Week 26: Christian Science is Neither Christian, Nor Science | February 1, 2026 Sunday School

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at mylibertybaptist.org or just

look us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

And so we're going to continue our series as we are looking at

world religions and cults this morning and we're going to move

into a new phase of our series. We've really spent quite a few

weeks looking at some major religions and cults that we have

a lot of interaction with, whether it be Islam or whether

it would be the Mormons or the Jehovah Witnesses or Judaism.

And we're going to move into some more what I would call

obscure world religions and cults.

Not necessarily obscure in the amount of adherence that they

have, because I think of some like Buddhism that we'll look at

that have a great many adherence.

But I would say more obscure in the sense of how much we would

come across it in our daily life and how much we would come

across someone that we would want to be able to witness to

them who are inherent of that group.

And so I really want us to over the next few weeks, week by

week, look at a different group and give you really a family

over view of what that group is all about.

And this morning we're going to look at one that, believe it or

not, you may not realize is actually very close to home and

that is Christian Science. And I've titled this message

Christian Science, neither Christian nor Science.

And you'll find out why that is here in just a moment.

You might be more familiar with Christian Science than you

actually realize. The Christian Science

headquarters is actually found in Boston.

It is right near Symphony Hall in downtown Boston is a large

structure that has a great deal of different things that are

inside. It's a tourist attraction,

believe it or not. There in Boston, you may be

familiar with the Christian Science reading rooms.

I'm not saying you've gone into one, but maybe you are in an

area where you've seen something that says a Christian Science

reading room and it looks empty inside because they usually are.

But you're wondering what is this all about?

There is the Christian Science Monitor.

It's a newspaper that has been published for some time, still

is published today that is well regarded by some circles.

And then you may be familiar with Mary Baker Eddie, and she

is the founder of Christian Science.

And even if you're not familiar with her, she has many

homesteads of places that she lived in the Northeast during

her life in the 1800s. And one of those places, believe

it or not, is actually in Stoughton.

If you are going to a Costco or Jordans or one of those places

over in Avon, if you cross right over the line into Stoughton,

one of the Mary Baker Eddie homesteads is there.

So just right, a few minutes from where we are standing or

sitting here this morning. So what is Christian Science?

As always, I like to be able to show you from the group's own

words to be able to get an understanding of who they are.

We have two videos for you this morning.

And the first is going to deal with those Christian Science

reading rooms and kind of give us a little bit of a start of an

understanding of who Christian Science is.

So if we could, let's go ahead and roll it.

This is where you can find versions of the Bible.

And the Bible obviously has helped many people.

When someone comes into the reading room, we're trying to

help them by sharing products and literature or just some

simple answers that help them go to God.

What a reading room provides is that staff there are.

More than helpful and they. Are providing an an atmosphere

of prayer that no other place offers.

The reading room offers a human face for people who want to ask

questions about Christian Science.

Christian Science is the law of God is the truth, and, and if

you're hungry for that truth wherever you're at and even in

the reading room. You got to get that truth.

Anybody who desires to learn how to heal the way Jesus did can

buy science and health or go to the reading room and study

science and health and learn how to do that.

It is the pastor and it is science and health that we're

emphasizing in our reading room. Then what else is in the reading

room is over 135 years of articles and testimonies of

healing, putting this into practice, showing how it makes a

difference. That is the support that a

reading room gives you. That is the support that a

librarian gives you, that you can just come in and ask all the

questions you have about God, about Christianity, about

Christian Science, and they'll give you an honest and loving

answer. And the staff, they show me a

lot of love and that is what I needed to see and to feel.

So, dear love, draw me into the Christian Science reading Room.

So if we're looking at that, it would seem like there's a lot of

answers to be able to be found at the Christian Science Reading

Room, a lot of it rooted in the word of God.

But then also mentioning as well this book that is called Science

and Health. And at first you read this, you

look at this and say, wow, they must be Christians just like we

are, with perhaps some sort of emphasis on science or some sort

of emphasis on the healing of the body.

