Comments

1. Joe says:

   Here is one that I actually put up:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L1nohh8vLA&feature=channelpage

   Reply   |   February 19, 2010 at 12:25 am
2. Avery says:

   Those are really awesome. I hadn’t run in to many of them We should inundate YouTube with good videos about CS! Great job!

   Reply   |   February 25, 2010 at 9:35 pm
3. Alan Baker says:

   Hi,

   I’m not a Christian Scientist but I have come across some useful insights in Science and Health. Examples: Atonement and Eucharist, p.18:6-16 and Christian Science Practice, p.364:17-31.

   The Bible says that God is love, and I know that this is a favorite verse of Christian Scientists. I believe, however, that where there is love there is also a relationship. If God is love then He is not alone. God is not the emotion itself -that would be “Love is God”. The relationship I’m referring to exists in the divine Trinity – the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. This means there is a creed and in CS, there is no creed.

   Also, CS seems to disregard (or not care about) the over-arching theme of the Bible which is the salvation of man and the fact of sin (living contrary to the will of God) and the curse man came under with that original sin. The Bible is about man’s reconciliation with God through the work of God Himself in Jesus Christ from Genesis to Revelation. As Jesus said, He is the fulfillment of the Law. His sacrifice at Calvary was the final act of God’s plan for man’s redemption. This act had many pictures in the Old Testament (the animal sacrifices).

   To be honest, I don’t understand a lot about Christian healing but I know enough to know that, while sickness and death were not part of God’s original plan for us, it is a fact of life, brought on by sin – and physicality is real.

   Jesus calls us to a higher life – life with His Father and our Father (God) and Himself. Unless the deity of Jesus is acknowledged (and Mrs. Eddy rejects this), then true Christianity is not being lived.

   Regards,

   Alan Baker

   Reply   |   March 10, 2010 at 11:46 am
4. Susie says:

   Alan,

   Thanks for taking the time to raise such good questions/points!

   You wrote this, and it doesn’t make sense to me: “This means there is a creed and in CS, there is no creed.” What implies a creed? Jesus didn’t lay down any doctrinal beliefs. He laid down his life – an active, healing, redeeming demonstration of love, and the source of that love: God, Love. Christian Scientists love and do their best to understand and follow Jesus’ original teachings and example.

   I think you’d be interested in the tenets of Christian Science. They do talk about sin and it’s punishment, as well as it’s forgiveness and destruction. You can find them here on spirituality.com: http://www.spirituality.com/dt/book_lookup.jhtml?reference=SH+496:30 #jumpto

   The words redemption and salvation also show up collectively more than 40 times in _Science and Health with key to the Scriptures_ by Mary Baker Eddy. That book is also on the website I linked to above.

   The Bible, Science and Health, spirituality.com, christianscience.com, and this website can all help you understand more about Christian Science. We hope you’ll come back here and share more questions and comments!

   Reply   |   March 10, 2010 at 5:03 pm
5. Howard Cornett says:

   Alan,

   My experience leads me to different conclusions than yours. You see, I was not raised in Christian Science. For me, the orthodox Christian faith I grew up in never made sense to me. The concept of God being three persons in one always seemed polytheistic, and I never understood how Jesus (if he is God) could pray to himself.

   Mrs. Eddy expresses a different sense of the trinity in Science and Health on pages 331-332. She says, “Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person called God, — that is, the triply divine Principle, Love. They represent a trinity in unity, three in one, — the same in essence, though multiform in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy comforter. These three express in divine Science the threefold, essential nature of the infinite.” This makes Christ the true idea of man’s sonship with God. We all express this but, as Jesus was the highest expression of it, we refer to him as Jesus the Christ or Christ Jesus. He was not God Himself. This finally made sense to me.

   I also don’t think that Christian Science ignores the theme of salvation. For me it gives a much more practical sense of it. As a teenager I came to be disturbed by the concept of Jesus “dying for my sins.” You see, I struggled with some sinful behaviors that I did not like in myself. After engaging in them, I always was regretful and prayed understanding that I was forgiven through Jesus’ sacrifice. However, this never prevented me from continuing in the same sin! So, I did not see how Jesus’ death was of any practical use to me. It may wash me of my sin, but it doesn’t prevent me from engaging in it in the first place.

   For me, this passage from page 19 in Science and Health states it best: “Every pang of repentance and suffering, every effort for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to understand Jesus’ atonement for sin and aid its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atonement, — in the at-one-ment with God, — for he lacks the practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables man to do the will of wisdom. Those who cannot demonstrate, at least in part, the divine Principle of the teachings and practice of our Master have no part in God.”

   Relating Jesus’ death to the animal sacrifice in the Old Testament seems like a step backward to me. Abraham felt led to sacrifice his son to God, but at the last minute God told him that this was not what He wanted. So, did God change His mind and decide to sacrifice His own son? If so, who did He sacrifice him to, Himself? Once again, it just doesn’t make sense to me.

   For me, simple belief in Jesus is not enough. How I live what he lived and taught is what makes me Christian, not whether I accept the concept of the trinity or that Jesus was God personally in the flesh or that Jesus died as a sacrifice for my sins.

