Why I Left Christian Science
By
MAX WERTHEIMER, PH.D.
Ex-RabbiPrice 50c
Published by
DUNHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY
Findlay, Ohio
This booklet is dedicated "unto Him Who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own Blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. Unto Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."
—Rev. 1:5, 6. A.V.The Author's Appeal
The testimony recorded within these pages, so signally blessed of God, is given into your hands. You may share in spreading and circulating it where it may do good. It is but another way of planting the good seed of the Word of God. We have the infallible assurance of the Holy Spirit that His Word shall not return void but it shall accomplish that for which it is sent. (Isa. 55:11.) For His Word is "like as a fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces" (Jer. 23:29); for His Word is "living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Heb. 4:12.) "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (I Cor. 15:58).
In His Name I remain,
Your brother,
MAX WERTHEIMER.
November 15, 1934
Ada, Ohio
Why I Left Christian Science
BORN IN 1863 of orthodox Jewish parentage, in Baden, Germany, I grew up in a religious atmosphere. My father gave me every educational advantage, intending me to follow a business career. This, however, did not interest me. Because of frail health I came to the United States to escape compulsory military service. After my graduation from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, I entered the rabbinate. I was the officiating Rabbi at the B'ne Yeshurun Temple in Dayton, Ohio, for ten years.
During the later years of my rabbinate I was married to Miss Hannah Affelder of Peru, Indiana. After three short years of happy married life my wife died. Nowhere could I find comfort. Reform Judaism held nothing for me. I resigned my rabbinate, feeling that I must seek elsewhere for comfort. I dabbled in Spiritism, in Theosophy, and other such cults, finally lapsing into Christian Science. Here at last, I felt, was the thing for which I was looking.
While in Christian Science I went through class under Edward A. Kimball, in Chicago, Ill., and through the prescribed courses of lectures in the Metaphysical College of Boston, which granted me a certificate of C.S.B., which entitled me to teach Christian Science.
I became first reader of the 2nd Church of Christ, Scientist, and later first reader of the 1st Church of Christ, Scientist, Dayton, Ohio. I contributed articles to the Christian Science Weekly of Boston, and a number of weekly articles in the Evening Herald of Dayton; also several to the periodical The Christian Science Journal published at Boston, I introduced a number of Christian Science lectures to the platform in Ohio. Mrs. Eddy intended me to become a Christian Science lecturer for the public platform, according to her letter in my possession. Ail this occurred between January, 1900 and April, 1903.
A number of incidents set me to searching the Word of God, with the result that I left Christian Science. "A man," 'tis said, "should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."
I am glad for this opportunity to add a few words of gratitude to the Lord Who has blessed this testimony beyond my fondest expectation. May He continue to own, vindicate, and bless this edition, so that it might become instrumental in opening the eyes of many innocent victims of this heresy, and bring them into full fellowship with the God-Man Jesus Christ. May they receive and believe the gospel of God's Grace.
The above is stated in order to show the reader that I know whereof I write; that it is neither prejudice nor hearsay evidence that is submitted, but the outcome of real personal experience, to the end that the reader may understand that my action was the result of matured and impartial study of the written Word of God.
Honest error is to be pitied and not to be ridiculed. My business is not to attack the character of the thousands of men and women who are captivated by the delusions of Christian Science—I have nothing whatever to do with that—but as an ordained minister of the gospel set for the defense of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have to deal with the eternal facts of the God-inbreathed Scriptures of Truth. No one can adequately interpret the Holy Scriptures who is not regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and indwelt by God's power, or else the interpretation is bound to be wrong.
I now see in the light of Scripture, a host of objections to Christian Science, but will state only my most important reasons for withdrawing from it. The first of these is:
1. Christian Science looks upon the Lord Jesus on the cross as an Exemplar and Way-shower, but not as the real Paschal Lamb, the Sinless Sacrifice of God's providing, whose Blood was shed to take away the sin of the world, and the individual sins of the believer. John 1:29 A.V.—"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" I John 2:2 A.V.—"He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." I John 3:5—"And ye know that He was manifested to take away sins." I John 4:10—"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent HIS Son to be the propitiation for our sins." II Cor. 5:21—"Him who knew no sin He (God) made to be sin in our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Rom. 3:25—'Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His Blood, to show His righteousness for the remission of sins." The Word of God is very clear and explicit on this subject. Jesus Christ can be a "way-shower" and "exemplar" ONLY to those who receive Him as the God-appointed and God-accepted sacrifice who was offered up for their personal salvation from sin and sins. I Peter 2:21-24—"For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: Who His own self bare our sins in His body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by Whose stripes ye were healed." Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook, states on page 25: "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." First of all there was no such a thing as an accursed tree but there was One accursed on the tree as the Word of God very dearly states in Gal. 3:13 —"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse FOR US, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."
May I ask the question, "Was there as much efficacy or power in the live passover lamb which God commanded through Moses for each Jewish household, as there was in the blood of the dead lamb sprinkled upon the lintel and doorposts?" In God's sight it made a vast difference, for the Word of God distinctly specified and said, "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." Mind you what the unfailing Word of God demanded. Not "when I see your good resolutions, your firm intentions, your earnest prayers, your much almsgiving, your zealous works, your extreme fasting, your ethical culture, your fine morality, your good character, your penitent tears, your strong faith"—No, No, but, when I see the blood, I the Lord will pass over you, and safeguard you, and redeem you!" The lamb did not save by its innocence, spotlessness and example, but by its blood. What blood? Why the shed blood. Shed from the ceremonially clean lamb, the blood shed and flowing from the lamb that took substitutionally the guilty sinners' place and suffered the penalty for their sins —a judgment-death.
It was the shed blood from this spotless lamb, suffering for the first-born in Israel's households, which washed off the righteous wrath of God.
The shed blood was all God looked for on the door Post and lintel. It is all God looks for now. Col. 1:20—"And through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace through the Blood of His cross." Rom. 3:24, 25 —"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His Blood." Matt. 26:28—"For this is My Blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for remission of sins." A.V.
Rev. 1:5—"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His Blood."
Rom. 5:9—"Much more then, being now justified by His Blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him." Not the blood flowing in the veins, but the shed blood of a yielded and surrendered soul, for the soul resides within the blood.
Lev. 17:1l—For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I (Jehovah) have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul." Whose blood makes this atonement for the soul? Jehovah's Blood.
Suppose some esthetic and intellectually refined Israelitish critic at that time had indulged in this spiritualized reasoning, "Of what use is the sprinkling of blood on my door post? There is no sensation nor truth nor intelligence in material blood," and, acting upon this reasoning, had ignored God's specific ordinance—what then? The angel of death would have entered his home and that would have cost his firstborn's life. No it was expressly commanded, the pass-over lamb must be killed (Exod. 12: 6).
The Christian Scientist, the Unitarian, the Higher Critic and the champion of the New Theology says, "It is a shame that the innocent should suffer for the guilty. It is not fair, nor honest, nor moral, nor legal." By "innocence" they usually mean the innocence of an ignorant child that has no opportunity of contact with evil. But the innocence of the Lord Jesus was not the innocence of ignorance. His innocence was the purity of God's holiness and righteousness. "Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the Just (the Righteous) for the unjust, (the unrighteous), that He might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit" (I Peter 3:18). The word just implies a righteous mind, or, as Soltau puts it, a mind perfectly aware of the existence of sin, but uncontaminated by it. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have Power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father" (John 10:17, 18). If Jesus, as the Christ of God, suffered with the full consciousness of all it would involve Him in, and with the full consent of His will, and by the fixed purpose of His own heart, no objection can be raised.
Sacrifice has in it no idea of the appeasement of the wrath of an offended heathen god; but Holy Righteous Government demanded a settlement of the sin question. Sin caused the forfeiture of life under the law of God. The penalty was paid by the perfect God-Man Jesus, Who was sinless, holy, harmless, undefiled and undefilable; and only through His sacrificial judgment—death, could the mercy of God reach us, and God's justice be satisfied. The shed Blood of the Lamb of God is efficacious for the remission of' sins, as Scripture plainly declares. Heb. 9:22—"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. Rev. 1:5—Unto Him that loved us and loosed us from our sins by His Blood."
