|
Study
Topics
For
more information on the teachings of Christian
Science, explore the following study
topics:
Angels
Animal
Magnetism
Baptism
The
Bible
CS
vs. Evolution and
Creationism
Christ
Jesus
Death
Devil
God
Heaven
Hell
Holy
Ghost
Marriage
Mortals
and Immortals
The
New Tongue
Purity
Salvation
The
Term "Science"
"Science
and Health"
Stages
of Advancement
The
Tenets of Christian
Science
The
Trinity
|

|
An Introduction to Christian
Science
SALVATION
References
for Study
The following passages are from the Bible (King
James Version), the writings of Mary Baker Eddy,
and The Christian Science
Journal.
Mark
16:16
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
but he that believeth not shall be
damned.
Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.
488:7
The Hebrew and Greek words often translated
belief differ somewhat in meaning from that
conveyed by the English verb believe; they
have more the significance of faith, understanding,
trust, constancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures
often appear in our common version to approve and
endorse belief, when they mean to enforce the
necessity of understanding.
Miscellaneous
Writings, pp. 77:1 - 78:6
Did the salvation of the eunuch depend merely on
his believing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God?
It
did; but this believing was more than faith in the
fact that Jesus was the Messiah. Here the verb
believe took its original meaning, namely,
to be firm, yea, to understand
those great truths asserted of the Messiah: it
meant to discern and consent to that infinite
demand made upon the eunuch in those few words of
the apostle. Philip's requirement was, that he
should not only acknowledge the incarnation,
God made manifest through man, but even the
eternal unity of man and God, as the divine
Principle and spiritual idea; which is the
indissoluble bond of union, the power and presence,
in divine Science, of Life, Truth, and Love, to
support their ideal man. This is the Father's great
Love that He hath bestowed upon us, and it holds
man in endless Life and one eternal round of
harmonious being. It guides him by Truth that knows
no error, and with supersensual, impartial, and
unquenchable Love. To believe is to be
firm. In adopting all this vast idea of Christ
Jesus, the eunuch was to know in whom he
believed. To believe thus was to enter the
spiritual sanctuary of Truth, and there learn, in
divine Science, somewhat of the All-Father-Mother
God. It was to understand God and man: it was
sternly to rebuke the mortal belief that man has
fallen away from his first estate; that man, made
in God's own likeness, and reflecting Truth, could
fall into mortal error; or, that man is the father
of man. It was to enter unshod the Holy of Holies,
where the miracle of grace appears, and where the
miracles of Jesus had their birth, healing
the sick, casting out evils, and resurrecting the
human sense to the belief that Life, God, is
not buried in matter. This is the spiritual dawn of
the Messiah, and the overture of the angels. This
is when God is made manifest in the flesh, and thus
it destroys all sense of sin, sickness, and death,
when the brightness of His glory
encompasseth all being.
Matthew
7:21
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in
heaven.
Matthew
5:20 except
...Except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven.
John
14:15
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Philippians
2:12 work
...Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling.
James
1:2 be
...Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves.
James
2:20
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without
works is dead?
Revelation
2:7 To, 11 He, 17 To, 26 He; 3:5, 12, 21;
21:7
...To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the
tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise
of God.
...He
that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
death.
...To
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the
hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and
in the stone a new name written, which no man
knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
...He
that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end,
to him will I give power over the
nations:
He
that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white
raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of
the book of life, but I will confess his name
before my Father, and before his angels.
Him
that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple
of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will
write upon him the name of my God, and the name of
the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which
cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will
write upon him my new name.
To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down
with my Father in his throne.
He
that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I
will be his God, and he shall be my
son.
Science
and Health, p. 39:4 He overcame
[Jesus] overcame the world, the flesh, and
all error, thus proving their nothingness. He
wrought a full salvation from sin, sickness, and
death. We need "Christ, and him crucified." We must
have trials and self-denials, as well as joys and
victories, until all error is
destroyed.
Science
and Health, pp. 24:20 - 26:9
Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of
Jesus chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all
sinners who ask for it and are willing to be
forgiven? Does spiritualism find Jesus' death
necessary only for the presentation, after death,
of the material Jesus, as a proof that spirits can
return to earth? Then we must differ from them
both.
The
efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical
affection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind.
The truth had been lived among men; but until they
saw that it enabled their Master to triumph over
the grave, his own disciples could not admit such
an event to be possible. After the resurrection,
even the unbelieving Thomas was forced to
acknowledge how complete was the great proof of
Truth and Love.
