Eve, head resting on right arm, looks forward resolutely whilst the left hand sneaks backwards to grasp an apple.
I can see how Satan tricked Mary Baker Eddy into believing the lies of Christian Science. He did the same thing with Eve when he made You out to be the bad guy:
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat” (Gen 3:1-6).
Satan’s like a Used Car Salesman, he tells the buyer only good things about the car and leaves out the fact that it won’t last long.
Mary Baker Eddy was sick and therefore vulnerable for anything to make her feel better, so after Quimby managed to heal her I can imagine the devil whispering lies that Jesus had nothing to do with it, that they themselves did it.
A lot like that book, “The Secret,” which we’ll talk about in 2 Corinthians. But tomorrow we’ll look at the last Lost City of South Asia and the Far East, which will be…
1 Corinthians 9
Christian Rights
1 Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord?
“Am I not an apostle?” – some at Corinth And elsewhere questioned Paul’s genuine apostleship. To certify his apostleship Paul gives this proof: that he has seen the Lord Jesus (Acts 9:1-9, 22:6-16, 26:12-18), as was true of the other apostles.
Furthermore, he adds that his ministry has produced true spiritual fruit for the Lord, which should confirm to them that he is indeed an apostle.
2 If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
4 Have we not power to eat and to drink?
5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
“Lead about a sister, a wife” – Paul asserts his right to be married, if he wishes. This does not mean that he was married, as some have imagined (see 7:7). Other apostles, including Peter had wives (Mk 1:30).
6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
7 Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
8 Say I these things as a man? Or saith not the law the same also?
9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
“They which minister about holy things” – the Corinthian believers would understand this illustration not only from their knowledge of the Old Testament (cf. Lev 7:28-36; Num 18:8-20). but also from the practice in pagan temples in Greece and Rome.
14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
15 But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.
“My glorying” – that he had preached the gospel without charge, so that they could not say that they had paid him for it.
16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
“Necessity is laid upon me” – the Lord had laid on Paul the necessity of preaching the gospel (Acts 9:1-16, 26:16-18; see also Jer 20:9).
17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.
“My reward…when I preach the gospel” – Paul’s reward in preaching is not material things but the boasting that he has preached to the Corinthians without charge and has not taken advantage of the rights he deserves: food and drink, shelter and pay.
Paul’s greatest reward is that he pleases God which God Himself will give him. Similar to churches that preach the “complete” truth of Jesus Christ and they are paid by passing the basket. There is nothing wrong with that and actually God ordained the action.
Yet, there are others, like the Catholics, some evangelists, like Rick Warren, and many Christian pastors, that are rewarded only by man because they don’t preach for the glory of god, but for their own glory.
19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
“Have I made myself servant unto all” – not only did Paul not use his right to material support in preaching the gospel but he also deprived himself – curtailed his personal privileges and social and religious rights – in dealing with different kinds of people.
20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
“Them that are under the law” – those under the Old Testament law and religious practices (the Jews).
“Are under the law” – for the Jews’ sake Paul conformed to the Jewish law.
21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
“Them that are without law” – those who have not been raised under the Old Testament law (the Gentiles).
“As without law” – Paul accommodated himself to Gentile culture when it did not violate his allegiance to Christ, thought he still reckoned that he was under God’s law and Christ’s law.
22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23 And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
“Race run all” – the Corinthians were familiar with the foot races in their own Isthmian games, which occurred every other year and were second only to the Olympic games in importance.
“Prize” – In ancient times the prize was a perishable wreath.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
“Crown…incorruptible” – see 2 Tim 4:8; Jas 1:12; 1 Pet 5:4; Rev 2:10, 3:11, 4:10.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
“Run, not as uncertainly” – see Phil 3:14.
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
“I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection” – here Paul uses the figure of boxing to represent the Christian life. He does not aimlessly beat the air, but he severely disciplines his own body in serving Christ.
“Lest…I myself…castaway” – Paul realizes that he must with rigor serve the Lord and battle against sin. If he fails in this, he may be excluded from the reward (see 3:10-15).
Christian Science
Eddy is the author of the movement’s textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (first published 1875), and founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist (1879).
She also founded the Christian Science Publishing Society (1898), which continues to publish a number of periodicals, including The Christian Science Monitor (1908).
Married three times (widowed twice and divorced once), she took the name Mary Baker Glover from her first marriage.