Eph. 1:7 A.V.—"In Whom we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace." Eph. 2:13—"But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the B1ood of Christ." Heb. 10:19—"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the Blood of Jesus." Heb. 13:12—"Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own Blood, suffered without the gate."
Christian Science flatly denies this and says, "One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin-the atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part." (Science and Health, page 23.) The Word of God forever settled in the heavens proclaims the very opposite of this. "Now ONCE at the end of the ages hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:26). And in the same Epistle the Holy Spirit says (Heb. 10:10, 14) Jesus came to do the perfect will of God. "By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For by ONE offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Glory to God—By ONE offering—once for all and for ever it is settled not by repeated acts of self-immolation!
Our righteousness in our unregenerated condition, says the Word, is like filthy rags in His holy sight. But praised be our heavenly Father Who has provided for us the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ!
Heb. 10:12—"But He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God."
"Being therefore justified by faith," and through His shed Blood (not by scientific reasoning), "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah forever contradicts all the literature written on the Christian Science delusion! Seven hundred and fifty years before Christ's incarnation, our God gave the perfect typical picture of the despised, rejected, crucified, and yet interceding Lamb of God. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes are we healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah had laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:5).
Here you have the vicarious character of the substitutional sacrifice, which neither Voltaire, Ingersol, Mrs. Eddy, higher critics, nor all the boasted scholarship can successfully overthrow, nor defeat! This is God's way, not man's. We can not save ourselves nor can we demonstrate ourselves into a salvation from sin, nor can we do a thing in our own strength.
"Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save and Thou alone!"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Saviour, or I die."That Saviour is the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is none other name under heaven that is given to men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). This is the Rock of Ages, stronger than a million Gibraltars, and upon this our salvation is based, not upon the meta-physical vagaries of erring and deluded mortals.
"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' Blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' Name."On Christ, the Solid Rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand."The Apostles believed, preached, and taught this sacrificial work of Christ; and it is a completed work, for Jesus cried on the cross, "It is finished."
Peter preached the remission of sins through the atoning Blood of Christ Jesus to all believers. I Peter 3:18—"Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God; being put In death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit." I Peter 2:24—"Who His own self bare our sins in His body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins might live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." I Peter 1:18, 19—"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your father; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (A.V.)
Paul, the Lord's first Apostle to the Gentiles, proclaimed, preached, and taught this atoning Blood sacrifice of Jesus —for Paul determined, when beginning his ministry to so-called worldly cultured audiences, to know nothing among them but "Jesus Christ, and Him crud fled" (I Cor. 2:2).
I Cor. 15:3—"For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures," (not as a moral example sent to save us from our personal sins). Acts 20:28—"Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of the Lord which He purchased with His own Blood." Acts 13:38, 39—"Be is known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man (Jesus the Son of David and Son of God) is proclaimed unto you remission of sins," (from the context it will be readily seen that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are referred to) "and by Him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses,"
It is a dangerous thing to deny all this and call God a liar. It is perilous to try to belittle the finished salvation of Jesus Christ to save sinners. Christian Science does both. God's plan of salvation through Christ may be ridiculed and criticised by puny intellects on earth; but it is owned and adored by myriads of redeemed ones in heaven (Rev. 5:7-10; 7:9-17).
2. My second reason for withdrawing from Christian Science is because it pretends to acknowledge One Supreme God and His Son and the Holy Ghost; yet in reality it belies all this by divesting those three names of their scriptural meaning. Christian Science has indeed a God, but a god without the personality as the Scriptures represent Him. The god of Christian Science is simply "Mind." Christian Science believes in the Son—but that son is simply an idea of the Infinite Mind. It denies the Sonship of Jesus as the Christ of God in other words, overthrowing the deity of the Lord Jesus. Christian Science believes in the Holy Ghost but a holy ghost who is not the co-equal with God and does not proceed from the holy and gracious Father and His Son,—our risen Lord.
Therefore, we point out the danger of Christian Science because it parades, as regards theological phrases, in seemingly scriptural dress. It is therefore a satanic counterfeit of the revelation of the Christ and His Church, of the Christ of God and His office work as intercessor. It obscures the Christ of the Scriptures, and cripples and paralyzes His efficacious atoning sacrifice in order to entrap and defraud, to blind and delude the unwary. Theoretically it says one thing in the stolen garb and language of Scripture, practically it means something entirely different from what the Scriptures it quotes imply.
As has been stated, the greatest blow it strikes is against the holy and worshipful person of the Lord Jesus. He is robbed of His deity, His lordship is ignored, and effectual worship denied Him in spite of the fact that the Word of God says that Jesus is "the great God and our Saviour" (Titus 2:13); that He is the true God (I John 5:20); that He is the eternal Life (John 17:3); that Jesus our Saviour is our God (II Peter 1:1); that the Holy Spirit calls Jesus God in Hebrews 1:8, 9.
Jesus Himself said that He, as the Son of Man, is Lord of the Sabbath, but the Lord of the Sabbath-law is the God of Sinai. Read the Lord's own claim to Deity as unfolded in positive declarations, and His authenticated witnesses of John 5:18-47. Yet though He was equal with God He gave up His external splendor and glory for thirty-three years, yea, and His rights as a man to say what He pleased, to do what He pleased, to go where He pleased (John 5:19; 6:38; 12:49, 50).
It is for this reason of humbling Himself, and emptying Himself, giving up His own rights, and only becoming the mouthpiece of God, that the Father exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every other name (Phil. 2:6-11; John 12:49, 50).
3. My third reason for withdrawing from Christian Science is that it ignores the symbolic act of baptism commanded as a mould of doctrine to the Church in the sixth chapter of Romans and in Colossians 2:12—3:25 which tells us what it means to live out this symbolism in our daily conduct, private and public.
Baptism is not essential to salvation, but it is essential to obedience to Jesus Christ as our Lord after we are saved, in order that our lives may be conformed to Him.
Baptism involves an immersion and an emersion, the immersion identifying us with the crucified Jesus in His death and burial to sin, and the emersion referring to the risen Jesus with whom we are united in His risen and ascended state, that we henceforth live on resurrection ground, and belong to the new creation of which Jesus is the Head, walking in the newness of this risen and ascended life. Romans 6:6, 11, 13; II Cor. 5:14, 15.
Christian Science denies that Jesus ever died. Science and Health declares. "Jesus was not dead when they took Him down from the cross. He let the people think that He was dead, but in reality He was only pretending to be dead." A pretender! "He was demonstrating the science of mind over the claims of matter in the tomb for three days. Hence, Jesus never having died it was unnecessary for Him to rise from the dead. Besides Jesus neither rose nor ascended, His body evaporated into nothing. 'The Eternal Christ Idea' went to where it was before." This heresy is too plain to need lengthy discussion. Is it any wonder that Christian Science ignores the two phases of baptism, the immersion and emersion?
The Word of God is very plain, for the apostolic teaching on this subject is so emphatic that we simply allude to some of its salient points.
On the evening of the resurrection Jesus asked His own doubting and disheartened disciples to handle Him and examine His spear wounds and the nail prints in His real fleshly body. He ate and drank before them, and on the day of Pentecost Peter proclaimed that the Jesus whom they crucified and put to death, God raised up from the dead. "This SAME JESUS did God raise up whereof we all are witnesses. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted... God hath made Him both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:32-36). Paul's Gospel emphasized that Jesus Christ was delivered for our offences and that He was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25; I Cor. 15:3, 4). If this same Jesus Who was crucified and died for our sins did neither die nor rise from the dead—then what? Seven facts follow:
- There is no resurrection for any believer.
- Apostolic preaching is void.
- Our faith is vain.
- The Apostolic witnesses were liars.
- We are all in our sins.
- Those who have died have irremediably perished..
- We are of all men most miserable (I Cor. 15:13-19).
