RELIGIOUS SCIENCE

Can the philosophy of Religious Science save the soul?
Provided by Kurt Van Gorden of Jude 3 Missions
PO Box 780, Victorville, CA 92393-0780

The Church of Religious Science, also known as Science of Mind, began in 1927 through Ernest Holmes, their founder. The teachings of Religious Science draws heavily from the metaphysical/gnostic teachings of Dr. P. P. Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science), Charles Filmore (Unity School of Christianity), Madame Blavatsky (Theosophy), and the transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Without hesitation, Mr. Holmes blends Hinduism and occult practices with his principles. Even though the Bible and Jesus Christ are referred to throughout his works, neither are esteemed as authoritative over any opposing beliefs. The Bible, as Mr. Holmes sees it, is one of several available books containing truth. It is not special. Jesus Christ, according to Holmes, does not stand out from any other “religious leader”.[i]

These reinterpretations of the Bible and Jesus Christ are common place among Gnostic groups and metaphysical churches, like Religious Science. Biblical terms are redefined and biblical statements are spiritualized in order to develop principles that, in reality, ar far removed from the true sense of what the original Bible said.[ii] An example is that Heaven is not a place of existence, as found in the Bible, but rather, Homes redefined as a state of consciousness which you create by eliminating all negative influences. This is typical metaphysical reinterpretation also found in the formerly named groups that preceded Mr. Holmes. Let us examine five areas of theology, as presented by Mr. Holmes.

GOD:
Ernest Holmes and Religious Science denies the biblical doctrine of the Trinity by redefining the meaning of “Trinity.” Mr. Holmes said, “Throughout the ages, this Trinity has been taught. Every great religion and every great spiritual philosophy has taught this Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the Christian Trinity. It is the Thing, the Way It Works, and What It Does.”[iii]

Mr. Holmes has made the Trinity a metaphysical principle - “The Thing”, “The Way It (the thing) Works”, “and What It (the thing) Does”. This is not the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity. The Bible teaches that God exists as three distinct Persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, (Matt. 28:19; Isa. 48:16; Rom. 1:7; Jn. 1:1; Jn. 20:28; Acts 5:3-4).

Mr. Holmes also removes God’s personal nature; stating that God is not a personal Being independent of humanity. His metaphysical interpretation makes God the person of every human being, succinctly stated, God is the person in you.[iv] Here, then, Mr. Holmes denies the biblical truth that God Himself is a personal Being. The Bible teaches that God spoke as a personal Being before the creation of man (Gen. 1:26), therefore it is safe to assume His person precedes humanity and is independent of the human person.

JESUS:
Mr. Holmes also denies that Jesus is God. He wrote, “Jesus was a man, a human being . . . Jesus never thought of himself as different from others . . . As Jesus, the man, gave way to the Divine Idea, the human took on the Christ Spirit and became the voice of God to humanity.”[v] Again, Holmes wrote, “ . . . Jesus never expected us to worship him either as a person or a God.”[vi]

A careful study of the New Testament reveals the opposite of what Mr. Holmes suggests. Jesus was worshipped on many occasions (Matt. 2:11, 8:3, 9:18, 15:25; Jn. 9:38; Rev. 5:14), which not only shows us that He was worthy of worship, but He accepted the worship from others. Even the angels in Heaven were commanded by the Father to worship the Son (Heb. 1:6), which would be blasphemous if He were not worthy to receive it. The reason that Jesus is worthy of worship is because He is truly God, (Matt. 1:23; Jn. 1:1, 5:18, 8:58, 10:30, 20:28; Acts 20:28; Phil. 2:6-8; Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:8; 1 Jn. 5:20; Rev. 1:8).

Metaphysical groups also divide Jesus from “the Christ,” as what we also see taught by Holmes. Their teaching makes Jesus only a man and “the Christ” is a spiritual principle that came upon Him. Mr. Holmes said, “Jesus - The name of a man. Distinguished from the Christ. The man Jesus became the embodiment of the Christ, as the human gave way to the Divine Idea of Sonship.”[vii] The Bible does not teach that the Christ is separate from Jesus. It teaches us that Jesus is Christ, and anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ, the New Testament calls them a liar and of the anti-Christ (1 Jn. 2:22). This says much about the root of Religious Science teachings.

THE HOLY SPIRIT:
Religious Science teaches that the Holy Spirit is the female aspect of the Trinity, which denies the Holy Spirit’s true Person and Deity! Mr. Holmes wrote, “The Holy Ghost signifies the feminine aspect of the Divine Trinity. It represents the divine activity of the higher mental plane . . . [the Spirit is] the supreme Law of Cause and Effect . . . the divine creative fertility of the universal soul when impregnated by the Divine Ideas.”[viii]

Contrary to Mr. Holmes, the Bible does not teach that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal “it.” The personality of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated in several verses of Scripture (Rom. 8:26-27; Jn. 14:16-17; Acts 13:2), as well as His Deity (2 Sam. 23:3-4; Acts 5:3-4).

MAN:
Religious Science promotes the fallacy that mankind has God within him and that human spirit, is God dwelling in each person. According to Mr. Holmes, “As the human gives way to the Divine, in all people, they become the Christ.”[ix]

These teachings are in sharp contrast with the Bible. Man, as seen in Scripture, is a sinful creature in need so salvation. Romans 3:10 tells us that there is none righteous, not one. Being far from God, we are not God and God is not part of humanity. Hosea 11:9 says that God is holy, and not man. Numbers 23:19 speaks clearly, “God is not a man.” Psalms 50: 21 rebukes the people who think that God is like them. And, on the issue of whether we are a Christ, this is settled by Jesus himself in Matthew 24:5, where He said that anyone who claims to be the Christ outside of him is a deceiver.

SALVATION:
Sin is minimized in Religious Science to only represent mistakes. Salvation, therefore, is only to correct those mistakes. Mr. Holmes states,” . . . The answer to every question is in man, because man is within Spirit, and Spirit is an Invisible Whole! The solution to every problem is within man; the healing of all disease is within man; the forgiveness of all sin is within man; the raising of the dead is within man; Heaven is within man...Each of us, then, represents the Whole.”[x]

True Salvation, according to the Bible, is to first recognize that we are totally incapable of meeting the holiness of God because we have been separated from Him by sin (Rom. 3:10; 3:23; 6:23). The only way of salvation is through the atonement of Jesus’ shed blood for our sins, (Heb. 10:10; 1 Jn. 1:7), which is provided by God’s grace, and not by anything we have done, (Eph. 2:8-9).

THE TRUTH:
God’s desire is that we seek after His love and His kingdom (Matt. 6:24, 33). Happiness cannot be found in a series of principles or in a philosophy apart from the Bible. Happiness can only be found through a personal relationship with the True Jesus. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man can come to the Father except through Him, (Jn. 14:6).

Copyright 2000, Kurt Van Gorden
This edition published by permission of Jude 3 Missions, PO Box 780, Victorville, CA 92393-0780

i]. _{What Religious Science Teaches, Holmes, p. 10} [ii]._{Words that Heal Today, Holmes, p. 87}
[iii]._{Science of the Mind, Holmes, p. 80} [iv]. _{Words that Heal Today, p. 14} [v]._{What R.S. Teaches, p. 19-20}[vi] _{Words
that Heal Today, p. 90}[vii] _{Sci.
of Mind, p. 603}[viii] _{What
R.S. Teaches, p. 65}[ix] _{Sci. of Mind, p. 360}[x] _{Words
that Heal Today, p. 133}

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