Christian Science: Truth and Error Compared
This article is part of a series examining what various religious movements teach on seven foundational doctrines, compared with what the Bible actually says. Source material for cult positions is drawn from Keith L. Brooks and Irvine Robertson, "The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error" (Moody Press, 1985).
Christian Science was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the nineteenth century and is codified primarily in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (abbreviated SH in citations below). Despite its name, Christian Science departs radically from historic Christian doctrine, redefining God, denying the reality of matter and sin, and reducing Jesus Christ to a spiritual "idea" rather than the incarnate Son of God.
1. God
What the Bible Teaches
Scripture presents God as the personal Creator who is distinct from His creation. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). He is the only God: "He is God; there is none else beside him" (Deuteronomy 4:35). Though God is Spirit (John 4:24), He is not identical with the universe. The Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is revealed at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:16–17), in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19), and throughout Scripture (Isaiah 48:16; 1 Timothy 2:5).
What Christian Science Teaches
"God is All-in-all" (SH, 113:16). "God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter" (SH, 113:18). God is defined not as a person but as "incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (SH, 465:9). God is "the only Life, substance, Spirit, or Soul. The only intelligence of the universe, including man" (SH, 330:11). "Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person called God — God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual idea of sonship; Divine Science or the Holy Comforter" (SH, 331:26–31). The personal Trinity is rejected: "The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a personal Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests polytheism, rather than the one ever-present I am" (SH, 256:9–11).
2. Jesus Christ
What the Bible Teaches
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:18; Isaiah 7:14). "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). He was declared the Son of God by His bodily resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4). He now lives to make intercession and will return bodily (Hebrews 7:25; Acts 1:11).
What Christian Science Teaches
"Jesus is the human man and Christ is the divine idea" (SH, 473:15–16). Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "If there had never existed such a person as the Galilean Prophet, it would make no difference to me" (First Church of Christ Scientist & Misc., pp. 318–19). "The virgin mother conceived this idea of God and gave to her ideal the name of Jesus. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious communion with God" (SH, 29:17–18; 32:30–1). The human Jesus "was not eternal . . . not one with the Father, . . . but fleshly." Christ is "the ideal Truth," "Divine Idea," "reflection of God." "The dual personality (Christ Jesus) continued until the ascension, when Jesus disappeared, while Christ continues to exist in the eternal order of Divine Science taking away the sins of the world" (SH, 334:10–20). The resurrection is spiritualized: "To the apprehension of his students our Master rose from the grave on the third day of his ascending thought" (SH, 509:4–7). "Resurrection is spiritualization of thought" (SH, 593:9).
3. Holy Spirit
What the Bible Teaches
Jesus promised the Comforter, "the Spirit of truth," who would testify of Him, convict the world of sin, guide believers into all truth, and teach all things (John 15:26; 16:8, 13; 14:26). The Holy Spirit indwells every true believer (Romans 8:9, 11). Believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).
What Christian Science Teaches
"Holy Ghost is Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love" (SH, 588:7–8). Eddy wrote, "In the words of St. John: 'He shall give you another Comforter . . .' This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science" (SH, 55:27–29). "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, (that is) Divine Science, the Word of God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, 'God is All in all'" (SH, 503:12–14).
4. Sin
What the Bible Teaches
"There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (1 John 1:10). "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4).
What Christian Science Teaches
"Here also is found the cardinal point in Christian Science, that matter and evil (including all inharmony, sin, disease, and death) are UNREAL" (Misc. Writings, p. 27). "Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death" (SH, 475:28). "The real man cannot depart from holiness" (SH, 475:29). "Sin, sickness, and death are to be classified as effects of error. Christ came to destroy the belief of sin" (SH, 473:4–6). "Evil is unreal" (SH, 339:9–10). "The only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring belief, until God strips off their disguise" (SH, 472:27–29).
5. Redemption
What the Bible Teaches
"We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Ephesians 1:7). "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18–19). "Without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). Christ "offered one sacrifice for sins forever" and "by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:12, 14).
What Christian Science Teaches
"Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love and this redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of the Spirit" (SH, 19:6–10). "The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical perfection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind" (SH, 24:27–28). "Atonement is the exemplification of man's unity with God" (SH, 18:1–2). "One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin" (SH, 23:3–4).
6. Salvation
What the Bible Teaches
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). Salvation is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy" (Titus 3:5). "By grace are ye saved through faith . . . not of works" (Ephesians 2:8–9).
What Christian Science Teaches
"The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon the accursed tree than when flowing in his veins as he went daily about his Father's business" (SH, 25:6–9). "Salvation is Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed" (SH, 593:20–22). "To get rid of sin through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelligence or power, pain or pleasure. You conquer error by denying its verity" (SH, 339:28–31). "Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration. There is but one way to heaven; harmony and Christ in Divine Science shows us this way" (SH, 242:9–10).
7. Retribution
What the Bible Teaches
"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). The dead "shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2). "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). The Lord Jesus will be revealed "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God . . . who shall be punished with everlasting destruction" (2 Thessalonians 1:7–10). Hell is a real place of unquenchable fire (Mark 9:45).
What Christian Science Teaches
Hell is "mortal belief, error, lust, remorse, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, death . . . that which worketh abomination or maketh a lie" (SH, 588:1–4). "No final judgment awaits mortals, for the judgment day of wisdom comes hourly and continually" (SH, 291:28–29). "Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven" (SH, 196:18–19). "Death is an illusion, the lie of life in matter; the unreal and untrue" (SH, 584:9–10). "The body cannot die, because matter has no life to surrender" (SH, 426:30–31). "Universal salvation rests on progression and probation" (SH, 291:12). "If man should not progress after death, but should remain in error, he would be inevitably self-annihilated" (Misc. Writings, p. 2).
All Bible quotations are from the King James Version. Cult citations are taken directly from the source documents as reproduced in Brooks and Robertson.