Christian Scientists believe in one, infinite God who is all and all-good. They believe that God is not distant and unknowable, but all-encompassing and always present, and that each individual is loved by God, cared for by Him, and made in God’s image.
Christian Scientists believe in biblical truths and in Christ Jesus as the Son of God, or promised Messiah. They believe that Jesus’ teachings and healing work expressed scientific Christianity, or the application of the laws of God – laws which still operate and are practical and provable today, by anyone, anywhere. Christian Scientists consider the commandments, as well as Jesus’ sermon on the mount, to be central to their lives and the practice of Christianity.
Above all, Christian Scientists believe in the saving, healing power of God’s love – that no one is beyond redemption, that no problem is too entrenched or overwhelming to be addressed and healed. They believe that salvation through the presence of God’s goodness is available here and now, not at some point in the future.
One of the best ways to learn more about Christian Science is to explore the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by Mary Baker Eddy. It contains the tenets of Christian Science, which are as follow:
- As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.