Christian Science

Expose’ on Christian Science by Hayes K. Minnick

Christian Science, Seventh-Day Adventism, and Theosophy have at least one thing in common - they all had hysterical, neurotic women as their founders. The founder of the Christian Science was Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy, born in New Hampshire, July 16, 1821, divorced and remarried, an exspiritualistic medium. In 1866 Mrs. Eddy claimed to have a revelation from God which she put into book form in 1875 under the title Science and Health. Sales of this book at exorbitant prices, plus an income of $7,500 per day from pupils who paid her $300 for a twelve half-day course, caused a financial stream to flow into Mrs. Eddy's pocketbook until the Massachusetts legislature compelled her to close her school. She lived in wealth and opulence in Boston. In 1883 she added a commentary, Key to the Scriptures.So much for a brief history of "the Boston Witch." We turn our attention now to the soul-damning doctrine which she devised, a delusion of the Devil in every sense of the word. The name applied to this diabolic system - Christian Science - is a misnomer, for it is neither Christian nor science in any sense of the words. It is "science falsely so called," I Timothy 6:20. And it is far more despicable than outright infidelity because it calls itself "Christian."

1. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the authority of the Bible as the Word of God. In Miscellaneous Writings, p. 170: "The material record of the Bible is no more important to our well-being than the history of Europe and America." Compare this blasphemous statement with II Timothy 3:14-17; II Peter 1:19-21. In Science and Health, 1917, p. 26: "The second chapter of Genesis contains a statement of the material view of God and the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of scientific truth." She says further: "Citing Genesis 2:7, is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and God? It must be a lie." Now we know what this demonized daughter of Satan thinks of the Word of God! But see John 17:17 - "Thy Word is Truth"; I John 2:21 - "No lie is of the truth"; Titus 1:2 - "God, that cannot lie." Surely the inspired apostle had the "Boston Witch" in mind when he penned the words of I Timothy 4:1! Having deposed the authority of the Bible, this self-styled prophetess sets herself and her pseudo-prophetic writings up as of divine authority. ConcerningScience and Health, the textbook of the cult, she wrote in 1901: "I should blush to write of Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures, as I have, were it of human origin, and I apart from God, its author; but as I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of heaven in Divine Metaphysics, I cannot he super-modest of the Christian Science textbook." (Heresies Exposed. p. 66) Mrs. Eddy need never have worried about being charged with super-modesty. The term that fits here is super-presumption, Satanically inspired. With one stroke of his Holy Spirit inspired pen, the apostle Paul destroys the very foundation upon which Christian Science rests through his forthright repudiation and rejection of any woman as an authority in matters of doctrine pertaining to Divinely revealed truth, when he says: "I suffer not a woman to teach or usurp authority..." (Timothy 2:12).

2. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the personality of God. In Science and Health, p. 5, "The Principle of Divine Metaphysics is God"; p.277, "Life, Truth and Love constitute the triune God, or triple Divine principle." On p. 152 of the same book, "The theory of three persons in one God (that is a personal trinity or tri-unity) suggests heathen gods." The plain fact is that Christian Science denies the personal triune God of the Bible. God is not a mere force or principle. The God of the Bible is a personal God. See Hebrews 1:3 where Christ in relation to God is said to be, "the express image of His person." Life, truth and love are merely attributes in the nature of God, and do not, in their sum, constitute God himself. God is greater than any attribute, or sum of attributes, within His nature. He is the Divine substance in which the attributes inhere, but to say that He is simply the sum of His attributes, as Mrs. Eddy does, is sheer nonsense. For the Bible doctrine of the trinity - three persons in one Godhead, see the baptismal formula in Matthew 28:18-20; the apostolic benediction, II Corinthians 13:14; the prayer of Christ, John 14:16-17; the baptism of Christ, Matthew 3:16-17 the prophecy of Isaiah, a Messianic passage, Isaiah 48:16. The doctrine of the Trinity is implied in every use of the word "Elohim," the name for God in the Old Testament. See Genesis 1:26, "Let us make..."; Genesis 11:7, "Let us go down..." The doctrine of three persons in one Godhead is not heathen, but thoroughly Scriptural, a denial of which leads in the ultimate to a rejection of the Deity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit.

3. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy in its denial of the personal triune God of the Bible substitutes a purely pantheistic pagan concept of God. In Science and Health, 1916, p. 469, in answer to the question, "What is mind?" It is bluntly stated: "Mind is God." And on p. 470: "God, the Divine Principle of man, and man in God's likeness are inseparable, harmonious, and eternal ....

God and man are not the same, but in the order of Science, God and man coexist and are eternal." On page 307, "The Divine Mind is the Soul of man,.." On pages 303, 306: "God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed ... If God Who is Life, were parted for a moment from His reflection, man, during that moment there would be no divinity reflected..." Now if this twitter-twaddle means anything, she is saying that man is simply a reflection of the Divine, that the Divine mind and the soul of man are one, eternally coexisting and inseparable, that man is a necessary emanation of God without which God Himself would not be able to exist. This is pure pantheism, pagan in its concept. Pandita Ramabhai, one of India's outstanding converts to Christ from pagan idolatry, exposed the pagan pantheism of Eddyism in the following testimony: "On my arrival in New York, I was told that a new religion was being taught in New York, and that it had won many disciples. I found that the name of the new religion was Christian Science; and when I asked what its teaching was, I recognized it as the same philosophy that had been taught among my people for four thousand years. It has wrecked millions of lives and caused immeasurable suffering and sorrow in my land. It is a religion that knows no compassion or sympathy. It means just this - the philosophy of nothingness. You are to view the whole world as nothing but a falsehood."

4. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. InScience and Health, 1917, p. 17, "The Virgin-Mother conceived this idea of God, and gave to her ideal the name of Jesus." Contrast this with Luke 1:3031, 34-35, which make it clear that the conception, birth, and Saviourhood of Jesus had their origin in the mind of God and not as an idea in the mind of Mary. In the same edition, p. 19, there is a further eruption of blasphemy: "A portion of God could not enter man: neither could God's fulness be reflected by a single man, else God would be manifestly finite, lose the deific character, and become less than God." Her assumption that all there is of God could not dwell in a man is a direct attack upon the absolute Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. But see I John 4:1-6; II John 7. And what will this lady liar from the pit of hell do with Colossians 2:8-9? InMiscellaneous Writings, p. 84: "Jesus is not the Christ." But see John 20:31; Acts 17:3; 2:36.

5. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the death and redeeming work of Christ upon the cross. In Science and Health, 1917, p. 32: "Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to understand their Master's triumph, did not perform many wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion, and learned that he had not died." In the same edition, p. 28: "His disciples believed Jesus to be dead, while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive." In Unity of Good, p. 18: "In Science, Christ never died, The fleshly Jesus seemed to die, though he did not." In absolute contradiction to these denials of the death of Christ, see what the Scriptures have to say: John 19:33; Acts 3:15; Romans 5:6,8; I Corinthians 15:3-4; Philippians 2:8; Revelation 1:18; Romans 10:9-10. In Science and Health, 1917, p. 6: "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 as he went daily about his Father's business." The blaspheming "Boston Witch" has no place in her system for the expiation of human sin through the shedding of the blood of the Son of God. But see Hebrews 9;22; Luke 22:20; Romans 5:9; Ephesians 1:7; I Peter 1:18-20; 2:24. In the same edition, p, 3: "One sacrifice however great is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement required constant self-immolation on the sinner's part." My how Satan hates the doctrine of substitutionary blood atonement! Legion is the number of souls being sent to hell through listening to this diabolic drivel. What saith the Scripture? See Hebrews 9:12,14,26; 10:10,12,14. Salvation comes not through self-immolation, but through faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross, Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-7; Romans 4:4-5. Justification by faith and salvation by grace, the very heart and core of the Gospel message, are completely rejected by the founder of Christian Science. Vol. II, pp. 143-144: "Jesus never ransomed man by paying the debt that sin incurs, whosoever sins must suffer." The same book, p. 22: "Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in immortality ... is not reached ... by pinning one's faith without works to another's vicarious effort." on p.23: "That God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made." On p. 24, more of the same: "Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all sinners who ask for it and are willing to be forgiven? ... Then we must differ! In thus differing, Mrs. Eddy takes issue with the clear witness of the Word of God. See II Corinthians 5:21; I Timothy 2:5-6; Mark 10:45. If there be no expiation for human sin in the sacrifice of Calvary, what then is the significance of the cross? P. 24: "The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical affection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind." This in sum and substance is the same as that of Arminian theology which views the sacrifice of the cross as symbolic rather than substitutionary. The judgment of God is just upon all who trample under the shed blood of the Son of God, Hebrews 10:29.

