My post “Benefits of sharing Christian Science,” spurred several emails from curious readers wanting answers to the questions I said college students asked me in the comparative religions class I spoke to a week ago.
So, here are a few of the thoughts I shared.
Do you believe in Satan?
No. Evil seems very real to the human mind struggling with evil conditions, wicked rulers and disease around the world. But Jesus Christ came to show us a way out of that suffering. He taught how we could live a life of love and service to God which gives us spiritual power to overcome the evil we face. As we faithfully follow his teachings and increasingly succeed at conquering evil, inevitably we come to the full recognition that God is all power and wholly good. There is no place left for an entity called Satan to remain in this place of understanding, which I’ve learned to call heaven.
If evil was real and true, it could not be overcome.
Is there an afterlife?
Life is eternal! No one ever truly dies. We drop the human body as we know it now in the experience called human death, but life goes on. It does not stop. As we grow in understanding that life is spiritual, that Life is God, we stop thinking in terms of before-life or after-life, and accept one Life, God!
If Christ is Truth, then how can people who don’t know Christ find Truth?
Christ abides in everyone whether they call themselves Christian or not. Christ is not a denomination. Christ IS love and truth, and you can find love and truth to some degree in everyone. The more you look from a spiritual point of view, the more you find. A Christian Scientist strives to see the Christ in everyone.
If matter isn’t real, why go to the mountains to vacation?
(This question was asked as a soft jab on the student’s knowledge that I was headed to the mountains to vacation with my family immediately after the class was finished.)
It depends upon how you look at “the mountains.” You say they are matter. Christian Science says, “All is Mind.” The real eternal universe is Mind, not matter.
The more you think out from Mind, you begin to see that what you call material mountains are really grand ideas. You might see material trees and rocks and dirt. I see beauty, order, grandeur.
What if someone dies when you are praying for them?
Any unexpected death is a tragedy. Just as every medical doctor tries their very best to save every patient, each Christian Science practitioner puts in their best effort to heal every case.
I don’t know of any doctor who has never had a patient die, but I’m sure they feel badly if one does pass on. If a patient does die while we’re praying for them, we trust that the patient is alive and well under God’s care, moving on with their eternal life. And in the meantime we continue to work and improve our own healing effectiveness.
What about hell?
There is no geographical place called hell. Hell is a state of miserable human consciousness. As thought is spiritualized and purified, the misery ceases, and a heavenly consciousness takes over.
How do you pray?
There are many ways to pray.
Jesus taught, “Know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” I pray to know the spiritual truth about myself or the person I am praying for. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, helps me understand the healing truths of the Bible so I can pray more effectively. A basic premise in Christian Science prayer is the truth that God is perfect, and God made us perfect. The purpose of prayer is to see and understand this truth more clearly. When you do, you experience healing of whatever imperfection is bothering you.
I continue to pray until I feel at peace about the truth I am affirming. Once I find the peace, I know healing is happening.
Do you believe in baptism?
Yes, but perhaps not in the same way you think about it.
Baptism, in Christian Science, is not a one time act. It’s a daily purification of human consciousness.
Science and Health states, “Our baptism is a purification from all error.”
Error is evil impure thinking, like hate, anger, resentment, dishonesty, laziness…any type of sin. This purification does not happen in a day. It takes constant, vigilant effort to purge thinking of all error.
Baptism, in Christian Science, is an everyday occurrence.
Whew! Above is a few of the answers I shared. I hope they are helpful in your efforts to share Christian Science with friends and neighbors too!
Share away…
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About Me
- Evan Mehlenbacher
- I am a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science. From an early age I wanted to help others find spiritual healing for the problems they faced. After graduating from Stanford University and working with my dad in the family farming business for five years, I decided my heart was elsewhere. I left the business and went into the full time practice of Christian Science Mind-healing. For over 22 years I have been healing people of pain, suffering and disease through my prayers. I have written dozens of articles on spiritual healing that have been published in magazines and on the Internet. I teach a two week class annually on how to heal through Christian Science, and have a wonderful wife and two teenage children. I hope you stick around and enjoy this blog.
