CHALLENGING
SCIENTOLOGY
WITH
THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
Mr. Hubbard’s primary book in Scientology is entitled, Dianetics:
The Modern Science of Mental Health (New York: Hermitage House, 1950).
Today, sales of Dianetics has topped 16 million copies world over.
In general terms, Scientology’s belief system is not easily reduced to
a few paragraphs. This is due
mainly to the prolific hand of Mr. Hubbard, who wrote over 25 million words
under the name of the church. Much
of this is restricted to advanced levels of teaching and is rarely seen in
public. The church claims about six million members, although this
has not gone undisputed by former members, who place the membership figures much
lower.
One of the first principles taught to the Scientologist is that you are
not your body. According to them, you are a Thetan. A Thetan is a spirit-being (similar to the soul) that has
supposedly existed for some 300 trillion years. The Thetan is subject to reincarnation on this planet and
other planets in the universe.
The problem for the Scientologist is that each past life had aberrations
and painful experiences, called Engrams, which attached themselves to the Thetan,
like barnacles to a ship. The
presence of Engrams is what makes the individual react so overtly in society.
Scientology’s solution is to remove the Engrams from the Thetan.
The only provision for removing Engrams in Scientology is through
“Auditing” and technical courses. These
can become very costly, sometimes into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Once the Engrams are totally removed, then the Thetan is pronounced
“Clear,” which produces two main benefits among others.
The first is that the Clear Scientologist is an actualized Operating
Thetan (OT), with control over Matter, Energy, Space, and Time (MEST).
Clear Scientologists can access total recall of their memory and takes
charge of their MEST world. The second major benefit of being Clear is freedom
from the endless cycle of birth and death (reincarnation).
This summary, as complicated as it may sound, is the simple version, but
not oversimplified. Scientology has
volumes of literature to expand upon this, including information on “implant
stations” on other planets, like Mars, where the Thetan must go after the
death. Once there, the Thetan must wait to be “zapped” down to
another body. Thetans supposedly
recall everything from former lives on other planets as well as former lives on
earth. Among some of the earthy
lives, Hubbard taught that mankind was once a clam, bird, sloth, pilthdown man,
and finally the arriving at the human race, but not to stop there, the next
evolution of man is to become godlike, Homo Novis.
Scientology addresses many of the issues and problems of life on earth.
Present troubles are due to past Engrams. The traces of recall from Engrams produces a number of
sociological and psychological problems. Mr.
Hubbard taught that people smoke cigarettes is because they recalled seeing
volcanoes belching smoke in past lives. Similarly,
he reasoned that some people are vegetarians is because they got tired of being
eaten by other animals, still others have psoriasis from recall of digestive
fluids after being eaten in former lives. The
riddance of Engrams in the “pre-clear” (the person not yet clear), sometimes
produces physical releases, such as a sneeze, cough, sweat, vomit, urination,
gas, or a bowel movement. Removal
of Engrams may take years.
In relationship to Christianity, what do the writings of Scientology say
about the Bible, God, Jesus, and salvation?
Most Scientologists will say that Scientology does not define God.
We look at this issue differently, though. If the writings of any group denies what the Bible says about
God, then they have, in fact, defined God to certain degrees.
Our question for this analysis is whether L. Ron Hubbard spoke of God and
in what sense does this agree or disagree with the Bible.
In one place Hubbard appears to monotheism, but in other places he
appears to embrace polytheism, then again, he makes reference to the Christian
God has being rooted in Hinduism. He
once wrote, “There are gods above all other gods . . . there is not argument
here against the existence of a Supreme Being or any devaluation intended.
It is that amongst the gods, there are many false gods elected to power
and position.”[i]
The Bible, though, clearly teaches monotheism, that there is only one
True God (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 43:10, 44:8).
Furthermore, God abhors the teaching of polytheism, or that many gods
exist (Josh. 24: 23; Judges 10:13; 1 Cor. 8:5-6).
In what seems to be Hubbard’s critique of Christianity, he wrote,
“The Christian god is actually much better characterized in the Vedic Hymns
[Hinduism] than in any subsequent publication, including the Old Testament.”[ii]
In Christianity, God is personal, to whom we pray, but Hubbard portrays
this differently, “The curse of the past has been a pretense of knowledge.
We have had a worship of the fable.
