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295 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Balance

Ghost, Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love."

Christian Science makes a distinction between " mortals " and " immortals." " Mortals," who are not created in God's image, are simply human beings, " material falsities, errors which must dis appear to give place to the facts which 6. Anthro- belong to immortal man." The life of pology. these mortals, or temporal life, is a false sense of existence. " To him self, mortal and material man seems to be substan tial; but this is mere belief, or a false view of sub stance, and involves error." " Mortal man seems to himself to be substance, but he is `image ' " (Science and Health, 1034 ed., p. 197). " Mortal body and material man are delusions which spiri tual understanding and science destroy " (p. 198). " Mortals are material falsities " (p. 472). The " immortals " are the ideas or reflections of God, they always have been, never shall cease to be, and are absolutely perfect. According to this system the " immortal," the essential or spiritual man, " is coexistent and eternal with God" (pp. 231, 509), " has existed forever, and is always beyond and above the mortal illusion of any life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter" (p. 198), has no separate existence apart from God (p. 257), " possesses no life, intelligence, or creative power of his own " (p. 471), " is perfect even as the Fa ther is perfect " (p. 191), " can do no harm, for his thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God to man " (p. 283). The doctrine of man is stated in the paragraph on " Real Life " (p. 242) : " When Being is understood, Life will be recognized as neither material nor finite, but as infinite-as God, universal Good; and the belief that life, or mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that Spirit never entered matter, and was therefore never raised from it."

In its teaching on man Christian Science puts him on an equality with God in his origin, character, and eternity. It declares in unequivocal language that man never was formed from the dust of the earth, that God never breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, that in his case there is neither birth nor growth, maternity nor decay, that he is and always has been as perfect as the God whom he reveals and whose character he reflects. It is only necessary to compare this teaching with the Bible statements concerning man to see how widely Christian Science differs from the Bible on this subject. The Bible says: " God created man " (Gen. i. 27). That which is created can not be coexistent with its creator. The Bible represents man's life as a vapor appearing for a little time (James iv. 14), as a weaver's shuttle (Job vii. 6), as a hand-breadth (Pa. xxxix. 5), as a tale that is told (Ps. xc. 9). These and similar utterances do not accord with the idea that man is coexistent with and eternal like God. The Bible says that " death has passed upon all men " (Rom. v. 12), that " it is appointed unto man once to die " (Heb. ix. 27), that his years are three score and ten or four score (Pa. xc. 10). Such utterances contradict the Christian Science teaching that " man

is incapable of death." The teaching of Christian Science that " man is perfect even as the Father is perfect," is denied in such passages as Job ix. 20; Ps. cxliii. 2; Isa. ixiv. 6; Ephes. ii. 1, and similar passages, all of which are in line with the general teaching of the Bible. It is impossible to accept the teaching of Christian Science on the creation and constitution of man and the teaching of the Bible on the same subject. If one is true the other is false. They are distinctly unlike and there is no possible compromise between the two.

Long ago it was said that the sign-post at which true and false theology parts company is sin. Christian Science knows no such thing as sin. Dominated by the idea that man is coexistent with

God and has no actual entity apart 7. Doctrine from God (Science and Health, 103d

of Sin. ed., p. 471), Christian Science affirms

that sin is only a belief of mortal mind. Mrs. Eddy declares " man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death, inasmuch as he derives his essence from God, and does not possess a single original, or underived power. Hence the real man can not de. part from holiness " (p. 471). The dictum of Sci ence and Health is that " evil should de denied iden. tity or power, because it has none of the divine hues " (p. 475), that " evil is but an illusion, and error has no real basis, it is a false belief " (p. 476), that " evil can only seem real, by giving reality to the unreal " (p. 466), that " evil is the awful deception and unreality of existence', (p. 103). All these utterances are condensed in this one: " Evil has no reality. It is neither person (hence there is no devil, the idea is ` pure delusion'; (p. 559), nor place (hence there is no hell), nor thing (hence there is no accountability), but is simply belief, an illusion of material self " (p. 237). Growing out of this doctrine of the unreality of evil, Christian Science teaches that sin has no existence, that it is not of the verity of being, and that it " exists only so long as the material illusion remains " (p. 207). The Christian Science principle of the " unreality of evil " plunges a dagger through the Bible lootrine of man's moral accountability and lets out the very heartblood of the distinctive teaching of the Scriptures. The Bible says: "The soul that simieth, it shall die " (Ezek. xxviii. 4, 20); Christian Science says: " The soul can not sin." The Bible doctrine is: " If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (I John i. 18) ; the doctrine of Christian Science is: " Man is incapable of sin." The Bible statement is: " He is just to forgive us our sins " (I John i. 9); Christian Science says: " To suppose that God forgives sin is to misunderstand Love." The Bible declares: " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them,.shall find mercy " (Prov. xxviii. 13); Christian Science exhorts: Deny the reality of sin.

Denying the reality of evil and the existence of

sin, Christian Science denies the fact 8. The of the atonement. According to its

Atonement. teaching Christ did not suffer or

die to deliver men from sin. In fact Christian Science denies altogether the reality of the suffering of Christ and calls his death 11 the great