Baker certainly claimed to be the final prophet who had the complete, inerrant truth that would correct the mistakes people had made in the writing and interpretation of the Bible:
“In the year 1866, 1 discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love and named my discovery Christian Science. God has been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing” (Science and Health, 107:1-6).
“I should blush to write of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” as I have, were it of human origin, and were I, apart from God, its author. But, as I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of heaven in divine metaphysics, I cannot be super-modest in my estimate of the Christian Science textbook. ”
“The material record of the Bible,. . is no more important to our well-being than the history of Europe and America” (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings, 1833-1896, p. 170:19-21).”
“The decisions by vote f Church Councils as to what should and should not be considered Holy Writ; the manifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New,–these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some extent the inspired pages” (Science and Health, 139:15-22).
The last two quotes seem to show the fallibility of the Bible. Which is why, according to Eddy, her writings are necessary for the attainment of:
“vñ. The revealed Truth uncontaminated by human hypothesis” (Science and Health, 457:1-2).
The more I read, the more I am reminded of Mohammed; he accepted, as does Eddy, that the Bible was divinely inspired but corrupted by the men who wrote it and passed it down. Mohammed claimed that he was the final, inerrant message from God who had come to correct the earlier prophets whose message had been misunderstood.
Mark Twain picked up on this particular claim to authority in his “Christian Science” book.
CAVEAT: I do not have a physical copy of “Science and Health” sitting here before me. The quotes are from online sources, so I cannot vouch for their accuracy. If the Maximum Leader has a copy at hand in his magnificent reference library, would he be so kind as to check the authenticity of these quotes?
Several internet sites (though perhaps unreliable because they exist in order to label Christian Sciene a cult) also claim that, in Eddy’s philosophy, “Christ” represents the Truth of God, not Jesus. They did not back up this claim with any quotes other than:
Christ is the ideal truth that comes to heal sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man who, more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true idea of God … Jesus is the human man, and Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the Christ” (Science and Health, 473:9-16)
Well, if Jesus was human and his message of the truth was errant and needed to be correct by Eddy, does that make Eddy are more reliable conduit to “the Christ?”
This quote, if authentic, seems key to our discussion. Would some minion with a hard copy of the book PLEASE check to see if it is accurate or taken out of context?
Perhaps we are arguing about definitions of the word Christ with which Eddy would not agree.
