The fundamental principle of Christian Science is that sin and disease have
no real existence. In fact, matter does not exist; mind is everything.
According to its teachings, God is an impersonal being; He is infinite mind.
Prayer to a personal God is a hindrance; true prayer, according to Mrs. Eddy,
being a soliloquy or auto-suggestion. The Lord Jesus Christ was the offspring
of Mary's self-conscious communion with God. To accommodate Himself to immature
ideas of spiritual power, Jesus called the body, 'flesh and bones'; which utterance
shows the concession He was willing to make to popular ignorance. Concerning
the resurrection of the Lord, we have the following blasphemy :
'The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from His foes', and there 'He met and mastered, on the basis of Christ Science, all the claims of medicine, surgery and hygiene'. When 'Jesus' students ... saw Him after His crucifixion' they 'learned that He had not died'. 'We were reconciled to God by the (seeming) death of His Son' (Science and Health, pp. 44 and 46).
As to sin, Christian Science teaches that it is an illusion, and as to the
atoning efficacy of the precious blood of Christ, it is altogether denied. Mrs.
Eddy states that the blood of Christ was of no more avail when it was shed upon
the cursed tree, than when it was flowing through His veins in daily life.
Christian Science is one of the cults that deal in healing. Its aim and method
is to persuade the patient that he is not ill, but that he only thinks that
he is. Cures are effected, but they are of the same nature as those wrought
at Lourdes, or at Pentecostal healing campaigns. Mrs. Eddy herself went to the
dentist to have a tooth extracted, and even had local anaesthesia. A beloved
fellow-worker in Christ, who is also a medical practitioner, said, 'Christian
Science heals all the diseases which do not exist', and one has only to become
acquainted with folk to know how many ailments are imaginary or mental. Christian
Science has not succeeded in raising the dead. It did not prevent its founder
from bowing to the death which comes upon all men, 'for that all have sinned'.
These are limitations which cannot be surmounted.
' ... they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men' (2 Tim. 3:9).