 Posted Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:27 PM
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I have been reading S & H and some Emma Curtis Hopkins, one of MBE's students, and I am starting to see better what is Christian Science Healing.
It is pretty good and was way ahead of its time. It has led to New Thought and brought healing back into Traditional Christianity.
What is so wrong with focusing on Gods presence, and his goodness, and realizing you are made in Gods image and likeness and that you are spirit and eternal and cannot be sick or die. And to deny illness or sickness as Gods creation, and to see it as error, false, and illusion, and to focus on God instead. And if this brings about a healing, great, and if not, isn't it still good to do this. Any focusing on God is good, right?
I understand some of your anger at the structure and control of CS, but what about this aspect to it, is it really so bad, or is there some good to it. I feel there is some good to it, but what do you think. Steve
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Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2007 8:08 AM
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| "What is so wrong with focusing on Gods presence, and his goodness..." Nothing's wrong with that because it's true. "...you are spirit and eternal and cannot be sick or die." It's self-deceiving fantasy. I prefer not living in the fantasy anymore -- in the long run the physical, emotional, and spiritual price is just too high. "I feel there is some good to it, but what do you think." I think we've already established that CS contains some good. But the damaging parts far outweigh the good, and the parts that I consider good can be found in healthier environments.
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Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2007 12:21 PM
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Hi Linda,
Thanks for the reply, but I was hoping somebody can actually share with me, some of the good from CS.
I understand most here believe the bad outweighs the good and thus left CS, but most will admit there is some good to it. And I want to hear what that is, so I can apply and use the good, and dismiss the not good.
I am feeling you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Most spent years in CS, learning about it and studying and applying it. It was a big part of your lives. And now you just dismiss it all, throw it all out.
Can't you keep some of it, the good parts, some of it must have helped you to understand Jesus or Christianity better. There has to be some good in it that is not that well understood or taught in Traditional Christianity. Some of it must be helpful. Especially in regard to healing and health.
I respect that most on here left CS and went to traditional Christianity. Like I shared before, you can't go wrong with Jesus. I just don't feel he is the only way, but one way out of many.
And I found it amazing how that is all most preach on here now. Instead of talking about CS and the pros and cons of it, most of the talk is about finding Jesus and he is the only way to salvation.
So I am still hoping some will share about CS with me instead of just trying to get me to accept Jesus. I already have had those discussions a million times with other Christians and I have no interest in doing that here. I am only interested in discussing CS here. If others want to do that discussion, that is fine with me but I have no interest in it.
And if nobody wants to share and help me understand CS better, can you point me to a previous post or topic where some discussion on this is shared. The archives is overwhelming for me and I just can't read it all. I have given up trying.
So I really do appreciate that there is a forum and am hoping I can be pointed to some previous posts to help clarify some of my questions regarding CS. Thanks, Steve.
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Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2007 1:11 PM
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Hi Steve:
You'll have to forgive us. Perhaps some of us are just spent with it? I know that I'm rapidly moving on. . .
I think that the biggest draw is that it just feels good. "Everything is fine, just fine." "You're infinitely smart, infinitely healthy"."Nothing bad can hurt you, because nothing really is bad!" That alone is enough for some people to grab onto, but add in 1) a placebo effect, 2) a psycho/biological link between the mind and body that benefits from positive thinking - justified or not, and 2) the human mind's ability to see what it wants to see, and you have a recipie for a hot-selling religion! 'Just add ambiguous, equivocal gobbledy-gook.
So feel free to take the "positive thinking" aspect of it and run with it. And I guess it's okay to delude one's self into denying bad if, per chance, nothing bad ever does happen. Are people better off deluded? Is ignorance really bliss? For some people, maybe so.
But assuming as I do that we are only here on earth for a limited time, it's safe to assume that we have a job (or many jobs) to do. Practically speaking, one can only maximize their effectiveness in any job by knowing exactly what they are dealing with. Regarding happiness, that comes from a spiritual foundation that ideally supports reality instead of denying it, putting all the pieces together into a loving, cohesive whole.
Would you want a wife that told you she loved you dearly, but didn't? Would you want a feul gauge in your automobile that told you you had lots of feul when you didn't?
Why lie to yourself?
Birdstrike
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Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2007 1:26 PM
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One more point about the "years that we spent" in C.S.
Christian Scientists deal with the disconnect between the real world and their religion by thinking that they "just don't understand it fully". They "believe" C.S., and reinforce the system by going over and over the stuff to reinforce this imaginary world that they've created - but all the while, the C.S.ist is assaulted throughout their life by 1) the real world, and 2) logical inconsistencies in their belief system. So in some ways it's a ***-shoot; if things work out okay, you're obviously a great Christian Scientist!
But if they don't, who do you blame? Certainly not God, who made no bad! And certainly not an "evil one", because this "doesn't exist". You blame yourself! It's obviously your own failure, for not knowing the "truth"! It's kinda pathetic to see Christian Scientists - including the exalted leader herself - all ultimately fail in a way that somehow isn't possible according to their beliefs.
But we spent years in it not because it made any sense, but rather because it reinforces itself so well. All good is attributed to it, all bad is ignored, and any inconsistencies are things that "we just don't understand yet".
Birdstrike
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Posted Thursday, March 15, 2007 8:08 AM
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Steve,
I was hoping somebody can actually share with me, some of the good from CS...
I recall fondly the sense of belonging to a group of kind, loving people who at least superficially tried to follow God in the best way they knew how.
I am feeling you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Most spent years in CS, learning about it and studying and applying it. It was a big part of your lives. And now you just dismiss it all, throw it all out.
I have held onto the desire and ability to study and research the Bible. What I have thrown out is the teachings I found conflict with God's word. I realized those conflicts through a study approach advocated in CS class instruction.
So I am still hoping some will share about CS with me instead of just trying to get me to accept Jesus. I already have had those discussions a million times with other Christians and I have no interest in doing that here. I am only interested in discussing CS here. If others want to do that discussion, that is fine with me but I have no interest in it.
Even in my hardest core opposition to CS, I have to point out that it professes to be Christian. Without Jesus Christ (or Christ Jesus), there is nothing to it.
Jesus is not someone you can accept halfway. Either He is who He said He is or He is the biggest fraud in history. Try to put aside all that Pastor Brimstone talk and examine the totality of who Jesus truly is.
One of the good things I got from CS is a knowledge and love of Jesus that I could not forfeit even though I developed a high admiration for Orthodox Judaism. My contacts with Orthodox rabbis helped me to understand the reality of the Bible and God. The good thing I got from Judaism was the realization that the Bible is not merely a book of stories, it is the authoritative word of God.
If you cannot accept Jesus, then I recommend that you turn to your roots and perhaps deeper than you have previously experienced. Study the purpose of the Law and obey God's Greatest Commandment:
"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. - Deuteronomy 6:1-9 (English Standard Version)
Do Go Be Man
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Posted Saturday, July 28, 2007 9:39 PM
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Hello, I never joined the C.S. Church, but my mother and at least 3 of her four sisters were members of the church.
I attended CS Sunday school a few times when I was about 10 years old.
(I am going to stop here, to continue later, I hope. I tried to register but was not successful. I could not find any place to check to show that I agreed with the terms. Maybe the site here can help me on this.)
I have been a born again Christian since about 1962, but I do not have a denomination. I did learn the 23 Psalm, and the Lord's Prayer, by heart in their Sunday School.
Since I am not registered I will give a little more information about myself.
Native son of California, born Jan 17, 1927. My email address is lvtinnin@copper.net
I hope to get registered here next time.
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