Christian Science Research Paper

Words: 1787
Pages: 8

The world is full of individuals with different values, priorities, and world views. World views can be as different as night and day. Surprisingly, sometimes, those who claim to have Christian world views, may not agree with or follow biblical principles. For instance, Christian Science bears the name “Christian,” however, it denies essential doctrines of the bible. While there are many differences between Orthodox Christianity and Christian Science, I will focus on only a few. We shall review what the Christian Scientist believes about the Bible, Jesus, and death. For starters, those who follow Christian Science claim that they follow the Bible. They do use the Bible, and as a matter of fact, the first tenet in the Christian Science faith …show more content…
However, they do not rely on the bible alone. They look to a lady named Mary Baker Eddy to give them the meaning of the Scriptures. Mary Baker Eddy was, “an influential American author, teacher, and religious leader, noted for her groundbreaking ideas about spirituality and health, which she named Christian Science. She articulated those ideas in her major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, first published in 1875” (The Life of Mary Baker Eddy). Mary lived a life plagued with health issues until one day she began reading her Bible and found herself to be healed. She then wanted to share with others how to be healed themselves and she wrote her interpretation of the Scriptures in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. In 1894, Baker and her followers built the first “Mother Church.” Madelon Maupin, President of Bible Roads, Newport California, describes the Bible as a way to understand God. She goes on to say that, “the Bible is God’s love letters to us through a couple of thousand years” (What Christian Scientists Believe). Oddly, while followers of Christian Science claim that the Bible is inspired, …show more content…
In Science and Health, death is defined as, “An illusion, the lie of life in matter; the unreal and untrue; the opposite of Life” (Eddy, 584, 1934). Christian Scientists believe that death and sickness are simply faulty ideas that need to be overcome. As a matter of fact, Christian Scientists not only deny death, but they deny Heaven and Hell as literal places as well. And since there is really no sin, then there is no judgement either. When speaking of the story of Lazarus, she denies that He really died. So, instead of Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead, He simply helped Lazarus to believe that he was not dead! “Jesus restored Lazarus by the understanding that Lazarus had never died, not by an admission that his body had died and then lived again” (Eddy, 75,1934). In the mind of a Christian Scientist, life is real and death is an illusion.
It should not take one long to come to the conclusion that there are some major differences between Orthodox Christianity and Christian Science. To be honest, Christian Science is neither Christian nor Science. The beliefs mentioned above do not correlate well with the Bible or the essential beliefs of the real Christian