UNITY CRITIQUE SHEET A Publication of Apologetic Research Coalitin INCORPORATED NAME: Unit

                                                          UNITY   
                                                 CRITIQUE SHEET   
            
A Publication of Apologetic Research Coalitin



     INCORPORATED NAME: Unity School of Christianity, Inc.        
    COMMON DESCRlPTORS: Unity, New Thought, Practical Christianity
               FOUNDER: Myrtle and Charles FIIlmore
     CURRENT PRESIDENT: Connie Fillmore (great-granddaughter of
                        Charles & Myrtle Fillmore) 
            MEMBERSHIP: 6 million  Daily Word  subscribers
                        no membership records are kept) 
          DISTRlBUTlON: United States, Canada, Europe
          HEADQUARTERS: Unity Village, M0 [USA]
           PERIODlCALS: Unity, Daily Word, Wee Wisdom (children
                        magazine) 
            TV & RADIO: Several radio broadcasts throughout the
                        USA and Canada 
             PUBLISHER: Unity School of Christianity
             EDUCATl0N: Unity School of Religious Studies, Unity
                        Village, MO


                                HISTORY



     Unity School of Christianity, the pioneer and leader in
     applying mail-order merchandising to religion, was founded by
     Myrtle and Charles Fillmore. Although the Unity organization 
     was founded by the Fillmores, their doctrines were originally
     developed by Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, a mind healer who lived 
     in Maine during the middle of the 19th century.  Reared a '  
     Methodist, Myrtle became a Christian Science adherent        
     around 1887.  Myrtle soon taught that "l am a child of . God;
     therefore, I do not inherit sick##ess." Soon after she and   
     Charles began their publishing empire and in 1895 named it   
     'Unity.'

                             BELIEF SYSTEM                       
     


     REVELATION: To the Fillmores, all the world religions and
     their various scriptures are of equal value.  Unity views the
     Islamic Koran, the Hindu Upanishads, the Buddhist Sutras, the
     l-Ching and the writings of Confucious as equal to the Bible 
     in authority.  Even worse, Unity maintains that personal,    
     direct communion with the Lord is a higher authority than the 
     Word of God.

     


     GODHEAD: Unity denies that God is personal.  Instead, God
     is 'principle,' 'life,' or 'the love in everybody.' 0r, put
     another way, Unity asserts that "the Father is Priciple, the 
     Son is that Principle revealed in the  creative plan, and
     the Holy Spirit is the executive power  oth the Father and   
     Son, carrying out that plan." 

     CHISTOLOGY: To Unity, 'Christ' is a quality possessed by every
     individual.  Jesus of Nazareth was simply a man developed his
     'Christ quality' to the extent that he could multiply food,  
     heal people, walk on water and ascendedinto the heavens.     
     Furthermore, Unity teaches' if you would only develop your
     'Christ quality' you too could multiply food, heal people,
     walk on water and ascend into the heavens.

     ATONEMENT: To the Fillmores, atonement is the union of mind  
     with the divine mind (Principle). Unity  :hes that man       
     perfects himself. And if one life-span is not enough time to 
     accomplish this perfection, Unity made a provision.  Unity   
     embraces to the doctrine reincarnation, that an individual's 
     spirit sequentially  enters and lives in multiple bodies.  In 
     fact, Unity  claims Jesus Christ is the reincarnation of King 
     David.


                        CHRISTIAN REPONSE

     REVELATION: Contrary to the assertion of Unity, the  kings of 
     other world religions do not carry the same  authority as    
     God's word, the Bible. Diametrically opposed to Unity, the   
     Bible claims to be the only everlasting word (Psalm 119:89). 
     Likewise, Jesus identified God's word alone as "truth" (John 
     17:17).  He never mentioned any other scriptures. Since Unity 
     holds Jesus Christ in high regard, it would make for a more  
     consistent worldview if they would conform their minds to the
     mind of Christ on this point.  Either you may hold other     
     foreign scriptures in high regard or you may hold Jesus Christ 
     in high regard, but you cannot have it both ways.  Holding the 
     various scriptures of the world religions in equal esteem not 
     only mitigates against God's word as a whole and the view of 
     Jesus Christ specifically, it also mitigates against a       
     consistent worldview, per se: i.e., the Hindu scriptures     
     assume that many Gods exist, the Christian scriptures assume 
     that only one God exists and the Buddhist scriptures assume  
     that no god exists.  Consequently, a clear-thinking individual 
     could not logically embrace these inherently, mutually       
     exclusive texts as scripture.  Just in the interest of       
     consistency, it is incumbent upon the Unity School of
     Christianity to choose this day whom they will serve (Josh.  
     24:15).

     


     GODHEAD: The God of the Bible stands in stark contrast to    
     the God of the Unity School of Christianity. The God of Unity 
     is pantheistic, merely a non-personal 'Principle.' Contrary to 
     this notion, the God of the Bible speaks:

           and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying "This   
           is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Mat.   
           3:17, NAS).

     Not only does He speak as a person does, He even refers to   
     Himself with personal pronouns;

           And God said to Moses, "l AM WHO I AM" and He said,    
           "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, "l AM has   
           sent me to you."' (Ex. 3:14, NAS).

     The God of the Bible also has "knowledge'' (ll Tim. 2:19) and 
     a distinct "will" (l John 2: l7); both of which a 'Principle'
     could not possess.  Clearly, since God speaks, refers to
     Himself, has knowledge, a will, etc., the pantheistic,
     non-personal God of Unity is cannot be the God of the Bible.

     
     CHRISTOLOGY: Against Unity's view of 'Christ' as merely a
     quality or principle, the Bible declares that 'Christ' is an
     office which only one person fills:

          I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ):
          when that One comes, He will declare all things to us. 
          (John 4:2S, NAS).

     While Unity holds that everybody has the 'Christ' quality i's
     word, in complete antithesis to Unity's contention,proclaims
     that there is only one person, Jesus, who as this 'Christ' of
     office.  In fact, the Bible declares that who denies that
     Jesus is the Christ, is both a "liar" i "anti-Christ;"

          Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the
          Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the
          father and the Son. (l John 2:22, NAS).

     It must also be pointed out that when Unity remarks that Jesus
     was divine, they are merely saying that Jesus was a man in
     whom the Divine Mind (read "principle") resided.  Against
     this, scripture testifies that Jesus is e God (John 20:28),
     something Unity would vehently deny.


     ATONEMENT: Unity utterly rejects the idea that Jesus' blood on
     the cross is a sin offering.  God's word, on the other hand,
     declares that everyone has sinned (Rom. 3:23) and that sin
     must be punished by a sin offering (Lev. 17:11 cf. Heb.9:22). 


     John the Baptist, the man whom Jesus recognized as the
     greatest of all the prohets, correctly identifies Jesus as the
     paschal lamb, : sin offering, "which taketh away the sins of
     the world" (John 1 :29). Clearly, comparing the Biblical view
     atonement and Unity's view of atonement is comparing apples
     and oranges.  Making yourself perfect, as Unity teaches,
     through several incarnations is proved bless when one realizes
     that all our sins have already #n "purged " on Calvary's tree
     (Heb. 1:3).


                                APPEAL


     Who would not like more money?  Who would not want have
     perfect health?  Unity's promises of material prosperity and
     mental healing are perhaps the two most significant reasons it
     has attracted millions of adherents.