But if there was 1 shot or one scene, if you would from what

you just read, that really would hammer home what Christian

Science is all about. It was that shot where there was

in the front of the shot the Bible, and then in the back the

book of Science and Health. And you saw that it was focused

in on the Bible at 1st and then it went out of focus and then

focused on the book in the back. And I would say that's exactly

what Christian Science is. There's a lot of talk about the

Bible. There's a lot of talk about

Christianity, there's a lot of talk about studying the Word of

God and the Word of God being inspired, but yet in the end,

it's really like all cults are not about the Bible.

It's about the one who has interpreted the Bible, has

written something of their own gospel, if you will, and then

that is the book that is emphasized.

We saw that with Jehovah Witnesses and the New World

Translation. We saw that with the Mormons,

with all of the different sacred books they have, and we see that

as well with Christian Science. Be not deceived.

It is neither Christian nor Science.

Now. Christian Science was begun by

Mary Baker Eddie, who pioneered new ideas about spirituality and

health and using the Bible as a hook to be able to draw people

into her line of thinking. She grew up as a

Congregationalist, so she grew up in New England with a fairly

orthodox view of the Bible, but then over time strayed from that

as she got away from the church and got away from biblical

teaching. She claimed that after a fall on

the ice in 1866 which left her with crippling injuries, she

rediscovered the secrets of faith healing from Jesus Christ,

and that those are what she put into the book Science and

Health. Now, interestingly enough, this

accident that took place in 1866, there was a Doctor Who

attended to her supposedly, and this doctor later signed an

affidavit saying that her injuries were not as she had

said that they were originally. So we would even see that this

is founded upon a lie and then built upon lies as time went on.

They say, why would someone even be involved in this?

Why would someone want to get involved in Christian Science

before we even go further here this morning?

And the answer is very simple. And the answer is when a group,

particularly a group like Christian Science, focuses on

healing, there are many people who are desperate for healing.

There are many people who deal with sicknesses, diseases and

other maladies who are just trying to find an answer.

And although we say it here today that the doctors are

practicing and they're practicing on us, you know what

I mean, that they don't often know what they're doing.

That was still true, if not even more so during Eddie, Mary Baker

Eddie's time. There were a lot of people

disillusioned and there were a lot of people looking for

answers and wanted to find those answers in something that still

called itself Christian. And so Mary Baker Eddie came

with this perfect mix of in her mind, the Bible, but then also

what healing was all about. But again, this was all based on

her own lies as well as very, very poor Bible interpretation.

So the result of what she had take place in her life in 1866,

as well as her studies that followed, led to in 1879, the

introduction of a system called Christian Science.

Now the book that we just talked about a few moments ago, the the

Christian Science, what I would call sacred texts, they don't

use that term, but I would use that term.

The science and health with key to the scriptures.

This is their sacred text. This is their Book of Mormon.

This is their Quran. This is the text that they look

to. They do not look to the Bible as

we look to the Bible, by the way, if they did, they wouldn't

believe what they believe, but they look to this book that you

have in front of you. Science and Health as the key it

is, is the pastor, it is the leader.

There is very little structural leadership as we would see it

traditionally, but it's all about making sure that you are

following the tenants that we'll see in just a moment the six

tenants that are found within the book of Science and Health.

Now, interestingly enough, much of her research that is compiled

that was put together to create this book was actually

plagiarized from a doctor in Maine that lived on the same

time, and his name was Doctor Quimby.

Now, referring to this book, Mark Twain once said this.

Mark Twain said of this book, of all the strange and frantic and

incomprehensible and uninterpretable books which the

imagination of man has created, surely this one is a prize

example. Now let's be sure Mark Twain was

not a believer. Mark Twain had no testimony of

knowing Jesus Christ as his savior, but to have Mark Twain

to be able to say this about this book certainly gives us an

understanding of what it is. Now Mary Baker, Eddie, after

writing this book, Founding Christian Science, went on to

find found a college church, a publishing enterprise, as well

as the Christian Science Monitor newspaper.

