IS Christian Science the legitimate outcome of the teaching of Moses and the prophets? This question is frequently asked, particularly of late, when so many Jewish people throughout the country are availing themselves of the physical and spiritual benefits resulting from Christian Science treatment and the study of its teachings. Mrs. Eddy has answered this question very fully in Science and Health, and this will appear to all who study her book in the spirit of an earnest truth-seeker.
A study of the Talmud and the Scriptures reveals the fact that Judaism was the first ethical teaching to promulgate to the world the idea of the unity of God. Abraham, the founder of the Jewish faith, came from an environment of pagan belief in idolatry, his father and those surrounding him being idolators, as he himself was by education until he saw the light of Truth. The world owes much to Abraham for having broken the bonds of bigotry and ignorance. He carved out for himself and for those who followed, an independent course based upon natural, reasonable grounds. Abraham saw before him something better than he had heretofore believed, and he grasped it quickly. Had he not left the old ideas of idolatry for the belief in the One God, the world might have continued in ignorance for some time until Truth was made manifest through some other source. We see, therefore, that the Jewish faith had its foundation and origin in the desire for a religion that was more rational. It behooves us, therefore, in the march of progress, to follow Abraham's example and seek the light and understanding of Truth, so that we may progress mentally, morally, and physically.
On reviewing the Jewish teachings, we are impressed by the fact that the Deity given to the world by Judaism to take the place of the idols that had gone before, was in the beginning a God of Love, an incorporeal Being, not a personal sense of Deity. Subsequently, however, this God was made more and more personal by the growth of the idea that He was not only a God of Love, but also a God of revenge, a God of hate, and a God of wrath. To the reasonable mind, here is a decided inconsistency, for it certainly does not seem possible that the original Jewish idea of God as a God of Love, could have at the same time been a God of hate, revenge, and wrath. These contradictory qualities must have been promulgated subsequently for the purpose of instilling fear into the minds of the people, and a decided personal element was thus given to the thought of God. Mrs. Eddy says that, "according to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two distinct documents in the early part of the book of Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is always called Jehovah,—or Lord God, as our common version translates it" (Science and Health, p. 523).