Christian Science declares there are two persons, one Jesus and the other Christ. According to Science and Health, page 53, line 25, "Jesus was a transient fallible being, but the Christ is the idea of the principle." But says Christian Science, "Jesus is not the Christ." The Word of God says, "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" (I John 2:22). Mrs. Eddy said: "At the time when Jesus felt our infirmities He had not conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or His sense of material life." But the Word of God says: "Himself took our infirmities," not, felt our infirmities. (Mt. 8:16, 17; II Cor. 5:21.)
Jesus was the Christ, and is the Christ, and will be the Christ for ever. But remember on the right hand of God the father there sitteth a man-the glorified body of Jesus of Nazareth crowned with glory and honor. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth JESUS AS LORD and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised HIM from the dead thou shalt be saved," Rom. 10:9. Christian Science denies this and therefore cheats you out of your God-appointed joy and peace of salvation.
Therefore Christian Science is against the Word of God and ignores baptism which alludes to the substitutionary death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jonah was the type of this, and the same Jonah who was cast into the sea and symbolically died there, the same Jonah was raised out of the water by God's almighty power.
There are other beside Christian Scientists who think that water baptism is a carnal ordinance and that baptism with the Holy Spirit is the real thing of which water baptism is only a poor shadow. But the Apostle Peter did not share this view, for after the Holy Spirit had fallen and baptized the believers in Cornelius' household Peter commanded them to be baptized in water (Acts 10:44-48).
4. Christian Science ignores the Lord's own institution of His supper and instead substitutes a "spiritual breakfast."
The institution of the Lord's supper, as well as baptism we are expected to observe as obedient children bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless we comply with the things which He has explicitly commanded we are not His disciples, and can claim no scriptural fellowship with our risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 10:16-21; 11:25-33). Only baptized believers who walk orderly according to the Word of God have a right to go to the Lord's table.
Our business is not to criticize God's Word from our twentieth century intellectuality, cutting out what does not suit our depraved will, accepting only what appears refined, cultured, and unannoying to our carnal mind, but our business as the Lord's sheep who hear His voice and follow Him, is to obey God's ordinances fully and implicitly, not minding what modern scholars and infidels think to the contrary. The Lord rewards only the obedient ones (John 10:27-30). We are not to excuse our fleshly apathy on the plea that God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is here a matter of fellowship, obedience, and trust. There never was nor ever will be such a thing as a "spiritual breakfast" that is cooked over burning material coals.
The Lord Jesus says, "My Word shall judge you in the last day," John 12:48. We had better obey the Lord's unchanging Word rather than the fallible opinions and doctrines of men and women.
5. My fifth reason for withdrawing from Christian Science is that it denies the efficacy of prayer but believes in demonstrating the mental propositions of its false theories.
Science and Health, pages 7-23—"God is not influenced by man. The divine ear is not an auditory nerve." God according to this statement does not hear prayer. Mrs. Eddy in the same treatise says, "Petitions (to God) bring to mortals only the results of their own faith. God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already done." Then according to Christian Science prayer has absolutely no effect on God.
The Bible contradicts this most emphatically. Abraham prayed to God concerning Sodom and Gomorrah and the saving of Lot out of it (Gen. 18:19-33; 19:29). God heard the prayer and answered it by the sparing of Lot out of the overthrow of the cities. Evidently the Lord has a fine auditory nerve.
God answered Solomon's prayer (II Chron. 7:12-14). Hezekiah prayed, and God heard and answered (II Kings 20:1-6). Cornelius prayed to God, and God heard and specifically answered (Acts 10:1-33). The Lord heard the prayer of Zacharias (Luke 1:13).
Jesus our Lord Himself prayed and the Father heard and answered (John 11:41, 42). "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," or is "mightily powerful" (James 5:16).
Christian Science totally ignores the eternal high priesthood of the Lord Jesus. who constantly maketh intercession for those who have confessed unswerving faith in His propitiatory Blood.
The entire Epistle to the Hebrews is the strongest argument against the Christian Science view of prayer, atonement, and mental sanctification, especially Hebrews 7:23-26; 4:14-16. "And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but this Man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself." "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (A.V.)
Hebrews 10:19-23 emphasizes God's plan and purpose of putting Jesus, the glorified Son of man and Son of God on His right hand as the unchanging High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, for strengthening those of His children who call on Him in the hour of need. The deity and heavenly priesthood of Jesus is never acknowledged by Christian Scientists. No person's prayers or demonstrations could ever be owned or answered of God the Father unless one approach the Holiness of His throne according to the divine plan by the Blood-sprinkled way, and is sheltered under the precious Blood of Jesus. Deny the efficacy and sanctity of that Blood and your prayers are an abomination in God's sight. If you regard iniquity in your heart the Lord will not hear (Ps. 66:18).
We have to believe what God says, and not belittle what He says and toss it aside in our human conceit and pride, but believe it, act upon it and yield to it. When the snakebitten and dying Israelites in the wilderness looked to the brazen serpent they lived; they received health and life. Had they doubted God's message to Moses and failed to look to the brazen serpent they would have died (Numbers 21:4-9).
They had to look at a certain specific object and trust God for the result. Their business was not to think or do as they pleased but to implicitly believe God's Word and stake their all upon it.
As the heavens are higher than the earth so are God's ways and thoughts higher than man's. "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." (Also Isa. 55:8).
If Jehovah demands this look of faith and implicit obedience we can not afford to listen to any other method, no matter how charming, bewitching or scientific,—God never ordained it—the Lord never authorized it—the Genius of the Scriptures never declared it. We are not to obey human opinions or popular captivating doctrines of demons, but the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. The atoning work of Christ on Calvary is not only the way of salvation, but the only way to the throne of mercy, the only way to receive help from God, the only way to be kept from evil and discord day by day—then and not till then will He impart the spiritual power to further work out within us what He worked in from above (John 15:7; I John 3:22; 5:14; Rom. 8:26-28).
6. My sixth reason for withdrawing from Christian Science is the fact that Mrs. Eddy says that Divine Science, or Christian Science is the Holy Ghost. She also declares that she is the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, therefore she virtually declares that she is the discoverer and founder of the Holy Ghost—which is blasphemy.
Mrs. Eddy may have been sincere in her mistakes but sincerity can not save her nor any of her followers. The Holy Spirit existed before Mrs. Eddy ever was born; the Holy Spirit is the third person of the blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit, as the administrator of the Church of God, is given to the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ (for no one can call Jesus Lord, except in the Holy Spirit, I Cor. 12:3). The work of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin because they believe not on Jesus; of righteousness because Jesus is with the Father; of judgment because Satan, the prince of this world, has been judged. Christian Science denies the reality of sin, the reality of the risen and ascended Lord Jesus as our justification, and the reality of the devil. This plainly shows that Christian Science has nothing whatever to do with the Holy Spirit. The business of the Holy Spirit in the Church is simply to glorify the person of the Lord Jesus, not to demonstrate a cold, eternal principle. Thousands of people who have been led into Christian Science were not led into it by the Holy Spirit but by the rebellious spirit of Satan who made them give up the belief in the deity of Christ, His perfect atoning work on Calvary for the salvation of sinners, His resurrection from among the dead, and the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Most of those who have been members of other churches before they became Christian Scientists were never regenerated by the Holy Spirit, nor rooted and grounded in the faith once for all delivered unto the saints, nor yielded to the lordship of Jesus. Church membership does not save any one. It may breed a great deal of hypocrisy and delusive hopes if the Lord Jesus does not, through the Holy Spirit, regenerate the soul.
Mrs. Eddy may claim to have been a consistent member of the Congregational Church but like all her followers she was a nominal Christian, and therefore was never rooted and grounded in the faith as it is revealed plainly and unmistakably in the Word of God. Professing Christ without possessing Him and He possessing us, is pharisaical mockery. Christian ,Science is indeed the modem revelation of Satan to counterfeit God's provided salvation in Jesus and to run counter to God's good news from heaven which proclaims complete remission of sins to the sinner who, with repentant heart, turns to Jesus as the only sacrifice for sin which God has accepted by raising Him from the dead.
Christian Science, inspired by the malicious spirit of Satan, seeks to rob you of your peace with God, cheating you out of your eternal welfare and happiness by suggesting that the only salvation is that you suffer for your sins and by your own works gain that salvation. This is the trick and lie of Satan. Salvation by works, instead of by God's free grace!
