"As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
p. 497:2)
The above is the first tenet of the Christian Science Church.
The rest follow:
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness.
3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.
For thirty years I studied the Bible through the lens of Christian Science. In Christian Science we say that we are "students" of Christian Science. I left the Church as an organization because of its radical reliance on mental healing after I became ill and contracted diabetes. I did not leave the Principles of the philosophy. For me it is still the strongest statement that was ever written about my relationship to God and to Jesus and to my fellow humans. I do not live up to the principles all the time but they are there guiding me.
In fact I find that the only way I can read the Bible is to look for the "inspired word" and separate the chaff (which I burn) from the wheat. When I read or listen to the comments of thoughts of some so-called Christians it sickens me. The people who claim that a natural tragedy such as a hurricane is God punishing somebody for some supposed offense against him. Poppycock. I would venture to say that God does not worry about what we may do or what sins (errors) we may make. He has to balance the Universe and keep it running after all.
They also take the words out of the Bible that they want to use but they take the hateful vengeful God who requires sacrifice and retribution for every so called infraction against his majesty. It is thought that he sent his Son here to be killed to suffer for the sins of mankind. Parts of the Bible are truly awful. Recently a poor misguided soul in New York killed another man because the "Bible" told him to kill all the gays. Some of our evangelical politicians have gone to another country (Uganda) and have gotten people in that country to sponsor a bill to kill gay people just because they are gay, The Bible says a lot of things but we recognize them for what they were. A means to control a population at that time. We don't follow the literal word of the Bible today. Or Red Lobster would be closed and the folks who ate there taken out and stoned along with the football players
Today we should understand the Bible for what it is and not worship it or make it our God.
Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909 said: “Also it has another name – The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy — he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.”
When you really read the Bible you need to understand it and listen to what it says that comes from God. Three words in the Bible should be your yardstick. God is Love. If the statement from the Bible says love to you then it is probably all right to follow it. If not take it for what it is...the ramblings of a man and not from God. Thomas Jefferson did this. He wrote the Jefferson Bible or or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was Thomas Jefferson's effort to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.
In the Christian Science Church we have a Daily Prayer: "Thy kingdom come;" let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern
them!
And there is always the Sixth tenet:
These are enough for me.
I try to follow those rules for my life and yes it is hard sometimes when I read the pure crap that is put out by blovated so-called Christians...I will stand with Gandhi on that one. I really do feel sorry for them.
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