Christian Science
Christian science was founded by Mary Baker Eddy who was born July 16, 1821 and died a millionaire in 1910. She married her first husband, George Glover who died six months later from yellow fever. After his death she became involved in hypnosis, spiritualism and clairvoyance. In 1853 she married Daniel Patterson. She then met a mental healer Phineas P. Quimby who would shape her belief in Christian Science. Quimby believe the cure for illness and disease was by positive thinking and good healthy attitudes. She became ill and was not expected to recover but after reading Matthew 9:2 "And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." she was miraculously cured. She claimed that Quimby cured her and this convinced her of the truth of Christian Science.
After Quimby's death in 1866 Marry Eddy carried on his healing work. She took Quimby's teaching a step further by claiming sickness, death and our physical bodies do not exist, but are only imagined. In 1875, after several years offering her healing method she wrote and published a book called “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. According to Mary Baker Eddy this book was inspired of God and was the last revelation of God to mankind. In 1879 she organized the Church of Christ in Boston, MA and claimed it was the reinstatement of primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing. In 1881 she founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College and charged students $300 each for tuition, a large amount of money for 1881.
What do Christian Scientists believe?
Below is not a detailed list of all their beliefs but enough to see that this is a cult and not a true Christian organization.
They teach that sin is not real so there is no reason for Christ to have died for
sin. Salvation is based on works and is through victory over suffering and
temptation.
True salvation is by grace, God's love, through faith and faith
alone without works, Ephesians 2:8-9. The bible tells us that all have sinned,
Romans 3:23 and that sin earns wages, the wages of death, Romans 6:23. God sent His
Son Jesus Christ into this world to die on our behalf to pay for our sins, John
3:16. See our article on Salvation.
Christian Science teach there is no hell nor eternal punishment, it is a state of mind.
Hell is a self imposed mental anguish coming from ones guilt of imagined sin.
Since our physical bodies do not exist, disease and death are only illusions (S+H
pp. 348, 386).
The truth is that there is a hell that involves eternal torment in
a lake of fire for those that have not been saved by faith. See our article Does Anyone Deserve Hell, and another Alive in Hell
or Annihilation?
The Bible Has Thousands of Errors
Christian Science claims the Bible as their only textbook and only authority but claims it has thousands of errors.
Yet, they claim Mary Eddy's book Science and Health is divinely inspired. One
isn't supposed to read the Bible without a copy of Science and Health in order
to know what a passage means.
The truth is the Bible is divinely inspired and was written by 40
different writers over a period of about 1600 years who wrote what was breathed out
to them by God the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter 1:16-31. One cannot use another book along
with the Bible nor can they take away from nor add to the Bible, Revelation
22:18-19.
The Trinity is Life, Truth and Love
Christian Science say that belief in the traditional doctrine of the Trinity is polytheism.
This concept teaches that the trinity is heathen gods. Instead they teach that
the trinity is Life, Truth, and Love which makes up the triune person called
God.
The truth is the Christian trinity of three persons in one God. For
example we have God as being omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent and He fills the
heaven and the earth, Jeremiah 23:24, and exists as three different persons, God the
Father who is in heaven, God the Son who came into this world to redeem mankind from
sin, and God the Holy Spirit who indwells believers today. In Genesis 1:1 it says
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The word Elohim is
translated as God in English and is a plural noun. A plural in Hebrew is three or
more so here we have the word created a singular showing that its subject
Elohim is singular but in fact it means three or more. There are many other
examples of the trinity but these show that the Christian Science trinity is not the
trinity of the Bible.
Christian Science teaches that there is no sin that matters.
Sin, and sickness are not real but only illusions. Man is still in his original
state of Perfection and is not in need of salvation. Christ didn't come to save
us from our sin but came to destroy the belief of sin.
The truth is we are all sinners, Romans 3:23, and the wages of sin
is death, Romans 6:23. It is this death that Christ came to pay for us; He gave His
life for each of us. In Jude 1:15 we find that Christ came To execute judgment upon
all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds
which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly
sinners have spoken against him. 1 John 5:17 says that all unrighteousness is sin.
Ezekiel 18:4 says, Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also
the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Sin is defined by
the Bible as transgression of God's laws, 1 John 3:4, Whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Christian Science teaches that the devil is not a person and has no existence.
The truth is that there is a real devil who seeks to destroy mankind. See our article on
The Origin and Creation of Satan for the truth about Satan. Again they teach against God's Word.
The Holy Spirit is Divine Science
Christian Science teaches that the Holy Spirit is divine science.
In truth the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity which the Christian Science does not believe in. However, the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit and you can read the truth in our article The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person. There you will find He has a personality, intelligence, power, indwells believers, has personal relationships, is recognized as God, and many other things. Again they teach against God's Word.As seen above Christian Science teaches directly against the Word of God. There are many other topics such as Christ, Baptism, Angels, and others that teach nothing like what the Bible teaches.