The Holy Spirit preaches and reveals and teaches all things that would glorify "the Jesus" who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, lived the God-yielded perfect life, was crucified, buried and raised from the dead, and now sitteth at the right hand of God the Father, as Lord Almighty, who is coming again a second time for His saints and then with His saints to rule and judge the living and the dead. This is "the Jesus" which Christian Science denies, belittles and dethrones. Hence Christian Science is against the Jesus of Scripture, Who was begotten of the Holy Spirit, and therefore it is anti-Christian according to the Word of God. "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not or annulleth 'the Jesus' (mark the definite article) is not of God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist whereof ye have heard that it cometh and now is in the world already." (I John 4:2, 3, original Greek translation.)
When the Holy Spirit caused John to write these words it was at the close of the first century of the Christian era, at which time Satan had scores of gnostic, philosophical and metaphysical theories voiced through hundreds of false teachers in the apostolic Churches.
Christian Science is simply Gnosticism rehashed and dressed up in modern garb to suit the unsubmissive, unregenerate nature of modern man.
When the Holy Spirit is spoken of in the Greek, the masculine pronoun "He" is used. Mrs. Eddy says, "this Comforter I understand to be Divine Science" (S. & H. page 53). The Lord Jesus said, "I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that 'He' may abide with you for ever .... 'He' shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance," John 14:16, 26 A.V.
This pronoun "He" shows the personality of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13, 14 where "He" is used nine times) to be masculine, not feminine or neuter. Neither Mrs. Eddy as the author, nor Christian Science itself is the Lord's promised and given Comforter.
7. My seventh reason for withdrawing from Christian Science is that Mrs. Eddy claims that Christian Science of which she is the discoverer and founder is the promised second coming of Christ. Let me quote her own words from her autobiography, p. 96—"The second appearance of Jesus is unquestionably the spiritual advent of the advancing idea of God in Christian Science," while according to the plain teaching of the Lord Jesus He Himself is to come back in visible, bodily form as the Son of man (John 14:1). Jesus said, "I will come again"—I Myself, not My spiritual idea, not an abstract advancing spiritual principle. "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen HIM (and not it) go into heaven," (Acts 1:11 a.v.). From where did He ascend? From the Mount of Olives where His feet are again to stand when He will make Himself known unto Israel (Zech. 14:4). How did He ascend? In literal bodily form, visible to all that beheld! He will come back in like manner in visible, bodily form! How was He taken up? In the Shekinah cloud. Even so in like manner will He return when He will reveal Himself as the Deliverer to the faithful remnant of Israel, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The second literal coming of the Lord Jesus Christ has been looked upon by the Church as the "blessed hope." In First Thessalonians 4:13-18 we are informed that the dead in Christ and the living members of the Church will some day be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. According to Acts 3:19-21 the Lord Jesus must remain in heaven until the spiritually blind nation of Israel will repent, and when He shall come for the world as Judge every eye shall see Him, namely Jesus, Whom they have pierced (Rev. 1:7).
While the second coming of Christ, like the first coming, has various phases, we can assert positively that His coming is neither an influence nor a condition, nor a system, nor a science, nor a scientific principle, but the manner of His coming is personal, bodily, visible, sudden, and unexpected. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned more than three hundred and nineteen times in the New Testament alone. Any one who would deny this apostolic teaching is called anti-Christian and a deceiver, and is even forbidden fellowship in the Church. II John 1:7-11—"For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is the deceived and the antichrist .... If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house (the place where the Church was assembled), and give him no greeting, for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works."
Mrs. Eddy makes another blunder when she considers the Lord's parable concerning the woman who took one part of leaven and hid it in three parts of meal until the whole was leavened, as pointing to the discoverer and discovery of Christian Science. Whereas the real original meaning of the parable was to hint and to delicately portray how the pure primitive kingdom truth symbolized by meal (which stands for wholesomeness and purity) was to be interfered with or intruded upon by one part of leaven (which in Scripture always stands for evil, sinfulness, and corruption) until now in these latter days almost entire Christendom is saturated with the woman's leaven, and the majority of the professing churches are more or less in the process of being leavened into apostasy from the faith once and for all delivered unto the saints. Just as the leaven of the Pharisees was formalism and hypocrisy, the leaven of the Sadducees was rationalism and materialism and the leaven of Herod was wickedness and worldly politics. Had Mrs. Eddy considered the meaning of these facts she would never have said that she was the woman of the parable, for the woman of the parable was really doing a bad thing, dividing the good flour into three parts and mixing into it one part of corruption substance or doctrine. Woman in prophecy stands for the Church, but this evil woman of the parable is a mixer and corrupter and is none other than Babylon, the mother of harlots.
8. My eighth reason for withdrawing from Christian Science is that Mrs. Eddy ignores the reality of matter, saying that there is nothing in spirit out of which to create matter, yet she accounts for Jesus feeding the multitude with material loaves and fishes through spirit. How contradictory! She says. matter does not exist and is not real and then she flatly contradicts herself by saying that matter in the shape of loaves of bread and fish has been created through mind. Mrs. Eddy puts up a so-called scientific statement of being, namely, "There is no life, truth, intelligence or substance in matter," yet she says Jesus created matter out of spirit, though there is nothing in spirit out of which to create matter. This is as clear as mud!
What can not God in His infinite resources do and bring to pass! Mrs. Eddy has no revelation from God, nor from the Holy Spirit, nor from our Lord Jesus, to make such unscriptural statements of bewildering confusion!
This brings us to our next objection and that is in regard to the healing of the sick.
9. Mrs. Eddy claims that Christian Scientists obey Jesus' command to the Church to heal the sick and to preach the Gospel. Now the Lord Jesus Christ never commanded His Church to heal the sick. There is no healing, commanded to be performed either by demonstrating, treating, or mental processes. There was healing commanded by the Lord Jesus when He sent out the twelve disciples chosen from Israel, to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, simply in His name. In the name of Jesus, the Messianic King of Israel, the healing was performed. Judas Iscariot undoubtedly healed the sick and cast out demons through the name of Jesus, but those twelve never preached the Gospel of the grace of God which it is the business of the Church to proclaim, but they preached the Gospel of the kingdom.
In that Gospel there was no command to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, no command to preach the necessity of the new birth, but all that the disciples did was to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as they went they were to proclaim "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." That was all.
The healing that was performed was not because those twelve disciples had studied the science of mind over matter nor had learned to demonstrate and to heal according to a well regulated system of roles, but they healed in the name of Jesus, the Messianic King of Israel.
In First Corinthians 12:28-30 it is stated that it is the sovereign right of the Holy Spirit, as the administrator of the Church of the Lord Jesus, to give "gifts" dividing severally as He wills, and not as we desire or seek.
To some He bestows "gifts of healings." (Notice the double plural.) Gifts are temporary to serve a certain purpose. When the purpose is fulfilled the gift is withdrawn. Paul had a gift of healing imparted to him by the Holy Spirit and he could infuse healing power to handkerchiefs, but there was a time when he left Trophimus sick at Miletus.
Paul later had a thorn in the flesh which not even his threefold prayer to God did extract, and his son in the faith, Timothy, was afflicted with physical infirmities.
Now I deny that all sickness must necessarily be healed. God uses sickness occasionally to make unrepentant sinners think. There is also much unconfessed sin among easy-going Christians. God uses the painful physical smarts to awaken them to come back and get right with Him. It is true Jesus Christ is the Great Physician and can heal at any time and as many as He sees fit to heal. He will always honor faith in His complete Word. Men like A. B. Simpson have been honored of God and received many answers to their prayers.
The one hundred and third Psalm is not necessarily applicable in its every detail in this dispensation, so that Jehovah must now heal all our diseases. Of course Christians may now profitably apply the benefits of God's grace, and learn lessons therefrom. In Psalm one hundred and three Israel is addressed; Israel, who for nineteen hundred years, has been as I nation under the judicial punishment of God. In the last days that nation is to undergo the unparalled time of trouble under the antichrist.