We have had prayers sent up to a myth.”[iii]
Christianity did not borrow its theology about God from Hinduism, but
rather, the Old Testament abounds with refence to what the New Testament reveals
as the trinitarian nature of God. In
the Old Testament we find God the Father (Isa. 63:16), God the Redeemer (Isa.
41:14; 43:17; 47:4), and God the Spirit (Gen. 1:2; 2 Sam. 23:2-3), all through
the Old Testament, which is in perfect harmony to the New Testament
understanding of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as one God (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor.
13:14). For a good study on the Trinity, see Why Christians Believe in the Trinity (Jude 3 Mission, P. O. Box
1901, Orange, CA 92856).
Mr. Hubbard made unfounded statements about Jesus Christ.
Basing his claims upon unnamed sources, Mr. Hubbard states, “It is
believed by many authorities that Jesus was a member of the cult of the Essenes,
who believed in reincarnation . . ..”[iv]
In contrast to Hubbard, we find that Jesus lived in Nazareth all during
his life, visiting Jerusalem every year (Lk. 2:39-42).
As for the notion that Jesus believed in reincarnation, we find the
opposite in His teachings. Rather
than supporting the preexistence of all souls, Jesus separated Himself as the
only one who preexisted, and it was not in a reincarnated state: “You are from
beneath, I am from above. You are
of this world, I am not of this world.” (John
8:23) Man did not come from an
implant station on another planet, he is from this world—the earth alone.
The human race began on earth with the creation of Adam.
Jesus is placed at a lower level of spiritual achievement than what Mr.
Hubbard himself was or to other Scientologists can obtain.
Hubbard wrote, “Neither Lord Buddah nor Jesus Christ were OT [Operating
Thetan] according to the evidence. They
were just a shade above clear.”[v]
To Hubbard, Christ and the cross are a legend and implant in
preclears, “You will find the cross as a symbol all over the universe, and the
Christ legend as an implant in pre-clears a million years ago.[vi]
The Bible condemns Hubbard’s teaching by stating, “Who is the liar
but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ.
He is the anti-Christ who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John
2:22). Jesus and His crucifixion on
the cross are well attested as historical events, not only within the New
Testament record, but in external sources beyond comparison.
Hubbard has nothing historical upon which to base his assertions.
Man, according to Scientology, is “Basically Good.”
Mr. Hubbard rejects the concept that man is evil, “It is despicable and
utterly beneath contempt to tell a man he must repent, that he is evil.[vii]
Contrasting this to the Bible, we find that Jesus not only called men
evil (Matt. 7:11), but when he began his earthly preaching, “Jesus began to
preach and to say, Repent” (Matt. 4:17).
In reference to the aforementioned Scientology belief that “you are not
your body,” this does not tell the complete story, biblically.
James 2:26 tells us that the body without the spirit is dead. The composition of man, from the creation of Adam in Genesis,
requires a body as well as a spirit for him to be a living soul, Genesis 2:7.
One purpose for future resurrected body of the Christian is to reunite
the body and spirit to make a complete human being, though in resurrected form.
Aside from that, man is not complete.
Salvation, according to Scientology, is to be released from
reincarnation, “...personal salvation in one lifetime [is] freedom from the
cycle of birth and death [reincarnation]...”[viii]
Salvation, according to the Bible, is to apply faith in the person and
work of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 4:10-12).
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sins if we believe
upon Him (1 Jn. 1:7; Rev. 1:5).
Reincarnation is a doctrine rejected by Jesus and the inspired words of
Scripture. Jesus taught that He
alone is from above (Jn. 8:23) and that we are from this world.
He taught that we all die only once (Lk. 20:36) and that there is no
return to earth after death (Lk. 16:27-29).
The book of Hebrews (9:27) says, “It is appointed unto man once to die,
but after this the judgement.” If
reincarnation was true, then why did Jesus resurrect [instead of reincarnate] on
the third day (Jn. 2:19-21)? The
entire biblical message stands against the doctrine of reincarnation.
Every Scientologist needs to hear the message of the saving grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They can leave
behind their works of trying to get out of a hypothetical past life and turn to
the cross of Christ instead. Scripture
triumphantly tells us, “For by grace ye have been saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should
boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9)
Copyright
2000, Kurt Van Gorden,
This
edition published by permission of Jude 3
Missions,
PO Box 780, Victorville, CA 92393-0780
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