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Mrs. Eddy's
Place
The 1943
Official Church Position The Church's doctrinal position of 1943 is as follows: The
position of The Mother Church as to Mary
Baker Eddy's place in the fulfillment of
Bible prophecy is clearly set forth in the
following paragraphs. These conclusions
are not new; they are confirmed by our
Leader's writings, and the steadily
unfolding fruitage of Christian Science
bears witness to their truth. 1. Mrs.
Eddy as the Discoverer and Founder of
Christian Science, understood herself to
be the one chosen of God to bring the
promised Comforter to the world, and,
therefore, the revelator of Christ, Truth,
in this age. 2. Mrs.
Eddy regarded portions of Revelation (that
is, Chapter 12) as pointing to her as the
one who fulfilled prophecy by giving the
full and final revelation of Truth; her
work thus being complementary to that of
Christ Jesus. 3. As
Christ Jesus exemplified the fatherhood of
God, she (Mrs. Eddy) revealed God's
motherhood; she represents in this age the
spiritual idea of God typified by the
woman in the Apocalypse. (See Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures,
p. 565:13-22.) 4. Mrs.
Eddy considered herself to be the
"God-appointed" and "God-anointed"
messenger to this age, the woman chosen by
God to discover the Science of Christian
healing and to interpret it to mankind;
she is so closely related to Christian
Science that a true sense of her is
essential to the understanding of
Christian Science; in other words, the
revelator cannot be separated from the
revelation. 5. This
recognition of her true status enabled her
to withstand the opposition directed
against her by "the dragon" (malicious
animal magnetism); she was touchingly
grateful to those who saw her as the woman
of prophecy and who therefore trusted,
obeyed, and supported her in her
mission. 6. This
same recognition is equally vital to our
movement, for demonstration is the result
of vision; the collecting of this
indisputable evidence of our Leader's own
view of herself and of her mission marks a
great step forward; wisely utilized, this
evidence will stimulate and stabilize the
growth of Christian Scientists today and
in succeeding generations; it will
establish unity in the field with regard
to the vital question of our Leader's
relation to Scriptural
prophecy. As we
record these important facts, we remind
Christian Scientists of our Leader's words
(Miscellaneous Writings, p. 308),
"The Scriptures and Christian Science
reveal 'the way,' and personal revelators
will take their proper place in history,
but will not be deified." The
Christian Science Board of
Directors As divergent teaching became more and more entrenched in the official Church organization, the Christian Science Board of Directors eventually rejected "Mrs. Eddy's Place" and withdrew the leaflet containing it from all Christian Science Reading Rooms worldwide, about the year 1979. In January 1991, the Directors wrote to all Journal-listed Christian Science teachers: "From time to time you may have been asked about the leaflet 'Mrs. Eddy's Place' and whether there are any plans to reprint it. While this statement prepared many years ago may have served a useful purpose at that time, it has not been reprinted for several decades, even though the subject has been thoughtfully weighed and considered by succeeding Boards of Directors. [Note: 'Mrs. Eddy's Place' was, in fact, republished by succeeding Boards of Directors in The Christian Science Journal of December, 1962, and the Christian Science Sentinel of November 17, 1962, and also as a leaflet in 1972.] It has become increasingly clear that items such as this leaflet could be seen to represent an 'official' statement [Note: that is exactly what the previous Boards of Directors intended.], or dogma [Note: are assertions of Jesus' fulfillment of Bible prophecy dogma? No, a Christianly scientific statement concerning the fulfillment of Bible prophecy is not dogma.], or even tend to supplant our Leader's own writings as a guide to her place and position." [Note: "Mrs. Eddy's Place" is based squarely on the Bible and our Leader's own writings—both published and private. The earlier Boards of Directors were not mistaken in publishing it. They knew very well that this brief position statement, rather than supplanting Mrs. Eddy's writings on her place, brought them into clearer focus. They recognized that the truths stated in "Mrs. Eddy's Place" were "essential to the understanding of Christian Science" and "vital to our movement."] To learn more about this subject, read The Christian Science Standard, Vol. 4, No. 3. |