After that crisis is once passed the Lord in compassion, under the millennial reign of grace and glory, will be merciful to the faithful nucleus of Israel, forgive them all their national iniquities and heal all their diseases. The Lord Jesus as Head over all things to the Church gave gifts unto men for the edification and perfecting of the saints that compose His Church (Eph. 4:8-13). We are told to preach the Gospel. Which Gospel? The Gospel of the grace of God. What is the Gospel of the grace of God? (I Cor. 15:1-4). That because of the atoning Blood and substitutionary death, burial and resurrection of Jesus our Lord, there is proclaimed to every one who trusts and receives Him as Lord, remission of sins, acceptance with God, justification, sanctification, inheritance, and eternal life. This is the Good News of God. Christian ,Science denies these stipulated conditions of the Gospel, consequently they do not preach the Gospel. It certainly is not the Gospel of God but the counterfeit gospel of Satan. "Oh, but they heal the sick," you say. Well, some of their healing works are superhuman, but not everything superhuman is necessarily divine. Satan is superhuman and Satan can heal. "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy .... And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast" (Rev. 13:1-3, 12, 14). This death stroke of an evil being, healed by Satan, is yet to take place. False prophets, false teachers and false witnesses have healed and will heal the sick (Dent. 13:1-3; Mt. 24:24; II Thess. 2:8-12) but it is a counterfeit healing. This is no proof that God healed them.
If people are out of fellowship with Jehovah they fall into the trap of Satan. There is a great deal of so-called healing in Christian Science which has shown a relapse of the old malady. The Christian Scientist, having no Gospel of the grace of God to preach, has no God-blessed healing of disease. They claim that they heal as Jesus did,—but Jesus never treated any one according to the so-called Christian Scientific treatment. The Christian Scientist dwells upon this hobby of treating disease, but our Lord's command to the disciples whom He sent out to proclaim "the kingdom of heaven is at hand," was that in His name they should heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the lepers, and raise the dead, and they did it. But why is it that Christian Scientists do not cleanse lepers? Why do they not cast out demons?
Why are not the thousands in the asylums and the maniacs in private sanitariums healed instantaneously in the name of Jesus? The same command which gave the disciples power to heal the sick also gave them power to raise the dead. Why are not the physically dead raised now in His name? Because this is not God's plan and method in this Church dispensation. Here and there we find wonderful answers to prayer for the healing of incurable diseases. God will have witnesses to HIS power according to the good pleasure of His will. However these wonderful redemptive healing powers will specifically be displayed in the age to come—following the present Church age. Not that God is not all-powerful now. He is. HIS power is unlimited! But He has a plan and purpose in HIS governmental method during this present gracious Church age whereby men are being called out of the world system into the Body of Christ. Healing may take place incidentally, but it is not the main issue during this age in which the Gospel of the grace of God is proclaimed throughout the whole world. He is simply calling out a people to manifest His Name, to exemplify the Character of Jesus Christ.
They claim to heal the sick, yet Christian Scientists wear eyeglasses, have their teeth extracted, wear artificial teeth like other mortals,—Mrs. Eddy herself, included. Their broken limbs are set by the surgeon, and obstetrics performed by a regular medical doctor. Why? Because their healing theories don't work instantaneously.
Our Lord Jesus never commanded His followers to build gorgeous temples, but to go into all the world and preach, teach and discipline people in His full and free Gospel. He urges us to accept His Word, to come unto Him if we thirst and hunger for forgiveness, power, righteousness, joy, and holiness.
It is sad, but true nevertheless, that the churches are in a lamentable apostate condition, consequently the gifts of healings are not manifested as they should be—but there are certain people whom the Holy Spirit has used for healing the sick either by laying on of hands or by the prayer of faith. The Epistle of James states that the elders of the Church should be called to anoint with oil the sick or troubled. But the elders of the Church are Gospel preachers who live godly lives and are in vital fellowship with the Lord Jesus. The healing is not for the unconverted but for the children of God who are afflicted. Jesus never healed any one after weeks of protracted effort but instantaneously. Modem healers when treating or demonstrating are usually at it for weeks. Their healing has a crisis, a process, and a climax. The Lord Jesus spake the Word and the healing was done!
10. My tenth objection to Christian Science is concerning Mrs. Eddy's conception of Jehovah. She asserts on page 140, line 23 of S. & H., 1914: "The Jewish tribal God was a man-projected God liable to wrath, repentance and human changeableness." She thinks that Jehovah was only a God of wrath, but that the New Testament has the God of unchanging love. Now I assert most positively that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is not only the redemptive name of Deity who loves and righteously saves sinners, but that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Christ of the New Testament. Far from being a blood-thirsty tribal God-Jehovah, the Lord is the One who meets every need of His covenant people.
1st—He is the Jehovah-Jireh. "The Lord will provide," as revealed to Abraham (Gen. 22:13, 14). Provide what? The substitutional sacrifice which spares Isaac, pointing typically to the vicarious Atonement of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Rom. 8: 32.
2d—Jehovah-Rapha—"The Lord the Healer" of His covenant people (Exod. 15:26).
3d—Jehovah-Nisi—"The Lord is the banner of victory in the midst of weakness" (Exod. 17:8-15). "Looking unto Jesus" in the conflicts of the wilderness and pilgrim experiences (Heb. 12:1, 2; Col. 2:14, 15).
4th—Jehovah-Shalom. "The Lord our Peace," Judg. 6: 24. In the midst of trouble and discord.
5th—Jehovah-Ro-ee. "Jehovah my Shepherd," Ps. 23: 1. Shepherding those for whom He died, and who are HIS own. He provides their food, comfort, and rest. The twenty-second Psalm is the crucifixion Psalm The Lord shedding His blood for sinners. But in the twenty-third Psalm we have the risen and ascended Lord Jehovah as the Great Shepherd of the sheep, providing the material and spiritual food for His Blood-bought people (Heb. 13:20). The twenty-fourth Psalm presents Him as "the coming King of Glory."
6th—Jehovah-Tsidkenu. "The Lord our Righteousness" (Jer. 23:6). That is what the Israel of the future will yet confess, flinging away their own righteousness as filthy rags.
7th—Jehovah-M'Kadesh. "Jehovah the Sanctifier of His People." Hebrews 10:10; Ex. 31:13; Lev. 20:8; 21:15; 22:9, 16.
8th—Jehovah Shammah. "The Lord is present" Ezek. 48:35. Namely in the future glory during the millennium.
What Jesus Christ is to His own, the Church, Jehovah is to His own people, Israel. The Church as well as Israel is a covenant people. It was for this reason our Lord said to the religious teachers of His time: "Ye search the Scriptures and they are they which testify of ME." When our Lord said this not a line of the New Testament had yet been written. Mrs. Eddy says the Jewish Jehovah is cruel, and savage, but the Word of God as recorded in Exodus 34:5-7 shows that Jehovah is the God of infinite love and compassion, as well as the God of holiness and righteous government. Mrs. Eddy cannot lay claim to Jewish scholarship when she makes such blasphemous statements. Does Mrs. Eddy realize that it is in the New Testament that we have not only God as love manifested, but also as the Lamb full of wrath and consuming fire, especially in the Revelation, which she either totally ignores or misunderstands?
Jehovah is not a "savage tribal God" but a Father with a Father's heart and a Father's governmental discipline within His own household. In Psalm 68:5 we read: "A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation." First Chron. 29:10—"Blessed be Thou, O Jehovah, the GOD of Israel our Father." Ps. 89:26—"Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation."
In Psalm 103:13 we read, "Like as a father pitieth his children so Jehovah pitieth them that fear Him."
In Isaiah 64:8—"But now, Jehovah, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hands."
Far from being a "jealous tribal God" as Mrs. Eddy states in her textbook, Jehovah is the universal God, the God of all nations. The Word of God is very explicit on this subject—I will quote just a few references.
