IN method and in purpose Christian Science is essentially constructive. It tears down only to build anew. It challenges a man's belief only that it may offer him a better understanding. The aim of its denials is to make clear its affirmations. Thus it denies that Jesus is the Deity in order to illuminate "the way" which he showed, and proclaim the Messiah or Christ. No one can afford to be either misinformed or uninformed with respect to what Christian Science teaches on this subject, for it is vital in relation to all that religion offers to mankind.
Christian Science holds that Jesus was one who acted within the range of what is possible for men,—one who exemplified universal possibilities. It teaches that he was "the highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea" (Science and Health, p. 589), and was rightly entitled the Messiah, or Christ, though either of these terms, as applied to him, is less a personal name than the designation of his office. It affirms that the office of the Christ is to liberate and deliver, to heal and to save, and that our privilege and our need, as well as our duty, is not to worship Jesus as God, but to appreciate his humanity and to emulate his example, remembering, as Mrs. Eddy has said, that he "was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious communion with God. Hence he could give a more spiritual idea of life than other men, and could demonstrate the Science of Love—his Father or divine Principle" (Science and Health, p. 29). This teaching renders unto Jesus exactly what he desired, namely, not to be deified, but to be glorified.
The basis of this teaching is the entire Bible, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, but particularly the utterances of Christ Jesus himself. For Christians at least, the question whether he is God ought to be settled by what he said. He must have known whether he was man or God, and this subject was within the scope of the topics on which he spoke. If, therefore, he were God, he would have said so plainly and often. His mere silence on such a vital point would be sufficient to refute the theory that Jesus is the Deity. But he was not silent; the gospel record of his teaching authorizes, both negatively and positively, the position taken by Christian Science.