Now, from the outside, as I mentioned, it would seem to some

that maybe don't know that Christian Science is just

another Christian denomination. Oh, there's Baptists and

Lutherans and Methodists and Pentecostals and Christian

Science, and again, they even mention themselves once again

how they are Christian. Isn't it odd that all of these

cults so desperately want people to believe that they're

Christians? Now, Jehovah Witness would

probably be the exception to that because they believe that

Christians are the apostates. We saw that going all the way

early back to the 1900s. But for the most part, you find

these cultists want to do that. Why?

Because they want to have you set off guard from their

message, meaning that you are just listening to another

Christian talk to them. So why wouldn't you listen?

We're Christians just like you are.

And that's really what the Church of Scientology, Church

Scientology, we're coming that next week.

But Christian Science would have you to believe.

It's just a denomination that puts emphasis on physical

healing. And after all, Jesus did healing

in the Gospels, So what could possibly be wrong with that?

However, this could not be further from the truth.

It's a religious system that redefines who God is, who Jesus

Christ is, who man is, what sin is, and really what reality is.

This is what Christian Science does, and it tries to use the

Bible as a cloak for its many heresies.

And so we want to recognize it for who it was.

Her church founded upon the belief that sickness and death

are not truly real. Now I'm going to run that by you

one more time. Sickness and death are not truly

real because matter itself is unnatural, according to this

view. Illness and suffering or

illusions, Illness, illness. I got water here.

I'm good. You didn't hear that.

That was just your imagination. And it was my imagination as my

lungs on the inside were trying to come out on the outside.

All right, illness and suffering are illusions caused by unbelief

and a misunderstanding of God's true nature.

Christian Science is widely known today for its adherence.

Refusal for medication or medical care.

Now, I do want to stress that they are not required to refuse

medication. They're not required to refuse

medical care. That is not a requirement of the

church. However, it is something that is

heavily suggested and there are many who take them up on that.

Mary Baker Eddie taught that reality having been created by

God and therefore holy good could not include evil such as

poverty, suffering, or death. If God is good, then this evil

obviously is not real because God is the one who created

everything. And if evil is present, then

it's really not present. It's really within your own

mind. You say that they can't actually

believe that they truly do, and we'll look at that in the six

tenants in just a moment. Now here's the sobering issue

for Christian Science, one that they cannot get past.

On December 3rd, 1910, Mary Baker Eddie died.

And I say that not to. I'm not making fun, I'm not

mocking, but I'm just saying. The reality is Mary Baker Eddie

died of pneumonia in December 3rd, 1910, a physical illness

that ended her life. That is reality.

That is not something that is fake or forced.

That is what it is. And that in and of itself should

probably be the end of Christian Science, but yet there are

adherents that still continue with it to this day.

Now I mentioned just a few moments ago that there were six

tenants that are found in this book.

You say 6 tenants, is that like 6 people that live in an

apartment? No, not tenants.

All right, tenants, those are 6 beliefs if you will, 6 tenets

that are the foundation, the core of Christian Science.

Now, some of them even sound, as we have found with the cults,

very reasonable on their surface.

Some of them sound like maybe this is something I could be a

part of if you just listen to it at face value.

But we're going to find that all six crumble with even the

lightest pressure applied to them like a House of Cards

because none of them are based on the word of God.

Now, to be able to help illustrate that, I have another

video I want to show you here in just a moment with several

people talking about Christian Science and their faith in it.

And I think it will help you give some background as we go

into these six tenants. So if we could, let's show that

second video. I'm very grateful for Christian

Science. I've witnessed hundreds,

literally, of healings in my life as a Christian Scientist.

What I love about Christian Science is the way that it

defines God. It's God is not this guy up in

the sky or anything that you can kind of put a box around.

