Comparative World Religions

Compiled by Dr Glen Christie

Faith Bible College Part 7

Christian ScienceUnity

Theosophy

The Church of Christ, Scientista.k.a.

Christian Science

The founding and pillar church in Boston serves as headquarters and is governed by a Board of Directors. All other churches are considered branches of the "Mother Church." Instead of preachers, Christian Science uses readers who read prescribed passages from the Bible followed by an interpretive reading from Science and Health. Christian Science utilizes "practitioners" who pray for the sick.

Eddy believed in "Malicious Animal Magnetism" (M.A.M.), which is negative mental energy or power, on the level of black magic.

"Reading Rooms" are local Christian Science libraries where members go to read Eddy's works to aid their spiritual evolvement.

Organizational Structure

1821: Mary Baker Eddy born in Bow, NH to devout Christians. She joined a Congregational church at age 17. She was chronically sick with paralysis, hysteria, seizures, and convulsions.

1850's: During this time she met mental healer P. P. Quimby, whose influence would shape her belief of Christian Science. Quimby believed that illness and disease could be cured through positive

thoughts and healthy attitudes, by changing one's beliefs about the illness. She claimed that Quimby cured her; she suddenly improved, but later the symptoms returned.

1866: Death of Quimby. Eddy was determined to carry on his work.

1882: One 50-member church

1908: The Christian Science Monitor newspaper started

Christian Science History

Christian Science History1910: Death of Mary Baker Eddy

1932: 2,466 churches and 350,000 members

1972: 3,200 churches

1993: 150,000 members

During the early 1990’s, the church began to experience decline due to several factors. There have been numerous well publicized criminal and civil lawsuits brought against Christian Scientist parents who allowed their children to die of curable diseases by neglecting medical treatment in favor of "spiritual healing." There are significant and complicated issues raised over the right to exercise religious beliefs free of governmental infringement, versus the state's "compelling interest" in protecting seriously ill minors from neglect.

Christian Science HistoryIn 1992, there began a controversy when it was discovered "that the church had secretly transferred $46.5 million from endowments and pension funds to help cover huge losses on the Monitor [TV] Channel," which had lost over $325 million.

Additionally, there were losses of $36 million and the resulting termination of World Monitor, a newspaper begun in 1988. The Christian Science Monitor is said to be losing $13 million annually.

More internal controversy occurred in 1993. A book, The Destiny of the Mother Church, written by a former President of the Mother Church, Bliss Knapp, was published and promoted by the church's board in return for the Knapp family estate bequest of $98 million. Knapp, who was a church leader and close friend of Mrs. Eddy, wrote that Mrs. Eddy was the fulfillment of the coming of the Holy Spirit foretold in John 16, the literal manifestation of God and the prophesied second-coming of Christ. Moreover he claimed that these teachings were affirmed by Mrs. Eddy herself. Though put forward by the official publishing arm of the church, this teaching is considered heresy by many in the church.

Christian Science Beliefs"The theory of three persons in one God suggests polytheism, rather than the one ever-present I Am“. "Life, Truth, and Love constitutes the triune Person called God….God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter“Christian Science denies that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. It denies that Jesus is one Person with two natures — fully God and fully man. Christian Science presents Jesus Christ in terms of a Gnostic duality: "The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual…" while, "The corporeal [physical] man Jesus was human" only. So what Christian Science actually concludes is that the physical humanity of Jesus was an illusion, "as it seemed to mortal view"

Christian Science Beliefs

Christian Science teaches that since God is all good and nothing that is real exists outside God, then sin, sickness, and death are mortal error or an illusion. Christ, as the Truth, therefore came to set man free from these false beliefs by His teachings and example.

"The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and gave to her ideal the name of Jesus.... Jesus is the name of the man who, more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true idea of God.... Jesus is the human man, and Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the Christ," "Christ, or the spiritual idea, appeared to human consciousness as the man Jesus," "The spiritual Christ was infallible; Jesus, as material manhood, was not Christ.“

Christian Science Beliefs

"Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration. There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in Divine Science shows us this way." "Universal salvation rests on progression and probation…. No final judgment awaits mortals…"

Christian Science denies the penal, substitutionary atonement of Christ saying, "The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed on 'the accursed tree,' than when it was flowing in his veins as he went daily about his Father's business.“

"Final deliverance from error,... is not reached... by pinning one's faith without works to another's vicarious effort.“

"In Christian Science it is plain that God removes the punishment for sin only as the sin is removed... hence the hope of universal salvation. ... To lose the sense of sin we must first detect the claim of sin; hold it invalid... sin disappears, and its unreality is proven."

Christian Science BeliefsIt is obvious that if Jesus never physically died on the cross to atone for sins that mankind cannot commit, then the resurrection must also have a unique meaning in Christian Science.