6. - The poison pen of Mrs, Eddy versus the resurrection of Christ. From the material quoted in the previous paragraph it is evident that Mrs. Eddy does not believe that Christ died, hence there was no physical, bodily resurrection. InScience and Health, 1917, p. 28: "His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demonstrating within the narrow tomb the power of Spirit to overrule mortal material sense." What saith the Scripture? See Revelation 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 14:9a; I Corinthians 15:20. In Science and Health, p. 334: "The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the so-called personal sense, whereas Jesus appeared as a bodily existence. This dual personality of the unseen and seen, the spiritual and material, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest in the flesh, continued until the Master's ascension, when the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared, while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in the eternal order of Divine Science, taking away the sins of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes." In dissociating Jesus from the Christ Mrs. Eddy is adopting a heresy that was prevalent in the first century A.D. It is the fanciful and fantastic notion that a purely human Jesus became Divine only when associated with the Christ, and became purely human again when the Christ left him, and that the body of Jesus was not a real physical body at all, but merely an apparition. What nonsense is this in the name of science! Note the method of the removal of sin according to Mrs. Eddy - through a permeating world spirit which she has the audacity to call "Christ"! It should be clear to every discerning mind that the "Christ" of Mrs. Eddy is not the Christ of the Bible. Jesus and Christ are one and the same Person from the moment of the incarnation of the Son of God, and will remain so throughout all eternity. That the resurrection body in which Jesus ascended into heaven and in which He will return, was a real physical body, and not an apparition, is very clear from Luke 24:36-43; Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7. It is the same body that hung upon the cross. And in that glorified body the Lord Jesus is seated at the Father's right hand in the Glory. Stephen saw Him there! Acts 7:55-59; Hebrews 1:1-3; 12:2.

7. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In Science and Health, 1917, p. 24: "The Science of being shows it to be impossible for infinite Spirit or Soul to be in a finite body." Since she knows so much, how will she explain I Corinthians 6:19; 3:16; Ephesians 5:18? On page 27: "In the words of St. John, He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science." The trouble with Mrs. Eddy's understanding is that she did not read her Bible rightly and believe it. See John 14:16-17; 16:7-8; 7:37-39. The Lord Jesus said nothing about "Divine Science," but He did promise the Holy Spirit who came on the day of Pentecost for the purpose of indwelling true believers in this present age. The Holy Spirit was very much in operation in the Book of Acts and down to the very present moment. Question: If, as Mrs. Eddy supposes, the Comforter is "Divine Science," why did the Lord Jesus refer to the Comforter as "He"? He was obviously referring to a person, not an "it." The Holy Spirit is a Person; Mrs. Eddy's "Divine Science," would be an "it." Another question: If the Comforter is "Divine Science,'" how come "it" waited 1900 years to arrive upon the scene through the person of Mrs. Eddy when our Lord explicitly promised the Comforter to His immediate disciples? The fact of the matter is that Mrs. Eddy and her "new revelation" is just 1900 years too late!

8. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the doctrine of a personal Devil. In Science and Health, 1917, p. 10: "The beliefs of the human mind rob and enslave it and then impute this result to another illusive personification named Satan." P. 17: "Devil, evil, a lie, error." Satan - an illusive personification! So says Mrs. Eddy. But Satan was real to the apostle Paul. Note the expression, "Satan himself" in II Corinthians 11:14. The old Devil was real to our blessed Lord, Luke 4:2-13; John 8:44. On the same page (17) she says: "Jesus cast out evil spirits, or false beliefs." on page 9: "The supposition that there are good and evil spirits is a mistake." The reality of demons is clearly taught in the Word of God, Luke 4:41; I Corinthians 10:20; Mark 5:8-9. It is the demons of darkness who produce false doctrines (I Timothy 4:1), seducing souls away from the Faith, and blinding the minds of men to the simple truth of the Gospel of God's grace as revealed in the Person and redeeming work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, II Corinthians 4:3-6; 11:13-15. For the ministry of good angels, see Hebrews 1:13-14.

9. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the doctrine of sin. In Science and Health, 1917, p. 24: "There is no sin." The "Boston Witch" is a bare-faced liar. See Romans 3:23. On p. 2: "Evil has no reality." How the old Devil must love this doctrine! See Paul's testimony in Romans 7:21. On p. 4: "The belief of sin which has grown terrible in strength and influence is an unconscious error in the beginning." According to Mrs. Eddy sin is a figment of the imagination, without reality, But what saith the Scripture? See I John 3:4. It is to convict men of the fact of sin that the Holy Spirit came into the world, John 16:8. It was to put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself that the Lord Jesus suffered, bled, and died on an old rugged cross, Hebrews 9:26. Christian Science in its denial of sin proves itself to be a mental, moral and spiritual delusion, I John 1:8. On p. 12: "It is a sense of sin and not a sinful soul which is lost." Page 22: "Soul is sinless." Page 28: "Soul is the divine principle of man and never sins." The pantheism of Christian Science is evident in this latter statement. But see I John 1:10; Ezekiel 18:4; Psalm 51:4. The soul of man is a creation of God, not an emanation of God, and is not only capable of sinning, but has sinned and come short of the glory of God. On page 28, she reveals her ignorance further: "To get rid of sin through Science is to divest sin of any supposed mind reality." Turn to Proverbs 14:9a if you wish to learn the classification and category in which God's Word places Mrs. Eddy and all those who have been duped, deceived, and deluded into believing her diabolic doctrine. She and her brood are first-class fools! If you want to get rid of sin, says Mrs. Eddy, you must wish it away. The Bible says it must be washed away through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, I John 1:7.

10. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the doctrine of death. In Science And Health, 1917, p. 22: "We shall learn that sin and mortality are without actual origin or rightful existence," P. 28: "Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death." On page 4: "Sin, disease and death have no foundations in Truth." On page 9: "death - an illusion." She should have told this to the undertaker! Her denial of the fact of death is but the logical consequence of her denial of the reality of sin. But see Romans 5:12-21. Physical death is the Divine penalty placed upon the human race because of sin. Men die because men have sinned against God. Physical death is the proof that all men dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 3:2. But then, we Bible to prove the fact of physical death. Every graveyard, in every hamlet, village, town and city provides mute but eloquent evidence that death is real - and that Mrs, Mary Baker Glover Patterson of the Devil's deception. Incidentally, she has a tombstone has had for quite some time! That old "illusion" called death caught up with her on December 3, 1910, and she has been filling a grave ever since. Equally nonsensical is the denial of sickness and disease. Page 29: "Man is never sick, for mind is not sick and matter cannot be." Page 18: "There is no disease." Page 1: "Sickness is not real." Page 15: "In Science no breakage or dislocation can really occur." How is this for sheer stupidity! And all in the name of "Christian" and "Science." See John 11:3; Psalm 103:3; Matthew 10 :8; Acts 3:2. Even in His glorified resurrection body our Lord bears the scars of His crucifixion! Luke 24:39-40; John 20 :27. The shallow hypocrisy of Mrs. Eddy and her system is revealed in the fact that she herself, before and after she founded Christian Science, was subject to periodic spells of sickness and to seizures of paroxysm and hysteria - a kind of cataleptic spells from which she never found relief. On one occasion, when some of her students discovered this, they were led to believe that she was suffering substitutionally for others! Edwin F. Dakin, in his book, Mrs. Eddy, pp. 212-213, describes the experience: "When, in the middle of the night, the alarm was called and the students gathered at her bedside to see a Mrs. Eddy who was utterly unknown, who writhed and twisted like a tortured victim of the Inquisition, it was not difficult for them to believe that in this state ... she was overcome with horrors that were not her own; that she was suffering under the lashes of others. She was taking on herself, as she said, "the sins and illnesses of her students." On page 514 of his book, Mr. Dakin says: "Unless further evidence becomes available, however, it seems fairer to assume that Mrs. Eddy never became a drug 'addict' in the usual sense of that word, although there is overwhelming evidence that the drug (morphine - Ed.) was for her, particularly in her latter days, a useful and at times even necessary sedative." Imagine this daughter of the Devil, who refused to believe in the substitutionary atonement of the Son of God, claiming a sort of substitutionary suffering for herself! Imagine this denier of sickness, disease and deformity a creature of the "morphine habit"! Is it any wonder her sanity was called into question in a public court and "eminent medical testimony was adduced to show that she was suffering from progressive paranoia." (P. 106) One of the pieces of evidence produced was her own writings in which she solemnly asserted the non-reality of the entire physical universe. Can you imagine enything more assinine? She built marble temples, printed, bound, and distributed a material book, accepted material money and owned a vast area of real estate while living in a material body in a material world - yet denies the reality of matter! By the way, do you know Christian Scientists who wear glasses, have false teeth, an artificial complexion, bald heads, or who call a physician for the delivery of a baby?

11. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus the doctrine of salvation, In Science and Health, p. 23: "Final deliverance from error is not reached through paths of flowers, nor by pinning one's faith without works to another's vicarious effort." Salvation by grace through simple faith in the redeeming work of Christ, apart from any work of human merit, is a cardinal doctrine of the Christian Faith, Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-7; Romans 4:4-5; 11:5-6. In its denial of this all-important doctrine, Christian Science reveals its Satanic origin and character. On page 12: "Divine principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they are corrected." What a lie from the pit of hell! See Ephesians 1:7; 4:32. The moment a person comes to Christ recognizing himself to be a sinner and in simple faith trusts the blood of Christ alone for his salvation, that very moment he is fully pardoned and completely justified from all sin - past, present, and future - for all eternity! Romans 3:19-28; 5:1; Acts 13:39.

12. - The poison pen of Mrs. Eddy versus prayer and Divine Providence. In Science and Health, 1917, p. 8: "Audible prayer is impressive but does it produce any lasting benefits?" This serpentine hiss is answered by James 5:16, On page 23: "God is not influenced by man." This bold-faced lie finds its refutation in Psalm 34:6; 106:44-45; Deuteronomy 9:18-20; Psalm 106:23. On page 27: "The danger from prayer is; that it may lead us into temptation." See Matthew 6:13a. It is prayer that delivers us from temptation! Matthew 26:40-41. On page 22: "Prayer is not to be used as a confessional to cancel sin. Such an error would impede true religion." What saith the Scripture? Psalm 32:5; I John 1:9. On page 25: "If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is canceled and that man is made better merely by praying, prayer is an evil." What saith the Scripture? James 5:15. On page 18: "The mere habit of pleading with the divine Mind as one pleads with a human being, perpetrates the belief in God as humanly circumscribed, an error which impedes spiritual growth." What saith the Scripture? Philippians 4:6-7.

Closing Remarks: The great attraction of this cult is doubtless the mind cures it is said to have wrought. First, let it be said that in every human body there is a certain deposit of curative power. Many times people recover from ailments without medical aid because nature is a great restorer. When the body is worn out, it needs rest. Given time, destroyed tissues are rebuilt. Given time, an organ eliminates waste and poison and we recover. The body is endowed with remarkable recuperative powers. No one need embrace Eddyism. to learn this. Common sense makes this clear, yet these simple facts have been exploited and made the basis of a false religion by the "Boston Witch" and her devotees. In the second place, let it ever be remembered that Satan can work miracles, and does, in support of false doctrines propagated by his agents. See Matthew 7:21-23. Satan will enable his agents to preach in the Name of Christ, to cast out demons in the Name of Christ, to do many wonderful works in the Name of Christ, if he can only thus seduce and delude souls into believing some other doctrine than the pure unadulterated Gospel of the grace of God. Please note in the foregoing passage that these "wonder workers" are forthrightly disowned by our Lord and declared to be workers of iniquity. The test, the criterion for determining truth and discerning error is ever and always the authority of the Word of God. See Isaiah 8:20; Deuteronomy 12:32; 13:5. It is the Word of God that is our safe-guard against all of the Devil's counterfeits. Judged by the standard of God's holy Word, Christian Science is a soul-seducing system, Satanic in origin and character, designed to send the souls of those who are deluded by it to a never-ending hell prepared for the Devil and his angels, Matthew 25:41. See Paul's advice regarding "old wives' fables" - I Timothy 4:7 - of which Christian Science is most surely one!