The good news of the New Testament is that salvation is come through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. "I am the way, the truth, and the life," the Saviour said; "no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6. Scriptural references in this article are from the King James Version. Christian Science proclaims that every Christian disciple of today can demonstrate the full promise of that gospel message—can experience its profound spiritual, mental, moral, and physical effects.
Salvation through Christ Jesus is fundamental to the Church of Christ, Scientist. The Church's Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, believed that the Master's injunction to follow him called for the evangelical spirit characteristic of the early Christians. The original spirit of Christianity had gradually become dampened under layers of religious dogma and tradition built up after New Testament times. Mrs. Eddy attempted to give to the Christian churches of her day what she had discovered of the full saving mission of Christianity, which of necessity included healing the sick, but she met with resistance from some of the clergy. Eventually she felt impelled to establish "a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." Mary Baker Eddy, Manual of The Mother Church, p. 17.
It was a monumental task for one person to accomplish. But through the strength she found in God and the guidance she sought in Jesus' teaching and example, she reached her goal. She wisely provided for a simple church experience supportive of the individual's pursuit of redemption. That redemption she did not see coming through her in any way. To confuse her essential place as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and Leader of her Church with Jesus' place as Redeemer and Lord would to her have been sheer apostasy. She insisted upon the acknowledgment of but one Christ, found in Scripture, and she urged Christian Scientists, "I again repeat, Follow your Leader, only so far as she follows Christ." Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 4.
