“CHRISTIAN SCIENCE:” ARE ITS DOCTRINES TRUTH OR ERROR?
By George Ide Butler
Some of Mrs. Eddy’s Teachings Examined in the Light of the Scriptures.
Mrs. Eddy teaches, and Christian Scientists believe, that Christ will never come personally, but that Christian Science itself is the second coming of Christ. Notice carefully the following extracts:— “This coming [that is, the discovery of Christian Science] is as was promised by the Master, for its establishment as a permanent dispensation to remain forever among men.” “Its discovery is the second coming of the gospel of ‘peace on earth and good will to men.’” (Italics mine.) “This awakening is the coming of Christ, the appearing of truth, which casts out error and heals the sick,—this the salvation which cometh through the divine principle demonstrated by Jesus.”—Science and Health, pages 43, 126. “The coming of the truth is the coming of Christ. We have no longer a personal Jesus. We are no longer seeking to be like the sinless Jew of eighteen hundred years ago.” “Here let us apprehend the wise words of our teacher [Mrs. Eddy]. Christian Science is the second advent of Christ.”—The New Interpreter, page 110. “The second coming of the Lord is a descent from the heavens within us into the body of humanity, of the same divine truth which was manifested in Jesus Christ. . . . The Christian Scientist believes that Christ is now here.”—Condensed Thoughts, pages 49, 50. These statements clearly demonstrate that the discoverer of Christian Science, and her disciples, all believe the second advent of Christ is already an accomplished fact, and hence that none have a right to expect He will ever come again. Let us now notice some of the Bible statements regarding Christ’s coming, to see how well they will agree with these extracts. Here is Christ’s own blessed promise: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 1–3. When Christ comes, He comes after His own, and takes them above to the mansions He has prepared for them. There will be no poor in heaven. Every one will have a home which Jesus has provided for him. Has Christian Science done all this for its votaries?—Hardly. Again: “And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1: 9–11. This Jesus, who had been with them from the time of His resurrection till His ascension, was not a phantom, a ghost, a spirit without body or parts, but a real being of “flesh and bones,” who ate of the fish and the honeycomb; who walked and sat and talked with His disciples, communing with them freely; who showed doubting Thomas the actual prints of the nails which had been driven through His hands and feet when nailed to the cross, and the scar made by the spear driven into His side. He ascended bodily to heaven, there to plead for us as our great High Priest till He should come again just as literally as they saw Him ascend to heaven. Those angels told those sorrowing disciples no falsehoods as they thus plainly testified of His sure return. Dear reader, how do these statements of the two heavenly messengers agree with these wretched claims of Christian Science? Which will you believe, the heavenly angels or Mrs. Eddy? Again. “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” Rev. 1: 7. Had all this occurred when Mrs. Eddy wrote “Science and Health,” and58made her wonderful discovery? Have all nations wailed as they read her book? Very few of them know anything about her book. Yet it has already been before the world twenty-five years. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4: 16–18. And did this all happen in the Christian Science movement? Did Christ himself come with a shout? and did the trump of God sound, and all the dead arise from their graves? were all the living saints translated, thus to remain with their Lord, in the history of Mrs. Eddy’s cult? If so, they have kept very still about it. It is well known from her own statements that they as a people fully believe nothing of the kind ever will happen. But, dear reader, these are the words of the blessed Book, which she claims to believe. Again. “They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 30, 31. This glorious doctrine of Christ’s personal return to this earth in great glory to gather His faithful disciples, and put down rebellion and wickedness, is taught all through the Bible. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, foretold it, saying, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.” Jude 14. Thus we see that away back before the flood, the holy men of God taught the coming of the Lord in glory. It has been taught by all the prophets and by Christ himself. There are few doctrines taught so prominently in the Bible. It is easy to prove that we must be living very near this event. The signs given in Holy Writ are either all fulfilled or fast fulfilling. The Word also clearly states that when that period is reached when His people should look for their Lord’s return, false teachers will arise and deceive many by spiritualizing away the plain statements of the Sacred Scriptures, teaching that these events will come in some secret manner. “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24: 24–28. That is, it shall be personally visible to all. “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6: 14–17. O that these sublime words concerning this greatest event of human history, might be burned into our hearts and minds till all these mouthings of error and mysticism, these foggy fables of Satan, these peace-and-safety cries which lull poor souls into spiritual stupor, were forever driven from us! How can any person with any reverence for the Scriptures, and any regard for these plain statements of Christ and His apostles concerning His second coming, believe Mrs. Eddy’s teachings that the second coming of Christ has taken place already, and is fulfilled in the coming of Christian Science? It is very plain that her teachings on this subject, like those of Spiritualism, Swedenborgianism, and various others afloat to-day, that Christ has come in some spiritual way, come from Christ’s great adversary. Just at the very time the warning message that Christ’s coming is near is going forth to the world, just as Noah, the preacher of righteousness, warned the antediluvian world of a coming flood, Satan sends forth a multitude of opposing teachers to give the peace-and-safety cry, to tell us Christ has already come in a host of spiritual mediums, or teachers of Christian Science, who take Mrs. Eddy’s book as their Bible of authority. Our Saviour warned us plainly that just such things would come when the last days were reached. The last days have come. The signs of the end are fulfilling all around us. And lo, these teachers of error are crying, “The Lord has come already, the Lord is here.” Their teaching such blasphemous falsehood thus becomes a mighty sign that the last days of time are fully reached, and our Lord is near, even at the doors.