Unity School of Christianity: 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).
Unity School of Christianity was founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1889. Myrtle Fillmore claimed to have been healed of tuberculosis through the affirmation "I am a child of God and therefore I do not inherit sickness." Unity draws heavily from New Thought philosophy, Christian Science, and Hindu metaphysics, presenting itself as a positive, practical Christianity while systematically dismantling every historic Christian doctrine. Its God is impersonal principle, its Christ is a divine idea latent within every person, and its salvation is the mental realization of one's own divinity. Citations below use abbreviations from the original source: SU = The Story of Unity (Freeman); LT = Lessons in Truth (Cady); SB = The Science of Being and Christian Healing (Fillmore); UTC = The Unity Treasure Chest (Fillmore); MBD = Metaphysical Bible Dictionary; GP = God a Present Help (Cady); UM = Unity Magazine.
1. God
What the Bible Teaches
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). God is personal, distinct from His creation, and the only true God (Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 44:6). He is not an impersonal principle or the sum of all existence. He speaks, loves, acts, and judges.
What Unity Teaches
"God is not a person having life, intelligence, love, power. God is that invisible, intangible, but very real, something we call life. God is the total . . . of all good, whether manifested or unexpressed" (Cady, Lessons in Truth, p. 6). "I believe the Hottentot, or the truest heathen that ever lived, he who worships the golden calf as his highest conception of God, worships God" (LT, p. 126, cited in Martin, p. 279). "God is the always present, indwelling Mind. The Father within you . . . is in the spiritual realms which underlie all creative forces" (Fillmore, The Science of Being and Christian Healing, p. 9). "God is. Man is. We are now in the presence of that eternal Is-ness — Osiris and Isis are now our Father-Mother as fully as they were of old Egypt" (SB, p. 229). "God is Principle, Law, Being, Mind, Spirit, All Good, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Unchangeable, Creator, Father, Cause and Source of all that is" (SB, p. 15). "God is the substance, or real thing standing under every visible form of life, love, intelligence, or power. Each rock, tree, animal, everything visible is a manifestation of the numberless manifestations, or individualities. Each . . . contains the whole" (LT, pp. 8–9, cited in Martin, p. 281).
2. Jesus Christ
What the Bible Teaches
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus is the unique, eternal Son of God who became flesh (John 1:14). "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). He is not a universal "Christ principle" present in every person but the one and only Savior who died for sin and rose bodily from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Acts 4:12).
What Unity Teaches
"The Krishna of the Hindu is the same as the Christos of the Greeks and the Messiah of the Hebrews" (SB, p. 22). "There were in the person of Jesus two distinct regions — the fleshly, mortal part which was Jesus, the son of man; then there was the central, living, real part which was Spirit, the Son of God, the Christ, the Anointed. So . . . each one of us has two regions of being — the fleshly, mortal . . . and at the very center of our being there is the . . . Christ Child, the Son of God, the Anointed in us" (Fillmore, The Unity Treasure Chest, p. 49). "This Christ or perfect-man idea existing eternally in divine mind is the true spiritual, higher-self of every individual" (Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, p. 130). "This same Christ lives within us that lived in Jesus. It is the part of Himself which God has put within us, which ever lives there. . . . Christ within us is the 'beloved Son,' the same as it was in Jesus" (UTC, p. 51).
3. Holy Spirit
What the Bible Teaches
The Holy Spirit is a distinct person of the Godhead who convicts, guides, indwells, and intercedes (John 14:16–17; 16:8, 13; Romans 8:26–27). He is not a latent inner truth or impersonal substance.
What Unity Teaches
"The very spirit of truth lying latent within us, each and every one" (Unity Magazine, February 1918). "The Father is Principle, the Son is that Principle revealed in the creative plan, the Holy Spirit is the executive power of both the Father and Son, carrying out the plan" (MBD, p. 629). "Spirit is substance . . . that invisible, intangible but real something which as its indestructible core and cause stands under, or at the center of, every visible thing in existence" (Cady, God a Present Help, pp. 53–54).
4. Man and 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). Sin is real transgression against a holy God, not an illusion of mortal mind. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).
What Unity Teaches
"Man is made in the image of God . . . the divine spark at the center of his being . . . is very part of God Himself" (GP, p. 57). "God is within you. You can find Him there" (UTC, p. 29). "Every man in reality, is the Son of God, not a Son of God. We are all one in the One Mind, and do not exist as individualities in Divine Mind. Man is the manifestation of the 'only begotten Son' of God, or the Christ idea. . . . Therefore he is the Christ of God" (UM, February 1918). "God is good and God is all. Therefore I refuse to believe in the reality of devil or evil in any of its forms . . . I refuse to believe in the reality of loss of life, or death . . . I refuse to believe in inefficiency and weakness in ignorance, the reality of lack or poverty . . . hate or revenge" (SB, pp. 58–59). "In its virgin purity, the flesh is the immaculate substance of Being. If it appears corrupt, or subject to corruption, humanity has made it so through ignorance" (SB, p. 208). "The forgiveness of sin is an erasure of mortal thoughts from consciousness" (SB, p. 56). "Sin, sickness, poverty, old age, and death are not real, and they have no power over me. There is nothing in all the universe for me to fear" (LT, p. 35).
5. Redemption and Salvation
What the Bible Teaches
"We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Ephesians 1:7). "Without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). Christ's death on the cross was not a symbol or demonstration of overcoming consciousness — it was a real, substitutionary atonement for sin (1 Peter 2:24; Romans 5:8–9). Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8–9; Acts 4:12).
What Unity Teaches
"Jesus of Nazareth played an important part in opening the way for every one of us into the Father's kingdom. However, that was not through His death on the cross, but through His overcoming death" (UTC, p. 67). "That which died upon the cross was the consciousness of all mortal beliefs that hold us in bondage — such as sin, evil, sickness, fleshly lusts, and death — which He overcame" (UTC, pp. 68–69). "The error lies in the belief that He was the only begotten Son of God, and that He overcame for us, and that by simply believing on Him we are saved" (UTC, pp. 68–69). "Paul is responsible for . . . this throwing of the whole burden upon the blood of Jesus — that He was the great once-for-all bloody sacrifice, and that no other would ever be necessary. Jesus said . . . 'Follow me.' He meant: do as I do. I have overcome, now by following in my footsteps you shall overcome" (UTC, p. 69). "Being born again or from above . . . the establishment of that which had always existed as the perfect man idea of Divine Mind" (SB, p. 25). "The eternal life taught and demonstrated by Jesus is not gained by dying, but by purifying the body until it becomes the undying habitation of the soul" (UM, July 1922). "We believe the repeated incarnations of man to be a merciful provision of our loving Father to the end that all may have opportunity to obtain immortality through regeneration as did Jesus" (Unity Statement of Faith, art. 22).
6. Retribution
What the Bible Teaches
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). The wicked shall face "everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25:46) and "everlasting destruction" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Hell is real, and death is not an illusion (Revelation 20:11–15).
(Unity does not articulate a separate retribution section in the original pamphlet — its denial of sin's reality logically eliminates the need for judgment, and its embrace of reincarnation replaces the biblical doctrine of resurrection and final judgment.)
All Bible quotations are from the King James Version. Cult citations are taken directly from the source documents as reproduced in Brooks and Robertson.