What beliefs do Christian Sciences have?

Question

What exactly are their beliefs? Do they welcome stangers to their church?

Answer 1

Christian Scientists believe the Bible is a text primarily for healing through Jesus' teachings. Their founder, Mary Baker Eddy, an experience of spontaneous healing as a result of reading the Bible. When people heard about this, they asked her to teach. She did not set out to start a separate Christian tradition. The primary goal in Christian Science is to realize that one can place complete faith in God, and all sicknesses can be healed by him. The health of a person can connote a closeness to God. The community within the church is fundamental, and there are many prayer services for healing and getting closer to God. The Christian Science Monitor, a news publication by the group, is considered to be among the most respected in journsalism today. The members set up free reading libraries throughout the country and are happy to meet with people who want to learn more. They offer little to no pressure to join, and genuniely wish to help those who are looking for closer communion with God.

Answer 2

Christian Science is fully explained in Mary Baker Eddy’s book on spirituality and healing, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

Membership in the First Church of Christ, Scientist, is not a prerequisite for the practice of Christian Science.

They normally welcome strangers.

Christian Science claims to be a means of spiritual care through which individuals have found better emotional and physical health, answers to life’s deepest issues, and progress on their spiritual journeys. Health-care decisions are always a matter of individual choice.

Basic ideas include:
• God is divine Love, Father-Mother, supreme.
• The true nature of each individual as a child of God is spiritual.
• God’s infinite goodness, realized in prayer, heals.

A word of caution: Stay away from Christian Science. It is not a valid Christian religion.

Answer 3

Christian Science was begun by Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), who pioneered new ideas about spirituality and health. Inspired by her own experience of healing in 1866, Eddy spent years in Bible study, prayer, and research of various healing methods. The result was a system of healing she dubbed “Christian Science” in 1879. Her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, broke new ground in the understanding of the mind-body-spirit connection. She went on to found a college, a church, a publishing enterprise, and the respected newspaper “The Christian Science Monitor.” Because of its similarity to other groups, many believe Christian Science to be a non-Christian cult.

Christian Science teaches that God—Father-Mother of all—is completely good and wholly spiritual and that all God's creation, including the true nature of every person, is the flawless spiritual likeness of the Divine. Since God’s creation is good, evils such as disease, death, and sin cannot be a part of fundamental reality. Rather, these evils are the result of living apart from God. Prayer is a central way to come closer to God and heal human ills. This differs from the Bible, which teaches that man is born in sin inherited from Adam’s fall and that sin separates us from God. Without God’s saving grace through the death of Christ on the cross, we would never be healed of the ultimate sickness—sin.

Rather than teaching that Jesus heals our spiritual sickness (see Isaiah 53:5), Christian Scientists see Jesus’ ministry as their own paradigm for healing, believing it demonstrates the centrality of healing in regard to salvation. Christian Scientists pray to realize more of the reality of God and God's love daily and to experience and help others experience the harmonizing, healing effects of this understanding.

For most Christian Scientists, spiritual healing is an effective first choice and, as a result, they turn to the power of prayer in lieu of medical treatment. Government authorities have occasionally challenged this approach, especially in circumstances when medical treatment is withheld from minors. However, there is no church policy mandating members' health-care decisions.

Christian Science has no ministers. Rather, the Bible and Science and Health act as pastor and preacher. Bible lessons are studied daily and read aloud on Sunday by two elected lay members of each local congregation. Christian Science churches also hold weekly testimonial meetings, at which congregation members relate experiences of healing and regeneration.

Of all the “Christian” cults in existence, “Christian Science” is the most inaccurately named. Christian Science is neither Christian or based on science. Christian Science denies all the core truths of what makes a system “Christian.” Christian Science is, in fact, opposed to science and points to mystical new-age spirituality as the path for physical and spiritual healing. Christian Science should be recognized and rejected as the anti-Christian cult that it is.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-science.html

https://carm.org/christian-science-religion-christian