Christian Science a Misnomer
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Why I could not be a member of Christian Science
By Andrew Riffenburgh
The Christian Science church exhibits many of the common traits of all cults which are as
aforementioned in my report on Jehovah’s Witnesses:
My reasons for not being a member of the Christian Science Church are listed below.
From a Biblical aspect I could not be a member of the Christian Science Church, because most of its
key doctrines stand in direct antithesis to the Bible.
They deny the doctrine of the Trinity as Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health on page 256:
The theory of three persons in one god (that is personal trinity or tri-unity) suggests polytheism,
rather than one ever present I AM “Hear o Israel the Lord is one Lord””
The doctrine of the Trinity is clearly established through all of scripture. I do not believe that there is
three gods, but that there are three persons in one God. For instance in Genesis 1:26 we read of God
saying, to obviously the other members of the trinity which says “And God said, Let us make man in
our image,” For those that would say that He was speaking to angels, they must note that the Bible
says that angels are not made in the image of God like humans are, so then who else would He be
talking to?
Dr. Henry Morris of the Institute for Creation Research wrote this excellent explanation about the
trinity for those that deride the idea of a triune Godhead:
"Skeptics can deride the Trinity doctrine as mathematically impossible. One plus One plus One does
not equal One, but three. Nevertheless, the Bible reveals God to be a Trinity—one God in three
Persons. Are we naïve and credulous to believe such a thing?
Well, not really. It is also a remarkable fact that the divine Trinity, the tri-une God, has created a great
universe which is itself a trinity, with each of its three components also structured as trinities. This
would not necessarily prove that God is a Trinity, but it is a fact that needs explanation. Could God
have created it as a model (or type, or analogy) that would help people understand His own Nature, at
least in some degree?
Consider: The created universe is actually a tri-universe of Space, Matter, and Time, each
permeating and representing the whole. However, the universe is not partly composed of space,
partly of matter, and partly of time (like, for example, the three sides of a triangle). A trinity is not a
trio or a triad, but a tri-unity, with each part comprising the whole, yet all three required to make the
whole. Thus, the universe is all Space, all Time, and all Matter (including energy as a form of matter);
in fact, many scientists speak of it as a Space-Matter-Time continuum."
From a pragmatic aspect I could not be a member of the Christian Science Church because Mrs.
Eddy could obviously not live out her belief that suffering is merely an illusion and that the outside
world does not exist. This is evident because of her well documented use of Morphine and that she
could not remove the diseases of some of her closest friends or prevent her own death from
Pneumonia. Mrs. Eddy said that:
“the sick are not healed merely by declaring that there is no sickness, but by knowing that there is
none” (Science and Health,447).
If there truly “is none” why would she undergo such medical treatments?
I could not be a member of the Christian Science Church because of their belief that the Bible is not
100% accurate. They believe that the Bible is “full of hundreds of thousands of textual errors. … Its
divinity is … uncertain, its inspiration … questionable. … It is made up of metaphors, allegories,
myths, and fables. It cannot be read and interpreted literally”. The logical question of course is when
do the fables end and truth and reality begin?
Even if a person was to look at the extra-Biblical evidence, one would see that the Bible’s history,
anthropology, geology and astronomy all coincide with the facts we find. One example being that a
scientist that denies the authority of the Bible can have no explanation for fossil burial grounds that
we find all over the world that have sea creatures and land creatures deposited together. The Bible
states that there was a catastrophic world-wide flood which would have mixed all the creatures of
the earth and deposited them very quickly under tumultuous sediments. Noah’s Flood would have
had the right conditions to create fossils, and that is it that is what we find, sea creatures and land
dwelling animals buried together, that appear to have been ripped apart and deposited very rapidly.
This is just what we would expect to see if Noah’s Flood happened as recorded in the Bible. I state
this as one example of the reliability of the Bible, not to mention the accurate statements contained
within it about human nature and the innumerable prophecies that have come true. Of course the
Christian Science Church skirts around all of these statements by denying the existence of the
outside world, which brings me to my next point.
The church’s very name is nonsensical. For a person to be Christian one must believe in the words of
Christ and in His full deity and Godhead and the inerrancy of scripture. To deny any part of that
doctrine is to deny the very foundational aspects of Christianity. Science is the study of material
matter in a cause and effect universe. Christian Science denies the atonement of Christ and
existence of matter or pain. No human can live out their philosophy.
