The fundamental principle of Christian Science is that
sin and disease have no real existence.
In fact, matter does not exist; mind is everything.
According to its teachings, God is an impersonal
being; He is infinite mind. Prayer to a
personal God is a hindrance; true prayer, according to
Mrs. Eddy, being a soliloquy or auto-
suggestion. The Lord Jesus Christ was the offspring of
Mary's self-conscious communion with God. To
accommodate Himself to immature ideas of spiritual
power, Jesus called the body, 'flesh and bones'; which
utterance shows the concession He was willing to make
to popular ignorance.
Concerning the resurrection of the Lord, we have the
following blasphemy :
'The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge
from His foes', and there 'He met and
mastered, on the basis of Christ Science, all the
claims of medicine, surgery and hygiene'. When
'Jesus' students ... saw Him after His crucifixion'
they 'learned that He had not died'. 'We were
reconciled to God by the (seeming) death of His Son'
(Science and Health, pp. 44 and 46).
As to sin, Christian Science teaches that it is an
illusion, and as to the atoning efficacy of the
precious blood of Christ, it is altogether denied.
Mrs. Eddy states that the blood of Christ was of no
more avail when it was shed upon the cursed tree, than
when it was flowing through His veins in daily life.
Christian Science is one of the cults that deal in
healing. Its aim and method is to persuade
the patient that he is not ill, but that he only
thinks that he is. Cures are effected, but they are of
the
same nature as those wrought at Lourdes, or at
Pentecostal healing campaigns. Mrs. Eddy herself
went to the dentist to have a tooth extracted, and
even had local anaesthesia. A beloved fellow-worker in
Christ, who is also a medical practitioner, said,
'Christian Science heals all the diseases which do not
exist', and one has only to become acquainted with
folk to know how many ailments are imaginary or
mental. Christian Science has not succeeded in raising
the dead. It did not prevent its founder from bowing
to the death which comes upon all men, 'for that all
have sinned'. These are limitations which cannot be
surmounted.
' ... they shall proceed no further: for their folly
shall be manifest unto all men' (2 Tim. 3:9).