"There is none like unto Thee, O Jehovah; Thou art great, and Thy name is great in might. Who would not fear Thee, O King of nations? .... For to Thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men and in all their royal estate, there is none like unto Thee .... But Jehovah is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King: at His wrath the earth trembleth and the nations are not to able to abide His indignation" (Jer. 10: 6, 7, 10). "For thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth loving kindness, justice and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith Jehovah" (Jer. 9: 23-24). "Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever" (Exod. 15: 18). "For all the gods of the people are idols: but Jehovah made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him, strength and gladness are in His place. Ascribe unto Jehovah, ye kindreds of the peoples, ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength; ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto His name, bring an offering and come before Him, worship Jehovah in holy array; tremble before Him, all the earth. The world also is established that it cannot be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, Jehovah reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field exult and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before Jehovah, for He cometh to judge the earth. O give thanks unto Jehovah, for His lovingkindness endureth for ever,' and say ye: Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together and deliver us from the nations, to give thanks unto Thy holy name, and to triumph in Thy praise. Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And all the people said, Amen, and praised Jehovah!" (I Chr. 16:23-36). In Psalm twenty-two, the crucifixion Psalm, we read in verse twenty-eight, "For the kingdom is Jehovah's: and He is the ruler over the nations." In the preceding verse we find the reason thereof. "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto Jehovah; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee."
Ps. 47: 2, 3, 7, 8—"For Jehovah Most High is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth. He subdueth peoples under us, and nations under our feet.
For God is the King of all the earth.
Sing ye praises with understanding.
God reigneth over the nations:
God sitteth upon His holy throne."In Psalm ninety-three the Holy Spirit speaks of Jehovah thus:
"Jehovah reigneth, He is clothed with majesty,
Jehovah is clothed with strength,
He hath girded Himself therewith:
The world also is established, that it cannot be moved.
Thy throne is established of old:
Thou art from everlasting.
The floods have lifted up, O Jehovah,
The floods have lifted up their voice,
The floods lift up their waves.
Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea,
Jehovah on high is mighty.
Thy testimonies are very sure,
Holiness becometh Thy house—O Jehovah for ever more!"The climax of this majestic voice of Jehovah, the universal King of the nations, is vividly and prophetically depicted in Psalm 29:3-11 and Psalm 18:7-13. That will be the great future event, the visible manifestation of Jehovah-Jesus at the end of this Church age. The same event is graphically outlined in Revelation 19:11-20:3.
Yet Mrs. Eddy as the founder of Christian Science claims that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is a tribal savage God, but not the dignified God of truth and love.
It was to Moses, the man of God, unto whom the despised and rejected Jehovah gave His assurance in the midst of one of the worst rebellions against His authority, that in spite of all the rebellions of the Korahs among God's people in all ages, He would rule and triumph. "But in every deed as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah," Num. 14:21.
Of this Jehovah and His glory, King Solomon wrote, "The heaven of heavens cannot contain Him."
The same Jehovah of hosts revealed Himself to Isaiah in chapter 6:1-13—but this gorgeous display of Jehovah the King, Whose glory is yet to fill the whole earth, was none other than the Christ of God. The Holy Spirit testifies in the Gospel of John 12:41—"These things said Isaiah, because he SAW HIS GLORY; and he spake of HIM" namely the LORD JESUS CHRIST. Read in this same chapter verses 42-50. These facts prove conclusively that Mrs. Eddy is ignorant of the character of Jehovah, and is therefore not a competent interpreter of the Word of God.
11. My eleventh reason for withdrawing from Christian Science is because it does not recognize Satan and his hosts as real beings. The words Satan and satanize occur nearly thirty times in the Old Testament, and scores of times in the New Testament. Every time Satan is represented by the Holy Spirit as a real being of mighty power, having under him in his fallen and perverted state "principalities and powers," "world rulers of this darkness, ....spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places," beings both angelic and demoniac. Satan himself desires that we be ignorant of his existence so that he may all the better perform his deceptive work undetected. Who else could have inspired the following, as found in Mrs. Eddy's Christian Science platform: "A lie is all the satan there is"? "There is no personal devil"? Our Lord Jesus Christ recognized the subtle personality who would have tempted Him from perfect obedience to the will of God. Anyone reading without bias or prejudice the fourth chapter of Matthew will never doubt the real personal enemy called Satan. "Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan." Observe the personal pronouns. He did not address Satan as an "it"—nor simply a "lie," but, a liar" from the beginning (John 8:44), a real malignant personality working against God and His Christ and Christ's people to mislead, sidetrack and switch them off the chosen and narrow path of duty to God. What did the Lord Jesus say to those plotting, religious, unbelieving, Hebrew and Greek scholars of His day? "Ye are of your father the devil (a person), and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He (Satan) was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father thereof."
Yet Mrs. Eddy says Satan is only an "it." God's unerring Word also calls Satan the "god of this age" (II Cor. 4:4). He is the counterfeiter of God's truth, inspiring such religious books as those on Christian Science, Mormonism, New Thought, Theosophy, New Theology, Universalism and Millennial Dawnism. Satan fashioneth himself into an "angel of light" and his ministers as "ministers of righteousness." That righteousness however, is a bloodless righteousness, not the righteousness of the Christ of God with which we are justified because God raised "the Jesus" from the dead (Rom. 4:24). The Holy Spirit calls Satan personal names: "The prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." "The prince of this world." Eph. 2:2; 6:12; Luke 4:5, 6; John 12:31; 14:30. "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom 'he' may devour," I Peter 5:8. Satan is mighty, don't forget that-and the only successful match for Satan is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who is ALMIGHTY, and He alone can and dare rebuke him (Zech. 3:2; Jude 1:9). The Satan of Scripture is a mighty being (Eph. 2:2, 3; Acts 26:15-18; Job 1; 2; II Cor. 4:4). Why then cannot Satan heal those whom he afflicts in order to draw them away from the Lord Jesus? There is satanic healing alluded to in Revelation 13:3, 12, 14 as previously affirmed.
He tests Christians either because they are out of fellowship with God, thereby stepping out of the straight and narrow way, or because of divine permission, as with Job the servant of the Lord. Never is Satan so dangerous as when he robes himself as an angel of light, and quotes Scripture in a perverted and irrelevant way to suit his own purposes. One of his clever tricks is to puff up a man or woman with self-conceit and pride, causing them to think what wonderful personalities they are, thus suggesting self-admiration leading into self-deification, and mistrust of God's omnipotent authority.
The devil's lie, older than the hills, is calculated to emphasize the greatness of the unconverted man and the smallness of God's plan of salvation. And Satan is as shrewd today as when he dared to tempt the Christ of God to make of the stones bread in order to alleviate His physical hunger.
Job the righteous man—protected by God is faithful, but let his body be smitten by disease and Io, we hear Satan reply to God: "All that a man hath will he give for his life," Job 2:4. Satan takes advantage of the infirmities of human nature, which he knows perfectly. Oh, this material life, how we hang on to it! For release from physical pain people are willing to accept the Christian Science platform, and thereby step on Satan's territory.
Satan does not exist at all according to Mrs. Eddy! It is a bad thing to deny the personality of the Holy Spirit; and it is evidently disastrous to deny the personality of Satan. Postulate the non-existence of Satan, and then, as has been well said, certain conclusions must necessarily follow:
- The fall of man is untrue (Gen. 3:3).
- Man is not incriminated in the fall of Adam for there is no Adam with whom to be identified—if the fall of man be a myth, and therefore we are not constituted sinners as the New Testament intimates, but are the perfect image and likeness of God.
- If man has no depraved nature he is not born in sin, nor shapen in iniquity—in fact, man has something good in him and needs only to be developed and cultivated. The third chapter of Romans is untrue as is Genesis three-stating in unmistakable terms the total depravity of the human race.
- If Satan is a fake and the fall of man is a myth, there is no need of the Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ fact, there was no need of a Saviour to come into the world and die a vicarious death for man's sin and its penalty.
- If the personality of Satan is a lie, then the personality of Jesus the Christ is a lie. If Satan is no person—Christ is no person. If the Christ was never impersonated in Jesus there was no wilderness temptation, no tempter to tempt and no tempted One to be tempted.
- If there is no Satan, no sin, no Christ, then there is no doctrine of future punishment, for there is nothing to be punished, no devil, no sin, no Atonement, no hell. Everybody is saved and will be saved.
