“CHRISTIAN SCIENCE:” ARE ITS DOCTRINES TRUTH OR ERROR?
By George I. Butler
Mrs. Eddy’s Views of the Judgment and the Resurrection Examined.
“No final judgment awaits mortals; for the judgment day of Wisdom comes hourly and continually, even the judgment by which mortal man is divested of all material error. As for spiritual error, there is none.”—“Science and Health,” page 187. The fact of a future judgment day is thus positively denied by the “Discoverer of Christian Science.” What Does the Bible say on this point? “Because He [God] hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” Acts 17:31. “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” Rom. 14:10. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:14. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Heb. 9:27. As Paul “reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled.” Acts 24:25. “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” Rom. 2:2, 3. “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Matt. 12:36. These scriptures certainly prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a judgment day is before all mankind, where every one must give an account before the judgment bar of God. Reader, would you like to have a word picture of this grand assize? Then read the following: “I beheld till the thrones were placed [R. V.], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7:9, 10. This array of scriptures is not written merely to combat Mrs. Eddy’s foolish and infidel statement, quoted above. It does not deserve so much notice as that would imply. I have written them hoping that some honest, candid reader, desiring to know the truth of the Bible on this most important subject of a coming judgment in which every man living will have a case of his own pending for weal or woe, may see a few of its positive statements, and thus be made to realize what the truth of God’s word teaches. No man can thoroughly and understandingly believe the Bible and deny a coming judgment. This fact should deeply interest every one of us. Satan hates this doctrine exceedingly. Hence those doing his special work will deny the fact of that great coming day. None will stand justified and uncondemned in that grand assize but those who have repented of their sins, and received forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord. “For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” No belief can be more preposterous and unscriptural than this which teaches that man is his own judge, and sits in final judgment upon his own sins. This is a position quite commonly held, and Mrs. Eddy, with many others, is teaching it. Alas for them that hold it. They will find at last that God is judge of all, and will “bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Then our sins unrepented of and unforgiven will find us out, and sink us down to ruin. While Mrs. Eddy and Christian Scientists discard the second coming of Christ and the final judgment as taught in the Bible, they also utterly discard the resurrection from the dead. This statement really demands no proof in direct quotations from her doctrinal book, “Science and Health,” for all her views of death make a resurrection an impossibility. She teaches over and over that the real man is mind, or spirit, only. The body matter, has no existence at all, never had, and never will have. Matter itself, she sagely tells us, has no real existence anywhere in the universe. Mind, or spirit, is all that really exists. The body or any form of matter is a mere illusion. Of course, then, a mere illusion could have no resurrection. Not only does she teach this astonishing doctrine, but she tells us over and over dozens of times that mind never can die. It is really a part of God. It had no beginning and will have no ending. Mind is all. Hence, any one can see with such a belief, nothing could be more absurd than a resurrection. However, she makes this statement, “No resurrection from the grave awaits mind, for the grave has no power over mind.”—“Science and Health,” page 187. It will be seen, therefore, that in no sense do I misrepresent her when I declare emphatically that she utterly discards the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Let us now notice what the good old Bible, the word of God, has to say about it: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28, 29. Tolerably plain that is, Mrs. Eddy. She tells us that what was in the coffin and went down into the grave, was a mere illusion,—absolutely nothing at all, a mere figment of the mortal mind,—that there was nothing real about it. If so, it was a terrible illusion to some of us who have lost dear companions, dearer to us than life—snatched from our embrace by the fiat of Jehovah. “Dust thou art, and unto dust74shalt thou return.” To us it was very sadly real. Their dear forms we see no more, and shall not till Christ calls them forth from their graves, radiant with immortality, shouting the grand words of the apostle: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Poor Mrs. Eddy! We shall never be likely to exchange this grand hope of meeting our dear ones, whom Christ declares He will bring forth from their graves in triumph, for such nonsensical figments of a crazy imagination as she holds out to us. Hear the great apostle’s glorious description of this same event:— “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [“in no wise precede,” R. V.] them which are asleep. 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. 4:13-18. How precious is that last clause to all of us who have buried dear friends. We are not left to sorrow as those who have no hope. Ah, no! Christ has shed a glorious halo of light from the throne above, over the dark portals of the tomb. All that are in their graves shall come forth and live again. The judgment day will have had its session; then each class will have the reward they have lived for. Christ will say to His own, who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice,—those who have imitated the blessed Saviour in this probationary life,—“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” To the other class He will say, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matt. 25:31-46. The one class go into everlasting life. The other taste the second death, from which there is no recovery. This is the final disposition made of both classes. This we learn from many positive statements of Holy Writ. This indeed is quite different from Mrs. Eddy’s teachings. “Let God be true,” though every one else may teach falsehood. The resurrection of the dead is the grand hope set before us in the Bible. The patriarchs of old fully believed in it, and taught it. Hear Job, the perfect man: “If a man die, shall he live again?” Momentous question this, dear reader. Hear the reply: “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and after my skin hath been thus destroyed [R. V.] yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” Job 14:14, 15; and 19:23-27. This was the patriarch’s hope, the same as ours. Hear the sweet psalmist of Israel: “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” Ps. 17:15. Every child of God will be in the likeness of Christ’s resurrected body. As Paul says, “Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.” Phil. 3:20, 21. All the blessed saints raised from earth have bodies like Christ’s glorified body when He left old earth and soared away to heaven, there to remain till He should come again to receive us unto himself. Let the reader plainly remember that these saints are not disembodied spirits, without body or parts, not phantoms or ghosts; but they have real bodies, as Christ had when He ate the fish and the honeycomb, and said, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” That body has gone up to heaven—a real place—with the prints of the nails in His hands and feet and the spear mark in His side. He is there in the presence of the Father as our great High Priest. Let us hear from Isaiah, that wonderful prophet and seer, concerning his hope: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isa. 26:19. This prophet of the Lord does not talk much like this professed prophet of latter days, Mrs. Eddy, with her imaginary spirits too ethereal to cast a shadow. O, no! These who come forth from the dust and wake and sing have real bodies, as their Lord had when He ascended. Out of the vast number of scriptures that I might quote, clearly proving this glorious doctrine of the literal resurrection of the body, I will present but one more, for lack of space: “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” 1 Cor. 15:12-20. Mr. Webster’s definition of “perish” is “to be destroyed; to go to destruction; to come to nothing; to be blotted from existence.” Paul then emphatically teaches that our only hope of a future life depends upon a resurrection from the dead. But for the resurrection our future life is “blotted from existence”—“comes to nothing.” This we know is not in harmony with popular theology, nor with Mrs. Eddy’s teaching. But the word of God plainly bases our hope on the resurrection of the body; without it, “they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” This great cardinal doctrine of the resurrection is being ignored by many professed Christians, as well as by spiritual mediums and Christian Scientists. It is high time that the people studied their Bible more and believed its positive statements. It would preserve us from many last-day delusions, with which Satan is filling our world to-day. Not a jot or tittle of God’s word can ever fail. It is founded on the great rock of eternal truth. All else is shifting sand.