God is love. God is life.

God is truth, mind, soul, principle, spirit.

And defining God that way makes everything so different in our

human experience in the way we go about things.

And so I love that aspect of Christian Science.

I go to church all the time and I love it so much.

Before then, I had, I'd been spiritual, but you know, there

was always something missing and I and I found it when I came to

the Christian Science Church. One of the things I love about

Christian Science is that it, it tells people that they don't

have to go along with what the world or the, or the carnal

thought expects is, has to happen.

You know, you don't have to always pick up the script,

whether it's the, you know, having a disease and having to

go through all the stages of suffering or, or, you know, an

expectation of contagion that we were allowed to say, no, no,

that's not God's plan for me. So I don't have to suffer with

it. I don't have to go through it

and Christian Science really kind of has taught me to to

really pray every day to stay close to God, keep listening.

I really start my days with, dear Father, how can I serve you

today? How can I glorify you today?

To me, Christian Science is a way of life and you live it

daily and it's about your relationship with God and

understanding that you're made in God's image and likeness and

that God loves you dearly. The practicality of Christian

Science is that it's not just to go to church on Sunday

situation, it's how are we living our lives?

How are we thinking? How are we growing in our love

for God and our understanding of our dominion as his expression

and reflection? And that's what makes Christian

Science vital and practical, something we live every day.

I'm really happy that I've had Christian Science in my life and

that I've been able to call practitioners when I had a

challenge and specifically in this instance and in others

where to the medical community, there's nothing they can do

about it. But you're expected to have a

three month healing time and a long wait where Christian

Science and God's help and and God is our father and mother

taking care of us steps in and the healing is instantaneous.

Misses Eddie said that she's the founder of Christian Science,

that actually the healing of sickness is the smallest part of

Christian Science. The the real dogma or creed or

purpose or mission, I would say, of Christian Science is to, in

her words, restore primitive Christianity and it's lost

element of healing. I mean, it is what Jesus was all

about and we're just trying to follow him.

It's amazing to me because at one point in my life I had been

homeless, living on the streets, doing drugs, anything you can

imagine. So now I have one of the most

comfortable existences I could have ever imagined.

I'm the person that I always thought I would have been when I

was young, and I'm more than that now because of Christian

Science and science, health and science and health with Key to

the Scripture by Mary Baker Eddy.

And even though I felt love through all those times, I feel

so much more love now. I feel eternal love all

surrounding me at all times and life has turned out better than

I could have ever imagined. A.

Lot that we could say about what was just taking place.

But if you get nothing else from what we study today, understand

this that Christian Science is the most miserable and failed

line of thinking and religion the world has ever known.

You say, well, how would you say that?

Now understand what I what I mean.

Just a moment. Any line of thinking or theology

that is contrary to the word of God will send someone straight

to hell. I think we all agree with that.

Amen. But I would also say this.

This is a line of thinking that says that sickness is really

just in your mind, that sickness is not part of reality

whatsoever. And so every adherent who has

ever been part of Christian Science has shown what a failure

it is by dying. And so in that thought process,

we're not just talking about their eternal soul, which would

go straight to hell, but also the fact that they are teaching

that really you should be able to overcome these things.

And no one ever has, including the founder.

And that ought to be enough to cause someone to say, I don't

want to be a part of this. But yet everyone looking for

that hope of healing, looking for that hope of something that

Christianity can't offer, something that Jesus was

offering, but it's not available today, has that twisted into

their mind to the place where they believe that Christian

Science can have the answer. So we ask ourselves, what are

these six tenets here this morning?

And these come again from the book of Science and Health with

key to the Scripture, sometimes just called Science and Health

from the Christian Science written by Mary Baker Eddie #1

as adherence of truth, we take the inspired word of the Bible

as our sufficient guide to eternal life.

Now you listen to that, You say, hey, at least they start at #1

right? I mean, that's good.