Eddy explains, "When Jesus reproduced his body after its burial, he revealed the myth or material falsity of evil; its powerlessness to destroy good and the omnipotence of the Mind that knows this: he also showed forth the error of nothingness of supposed life in matter, and the great somethingness of the good we possess, which is of Spirit, and immortal." Jesus resurrection was thus the manifestation of the error of evil. He demonstrated that sin and death are illusions and that if one wishes to rid themselves of these illusions, they only need to deny their reality.

I’m sorry,

my friend, you’ve had it wrong

all along !

Christian Science BeliefsJesus, you must understand, possessed the Christ consciousness as do all men to a lesser extent, went to the cross, not to bring about forgiveness of sin, for sin is an illusion, but rather to demonstrate that death is an illusion. On the morning of the resurrection, the supposed physical body of Jesus was reproduced in its original illusionary form, for all matter is illusion, and thereby demonstrated to mankind that all could do the same by denying the reality of sin and death.

Jesus' "seeming" death on the cross was not intended to pay for our sins, but to prove the unreality of sin, disease, and death. The Bible is full of mistakes. Jesus' words were recorded by "dull disciples ... in a decaying language," and must be spiritually interpreted through Christian Science.

Dear friend, let me clear

up your confusion !

Christian Science BeliefsSickness and disease are illusory, the product of a false belief, and not an actual result of sin. "The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief…"

No true Christian Science member should ever go to a doctor, hospital, or take any kind of medicine, for to do so is to deny "Divine Science."

Whereas the Christian Science approach to healing may help psychosomatic illnesses, it has been scientifically demonstrated that it is not effective with real illness. Studies comparing the cumulative death rates of practicing Christian Scientists with control groups have shown significantly higher death rates among the Christian Scientists

More ridiculous

sacrilegious propaganda !

OverviewChristian Scientists believe:

Eddy received the Truth through divine revelation rejection of the Trinity distinction between "Jesus" and "Christ" Holy Spirit is not a personal being, but is Divine Science spirit is real and eternal; matter is unreal and temporal sin and sickness do not exist rejection of doctors and medicine man is not material, but spiritual no final judgment for mankind hell is not a real place sin is an illusion Jesus did not raise from the dead

ConclusionChristian Scientists believe that Mary Baker Eddy received the Truth through divine revelation. The fact is that she plagiarized much of what she wrote from metaphysician George Hegel (Karl Marx was a avid follower of Hegelian philosophy), P.P. Quimby, Francis Lieber and others.

Christian Science is neither Christian nor Science. It is a dangerous cult that has cost the lives of many in this world, and led many more people away from eternal life.

Unity School of Christianit

y

Unity School of ChristianityUnity School of Christianity, also known as Unity (with headquarters on a 1,400-acre campus in Unity Village, Missouri -- near Lee's Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City), was "founded" in 1889 In 1948, the control of Unity was assumed by the Fillmore's two sons, Lowell and W. Rickert Fillmore, and has since experienced tremendous growth. Unity currently claims about 200,000 U.S. members and 1.5 million members worldwide.

Unity School of ChristianityUnity's roots are to be found in the ministry of Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, who practiced what was called "animal magnetism." His work involved manipulating the “subconscience" mind, and he was the first modern user of hypnotism (hence, the term "mesmerism"). Spiritualism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Brahmanism, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, New Thought, Christian Science, and other Mind Science religions, believing that there was some good in every religion the Fillmores studied. Charles Fillmore chose the ancient Egyptian winged disc, an occult symbol, as the symbol to represent Unity (He believed he was the reincarnation of the Apostle Paul!)

Unity School of ChristianityToday the "school" is a centralized group with churches in many areas. They distribute millions of pieces of literature a year. Unity's doctrines are a mish-mash of

borrowed teachings from different religions and philosophies -- Hinduism, Spiritism, Theosophy, Christian Science, and Christianity.

Unity has no dogmatic statement of faith to which the people must adhere. Instead, the follower is to "accept what he finds helpful to lift his consciousness to a higher level."

Highlights of What Unity Believes

Trinity: Unity has given a metaphysical meaning to the word "trinity"; they say the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit refer to "mind, idea, and expression." They teach the New Age/Pantheistic idea that God is All and All is God.

God: Under the heading "spirit," Unity's Metaphysical Bible Dictionary states, “God is the name we give to that unchangeable, inexorable principle at the source of all existence. To the individual God takes on personality, but as the creative underlying cause of all things, He is principle, impersonal; as expressed in each individual, He becomes a personal, loving, all-forgiving Father-Mother"

Highlights of What Unity Believes Jesus Christ: Unity claims that Jesus was merely a perfect man

who fully possessed the Christ principle, which He obtained by advancing "through many reincarnations" They believe that we can do anything Jesus did, in effect raising mankind to the level of the divine, and making us equal with Jesus Christ. Unity believes in the Second Coming of Christ, not in the flesh, but as the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit to all who are prepared to receive it. The Holy Spirit is a latent power within every man. This, they believe, is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus to his disciples .

Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit in Divine Mind corresponds to our thought in our minds. So we can ideate the unlimited Divine Mind, but when this Mind is brought into our world or consciousness it is limited to our conception of it"

Highlights of What Unity Believes Sin and Salvation: Unity denies the reality of sin and evil.

They do not recognize man as being sinful or in need of salvation, because they believe that every person is part of God. They teach that we can overcome weaknesses and mistakes

through wisdom and right thinking, not by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

They teach that the atonement is the reconciliation of our minds with the Divine Mind. "Salvation is finally attained when the cycle of rebirth is broken and man comes to birth no more. The true spiritual body is to replace the physical body and the man becomes like Christ. For Unity, then, salvation and true religious growth are "do-it-yourself projects"

Highlights of What Unity Believes Hell: With the Unity concept of the power of positive thinking,

there is no talk about sin, and therefore, no eternal hell and no eternal punishment. They deny that hell is a real place, but claim that both heaven and hell are "states of mind," not geographical locations, that people experience as a result of their thoughts, words, and deeds.

Sickness: Unity claims that pain, sickness, old age, and death are not real. Instead, they teach a process of healing that uses "denial" and mental power: "Unity believes in the creative power of thoughts and words. We can have neither good nor ill unless we think and speak it into manifestation.

Highlights of What Unity Believes Finally…….

Reincarnation: Unity goes a step beyond Christian Science in its teaching of "transmigration of souls."

Unity believes in reincarnation, i.e., that through a long process of rebirths we eventually reach perfection and immortality.

They claim that God never intended for man to die, but that reincarnation was His merciful provision.

They teach that once we reach perfection, we become part of the "Divine Mind," an eternal state of peace and tranquility.

In summary…..All religions represent an essential truth in the story of God’s existence and our part in His plans for mankind.

Theosophy: The Wisdom of God

Prepared by

Dr Glen Christie, ThDComparative Religion

Faith Bible College

The Unity of the CosmosTheos= gods, the divineSophia= wisdom, knowledge

Theosophy = Divine WisdomAt a general level, Theosophy is not merely the embracing of Indian religions, but a mixture of Platonic/Neo-Platonic philosophy with Hindu and Buddhist theories of karma and re-incarnation.

The Essential Unity of Religions

Spirituality or the transcendent consciousness is a common heritage of all humankind. It is beyond labels and dogmas. It is an experience. It is the heart of true religious experience. From it emanates genuine love and compassion.The growing appreciation of the spiritual, as opposed to the doctrinal, is the long term key to religious harmony. It is the source of true unity amidst diversity.

The knowledge provides us

the Science of Life and the Art of Living

All religions have at least three levels: the ceremonial level; the dogma level; and the spiritual level. The spiritual level is the real heart of a religion. The other two layers, ceremonies and beliefs, can change through the centuries but spirituality is essentially unchanged.

People whose understanding of religion is basically on the first two levels may become intolerant of other sects or religions. Wars have been waged due to disagreements on these levels.

People whose religious life is on the third or spiritual level do not feel threatened by other religions. They see the essential identity of the different religions on this level.

Levels of Religions

Countless wise people have probed into the mysteries of life. They come from various cultures and time periods. Many have found the answers. They solved the riddles of existence. They found the key to inner peace and realization.The wisdom that they have taught have been called many names. But the labels do not really matter. It is an

Ageless Wisdom

Since time immemorial . . .

These great teachers have given us various facets of this wisdom, but at the core, they teach essentially the same wisdom.

The Wisdom is beyond sects or organized religions. Wisdom about life and the universe applies to all human beings, regardless of religion, nationality, sex or race.

Unfortunately, we do not learn it in school. Instead we are educated in order to meet the expectations of society, such as raising a family, having financial security, having a good job, etc.

In 1875, a group of great teachers, keepers of the Wisdom, decided to reintroduce it to the world under the name of Theosophy. It gave again the ageless principles that were lost to the public, especially in the West

This gave birth to the Theosophical Society, founded by Helena Blavatsky

1)To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, colour, or creed

2)To promote the study of Aryan and other Scriptures, of the World’s Religion and sciences, and to vindicate the importance of old Asiatic literature, namely of the Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Zoroastrian philosophies

3)To investigate the hidden mysteries of Nature under every aspect possible, and the psychic and spiritual powers latent in man especially

Three Theosophical Objects

Fruits of Theosophical

Understanding

• Clarity about the origin and purpose of human life, laws of the cosmos,

• Understanding about how to deal with human sorrow and pain

• Can undertake the path towards liberation

• Spontaneous inclination towards service to make this world a better place

The Essential Oneness of the Great Religions