The
spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The
efficacy of Jesus' spiritual offering is infinitely
greater than can be expressed by our sense of human
blood. The material blood of Jesus was no more
efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed
upon "the accursed tree," than when it was flowing
in his veins as he went daily about his Father's
business. His true flesh and blood were his Life;
and they truly eat his flesh and drink his blood,
who partake of that divine Life.
Jesus
taught the way of Life by demonstration, that we
may understand how this divine Principle heals the
sick, casts out error, and triumphs over death.
Jesus presented the ideal of God better than could
any man whose origin was less spiritual. By his
obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritually
than all others the Principle of being. Hence the
force of his admonition, "If ye love me, keep my
commandments."
Though
demonstrating his control over sin and disease, the
great Teacher by no means relieved others from
giving the requisite proofs of their own piety. He
worked for their guidance, that they might
demonstrate this power as he did and understand its
divine Principle. Implicit faith in the Teacher and
all the emotional love we can bestow on him, will
never alone make us imitators of him. We must go
and do likewise, else we are not improving the
great blessings which our Master worked and
suffered to bestow upon us. The divinity of the
Christ was made manifest in the humanity of
Jesus.
While
we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with
gratitude for what he did for
mortals,treading alone his loving pathway up
to the throne of glory, in speechless agony
exploring the way for us,yet Jesus spares us
not one individual experience, if we follow his
commands faithfully; and all have the cup of
sorrowful effort to drink in proportion to their
demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed
through divine Love.
Science
and Health, p. 23:5
That God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved
Son, is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is
man-made. The atonement is a hard problem in
theology, but its scientific explanation is, that
suffering is an error of sinful sense which Truth
destroys, and that eventually both sin and
suffering will fall at the feet of everlasting
Love.
Science
and Health, p. 11:18
Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the
divine sentence for an individual's sin, but
because sin brings inevitable suffering.
Science
and Health, p. 38:21-24
Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the
physical senses, but his sufferings were the fruits
of other people's sins, not of his own. The eternal
Christ, his spiritual selfhood, never
suffered.
Miscellaneous
Writings, p. 123:20
The at-one-ment with Christ has appearednot
through vicarious suffering, whereby the just
obtain a pardon for the unjust,but through
the eternal law of justice; wherein sinners suffer
for their own sins, repent, forsake sin, love God,
and keep His commandments, thence to receive the
reward of righteousness: salvation from sin, not
through the death of a man, but through a
divine Life, which is our
Redeemer.
The
Christian Science Journal, July, 1905
Editorial by Annie M. Knott
A worthy
Christian woman who had been wonderfully healed in
Christian Science, after years of useless and even
harmful experimentation by physicians, said that
she could not accept its teachings, because they
seemed to ignore the blood of Christ, on which she
had depended for salvation. When asked how she
thought the blood of Christ was made available for
the salvation of mankind, she took refuge in the
doctrine that God pardons sin because of Jesus'
suffering and death,the shedding of his
blood. It was easy to explain to her that a great
mistake is made by those who fail to see the force
of the demand urged by St. Peter, that we should
become "partakers of the divine nature." Evidently
this declaration was based upon the Master's own
teaching, to wit, "He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him," a
statement which shows unmistakably that to be saved
by the blood of Christ we must partake of his
essential nature, which is spiritual, not material.
He who dwells in Christ, Truth, is saved (not will
be) from both sin and sickness, and the Master
proved it in healing both. This supreme
testthe indwelling of the Christ, with all it
involvesmust be applied by each one for
himself; until through "demonstration of the
Spirit" he is redeemed from all evil,is
satisfied with his likeness to Christ.
...
None are more ready
than are Christian Scientists to acknowledge the
good which results from faith in the teachings of
the Master, the possibilities of which are
infinite. They recognize that a higher
understanding of this teaching will prove beyond
all question what is meant by partaking of the
divine nature, and that this will inevitably lead
to the obliteration of sin, disease, and
death.
In order to reach
this consummation Christian Scientists know that
they must be cleansed and quickened by the blood of
Christ, spiritually understood and applied. Blood
has always been regarded as a symbol of life. A
depraved criminal is said to have "bad blood;" the
evil instincts of his mortal progenitors are
believed to have been transmitted to him. Far
different, however, is the case with him who is
"born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God." In his
immortal oration on Mars' hill, Paul declared that
God "hath made of one blood all nations of men,"
and that "in him we live, and move, and have our
being." As these great facts are kept in thought,
we come to know how "the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin." "We are also His
offspring," says Paul, and no mortal instincts are
transmitted by the blood, the life, which is from
the "everlasting Father," no hate, no fear, no sin,
disease, or death.
|