Articles on Cults

Tom Forehand

(Tennessee Director of Watchman Fellowship, former pastor and graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville-'64) of UT (Knoxville-B.S. '68) and of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Fort Worth-M.Div.))

Madam, are you really a good mother?

According to "C.S." you probably aren't if you're the kind of mother who might have said to your child, "You look sick," "You look tired," "You need rest," or "You need medicine."

What is C.S.? Back to that in a moment; but first, have you ever made statements like these to your little ones?

If you have, then you should be alerted to the proclamation that: "Such a mother runs to her little one, who thinks she has hurt her face by falling on the carpet, and says, moaning more childishly than her child, `Mamma knows you are hurt.' The better and more successful method for any mother to adopt is to say, `Oh never mind! You're not hurt, so don't think you are.' Presently the child forgets all about the accident, and is at play."

These words come from the book of a woman who is one of the most well-known, religious and historical characters from America. These quotes are found in her book Science and Health (154:16-155:2).

She is a woman:

1. Who taught that the material world was unreal (Ibid, 127:19; 191:8-8; 277:30-32), yet she made "$10,000 [in material wealth] a year" by teaching its unreality (Christian Science, Walter Martin, p. 11);

2. Who taught that pain and sickness were only an illusion (Science and Health, 39:22-25; 417:12-13), yet she repeatedly used morphine (Martin, p. 5);

3. Who taught that sin was unreal (Science and Health 281:24; 418:12-15) also that the atonement of Jesus Christ was "insufficient" (Ibid 23:3-7), yet she was guilty of massive plagiarism (Martin, p. 13);

4. Who taught that there was no such thing as death (Science and Health 78:1-5). Once I had the opportunity to ask one of the members of her church: "This teaching of hers that death is only an illusion is very interesting. Where does this lady live? I'd like to discuss this issue with her."

Unfortunately, I was then informed that she had died early this century.

However, the legacy of this "Yankee" Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy (better known as Mary Baker Eddy) still lives on.

Christian Science (or C.S.) seems to have given birth to the Unity School of Christianity, one of the largest American religious groups in the widespread New Age movement today.

In a similar vein, Christian Science expounds: an impersonal God (who is a principle) or quality or the "Christ idea" which is available to all human beings such as it was to the man "Jesus;" thus, in C.S. "Christ" or the "divine idea" did not die on the Cross; only the man Jesus did (Ibid 361:1-5, 9-13; 473:10-17); that the material world is just an illusion or "maya" and is effected by one's mind (Ibid 127:19).

Christian Science parts ways with today's New Age movement in denying the doctrine of reincarnation (Pulpit and Press 38:23).

Though the legacy of Mary Baker Eddy may live on in the well-respected Christian Science Monitor newspaper, there is a darkside to this legacy - that is, the unwarranted death and abuse the innocent Christian Science children.

Though we shudder to think of the poison-laced bodies of children at Jonestown, Guyana, how many more children have had to die because their Christian Science parents have refused them adequate medical treatment?

Since Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health states that "the ordinary practitioner telling the patient that he is sick would naturally induce the very disease he is trying to cure" (161:24-29), no doubt, many sincerely, misguided Christian Science parents will not take their children to doctors for fear of actually instilling such diseases in the little ones.

Although we should have great compassion for C.S. parents who are free to choose to live in Satan's fairy-tale world of no sin, no sickness and no death, we must have even greater compassion for those innocent children who will suffer untold physical and emotional pain because of these misguided beliefs and practices of their parents.

Sad to say, even though Christian Science uses the word "Christian" in its title, it virtually denies every, cardinal, Christian doctrine in the Bible and it even calls into question the reliability of the Bible itself.

Christian Science is neither "Christian" nor "Science" as has been often said.