But you have to always understand when it comes to

these types of tenets or statements from the cults or

from world religions, it's not what they say, but it's often

what's lying beneath what they say.

And it was even alluded to there just a few moments ago on the

video. It sounds good.

It sounds like something that we would agree with, that the word

of God is inspired, but yet when they're using the term

inspiration, they would use the term of inspiration much

differently than we would. They treat inspiration as

someone who's inspired when they create a great work of art,

someone who's inspired when they achieve a great feat.

Well, they were inspired to do those types of things.

And that type of inspiration is a very real thing that we're

inspired within ourselves to write a poem, to be inspired to

write a song, to be inspired to do something great on a football

field or a basketball court. There can be that type of

inspiration. But that is not the kind of

inspiration that the Bible teaches comes from God.

When it comes to the Scriptures, Paul did not just have it well

up within himself to write something really good.

And that's how we got the epistles.

No, no, that's not what it says at all.

In fact, Second Timothy 316, boy, you've heard this a lot

around here, but it barely repeating.

Again, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for

instruction and righteousness. Because it comes from God, it is

perfect. Because it comes from God.

It is truly inspired. Not as man is inspired.

That's a good one, Ralph, as it is within ourselves.

But no, it's inspired because it comes from God.

They believe it's inspired, but not infallible, but we believe

that is the inspired and infallible word of God, that

when we look at this, this isn't just some thoughts from Moses,

some thoughts from David, some thoughts from Solomon, some

thoughts from Peter, some thoughts from Paul, and they

were good. They're better than most men's

thoughts. No, no, that's not what we're

talking about. These are the very words of God,

and those men were inspired to be able to write that to which

we have and has been preserved for us today.

So we reject #1 and be honest with you #1 was probably the

1:00 we'd be the closest to, but yet we reject that

wholeheartedly because what lies underneath the surface is not

true. If they truly believe that this

book was inspired as God said it, they wouldn't need any other

book. They wouldn't need any other

teaching. So number one is rejected out of

hand #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.

Again, this sounds good. Maybe not as good as #1 but

there is something that sounds good about it.

But yet Christian Science teaches that the God of the

Bible is not God. Did some of you catch what one

woman mentioned about God being the heavenly Father and Mother?

Well, you don't find that in the Word of God.

You don't find it anywhere in the Word of God, Father and

Mother of all. They teach that that Godfather

and Mother of all is completely good and holy spiritual, and

that all of God's creation, including the true nature of

every person, is flawless and is the flawless spiritual likeness

of the divine. Meaning that really you are

perfect as well, and that anything that you believe that

is unperfect is really not real and you have to purge your mind

of these unreal thoughts. These are not anything that is

close to reality. They would teach that Jesus is a

great prophet, but they would not teach that Jesus is God.

They have high regard for Jesus in their own mind.

I would say that anything other than calling Jesus who he is, is

not having high regard for him, but within their own thoughts,

they have very high regard for him, but do not believe that He

is God. And so again, we do reject #2

out of hand as well #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.

So there's several problems here.

Number one, forgiveness is redefined.

God does not forgive sin just by pardoning guilt.

Sin is forgiven only in their mind, let me say God in their

mind, God is not the partner of guilt.

Sin is not forgiven as it's eliminated.

I'm I'm reading this wrong, I'm sorry.

The the idea is, is that in their mind, forgiveness, as we

would understand through Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus

Christ is something that is not necessary.

There is no judicial or declarative forgiveness.

The idea that God declares us to be saved, that God declares us

to be forgiven. This is not part really.

The forgiveness is found within you, that you have the sin

removed from you. It's not treated as a moral

offense. It's not rebellion against God.

It's a mistaken belief. It's a false perception and

guilt before God is effectively denied again, evil is declared

unreal. It has no actual existence.

The illusion is just corrected by knowledge.

In fact, I watched another video just a few days ago where there

was a woman who said something along these lines.