While the existence of the outside world is impossible to prove it is also impossible to disprove. It
can also be stated that all evidence supports that the outside world is as real as I or anyone else is. It
is a large assumption, but it is impossible to move forward in any logical thinking without making this
assumption. The existence of death, which Mrs. Eddy ultimately experienced, pain and disease make
the existence of the outside world abundantly clear. As any basic logic course says we know that we
are thinking, then we can logically say that those who think exist, therefore We exist.
I could not be a member of the Christian Science church because of Mrs. Eddy’s assertion that
Christ did not die on the cross. As was shown by Dr. Walter Martin, this quote from Science and
Health pgs 45-46 clearly shows that Mrs. Eddy did not believe in the death of Christ:
“Jesus’ students … did not perform many wonderful works until they saw him after his crucifixion
and learned that he had not died”
I might also add that the Christian Science Church does not believe that there is hell or eternal
punishment, which is another reason I could not be a member of their church. The following quote
should clearly demonstrate their stance.
“He atoned for the terrible unreality of a supposed existence apart from God (No and Yes, 55).”
The Bible clearly says that there is an eternal place of everlasting punishment . In Revelation 20:10 it
says:
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and
the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
It is interesting to note that this verse also confirms the existence of the person of the devil, Satan,
which the Christian Science Church also denies. This quote should certainly clarify the church’s
position.
Hence, evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a false belief. God is not its author. The
supposititious parent of evil is a lie (Science and Health, 48).
I cannot be a member of the Christian Science Church because it stands in great contrast to all true
logic and the scriptures from which it professes its founding.
Reference Notes
1. Taken from website http://www.spirituality.com/dt/book_lookup.jhtml?reference=SH%
2B256&marks=false&baseURL=/dt/book_lookup.jhtml
2. Taken from website
http://www.icr.org/article/2590/
3. I.M. Haldeman, “Christian Science in the Light of the Holy Scripture”, 377
4. “Me the Professor and Fuzzy” by David Pensgard; Published by Answers in Genesis 2002; Pages
37-67
5. See also Matthew 13: 41-43 which says:
41. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to
hear, let him hear.
aforementioned in my report on Jehovah’s Witnesses:
My reasons for not being a member of the Christian Science Church are listed below.
From a Biblical aspect I could not be a member of the Christian Science Church, because most of its
key doctrines stand in direct antithesis to the Bible.
They deny the doctrine of the Trinity as Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health on page 256:
The theory of three persons in one god (that is personal trinity or tri-unity) suggests polytheism,
rather than one ever present I AM “Hear o Israel the Lord is one Lord””
The doctrine of the Trinity is clearly established through all of scripture. I do not believe that there is
three gods, but that there are three persons in one God. For instance in Genesis 1:26 we read of God
saying, to obviously the other members of the trinity which says “And God said, Let us make man in
our image,” For those that would say that He was speaking to angels, they must note that the Bible
says that angels are not made in the image of God like humans are, so then who else would He be
talking to?
Dr. Henry Morris of the Institute for Creation Research wrote this excellent explanation about the
trinity for those that deride the idea of a triune Godhead:
"Skeptics can deride the Trinity doctrine as mathematically impossible. One plus One plus One does
not equal One, but three. Nevertheless, the Bible reveals God to be a Trinity—one God in three
Persons. Are we naïve and credulous to believe such a thing?
Well, not really. It is also a remarkable fact that the divine Trinity, the tri-une God, has created a great
universe which is itself a trinity, with each of its three components also structured as trinities. This
would not necessarily prove that God is a Trinity, but it is a fact that needs explanation. Could God
have created it as a model (or type, or analogy) that would help people understand His own Nature, at
least in some degree?
Consider: The created universe is actually a tri-universe of Space, Matter, and Time, each
permeating and representing the whole. However, the universe is not partly composed of space,
partly of matter, and partly of time (like, for example, the three sides of a triangle). A trinity is not a
trio or a triad, but a tri-unity, with each part comprising the whole, yet all three required to make the
whole. Thus, the universe is all Space, all Time, and all Matter (including energy as a form of matter);
in fact, many scientists speak of it as a Space-Matter-Time continuum."
