

Eddyism is one of the modern Gnostic systems, identical in philosophy and equally blasphemous. It is no exaggeration to say that it denies every truth of Scripture; yet in such a way as seemingly to confess them all. Mrs. Eddy, now gone to face the personal God she denied on earth, was an unequaled juggler with words.

According to her, Jesus was a man like any other, but an adept Christian Science practitioner (who, however, never collected fees for His treatments!), who was born in ignorance and gradually attained the knowledge that enabled Him to "demonstrate" science. Christ is pure spirit, altogether distinct from the man Jesus, though dwelling in and controlling Him. To the eye of sense, Jesus died; but Christ could not die, and so, actually, Jesus Himself did not die either, but when His materialistic disciples thought Him dead, He was alive within the tomb, "putting the seal of Eternity on time."

This system really combines within itself both leading forms of Gnosticism. It denies the reality of matter, on the one hand, while acknowledging that Jesus was Mary's son, on the other.

But, according to Mrs. Eddy, His blood had no atoning value. She wrote, "The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon the accursed tree than when it was flowing in His veins." And this, in the face of His own words, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you, for the remission of sins."

Eddyism makes nothing of the blood of Jesus and denies that Christ had blood to shed! Yet the Holy Spirit speaks of "the precious blood of Christ," and tells us that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."

Nor is "Christian Science" alone in advocating and reviewing Gnostic blasphemies. The so-called "New Thought" and the "Unity" teaching hold and propagate the same errors.

They all agree that Jesus and Christ are to be distinguished and that the blood of Jesus possessed no atoning value. He did not save vicariously, but He was "the Way-shower," not "the Way," at all, save by example!

Others errors abound, but enough have been specified to warn every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ against this unholy and blasphemous system.

The best book on the whole subject, in the writer's judgment, is Dr. I. M. Haldeman's "Christian Science in the Light of Holy Scripture."

A brief pamphlet that exposes the teaching clearly is "A Few Words on Christian Science," by S. Ridout. H. A. I.

(To be continued, D. V.)