During a discussion on a recent radio program a clergyman mentioned the great influence which Christian Science has had on Protestant religions through its teaching in regard to sin. Later the clergyman explained to the writer that what he had in mind was the influence which this teaching has had on Protestant preaching, resulting in the disappearance of what he called "the hell-fire" variety of sermons and in a greater emphasis on the doctrine of God as Love.
In the Old Testament, Moses told the children of Israel (Lev. 19:18), "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." and Isaiah expressed the mother-love of God in these words (66: 13): "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." The basis of Jesus' teaching was his understanding of man's oneness with the all-loving Father, or God, of whom the disciple John said plainly, "God is love." A realization of the spiritual import of the fact that God is Love enables the individual to prove for himself the unreality of sin, and thus to free himself from the bondage of sin.
To gain freedom from sin and its bondage, however, sin must be recognized for what it is, and its false claims must be rejected and denied, in order that the individual may gain the realization of sin's unreality. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 497): "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts."