From a pragmatic aspect I could not be a member of the Christian Science Church because Mrs.
Eddy could obviously not live out her belief that suffering is merely an illusion and that the outside
world does not exist. This is evident because of her well documented use of Morphine and that she
could not remove the diseases of some of her closest friends or prevent her own death from
Pneumonia. Mrs. Eddy said that:
“the sick are not healed merely by declaring that there is no sickness, but by knowing that there is
none” (Science and Health,447).
If there truly “is none” why would she undergo such medical treatments?
I could not be a member of the Christian Science Church because of their belief that the Bible is not
100% accurate. They believe that the Bible is “full of hundreds of thousands of textual errors. … Its
divinity is … uncertain, its inspiration … questionable. … It is made up of metaphors, allegories,
myths, and fables. It cannot be read and interpreted literally”. The logical question of course is when
do the fables end and truth and reality begin?
Even if a person was to look at the extra-Biblical evidence, one would see that the Bible’s history,
anthropology, geology and astronomy all coincide with the facts we find. One example being that a
scientist that denies the authority of the Bible can have no explanation for fossil burial grounds that
we find all over the world that have sea creatures and land creatures deposited together. The Bible
states that there was a catastrophic world-wide flood which would have mixed all the creatures of
the earth and deposited them very quickly under tumultuous sediments. Noah’s Flood would have
had the right conditions to create fossils, and that is it that is what we find, sea creatures and land
dwelling animals buried together, that appear to have been ripped apart and deposited very rapidly.
This is just what we would expect to see if Noah’s Flood happened as recorded in the Bible. I state
this as one example of the reliability of the Bible, not to mention the accurate statements contained
within it about human nature and the innumerable prophecies that have come true. Of course the
Christian Science Church skirts around all of these statements by denying the existence of the
outside world, which brings me to my next point.
The church’s very name is nonsensical. For a person to be Christian one must believe in the words of
Christ and in His full deity and Godhead and the inerrancy of scripture. To deny any part of that
doctrine is to deny the very foundational aspects of Christianity. Science is the study of material
matter in a cause and effect universe. Christian Science denies the atonement of Christ and
existence of matter or pain. No human can live out their philosophy.
While the existence of the outside world is impossible to prove it is also impossible to disprove. It
can also be stated that all evidence supports that the outside world is as real as I or anyone else is. It
is a large assumption, but it is impossible to move forward in any logical thinking without making this
assumption. The existence of death, which Mrs. Eddy ultimately experienced, pain and disease make
the existence of the outside world abundantly clear. As any basic logic course says we know that we
are thinking, then we can logically say that those who think exist, therefore We exist.
I could not be a member of the Christian Science church because of Mrs. Eddy’s assertion that
Christ did not die on the cross. As was shown by Dr. Walter Martin, this quote from Science and
Health pgs 45-46 clearly shows that Mrs. Eddy did not believe in the death of Christ:
“Jesus’ students … did not perform many wonderful works until they saw him after his crucifixion
and learned that he had not died”
I might also add that the Christian Science Church does not believe that there is hell or eternal
punishment, which is another reason I could not be a member of their church. The following quote
should clearly demonstrate their stance.
“He atoned for the terrible unreality of a supposed existence apart from God (No and Yes, 55).”
The Bible clearly says that there is an eternal place of everlasting punishment . In Revelation 20:10 it
says:
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and
the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
It is interesting to note that this verse also confirms the existence of the person of the devil, Satan,
which the Christian Science Church also denies. This quote should certainly clarify the church’s
position.
Hence, evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a false belief. God is not its author. The
supposititious parent of evil is a lie (Science and Health, 48).
I cannot be a member of the Christian Science Church because it stands in great contrast to all true
logic and the scriptures from which it professes its founding.
Reference Notes
1. Taken from website http://www.spirituality.com/dt/book_lookup.jhtml?reference=SH%
2B256&marks=false&baseURL=/dt/book_lookup.jhtml
2. Taken from website
http://www.icr.org/article/2590/
3. I.M. Haldeman, “Christian Science in the Light of the Holy Scripture”, 377
4. “Me the Professor and Fuzzy” by David Pensgard; Published by Answers in Genesis 2002; Pages
37-67
5. See also Matthew 13: 41-43 which says:
41. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to
hear, let him hear.