   And I always had trouble with the whole concept of “original sin.” It always seemed so unfair to me that I have to pay for the sins of Adam and Eve. I didn’t eat that darned fruit! Why do I have to suffer? I learned when I read the Bible for myself that there are actually two stories of creation — one in Genesis chapter 1, the other in chapter 2. The first makes sense to me. God creates with His word alone and mankind (man AND woman) is the crowning achievement at the end of His work. The second is the Adam and Eve story where God has to perform surgery and wanders around the Garden of Eden asking where his creation is. This hardly seems Godlike to me. But it DOES serve to teach us the consequences of believing in such an ungodlike deity. In fact, the whole concept of “original sin” doesn’t even exist in Jewish or Christian history until Augustine of Hippo declared it in the fourth century.

   Yes, sin, disease, and death seem very real in our human experience and must be confronted compassionately and overcome. Yet, they are not God-created or God-ordained. Therefore, they must fall in the light of the truth that God made mankind spiritually free, whole, and perfect. When this is understood and applied in our daily lives, it brings healing.

   Howard

   Reply   |   March 11, 2010 at 12:05 am
6. Dawn-Marie says:

   I really appreciate this conversation. Thanks, Allan for bringing up these points.

   I was raised in CS. So, I feel like addressing the trinity idea might feel as though I’m trying to convert you or as though I’m close minded.

   I like what Howard said a lot. He had the experience of believing one way, reasoning it through, and coming to his own conclusions. I feel like his experience and perspective is particularly valid, and I don’t need to add to it.

   The one thing that I’d like to bring up is the concept of “God is love” that you mentioned.

   Like I said, I grew up in CS. So, the 7 synonyms that Mary Baker Eddy points out as biblical concepts and truly synonymous terms for God – Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love – give me the clearest perspective on my relationship to the divine.

   Love, as an equally valid alternate name for God, is not then an emotion but a divine presence and power. Divine Love, or God, is absolutely pure, available to everyone, equally bestowed on everyone, lacking in vulnerability, worry, anger, or hate. Divine Love is ever-present and eternal. Love, as a name for the infinite One, means that all of creation is the product of Love, and therefore all of creation has the qualities of Love – patience, meekness, compassion, tenderness, etc. – built in.

   Just because we may not understand our divine nature or always see this nature expressed does not mean that it is not there or is somehow invalid or not yet a reality.

   People used to think the earth was flat and that the sun moved while the earth stood still. Every bit of their experience told them this was true. It took courageous people willing to risk everything to have an idea that no physical evidence supported. This is usually how any gestalt shift happens, any profound change in thought and experience.

   Mary Baker Eddy, like so many other visionaries, introduced a profoundly different way of viewing life and experience that started a revolution of thought. She suggested that the material world was not what it appeared to be – fixed, cruel, and out of control. She postulated that God was not out of touch or only an after-life experience, but actually, literally what the Bible claimed Him to be – the All-in-all. She used Christ Jesus’ teachings and examples to guide her in her research, experiments, and conclusions. She valued his entire example, every bit of it, above all else and dedicated her life, heart and soul, to helping people understand the scientific provability of Jesus’ teachings and healing work. And she succeeded.

   Today, the shift is happening. Medicine is acknowledging more than ever before that a person’s thought and faith have everything to do with their health and well being. Physics is finding that matter is not what we have understood it to be at all but is the product of thought – literally. Studies in light have shown evidence of a consciousness in energy that, if proven to be true, will change everything we have ever thought before.

   So, the theological differences of the trinity or the divinity of Jesus become bickering points and nearly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. What did Christ Jesus tell us to do? What did he expect of his followers for all time?

   Christ Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and grater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father.” John 14:12 Jesus expected us to do what he did and to improve upon his example. He expected those who would claim to live life in his name to emulate him entirely.

   He did not ask us to say he was God. He did not ask us to focus on his death but on his life and resurrection. Later believes, such as Paul, had their own ideas about how to go about this Christ-like living, but it is the specific words of Christ Jesus that Mary Baker Eddy was able to put to the test and repeat the healing and saving work of her Lord and Savior.

   Christian Scientists are asked to do the same. Most of us don’t even come close to what she accomplished, yet. But, understanding our relationship to divine Life, Truth, and Love, to God, allows us, in equal proportion to our understanding, to demonstrate the works of our Master, and to know God, our Father/Mother.

   “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
   And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32 For me, the truth found in the Bible is best explained by Mary Baker Eddy. I have found no one else who has had a more clear understanding of God and Christ Jesus, and no one else that could prove it at her level. What I am learning has enabled me to heal myself and others and redeem myself from past mistakes and avoid current ones. I am, by no means, perfect, but studying and practicing Christian Science has given me a present glimpse of the divine nature of all things. It’s scientific. It’s provable. And everyone can learn it and prove it for themselves.

   Reply   |   March 11, 2010 at 11:30 am
7. Dawn-Marie says:

   Here is a really cool youtube video about different people who have helped the world entirely change the way everyone thinks.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmQRaBmJj3I

   Reply   |   March 11, 2010 at 11:54 am
8. Megwe says:

   I might have not checked a lot with youtube but when i was doing a term paper on something to relate on tribalism and nepotism.I found an article that has a quote from Mrs.Eddy on pg 333.It was written by people whom idont think they are C.S(s) but they realy gave the work enough credit.It meant to me that C.S is adored by many and we only need to shine with it as it impacts positive changes to the rest of people.

   Reply   |   July 19, 2011 at 7:17 am