books, there is much teaching to-day that is vague, inaccurate,
misleading, unscriptural, and oftentimes utterly false and devilish,
teaching that is essentially Unitarian or Eddyistic. Men and women
use the old words with a new meaning; so as to deceive, if it were
possible, the very elect. Even the Christian Scientist will tell you
he believes in the Atonement, and that Mrs. Eddy taught the Atonement.
But when you begin to ask direct and pointed questions regarding his
belief and teaching you will find that by Atonement he meant, and
that Mrs. Eddy meant, something utterly different from what you mean
and what the Bible teaches. Paul tells us that the Devil camouflages
as an angel of light (II Cor. 11:14), but never has he done it more
successfully and dangerously than in the teaching regarding the
Atonement which he has inspired in Mrs. Eddy and in Unitarian teachers,
and also in the teachers in many supposedly orthodox pulpits, in many
Congregational pulpits, in some Methodist pulpits, in many Baptist
pulpits, and even in some Presbyterian pulpits. Some years ago in
teaching a Bible class in Minneapolis, attended by people from all the
churches, I remarked incidentally that Christian Science denied the
doctrine of the Atonement through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. A
very intelligent lady, a lady perfect in her manners, came to me at the
close of the class and said: "Mr. Torrey, you ought not to have said
what you said to-day about Christian Science; for you do not understand
its teachings. They do teach the Atonement." I replied: "I said that
Christian Science denies the Doctrine of the Atonement _through the
shed blood of Jesus Christ_. Do you believe that Jesus Christ bore your
sins in His own body on the cross?" She answered: "I think Christian
Science is a beautiful system of teaching." I said: "That is not what
I asked you. Do you believe that Jesus Christ bore your sins in His
own body on the cross?" She replied: "Christian Science has done me a
great deal of good." "That is not what I asked you. Do you believe that
Jesus Christ bore your sins in His own body on the cross?" "I think
that Jesus Christ's life was the most beautiful life ever lived here
on earth." "That is not what I asked you. Do you believe Jesus Christ
bore your sins in His own body on the cross?" "The Christian Scientists
are lovely people." "That is not what I asked you. Do you believe that
Jesus Christ bore your sins in His own body on the cross?" "I believe
in following the Lord Jesus Christ." "Do you believe that Jesus Christ
bore your sins in His own body on the cross?" "Oh," she said, "that is
a doctrinal question." "Now," I said, "you are yourself an illustration
of the truth of the very thing I said. You do not believe in the
_Atonement through the shed blood of Jesus Christ_." The Christian
Scientist uses the word "atonement," but he means something entirely
different from what the Bible teaches regarding the atoning death
of Jesus Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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