We really can't know what sin is.

In fact, she put it this way, it it's a hard call.

It's a hard call to make. And I thought it is a hard call

to make if you're defining what sin, if you are the one that

wants to decide what sin is, well, sure, it's a very hard

call to make. But if we have the word of God

which tells us what sin is and what transgression is, it's

actually pretty simple when we understand what the word of God

says, that is completely different.

Well, the Word of God teaches something much different.

Forgiveness is an act of God, not an act of self.

First, John 19 If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to

forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. Evil is not a construct of the

mind. Evil is real.

Isaiah 5 verse 20. Woe unto them.

Isaiah 5:20

They call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light

and light for darkness. So we reject #3 as well #4 We

acknowledge Jesus's atonement as the evidence of divine

efficacious love unfolding man's unity with God through Jesus

Christ the way shower. And we acknowledge that man is

saved through Christ, through truth, life and love, as

demonstrated by the Galilean prophet in the healing of the

sick and overcoming sin and death.

Once again, atonement is now redefined.

Jesus death is no longer the payment for sin.

He's the wayfinder. He's just showing us the way.

He was the healer. He brought people healing, and

He will show you the way to bring you healing as well.

Sin is minimized or completely denied.

Again, it is considered an illusion.

So there is really no real need for forgiveness.

And salvation is really just enlightenment.

It is understanding the truth nature of the cosmos is

understanding the true nature of reality.

Salvation is not salvation as the Bible teaches.

Because of that, the cross is merely symbolic.

There was nothing that actually took place there other than,

again, Jesus showing us the way of someone who did something

good. But Christ's suffering is not

necessary for salvation. The blood of Christ is not

necessary for salvation, and he is just reduced to some type of

moral example. Jesus did great things and and

we could do great things too if we follow his wayfinding

example. But yet again, the Bible teaches

much differently. First Corinthians 15, verse 3

1 Corinthians 15:3

Before I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also

received, how that Christ died for our sins according to

scriptures. That ought to end it right

there, shouldn't it? According to the Scriptures

meaning this. It's the whole teaching of the

Word of God that this is what Jesus did, that all of the word

of God leads up to that moment, and then after that moment, the

word of God continues to teach and reiterate that which Jesus

Christ did. Hebrews 922 And almost all

things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding

of blood is no remission. It's very clear that this is not

just something that Jesus did to show us a better way, but rather

that the cross of Christ was necessary.

The blood of Christ was necessary for our salvation.

So we reject #4 as well #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. There it is, the nothingness of

matter. It's not really real.

The reality that you see is not real.

The evil that you see is not real.

The sickness that you're feeling is not real.

Now, if you're like me, you wonder how could somebody

believe this? How could somebody possibly even

think that this could be truth? But yet again, as I mentioned

before, perhaps you're sick, perhaps you are searching,

perhaps you are hearing a testimony of somebody.

You go into a reading room and you see all of these books that

have all of these testimonies, supposedly of people who've been

helped and healed. And perhaps you're desperate to

be able to find something that's true.

And by the time you get to some of these thoughts, you're too

far deep and you're too far in. And so you have to accept that's

true because you've accepted everything else before it.

That's true as well. Christian Science says Jesus

death and resurrection primarily help people uplift faith to

understand eternal life. That was really what the death,

burial, resurrection of Christ was about is to help people

uplift them and understand eternal life.

But First Corinthians 15 verses 3:00 and 4:00, and we just read

verse 3, but we'll read it again.

I've delivered unto you first that all that which I've

received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the

Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again

the third day, that all of that was spiritually necessary.

You can't take First Corinthians chapter 15, which talks of the

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

resurrection, that if the resurrection is not the

resurrection as it has been taught, then the gospel all

unravels from what it is. And we know that is not the

case. Christian Science suggests that

understanding matter as unreal helps grasp eternal life as well

as physical healing. But you can go to the beginning

of the Bible, Genesis 11. In the beginning, what did God

create? In the beginning, God created

the heaven and the earth. But what do we find from that?

It affirms the creation of time, space, and matter, that He

created all those things. And again, God does not lay out

the foundation for the beginning of the word of God for why He

is. It's just the expectation that

you know He is. And that's given to us right at

the beginning, and that he created time, space, and matter.

And if matter was truly nothing, if it was, then the crucifixion

itself would have no real consequences.

But yet Christian Science affirms the historical

crucifixion and resurrection and it denies the reality of matter.

At the same time, this leads to a contradiction.

They rely on physical events historically, but yet teach

matter is unreal. So the question is, which is it?

And again it leaves us wanting number six.

And then finally, and we solemnly promise to watch and

pray for that mind to be in US, which also was in Christ Jesus,

to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and to be

mercifully just and pure. Now again, this is good.

This is Philippians chapter 2 verse 5.

Philippians 2:5

But the problem is, practically speaking, they don't believe.

They don't believe that this is the way to live.

The New Testament teaches that the mind of Christ is given to

believers through salvation with Christ.

And the Holy Spirit helps us to be able to have the mind of

Christ. They say this is all about your

human effort, that if you continue to do, then you can do

this. Listen on your own.

You can't have the mind of Christ on your own.

You and I, we give into the flesh on your own.

You and I, we live for ourselves.

It is only through salvation that we become new creatures.

And then it's through the help of the Spirit that we

continually become the sanctification of our lives, the

practical sanctification, every day trying to be closer to

Christ. It is not human effort.

It is not enlightened perception.

It is all about the fact that we have Christ in us, the hope of

glory, and he is the one that helps us to be able to be more

like Him on our own. We're in trouble.

So what do they practically believe when we get down to it?

I'll give you these very quickly.

What do they practically believe when it comes to the doctrine of

God? That God is not personal.

He is defined as divine mind, principle, or spirit, and He

does not act in history or relate personally.

That He's just kind of this life force, if you will, but not

really God in the way that the Bible teaches.

But the Bible teaches God's personal, relational acts in

creation and in redemption. What do they teach about the

doctrine of matter? And reality matters?

An illusion. The physical world does not

exist the way that we think it does.

And pain and sickness and even death are errors of the mind.

And again, if they truly believe that it is the most failed

belief system this world has ever seen because every adherent

has died and no one should be part of this group.

But yet they still have those who believe physical healing in

their implication comes from correcting wrong thinking and

never from medical treatment. The doctrine of sin Sin is not

real the way that the Bible teaches about sin.

Sin is ignorance or false belief and there is no reckoning with a

holy God. That is not something that is

part of their belief system. The doctrine of Christ and Jesus

that Jesus was a man who demonstrated the Christ

principle, but he was not Christ.

He was an idea more than a person and Jesus is not God

Incarnate This so that means there's no substitutionary

atonement. The cross is example.

It's not a sacrifice. Again, we reject that out of

him. The doctrine of salvation which

is not on there, that should be the next one right there.

The doctrine of salvation is not salvation as we would know it.

It's just awakening to spiritual truth.

Your eyes have been enlightened. There is no need for repentance.

There is no need for faith. There is no need to turn to

Christ. It's really about you just

learning more about life and understanding.

And you can achieve Christ's healing as he healed.

But again, that is taking the healing and ignoring the message

as we saw from Matthew chapter 4 last week when Jesus was

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

healing. Christ is healer.

And I do find it interesting that we're looking at this at

the same time. If Christ is healer, why was he

healing? Because he was teaching and

preaching. It authenticated the messenger.

It authenticated the message. That's what healer feeling was

always about. It is not what we see here.

And I'll be honest with you, this is a short list of the

practical beliefs of which they hold an error from the Word of

God. Now, we didn't start with a

text, but we're going to end with a text.

And it's one that we have read before and it does seem to fit

with many of the cults and religions that we look at.

