Christian Science in the Light of Reason and Revelation
By R. A. Underwood
VI. Christian Science, Pantheism, and Spiritualism Compared.
CHRISTIAN Science is pantheism and Spiritualism combined under a new name. A careful study of pantheism, Spiritualism, and Christian Science shows a marked similarity. The principal doctrines are about the same, with slight modifications. When any of these are tested by the word of God, it will be seen that they all emanate from the same source of darkness, and are all under the control and guidance of fallen angels. In this article I will note a few of the doctrines taught by Spiritualists, and the reader will readily recognize the similarity in their fundamental teachings to that of Christian Scientists. A Power above the Natural.
There is a power attending all these movements beyond and above the natural power of man. Dr. W. F. Barrett, professor of Experimental Physics in the Royal College of Dublin, says of Spiritualism: "It is well known to those who have made the phenomena of Spiritualism the subject of long and careful inquiry in the spirit of exact and unimpassioned scientific research, that beneath a repellent mass of imposture and delusion, there remain certain inexplicable and startling facts, which science can neither explain away nor deny."—"Automatic or Spirit Writing," page 11. Again, in "Automatic Writing," page 14, he says, "I am in possession of a respectable body of facts that I do not know how to explain except on the theory that I am dealing with some invisible intelligence." The Bible does not leave us in doubt with reference to what this intelligence is. We are admonished, "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass thru the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer; for all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord." Deut. 18:10-12. "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." Lev. 19:31. "A familiar spirit is one that comes at a call."—Webster. Of this ancient Spiritualism, which is only another form of pantheism, the apostle Paul gives warning concerning its reappearance in the last days in these words: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. 4:1. Of this same power and working, John on the Isle of Patmos says: "For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16:14. These are evil spirits, fallen angels, who disguise themselves, claiming to be the spirits of dead persons. Many are entrapped and thereby deceived, and led to deny their hope in Christ. Some of the Leading Doctrines of Spiritualists.
The following statements, showing some of the leading doctrines of Spiritualists, will be of interest in connection with the study of Christian Science. Spiritualists deny the Christian doctrine of salvation thru Jesus Christ. "What is the meaning of the word 'Christ'?—It is not, as is generally supposed, the Son of the Creator of all things. Any just and perfect being is Christ. The miraculous conception of Christ is merely a fabulous tale."—Spiritual Telegram, No. 37. Another authority among Spiritualists says: "Man is his own saviour, his own redeemer. He is his own judge, in his own scales weighed."—"Healing of the Nations," page 74. The Banner of Light, of Oct. 9, 1886, a Spiritualist paper, says: "Spirits do not accept the theory of the divinity of Jesus Christ. They do not believe that He was crucified for mankind in the accepted understanding of that term." W. F. Jamieson, a Spiritualist medium, in Banner of Light, April 12, 1871, says: "I do not believe in a personal God." A. J. Davis, medium and writer, in "Nature's Divine Revelation," page 521, says: "Sin, indeed, in the common acceptation of that term, does not really exist." Again, J. S. Loveland (Ex-M. E. minister), in Banner of Light, says: "Crime does not displease God. God is in the darkest crime as in the highest holiness. He is equally pleased in either case." A. J. Davis, Spiritualist medium, in a lecture on philosophy of reform given in New York City, makes the following statement: "In the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, it is affirmed that sin is the transgression of the law, but by an examination of nature, the true and only Bible, it will be seen that this statement is erroneous. It gives a wrong idea of both man and law. . . . It will be found impossible for man to transgress a law of God." The Doctrine Founded on the Immortality of the Soul.
It is hardly necessary for me to quote from Spiritualist authors or other sources to show that they found their teaching upon the doctrine of the natural or inherent immortality of the soul. Spiritualists, as well as Christian Scientists, regard man as a part of God. Hence they reason that he can not sin. If the opinion of John Milton, the celebrated author of "Paradise Lost," as expressed in his treatise on "Christian Doctrine," vol. 1, pages 250, 251, were accepted, it would be a cure, not only to the doctrines of Spiritualism, but also to those of Christian Science. He says: "Man is a living being, intrinsically and properly one individual, not compound and separable, not, according to the common opinion, made up and formed of two distinct and different natures, as of body and soul; but the whole man is soul, and the soul man. That is to say, a body or substance, individual, animated, sensitive, and rational." While the Bible uses the terms "soul" and "spirit" in the aggregate seventeen hundred times, it does not affirm in any instance that either the soul or the spirit is immortal, does not ever apply to them the terms "eternal," "deathless," "never-dying," or any word that bears the meaning of possessing immortality. However, it does say that God "only hath immortality." 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16. Man is exhorted to earnestly seek for immortality thru Christ, and is promised, if faithful, that he shall receive this boon of an endless life when "this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" at the resurrection of the just. Rom. 2:7; 6:23; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; Luke 14:14. The Similarity to Christian Science.
To show the reader the similarity of the teaching of Christian Science to the doctrines of Spiritualism, I will again quote from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," edition 1905, by Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, touching the question of salvation thru Jesus Christ: "One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made." Page 23. "Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced to fully 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." Pages 45, 46. "Science and Health," page 115, giving the scientific translation of immortal mind, defines it as follows: "God; Divinity; Principle; Life; Truth; Love; Soul; Spirit; Mind." These are all used as synonyms. Again it says: "Continuing our definition of man, let us remember that the harmonious and immortal man has existed forever. . . . The soul, the mind, of man is God." Page 302. "The immortal soul makes man immortal." Page 306. "Two essential points of Christian Science are that neither life nor man dies." Page 349. Again the reader will note a striking similarity in the teaching of Christian Science to that of Spiritualism with reference to sin. "To get rid of sin thru science is to divest sin of any supposed mind or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelligence, power, pain, or pleasure. You conquer error by denying its verity." Page 339. "All that mind, God, is, or hath made, is good, and He made all. Hence in reality there is no evil. . . . It exists only so long as the material illusion of mind in matter remains. It is the sense of sin, and not sinful soul,5which must be lost." Page 311. "Soul can not sin, for sin is not eternal verity of being." Page 468. Christian Scientists may deny any connection with Spiritualism or pantheism. However this may be, the facts remain unchanged that ancient Spiritualism or necromancy, pantheism, modern Spiritualism, and Christian Science are all off-shoots of the old philosophy and doctrine first advocated in Eden by the serpent; namely, that man can not die. Gen. 3:4. It was belief in this doctrine that led to the ancient pretended communications with the departed dead. It also developed the doctrine of pantheism. The same old doctrine was revived under the name of modern Spiritualism, which found millions of followers in the years 1844 to 1865. During this time of the rapid growth of Spiritualism, some of the leading Spiritualists advocated "free love," which led to the breaking up of many families, and brought the doctrines of Spiritualism under great reproach. At that time (1866) the master of deception changed his tactics, and with slight modifications, under a new and taking name, launched anew his old doctrine in the present movement of Christian Science. Millions from all classes of people to-day are accepting this same old doctrine, which denies the existence of sin and death, and thereby deceives man and destroys his only hope of salvation thru the Gospel of Christ. Dear reader, stop and consider well before you abandon your only hope of salvation thru the death of the Son of God. "Wicked spirits gather round thee,
Legions of those foes to God,
Principalities most mighty
Walk unseen the earth abroad.
They are gathering for the battle,
Strengthened for the last great strife.
Christian, arm! Be watchful, ready;
Struggle manfully for life."