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15 comments:
Hi Evan,
Thanks for another interesting post. One of your answers appears to contradict my understanding of Christian Science, however.
In reply to the question on the "after-life" you said: "We drop the human body as we know it now in the experience called human death..."
But, Mrs Eddy says in Science and Health (291:25), "As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be after death, until probation and growth shall effect the needed change."
To me that says that "human death" actually has no effect on us. It is only through continuing spiritual growth that "we drop the human body" (or our limited material sense of body). Am I missing something?
Thanks,
To anon above,
Nope, you're not missing anything. Your explanation is correct. I just didn't fill in enough details. Perhaps a re-wording of "human existence as we know it now..." would have been clearer.
Your statement that "human death has no effect..." is basically true but not completely. In the relative experience there is an effect. Those who have passed on believe that they passed on, whereas those who have not passed on do not believe that. But as you repeat, life does not stop. It's forever. No one ever dies. Only sin dies--or is proved lifeless to begin with.
"We drop the human body as we know it now in the experience called human death..."
why do we think/believe a "human body" or human mind to begin with?
To anon above,
"Why do we think we have a human body to begin with..." is a question that springs forth from an error premise in the first place. Like, "Why did people think the world was flat to begin with?" Their belief of flatness was a false belief. It never was true. It's the nature of error to believe it's false beliefs to be true until uncovered by truth. Once truth is fully understood, error is as nothing.
The same rule applies to the human sense of body. The material body is a very limited and finite concept of the ideal man made in God's image. God is infinite. God's image is infinite. We, as God's offspring, are infinite too. As we understand this truth, and accept it, the limited sense of body disappears, fades away into its native nothingness, and our real identity, infinite in God's image, is seen in it's full glory.
The full answer to your question is learned through experience.
I understand your point - when you consider ""Why do we think we have a human body to begin with..." is a question that springs forth from an error premise in the first place." where does the error premise come/spring from? what thinks it?
what is the first place (of error)?
Error doesn't have a first place! What is the "first place" of 2 + 2 = 5? It's simply error. It's not true. It doesn't exist. There is no such thing as 2 + 2 = 5. It's not a truth and it doesn't exist as a truth. 2 + 2 = 4.
God + man = perfection. This is the truth and prevails forever.
God is Spirit. God is All. All is Spirit. This is Truth.
Matter is not reality, but error. In Truth, the error is clear.
Our prayer is to stay in Truth, where error is obviously error!
How does the Mother Church view your talking to groups of people other than a lecture or through their "authorized" literature outlets. I am interested to know because of the issues I am having with this very thing. Do you have to get prior permission to speak to people? Is your blog monitored for content? Does your blog fall under any Church jurisdiction? I really enjoy your blog and the great discussion it brings forth. Your humility in answering questions is especially inspiring!!!!! Thanks.
To anon above,
No, my blog is not under any institutional jurisdiction, surveiallance or otherwise. This is just "me and my blog." It's a contemporary form of sharing with friends and neighbors. Millions of bloggers exist today, in fact, tens of millions I believe, people simply sharing from their heart and dialoging with others on subjects they have in common.
The Mother Church and I are on very friendly terms, each listening and praying for effective ways to share Christian Science with the world at large, which is filled with millions of people hungering for Truth. The more people sharing, the better!
I actively and prolifically contribute to the Church's periodicals.
To Evan above. Thanks, very helpful and encouraging to know.
I'm not trying to give you a hard time but this question which might not be the right question to start with is a naggin one that I think many have and sometimes just don't work out or haven't had anyone completely explain and maybe it doesn't need to be. I believe that God is All - and you are right 2+2=5 is wrong but how does that which is perfect (man) even conceive of or illustrate as false the very idea 2+2 =5 is wrong. If we know error than somehow it is recognizable at some sort of level - no? because if we know to say errror is error than don't we have some awareness that one thought is real and one thought is error? something is going on! and think that is the rub that people who are studying come up against at some point......