She was also known from her third marriage as Mary Baker Glover Eddy and Mary Baker G. Eddy.
Christian Science has been regarded as the most popular among the religious groups classified as mind sciences.
History
The story of Christian Science is largely the story of its rounder, Mary Baker Eddy (1821 -1910). Mary Baker was raised in a Congregationalist home in Bow, New Hampshire.
In 1838, at age seventeen, she joined a Congregational church in Tilton, New Hampshire, but never seemed content with its doctrines.
Eddy was plagued by illnesses throughout her life, including during her early childhood. In 1843 she married George Glover.
The happy marriage was not to last, ending one and a half years later when Glover died in Charleston, South Carolina, leaving his wife behind pregnant with a son, who was born in September 1844.
Her condition became worse than ever, and she grew extremely interested in the study of medicine and health.
Eddy married for the second time in 1853 to a dentist named Daniel Patterson. This marriage was not as happy as her first.
Patterson appears to have been a womanizer. In 1866 they were separated, and in 1873 she secured a divorce.
Interest in medicine led her in 1862 to Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-66), who resided in Portland, Maine.
She gave herself over to his care, as he treated her for “spinal inflammation.” Soon she claimed that Quimby’s treatments had healed her.
Quimby had been an early student of mesmerism and animal magnetism and espoused a theory of mental healing that he called “The Science of Man.”
Many scholars believe that Quimby’s work served as the basis for much of what Eddy later brought together in her Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, published in 1875.
Some sources maintain that she in fact plagiarized considerable portions from her mentor.
A third and final marriage came in 1877, when Mary Baker met and married Asa G. Eddy, from whom she derived her present name. He died shortly afterward of coronary thrombosis.
In 1866, following Quimby’s death, Mary retired and for nearly ten years worked on her Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
While most of these testimonies represent ailments neither diagnosed nor treated by medical professionals, the Church does require three other people to vouch for any testimony published in its official organ, the Christian Science Journal.
However, some[who?] critics of the Church complain that the verification guidelines are not strict enough.
The Church also has a number of statements regarding diagnosed conditions accompanied by legal affidavits of authenticity signed by medical practitioners who witnessed a non-medical healing.
Historian and journalist Robert Peel, who was a Christian Scientist, chronicles examples of these accounts, quoting from the affidavits.Four years later, in 1879, she founded the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.
In 1892, under a program of restructuring, it became known as the Mother Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist. It has been the headquarters of Christian Science ever since.
Eddy remained the head of the church until her death on December 3, 1910.
During the last twenty years of her life, Eddy had become a virtual recluse. She was not even present during the dedication of the Mother Church in 1895.
Since her death, control of the church has been passed on to a board of trustees.
One historian notes that “Christian Science is one of at least five large and easily differentiated religious movements that bear the stamp ‘made in America.’ Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Pentecostalism are the others.”
Growth was rapid during the 1880s. Membership climbed until around 1930, when it leveled off. Since 1960, Christian Science has been steadily losing members.
Christian Science has always tended to attract those who seek an intellectual alternative to the Christian answers to the problem of suffering and pain.
In 1991 the church entered into a controversy by agreeing to publish Bliss Knapp’s The Destiny of the Mother Church, a book that had been condemned in 1947 because it deified Eddy.
Encyclopedia Britannica 1992 Yearbook reports that the Knapps had left some $90 million to the church on condition that the book be published and prominently displayed in Christian Science reading rooms.
Opponents of publication accused the church of heresy in order to fund the controversial expansion of its media enterprises.
Organization
The headquarters for Christian Science is in Boston, Massachusetts. Eddy authored The Manual of the Mother Church in 1895, which was edited regularly throughout her life.
The Church’s board of directors is comprised of five members. Local congregations, called branches, are autonomous.
Originally from Concord, New Hampshire, Mr. Glover had established himself in business in Charleston, South Carolina. Mary Baker Glover first came into touch with slavery in the South.
Her husband owned some slaves and her sense of right revolted against the practice.
There are no ordained clergy. Readers serve for a three-year period as an aid in the study of healing and spirituality.
However, individual participants in Christian Science Reading Rooms, as they are frequently called, pray for themselves for healing. But they may also call on a practitioner who has received training in spiritual council and prayer.
Teaches
According to the Christian Science Church Manual, the whole basis for the church’s existence is to “reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.”