- God Himself does not need to exist if yon deny the personality of Satan and you fall back upon the theories of evolution, and blind force by which things must exist even without a Creator. The snake story in Genesis is simply a vestige of superstition and ignorance, the history of mortal mind and, according to Mrs. Eddy there is no final future punishment.
But the Word of God is very dear on this subject and flatly contradicts Mrs. Eddy's vagaries and sophistry.
"II Cor. 11: 3—"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in 'his' craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ." See also First Timothy 2:14. The Apostle Paul believed the serpent story. Revelation 12:9 tells us who the serpent and seducer is: "And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, 'he' that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; 'he' was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with 'him.' And I heard a great voice in heaven saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ for 'the accuser of our brethren' is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night. And they overcame 'him' because of the Blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony."
Praise the Lord this defeat of Satan will soon be realized. No wonder the devil hates the Blood of the Lamb of God. No wonder Christian Science ridicules the Blood of the Lamb. "My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary."
Mrs. Eddy who ignores the final judgment day thinks God—Good always was, and is now, all in all. But God will not be all in all until all tyranny, anarchy, and rebellion are successfully crushed and quelled (I Cor. 15:24-28).
Deny if you dare the third chapter of Genesis, and you must necessarily deny the third chapter of John's Gospel. The integrity of the Christ of the New Testament falls the instant you question, attack, or suspicion the integrity of the Old Testament Scriptures. Our risen Lord believed in the verbal inspiration of the Old Testament (Luke 24:27, 44-47). He believed in the reality of Satan and the havoc sin has wrought, the barrier it has placed between man and God for "the whole world lieth in the evil one" (I John 5:19). The entire Tabernacle economy with the Levitical service including the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering were in behalf of sinning Israel in order that they might approach the Holy Jehovah God in God's appointed way.
It was the Gospel in types, as it were, to save Israel on credit or ceremonially from year to year (Rom. 3:23-25). It saved them from the displeasure of God and the power of Satan and judgment.
Having shown the Jehovah of the Old Testament to be the Christ of the New that Eternal Word that became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:1-12), it need not astonish us that that same Lord who rained actual fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah and judged them temporarily by submerging them into what is today called the Dead Sea—to be followed by a final judgment upon these cities (Matt. 11:23, 24)-should as Judge summon all the wicked dead before His White Throne to judge those who have wilfully refused to accept and follow the one way of eternal life (Rom. 1:21-32; Rev. 20:10-15; 21:8).
King Jehoiakim cut out with a penknife the undesirable Scriptures of judgment which the prophet Jeremiah penned by the Spirit of God, and thrust them into the fire. But that did not counteract the awful sentence of judgment upon the rebellious king and his apostate kingdom.
In spite of the higher critic's use of the knife to cut out all undesirable Scriptures, God's Word will stand precisely as He has spoken, even though Satan cause them to assume an indifferent independent stand against the Lord and Judge.
Mrs. Eddy opposes the second and third chapters of Genesis, and all those chapters that speak of temporary and eternal judgments by saying that it is simply mortal mind, error, a false belief. But every word of God is true and "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching& for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness in order that the man of God may be complete, furnished unto every good work" (II Tim. 3:15-17 A.V.). Rom. 15:4—"For whatsoever things were written aforetime (in the O.T. from Genesis to Malachi) were written for our learning, that through stedfastness and through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope." Millions of so-called cultured atheists may live and laugh and assert that there is no personal Satan, no personal accountability for rejecting His way, no final judgment, but Jehovah will see to it that His Word shall be fulfilled literally. What does our Lord and Christ and the immaculate God-head care whether self-willed men and women shall disagree with what the prophets of God have predicted should come to pass, by denying His message of terrific judgments? The Holy Spirit is perfectly dear on that score when He says: "Knowing this first (as a fast point of emphasis), that No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:20, 21).
The "Fatherhood of God" and the "brotherhood of man" proclaimed by lodges, unspiritual ministers, Unitarians, Christian Scientists, etc., are simply doctrines of demons, concocted by Satan himself. The whole system is a falsehood and not according to the council of the Lord. The popular belief that men by nature know the Father is in direct opposition to Matthew 11:27 and Galatians 3:26. Such passages as John 1:12, 13; Romans 8:9 expose this satanic doctrine as being contrary to the Word of God.
We are indeed all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. What kind of faith, and in whom? Faith in that Christ Jesus who "redeemeth us from the curse of the law, having b#come a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). Faith in His death, burial and resurrection all of which Christian Science denies.
"As many as received Him to them gave He power to become the children of God' Mind you as many as received "HIM." Whom? The Person whom John the Baptist pointed out, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), namely, the Sin-bearer and the sinner's Substitute. Christian Science knows no sin-bearer and sinner's substitute. Christian Science is a misnomer and has no fight to be called by the name Christian. Christian Science is energized not by the Spirit of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but by the spirit of Satan which denieth "The Jesus" of Scripture. "If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His," Rom. 8:9; Matt. 11:27.
12. My twelfth reason for withdrawing from Christian Science is that it fails to witness for Christ by self-sacrificing missionary activities. Christian Scientists are taught that the sick and suffering must come to the practitioner in order to receive aid and healing.
Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, that is to say, He came to seek and save sinners, harlots, drunkards, gamblers, thieves. Our risen Lord before His ascension told His disciples to go out into all the world and proclaim the good news of a crucified, risen and ascended Lord Jesus, and that as the Father had sent Him, so He would send them equipped and anointed by the Holy Spirit.
We recall our Lord's parable of the Good Samaritan who went to the wounded and suffering one—not waiting in ease, mind you, and saying, "Come to me and I will pour oil and wine upon your wounds"—no indeed, he himself went to the suffering man and ministered to him.
Christian Science teaches that there is in reality no such a thing as a lost sinner, no sin and no suffering. Such an heresy would speedily prove its utter insufficiency upon the lives of the depraved, debased, and brokenhearted sinners in the garrets of poverty and social cellars of infamy.
The Christian Scientist confessing that he is not a Blood-bought sinner saved by the grace of God is therefore incapable of doing missionary work for a crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus!
We are nowhere commanded to treat and demonstrate the "Christ-principle"—but to be united to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, and until we are we cannot be anointed for His service, nor can we be chosen vessels fit for the Master's use and testimony.
It won't do to spiritualize the plain teaching of God's Word, giving it a meaning that robs it of its power, denying the atoning sacrificial work of Christ, the literal injunction of the ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, the literal resurrection of Jesus from among the dead by the exceeding greatness of God's power. In like manner denying the Power of prayer to a personal God, claiming it to be a hindrance to spiritual progress; denying the deity of Jesus as the Son of God; denying the high priesthood of Jesus at the right hand of God the Father; denying the person and work of the Holy Spirit; denying the personal existence of Satan the arch-rebel of God and His Christ and the originator of sin; denying eternal life to those that believe with their heart on Jesus Christ alone; denying hell and final judgment to those who REJECT Jesus as the only salvation. Pray tell what missionary work can the Christian Scientist do? Certainly not that kind as found in the great commission of Matthew 28:18-20.
13. My next objection to Christian Science is that Mrs. Eddy, its founder and discoverer, sees no future for the Jewish people. Like many another one-sided theological teacher she ignores the specific mission of Israel according to the flesh. The injunction of Second Timothy 2:15—"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth," is ignored and unheeded. While at this time we will not enter into a detailed account of the dispensations, or of God's dealings with the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God, suffice it to say that at the present time we are living POLITICALLY in the Gentile dispensation that began with Nebuchadnezzar's reign over 2500 years ago. RELIGIOUSLY we are in the Church dispensation, but when at the end of this age the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled, Israel's mission will become the most prominent of all previous dispensations, for Israel will resume her divinely intended program.
That program is contained in the unconditional covenant God pledged under oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is the covenant of God's unchanging love and grace toward Israel (Gen. 12:1-3; 15:1-5; 17:1-8; 22:16-18; etc.).
There is also God's unconditional covenant pledged to David securing the THRONE (II Sam. 7:12; Ps. 89:3, 4, 34, 37).