To anon above,
You are not alone in these types of questions! And I can answer only out of my own experience and present understanding. I have not demonstrated the full Mind of Christ yet, so have much to learn too...
But nonetheless, we each need to find our peace with these issues.
When I was a teenager, I took the same position you do above, and argued and argued the same. But honestly, it got me nowhere. It did not heal. It did not help. It got me frustrated and aggravated.
So, as I grew up and struggled with my spiritual perspective, I took another tact. I asked, "What if Christ is right? What if Jesus really knew what he was talking about when he declared that evil is not real? (The devil is a liar...) Jesus certainly knew a whole lot more about reality than I did, or do.
So, I broke out of my own frustrating cycle of reasoning, and went to a higher authority. I took Jesus' word and experience, and started reasoning out from the supremacy of God, good. And I also went to the teachings of Science and Health, which clearly explain the reality of good, the unreality of evil.
I saw that humans know error and suffering. The perfect man does not know error or suffering.
Christ came to save humans from their errorneous beliefs and point the way to heaven. "Follow me," Jesus taught, "and you'll get to heaven too."
Heaven is a pure understanding of good, of God. There is no evil there.
So, this is my goal...to reach heaven...to attain heavenly consciousness in which I have no sense of evil anymore.
In the meantime, error still seems real to me, just like to you, but, I'm happy to say, less and less all the time. I am not nearly as impressed with error today as I was years ago. And I expect as my demonstration of Truth continues to grow, I will grow increasingly aware of Truth, and less sensitive to error, until I get to the final realization that Jesus promised, of having the Mind of Christ, where there is no evil at all. Only good. At this point, the past is as nothing. It doesn't even exist to your sense of things. All you know is God's omnipresent goodness. So, the question you ask is no longer a question and not even an issue.
Thus, I believe the answer to your question can only be gained through experience, through continued spiritual growth and understanding of Truth.
While in a mindset of error, error seems real. But that doesn't mean it is real. That is the case with the human mind and error at this present stage of existence.
In the long run though, as a dream passes in the night and is totally forgotten, so will all error pass into it's native nothingness and be as nothing. Nothing is nothing. The quicker we drop error now, the quicker we progress spiritually.
The more we hold to error now, as a reality, the more we suffer from it.
I choose to not suffer...or at least demonstrate that as fast as possible!
I am no longer the argumentive teen I was decades ago. It didn't help. Today, I accept the allness of God, good with my whole heart, even though I don't totally understand it yet. I have faith that in time, and with growth, I will. And I will also see and experience to the fullest that God made me perfect. No more error...nor believer in error.
The acceptance of this truth has brought me great peace.
Hope that helps!
The perfect man does not conceive of error.
Now the above is REALLY helpful. It makes sense out of a sticky reasoning problem!
Thanks for being more specific.
Thank you Evan for your very personal and thoughtful response. It was helpful - and as I've seen around the web (tmcyouth for one) -the question(s) do arise and I've been impressed with many of the answers.
I think you are right about the question(s) leading into circles and "geeting nowhere" and maybe that is the extreme example of how error destroys itself because it can't lead to any harmonious conclusion.
And I think that is one clue as to whether a question is the most helpful one or the best one.....is this question leading or prompting my thinking toward discord or toward understanding/harmony?
And the goal is understanding and it is individual.
So Thank you for your thoughts and sharing.
To anon above,
You are welcome! And I like your point about asking the right question. Asking the right questions is key to finding the right answers.
For example, to a child struggling, the question, "Why do you do everything wrong?" is not generally helpful. Can be even destructive. But the question "How can we work together for your success?" inspires thought in a productive direction and accomplishes much more hopeful results.
Saw your picture with your tennis buds, thought you were still a teenager!! Seriously, great stuff and very helpful to things I am working on. Thanks.
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