Basic to Eddy’s (Quimby’s) thought is the Greek dualistic concept that matter is evil. The material world is illusory. The only reality is mind.
There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.
It had been Quimby’s conviction that sickness was the result of ill-formed beliefs. Eddy apparently held to this idea as well.
She also believed that sickness was caused by evil or malicious animal magnetism, another aspect of Quimby’s thought.
All matter is opposed to spirit and/or mind—the substance of God. All sensory perceptions are deceitful. To believe that matter has or possesses reality is evil and a lie.
This led naturally to Eddy’s convictions concerning sickness and disease.
The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health; also a fear that Mind is helpless to defend the life of man and incompetent to control it.
Once a person realizes that sickness is nonexistent, for matter itself does not exist, then one will also realize that one is not, nor ever has been, sick in the first place.
Death itself is illusory because it pertains to the physical body— which is not real.
“Christian Scientists” elevate the writings of Mary Baker Eddy as being equal with the inspired Word of God, i.e., the Bible.
As with other Satanic religions, Christian Science follows the writings of a human being (Mary Baker Eddy) instead of the Word of God.
Mormons follow Joseph Smith. Jehovah’s Witnesses follow Charles Taze Russell. Scientologists follow Ron Hubbard.
Muslims follow Muhammad.
But in John 5:39 Jesus commanded… SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!!!
Death is but another phase of the dream that existence can be material.
What makes the unreality of sickness, disease, and death, or for that matter any sensory experiences, seem real is wrong belief.
Fundamentally, the difference between Christian Science and traditional Christianity is in the former’s insistence on a dualism between flesh and spirit.
Christianity encountered this philosophy early in its expansion into the Greek world surrounding the eastern Mediterranean.
Christianity, in its earliest form, knows of no such dualism. Paul reasoned that the spiritual warfare being conducted in his own person (Rom. 7) was warfare between the flesh and the spirit, or between the old Adam and the new Adam.
Nowhere, however, does he conclude that the Holy Spirit is battling an evil flesh. It is not the flesh that is evil, but rather, “it is sin living in me” (Rom. 7:17).
Augustine later picked up Paul’s view of himself and developed it, insisting that sin is a foreign substance that invaded the human race at the Fall. That which God created is good. Both body and soul are good.
It is sin that has corrupted humanity. Adam and Eve passed on this corruption through the human sex act (according to Augustine).
Christian Science, therefore, bears little resemblance to historic Christianity. Each is built on a different foundation—the former on the fundamentals of Greek and Cartesian dualism, the latter on a Hebraistic worldview and a biblical Monotheism.
God
“God” in Christian Science is synonymous with other concepts like mind, spirit, goodness, health, and well-being. Fundamental to Christian Science are the four points:
1. God is All-in-all.
2. God is good. Good is Mind.
3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter.4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease—Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipotent God, Life.
Christianity teaches that “God is a spirit” (Jn 4:24), that God is the Creator of the world and of matter (Gen. 1), and that the created world was “good.” Eddy taught that the historical doctrine of the Trinity should be ranked with polytheism.
Jesus Christ
He was a historical figure who lived nearly two thousand years ago. But as a man he was limited to a physical body and since matter is illusory, Jesus’ mission on earth was to teach humankind that any and all sickness is also illusory.
According to Christian Science, Jesus was not God incarnate in human flesh though he was born of a virgin. Eddy believed that Christ was an idea only.
Christian Science makes a sharp distinction between the “man” Jesus and the Christ, who envelops the “divine idea.”
Christ is the ideal Truth that comes to heal sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man, who, more than all other men, has presented Christ,
Traditional Christology maintains that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God, fully human and fully divine (Rom. 1:3-4; Apostles’, Nicene, and Chalcedonian Creeds).
Eddy eschewed the idea that Jesus’ human blood was necessary to atone for sin (1 Jn 1:7). Jesus’ humanity and divinity are so related that the human element (blood) is able to save because it is in complete relationship with his divine nature.
Holy Spirit
According to Christian Science, the Holy Spirit is defined as being “Divine Science” itself. It is also referred to as being eternal Life, Truth, and Love. Jesus “proved that Christ is the divine idea of God—the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth.”
She benefited temporarily by his treatment. From 1862 to 1865 Quimby and Eddy engaged in lengthy discussions about healing methods practiced by Quimby and others.