Today Israel is nationally away from Palestine and is under the discipline of God, but the Lord will gather them their own land, as a vast number of Scriptures testify, some of which we quote:
Deut. 30:1-6—"And it shall come to pass, when all these things ate come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither Jehovah thy God hath driven thee, and shall return unto Jehovah thy God, and shalt obey His voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; that then Jehovah thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the peoples, whither Jehovah thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine outcasts be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will Jehovah thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee: and Jehovah thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And Jehovah thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."
Deut. 32:26, 36, 43—"1 said, I would scatter them afar, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men .... For Jehovah shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone, and there is none remaining, shut up or left at large ....
Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people: for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will make expiation for His land, for His people," R.V. See Isaiah 11:15, 16; 14:1, 2; 27:12; 40:10, 11; 54:7.
Jer. 16:14-15—"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, as Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North, and from all the countries whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers."
Jer. 30:1-3—"The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, "Thus speaketh Jehovah, the God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For lo, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will turn again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith Jehovah. And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it."
Jer. 31:7-10—'For thus saith Jehovah, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Jehovah, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall they return hither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: For I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. Hear the Word of Jehovah, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock."
Jer. 16:14, 15—"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, Who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar; Jehovah of Hosts is His name. If these ordinances depart from before me, saith Jehovah, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus saith Jehovah; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth be searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith Jehovah."
Jer. 32:36-42—"And now therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel .... Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, whither I have driven them in Mine anger, and in My wrath, and in great indignation, and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; And I will put My fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from Me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart, and with My whole soul." See also Jeremiah 33:19-26; Ezekiel 11:16-20; 20:34; 36:16-36; 37:11-23; Jeremiah 50:17-20.
Hos. 3:4, 5—"For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king, and shall come with fear unto Jehovah and to His goodness in the latter days." Also Joel 3:1, 2.
Amos 9:11-15—"In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen .... and I will bring back the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste dries, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; and they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God." Mic. 2:12, 13; 4:6, 7; Zeph. 3:19, 20; Matt. 24:31-33; John 11:51, 52. Rom. 11:25-29—"For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion The Deliverer: He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: and this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As touching the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of." The gifts that He gave them (Israel) are the land and the throne, and the calling is that they are the chosen people for the world's blessing. All of which is secured unto them through Jesus Christ the Messiah of Israel (Isa. 9: 6, 7; 11:1-5).
Luke 1:30-33—"Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found grace with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name JESUS. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." Did the Lord Jesus ever sit on the throne of David? Never! The only crown He wore was that of shame, mockery and thorns! Does the Lord Jesus yet rule the house of Jacob? Not yet! And yet He is to rule the house of Jacob forever "for no word of God shall be void of power."
The objection may be raised that this must needs be a spiritual reign, since only the first part of this prophecy was fulfilled at Christ's birth. When our Lord, in the synagogue Nazareth, read from Isaiah 61:1, 2, He stopped at the comma in the middle of the second verse—"to preach the acceptable year of the Lord"—and then He said: "This day is 'this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." Why did He cease read: hag just at that point? Because the clause which follows reads, "and the day of vengeance of our God." More than nineteen hundred years have elapsed since our Lord spoke these gracious words. His first coming opened the day of grace, in which age we are now living, and in which all are freely offered eternal life through the mercy and grace of God. But that time of mercy is fast drawing to a dose. And then will be fulfilled the remainder of that prophecy.
God's plans are not human hobbies. He has sworn to Abraham. He will fulfill every word of it.
Oh, ye faithless ones of Israel's sons and daughters—entrapped by the snare of Christian Science, come out of it, repent and accept God's Word concerning Jesus our Lord. What the Lord said to the Pharisees and Sadducees of His day may be surely applied to the deluded ones of this present age. "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God" (Mt. 22:29).
Israel's future is secured. I believe it with all my heart. When that time will come, I know not. But come it will and come it must. In spite of all the weeds and mushroom growths of religious counterfeits, the Word of God will survive all disasters and catastrophes. "Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up, saith the Lord." Christian Science is not of God's planting therefore its doom is sure.
Seventeen millions of Jews in the world today in spite of nineteen hundred years of persecution! But wait, Israel's clouds will lift, the rainbow of God's unconditional promises will yet burst forth for poor blind Israel. When shall this be? At His glorious appearing! For our adorable Lord Jesus Christ is the only Hope of the Church—
The Only Hope for Israel—
The Only Hope for the world!
Christian Science Contrasted with the Word of God*
Christian Science Says: The Word of God Says: "There is no matter." "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. 1:1. "Man is incapable of sin." "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. "Sin is not forgiven, we cannot escape the penalty." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:9. "Man cannot depart from holiness." "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way." Isa. 55:6.
"There is none righteous, no not one." Rom. 3:10."Jesus did not come into the world to save sinners from their sins but from their sense of sin." "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." I Tim. 1:15. "One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin." "This man after He had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on the right hand of God—for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Heb. 10:12, 14. "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 through His veins." "Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin." Heb. 9:22. (The tree was not accursed but He who on the cross having been made a curse for us. Gal. 3:13.) "For Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us by Thy blood to God out of every kindred, tongue and nation." Rev. 5:9. "Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the Blood of Jesus." Heb. 10:19. "Man is never sick." "They brought unto Him all sick people." Ma. 4:24. "There is no death." "It is appointed onto men once to die." Heb. 9:27. "Man is co-existent with God." "As for man his days are as grass, as the flower of the field so he flourisheth." Ps. 103:15. "God is not a person." "Jesus the Son of God. The express image of His person." Heb. 1:3. "The theory of three persons in One God i.e. a personal Trinity, suggests heathen gods, rather than the ever-present I Am." "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Mt. 28:19. "The grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all." II Cor. 13:14. "Jesus is not the Christ" "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" I John 2:22. "Resurrection: Spiritualization of thought. His reappearance in idea." The risen Jesus says: "Handle Me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have." Luke 24:37. "The virgin mother conceived this idea of God and gave to her idea the name of Jesus." "Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious communion with God" (Principle). "Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin, and in the fullness of time Mary brought forth her first-born." Luke 2.
"When He cometh into the world He saith—a body hast Thou (O God) prepared for Me." Heb. 10:5.
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." I John 1:2. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." John 1:14."Another illusive personification named Satan." "Satan Himself." "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour." I Pet. 5:8. "The Lord rebuke thee, Satan." Jude 1:9. "There is no final judgment." "Judgment to come." Acts 24:5. "After death—the judgment." Heb. 9:27. "Prayer to a personal God is a hindrance." "For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee, (O God)." Ps. 32:6. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. 4:16. "The claims of the marriage covenant may be revoked by mutual consent or legally dissolved." "What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder." Mt. 19:6. "Discovered by a woman and taught by a woman." "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority." I Tim. 2:12. "The personality of Jesus is not to be worshipped." "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Phil. 2:10. "The Bible was my only textbook." "Handling the Word of God deceitfully." II Cor. 4:2. "The material record of the Bible is no more important to our well-being than the history of Europe and America." "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." II Tim. 3:16. "Christ was incorporeal." "Every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh... is that spirit of antichrist." I John 4:3. "Church of Christ Scientist." "Many shall come in My name .... and shall deceive many." Mark 13:5. "Jesus came teaching and shewing men how to destroy sin, sickness and death." The Word of God says through the Lord Jesus Christ and in many passages by the Apostles John and Paul, that man is helpless, that only a Saviour-God could deliver man from the guilt and dominion of sin or take away the sting of death. "Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father." The Word of God says nothing of the kind. Jesus emphatically declared to the cultured Pharisees: "If God were your father, ye would love Me... ye are of your father, the devil." John 8:44. "The Lord Jesus Christ is the Standard of truth by which all teaching is to be weighed; and He is not to be weighed by the teaching of any man or woman." *The author is indebted for some ideas of this compilation to Haldeman and others.
See also the following related pages: How a Rabbi Found Peace | Max Wertheimer: Rabbi, Evangelist, and Bible Expositor | From Rabbinism to Christ | Dr. Wertheimer’s obituary | Dr. Wertheimer’s diploma, Hebrew Union College | Photo of Dr. Max Wertheimer.