I saw an invitation from a Christian Science camp to attend their upcoming Bible study weekend. I wondered who they will say has the last word on what the Bible means: Jesus or Mrs. Eddy? The answer is clear. You can’t be a Christian Scientist unless you put Mrs. Eddy and her book, Science and Health, ahead of Jesus and his book, the Old and New Testaments of God’s revealed and written Word.

True, she does state as the First Tenet of Christian Science, “we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life (SH 497).” In the overall context of how CS is taught and lived, however, it becomes evident that not everything in the Bible is inspired as far as CSers are concerned.

When Paul tells Timothy that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God (II Timothy 3:16),” CSers don’t buy into the “all.” Mrs. Eddy reserves the right to revise or reject anything in the 66 canonical books of Scripture that she disagrees with. She says the “little book” brought to humanity by angels in Revelation 10 contains her teachings—not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as the church has always taught (SH 559).

“He wrote of me,” said Jesus shockingly in reference to Moses (John 6:46), and Luke’s account of his post-resurrection teachings makes clear Jesus saw not only the Torah but the entire Old Testament as taken up with Himself (Luke 24:27, 44). Whoever seeks a Key to the Scriptures need look no further. That key is Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord, Lion and Lamb, King of Kings, crucified and risen, ascended and reigning and soon to return.

Power Source

How much discussion of this momentous truth do you suppose there will be at the CS camp’s Bible study weekend? Little or none, would be a fair guess. One imagines Jesus saying wearily and sadly to those well-meaning Christian Scientists as he said long ago to the Sadducees, “You err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29).

To know the Scriptures as Jesus knew them, as Jesus indeed authored and aimed them, is to connect with the power of God. This means taking the Bible on its own terms, humbly, hungrily, through no one else’s lens or filter.

For me, it ultimately meant coming to the familiar pages anew, with fresh eyes and a degree of desperation, having wrecked my life to the point where I was driven to say the words I never dreamt I’d say: I’m a sinner in need of a savior. Have I come to the right place? I had.

Whereas when CSers—or followers of any other counterfeit Christianity—undertake what they call a “Bible study,” the power of positive thinking may be there in plenty, but the power of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, just isn’t.

To be fair, any encounter with the Book of Books, the best thing ever written and published, does leave the inquirer better than it found him. But to do no more than cherry-pick or proof-text our way through the sacred chapters, seeking to validate some externally-imposed agenda, isn’t really to study them.

Sin Problem

The stubborn, prideful human heart may congratulate itself on yielding—to the extent of taking the Bible as a manual for moral correction leading at last to spiritual perfection. It doesn’t work, though.  You can’t get there from here. Through the ages many have tried and none have succeeded.  There remains the sin problem. Nothing and no one can remedy that but the Cross of Christ.

Yes, the very Cross we hear so little about from Mrs. Eddy and her followers. And still, unembarrassed by this glaring omission in their theology, CSers earnestly gather for “Bible study.” The irresistible attraction of the Book of Books is that strong. Even those who can’t submit to it, can’t ignore it either.

Utter submission is what Jesus was asking for when he said one devout inquirer lacked just one thing (Mark 10:21) and when he said another was almost, but not quite, in the kingdom (Mark 12:34). The utter submission that confesses unreservedly, “Jesus is Lord.”

Oh, and did I mention that in 1980 when my friend Pastor Greg led me out of Christian Science to Christ, one of the levers he used to pry me loose from CS conformity was a Bible study?  Our God is able, never doubt it. Never!

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