It is said by Quimby’s supporters that his beliefs influenced her later thinking and writing, although to what extent has been frequently disputed.
Originally, Eddy gave Quimby much credit for his hypnotic treatments of her nervous and physical conditions and initially thought his brand of mesmerism entirely benign.
An experience in 1866, when Eddy had a physical healing of serious injuries while reading the Bible, led her to investigate more and more into the system of healing she would eventually term “Christian Science.”
As understood in Christianity, the Holy Spirit is a person, not an idea or divine principle. The Holy Spirit is referred to as “Counselor” (Jn 14:16, 26), the “Lord and Giver of Life” (Nicene Creed), and Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit with the personal pronoun “He” (Jn 16:13).
Humanity
What is man? Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness…Man is idea, the image of love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas.
According to traditional Christian teaching, man is indeed comprised of a physical body. The name “Adam” means “ground” or “dust.” Man is comprised of a body and a soul, which are separated at death.
Sin
To Christian Science, sin is part of the illusory material world. It simply does not exist. “Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death.”
But sin is not an illusion for Christians. It was a real act committed first by Adam and Eve (Gen. 3) and is understood as a transgression of God’s law (1 Jn 3:3-5), for which Jesus made atonement in his sacrificial death (1 Pet 2:24).
Hell
Hell is “mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred; revenge; sin; sickness; death; sufferings and self-destruction; self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which worketh abomination or maketh a lie.”
Hell, therefore, is a state of mind or conscience stricken by illusion or guilt.
Christian Science once again departs from traditional Christian teaching regarding hell. Although there are varying interpretations, hell is regarded as the place of eternal torment for the unbeliever and the wicked.
Salvation
Salvation is “life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as being supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed.”
When one is liberated from the illusion of believing in matter on the one hand and sinfulness on the other, one has obtained salvation.
Christianity teaches that because sin is real and not illusory, salvation is also real and is a finished work that Christ earns through his sacrificial death (Rom 3:21-24). It is understood as forgiveness, not knowledge or enlightenment.
Church
The church for Christian Science is one structure on earth where truth and love dwell. Wherever such a structure is found, there lies the church. Furthermore:
The church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from the material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.
Christianity understands the church in a rich variety of ways, including “bride of Christ” (Eph 5:23.) and “the communion of saints” (Apostles’ Creed). It is comprised of believers in Jesus Christ, those who have been buried with Christ in baptism (Rom 6:1-3).
Sacraments
In orthodox Christian circles, the sacraments convey grace or at least symbolize God’s saving grace through physical means. Baptism uses water, and in holy communion, wine and bread accompany the ritual.
Not so for Christian Science. There can be no physical or material means through which grace is conveyed or symbolized. Matter simply does not exist.
The sacraments, however, are celebrated twice yearly. But no visible elements such as bread, wine, or in the case of baptism, water, may be present. The spiritual significance is sought. Baptism is “submergence in Spirit.”
End Times
Because the universe is comprised of God only, or Spirit only, there is no significance or direction in human history, nor is there anticipation that a transformation will occur in the future.
Heaven is defined as being “Harmony, the reign of Spirit, government by divine Principle, spirituality, bliss, the am Soul.”
For traditional Christianity, the end is that time when Jesus returns in glory (Mk 14:62; Acts 1:11) and as, the Apostles’ Creed confesses, “He shall come again to judge the living and the dead.”
Heaven is the eternity of God’s presence, where the Christian soul will reside in perfect union with God (Jn 14:1-6: Rev. 21:2-7).
In general, it is readily apparent that the heart of Christian Science lies in the dualism described above. All of its tenets are influenced by this overarching philosophy and worldview.
This belief differs drastically from the Christian position as expressed in the second article of the Apostles’ Creed, that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, was conceived and born, that he suffered, died, was buried, and was raised from the dead.
To traditional Christianity, herein lies the focal point of human history. For Christian Science, however, history itself is a nonentity insofar as it embodies the melodrama of a suffering humanity, which it concludes does not ultimately even exist.
Conclusion
Christian Science has been declining in membership in recent years. Nevertheless, it continues to exert an impact chiefly through the proliferation of its literature.
Controversy within the organization continues to revolve around the issue of healing through prayer alone, without the help of medicine or doctors.
…the Lost Cities of South Asia and the Far East: Fujiwara-Kyo.