The Church of Christ, Scientist founded by Mary Baker Eddy (What do they believe?)

So tonight we're going to look at the religion of Christian science, not

Scientology, a lot of people get that mixed up, but it's Christian science. Scientology is something totally different, that's what all the

Hollywood celebrities are into. Do they consider themselves Christian? I don't think so, but actually there's some

Hollywood celebrities who are Christian science and raised by Christian scientists, we'll get to that later on.

But the official name of this church, and they do call it a church, the official name is the

Church of Christ Scientists. So this is a religion founded in 1879 by a woman named

Mary Baker Eddy. So Christian science, by some it's been called the

Grape Nuts religion, you know why? Like Grape Nuts cereal, it's not grape and they're not even nuts.

Well Christian science, it's not Christian and it's not scientific.

Everything according to, because it's part of the mind sciences, they believe that everything is in your mind.

Mind over matter, everything is in your mind. Really, they say reality is just an illusion, sickness and death, it's not real.

It's only real because you think it's real. You're only going to die because you think or believe that you're going to die.

So what you need really is a guru to help you realize that you are in fact part of God.

You are part of the divine mind and because you are part of this divine mind, you have the ability to control this false reality around you, including suffering, sickness and death.

Now, does that sound like Christianity to you? No, I didn't think so. So Christian science, it denies the personhood of God.

It's basically more like pantheism, like Eastern religion, Hinduism.

There's some rumors that Mary Baker Eddy had dabbled in Hinduism, so they deny the personhood of God.

They say God is all in all. If you remember our study of new age, that's what new age said.

God is all in all. Mary Baker Eddy referred to God as father, but she also referred to God as guess mother.

She said, you know, Jesus is part of all of this, but she said if Jesus had never existed, it would have made no difference.

So Jesus is just a guy or maybe the first or one of the first guys to kind of discover all of this.

So Christian science, obviously, as you can tell, their teachings are radically different from biblical or Orthodox Christianity.

They are so different from Christianity. I would almost say they make the Jehovah's Witnesses look biblical.

It's so I said, it's not Christian. It's not even really science. It's a pseudoscience that focuses mainly on healing.

But again, everything is about the mind through the mind. The idea is you can be healed.

Therefore, that's why Christian scientists, at least originally, they would avoid all medical treatment.

Now, they sort of changed on this a little bit, but originally, if you are a Christian scientist, you don't go to the doctor.

Absolutely not relying instead on Christian science practitioners, which involve

Christian science prayer that consists of silently arguing with yourself.

There are no appeal to convince yourself of this. There's no appeals to a personal

God. No set words. Remember, everything is a is an illusion. So you kind of have to argue yourself into believing this.

That's what prayer is to them. So here's the thing. Here's what a lot of people don't know.

Mary Baker Eddie was a witch. Now you say, well, pastor, come on.

That's not very nice. No, I mean, literally. She was a witch. She practiced the occult.

She was into seances and she was a spiritual medium. She practiced this while she lived in the

Boston area. So that's a lot of people don't know that you remember in the Bible, because how do you define witchcraft?

Remember in the Bible when King Saul went to visit the witch at Endor? Why was she a witch?

Because she was a medium. She practiced. So Mary Baker Eddie was involved in all of that.

That's why I say that. So in the lives of her followers, what she did is she basically replaced the

Bible with her book, which is titled Science and Health with Key to the

Scriptures. The idea was that the only way you can really understand the Bible is if you have my book to explain to you.

It's the key to the scripture. That's what she said. And in her book,

Science and Health, she basically just what she did is she just redefined nearly every

Christian doctrine. So if you talk to a Christian scientist, they will use the same terms.

They'll say, Oh, I believe in Jesus. I'm a Christian. I believe the Bible. They'll use all the same terminology, but they mean something very, very different.

This is why Christian science has been labeled a theological cult.

So their beliefs about God and Christianity is just so often left field.

It's not within the boundaries of Orthodox Christianity. So like the other cult, Mary Baker Eddie believed that her version of the faith was the true

Christianity that is found on the pages of the new Testament. She said, it's always been there and that in the drift of the ages, it was lost through disuse and neglect.

And that this benefactor referring to herself has found it and has given it back to men.

So she's, she's rediscovered Christianity and now she's giving it to the world. That's basically what all the cults did.

That's what Joseph Smith did. That's what the Jehovah's Witnesses did. A lot of the restoration groups of the 1800s.

We are the true Christians. We have it right. You have it wrong. So let us tell you the truth.

She said in giving the truth back to men, she's turning the night of life into day.

It's terrors into myths. It's lamentations into songs of emancipation and rejoicing.

So she has sort of set herself up as a, I think a guru is a pretty safe or accurate term for any questions so far.

Is this new information? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, most of us know something about Jehovah's Witnesses and, and Mormons.

We know Seventh -day Adventists, okay, they worship on Saturday. