CRITIQUE SHEET: CHRISTIAN SCIENCE INCORPORATED NAME: Church of Chirst, Scientist COMMON DE

 


       CRITIQUE SHEET:            CHRISTIAN SCIENCE      



    INCORPORATED NAME: Church of Chirst, Scientist
   COMMON DESCRIPTORS: Christian Science, CS
              FOUNDER: Mary Baker Eddy
    CURRENT PRESIDENT: Ruth Elizabeth Jenks
           MEMBERSHIP: Not published [ARC estimate: 175,000]
         DISTRIBUTION: USA (high concentration in California),    
                       Europe, Australia
         HEADQUARTERS: Boston, MA
          PERIODICALS: Christian Science Sentinel, Christian      
                       Science Jornal, Christian Science
                       Quarterly, Hearald of Christian Science,
                       Christian Science Monitor.                 
           TV & RADIO: WQTV-TV, Boston, MA;Monitor TV (syndicated
                       news program); Monitor Radio Weekend     
                       (syndicated news & discussion); Short Wave
                       broadcast from USA to Europe (news &       
                       religious programing)  
            PUBLISHER: Christian Science Publishing Society       
EDUCATION INSTITUTION: Principia College, Elash, IL [Liberal arts
                       college for Christian Scientists]

HISTORY

Born to Mark and Abigail Baker in 1821, Mary Baker Eddy was raised
a Congregationalist.  She was plagued by emotional and physical
illness throughout her early life.  In 1843 she married George W.
Glover who died six months later, leaving his wife dependent on
morphine.  On 21 June, 1853 she married Dr. Daniel M. Patterson
whom she later divorced.  She married a third time to Asa G. Eddy
who later died of a heart-attack.  In 1862 Mary Baker Eddy began
treatment for spinal inflammation under Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
who taught healing the body through mental thoughts alone.  So
impressed was Eddy with Quimby that she too began studying 'mental
healing.'  On 1 February, 1866, Eddy suffered a terrible fall and
was pronounced "incurable." [Dr. Cushing, her physician, later
testified that he never told Eddy she was seriously ill.]  On the
third day, Eddy read Matt. 9:2 and claimed she was instantly and
completely healed.  Convinced that her 'healing' was the result of
recognizing "there is no sickness," Eddy claimed to have discovered
a technique of mental healing -  'Christian Science.'  In reality,
Eddy plagiarized much of her teaching from P.P. Quimby, who had
just died.


                        BELIEF SYSTEM

REVELATION:  Christian Science has conferred upon Mary Baker Eddys
book, Science and Health with a Key to the Scriptures, authority
equal to that of the Bible.  The equality of this extra-Biblical
revelation is best pointed up at the "Mother Church" of Christian
Science, Boston, MA, where there are two identical pulpits on the
platform.  One holds a large print edition of the Bible while the
other holds a large print edition of Science and Health.  Also, cut
into the granite walls on either side of the platform are two
passages; one from the Bible and one from Science and Health.  [It
should be mentioned that Eddy plagiarized over 30 pages verbatim
and 110 pages in substance from Dr. Francis Lieber's manuscript.] 
Eddy undermined the Bible when she called into question the
reliability of Genesis 2:7, "Is it the truth?  Or is it a lie
concerning man and God?  It must be a lie..."

GODHEAD: Mary Baker Eddy utterly rejected the Biblical view of God
(One God in three persons) as "polytheism," "suggesting heathen
Gods."  Instead, Eddy taught an impersonal God which is designated
as "Principle," "Life," "Truth," and "Love."  She believed God is
"the divine Principle of all being."  The Christian Science
world-view is essentially pantheistic, proclaiming "all is infinite
Mind."  As with Eastern pantheism, Eddy denied the existence of the
physical world ("There is ... no Substance in matter but all is
infinite Mind...") and evil ("There was never a moment in which
evil was real.").

CHRISTOLOGY: Eddy renounced virtually every orthodox belief
concerning Jesus Christ.  She could not tolerate the Biblical view
that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he physically died or that He
will personally return.  Eddy even undermined the deity of Jesus
Christ: "... Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself declared,
but is the Son of God."  

ATONEMENT: Mary Baker Eddy departed from Biblical Christianity when
she insisted that "The material blood of Jesus was no more
efficacious to cleanse from sin, when it was shed upon the accursed
tree, then when it was flowing in His veins..."  For the blood of
Jesus she substituted being led by some ambiguous "Principle" as
our atonement: "The perfect man - governed by ... perfect Principle
(God) - is sinless and eternal."


                         CHRISTIAN RESPONSE

REVELATION: In claiming to be Christian, Christian Science cannot
ignore the view of Jesus with regard to the nature of Scripture. 
Jesus, in diametric opposition to Mary Baker Eddy, proclaimed "one
jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled" (Matt. 5:18).  In total agreement with Jesus, and
against Eddy, Jeremiah (Jer. 30:2), Paul (Rom. 3:1-2), Luke (Acts
17:10-11), Timothy (I Tim: 6:3-4; II Tim. 3:16), Peter (II Pet.
3:2) and the writer of Hebrews (Heb. 1:1) all believed in the
trustworthiness of Holy writ.

GODHEAD: In stark contrast to Eddys opinion, Gods word declares
there is only one God (Is. 44:6) and that He is plural in person
(Deut. 6:4; echod, translated as one is a composite one).  Further,
the one God created the physical universe, which Eddy denies,
outside of Himself and really does exist (Gen.1).  Lastly, "Love"
is not God, as Eddy would attempt to persuade us, but rather, God
"Loves" us.  In fact, He "loved us so much that He gave His only
begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life" (John 3:16).
CHRISTOLOGY: While Mary Baker Eddy denied Jesus was God, Jesus,
whom Eddy did regard as a perfect man, claimed to be the self-same
God who spoke to Moses in the Burning Bush (John 8:50-58).  The
Christian Scientist cannot have it both ways.  Either Jesus was who
He claimed to be, which would mark Eddy as a false teacher, or He
was not telling the truth, in which case the Christian Scientist
could not trust anything else Jesus said.  The deity of Jesus is
pronounced when He is identified as God (John 1:1-18, Heb. 1:8),
claimed to be God (John 5:18; 8:50-58;10:30-3) and is worshiped
(Luke 4:8 cf. Heb. 1:6).  Eddys opinions are blatantly hostile to
the Good News of Jesus when she opposes the physical resurrection
of Jesus Christ.  After His resurrection Jesus said "handle me and
see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have"
(Luke 24:39).  Not only did He raise physically from the dead, but
"this same Jesus (not simply Christ spirit), who is taken up from
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him
go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). 

ATONEMENT: In complete antithesis to Mary Baker Eddy, the blood of
Jesus was most efficacious.  In the Old Testament, the very life of
an individual is considered to be in the blood (Lev. 17:14).  After
transferring the sins of the nation of Israel onto a lamb, its
blood, representing life, was spilt (Lev. 17).  Therefore, the sins
are now destroyed.  In the New Testament, John the Baptist
correctly identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sins of the world, not just Israel (John 1:29).  It is entirely
because Jesus physical blood was poured out on the cross that we
now have remission of sins (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24).  In a very
real sense, we have been purchased with His blood (Acts 20:28).  It
is precisely due to His shed blood on the cross that we are now
justified before God (Rom. 3:24; 5:9).  In fact, if we do not
depend on the life of Jesus, represented by His blood, just as we
depend on our daily water, there is no life in us (John 6:53-55).