But turn to Galatians chapter #1 and this is where we'll close

this morning. Galatians chapter #1.

The people of Galatia, Galatia was not a church.

It was a region and there were churches that were all

throughout the region and this was a letter that was circulated

to all of those churches. They were dealing with false

doctrine typically or rather specifically the Judaizers,

those who were teaching that there were works that were

needed after salvation. And Paul addresses this head on

and it says in verse 6, I marvel that you are so soon removed

from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another

gospel. You say there's more than one

gospel. Well, look at what it says next

verse. It's really not another but

there's some that will trouble you and would pervert the gospel

of Christ to pervert and it's very real definition to to

change. That's what it is.

It's changing that which is natural and turning it into

something that is unnatural. It's perverting the gospel of

Christ. But the we or an Angel from

heaven preach any other gospel unto you then that which had

preached unto you. Let him be accursed.

We could not accept. I'm not suggesting we should add

to the word of God. You've been here long enough to

know we don't want to do that. But we could in theory say, but

the we, or an Angel from heaven, or Mary Baker, Eddie, preach any

other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you.

Let him be accursed. Let her be accursed.

This is another gospel. Oh, there's everything right

there. All right.

Found it. I put him in the wrong order.

All right. Thank you.

For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men?

For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of

Christ. But I certify you, brethren,

that the gospel which was preached of me is not after who?

Not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was

I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And these types of groups like Mary Baker, Eddie will say the

church and they just take Christianity and use it as a

whole, that churches have got away from that which was taught

by the apostles. We heard that certainly with

Jehovah witnesses. We've heard that certainly with

the Mormons, the church again whole, as they would call it,

has gotten away from the truth of Apostolic times.

And it took someone to be able to come and to be able to get

the church back on the right track.

Whether it's Charles Tays Russell or whether it was a

Joseph Smith or a Brigham Young or a Mary Baker Eddie, they were

the ones that are bringing the purity of the gospel back to the

people. But I see right here that really

the gospel really doesn't come after man.

It comes from God. That's where it comes from.

And if we can trace our lineage and we can trace our origin to a

man or a woman, then we don't have much of A gospel.

Now, I'll give you this and we'll be done.

I mentioned to you that Mary Baker Eddie died in 1910 and

she's actually buried in Cambridge.

That's where her body remains today.

Interestingly enough, there was a story, there's people that are

on either side of whether this story is true, and I can't tell

you definitively that it is true, but it's illustrative

either way. Whether it's true or not that

after Mary Baker Eddie died, when they placed her in a

temporary crypt, a temporary vault, there was actually a

telephone line that was strung into the crypt and that was

active there. You talk about 1910, We're not

talking about a lot of telephone lines.

Back then that were available, but back then they were real

wires, you know, because that's the way it worked.

And there was a line supposedly that went right into her crypt

because they were afraid or they were curious if she would come

back to life again. Whether it's true or not, the

fact of the matter is Mary Baker Eddie is still there today.

That Mary Baker Eddie's own teachings may very well have led

to her death dying of pneumonia. Now, people died of pneumonia

certainly a lot more commonly then than they do now.

But the point is this is that she had the knowledge to be able

to bring herself healing, and she hasn't and didn't.

And no one who has ever believed in Christian Science has ever

been able to bring themselves the ultimate healing of being

able to live and not die. It makes you wonder why someone

would actually hold to this line of doctrine.

So I hope it's been a good introduction to you today.

Certainly convoluted in a lot of ways, there's no doubt about it.

But understand that it has very little, if anything, to do with

Christianity other than just borrowing a few of our concepts

and borrowing our Bible, but not truly teaching what the Bible

says about any of those things. By God's grace, next week we're

actually going to look to something that has a very

similar name, but it's completely different, and that

is Scientology. So if you can get a hold of Tom

Cruise, let him know and we'll be teaching on Scientology next

week. All right.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.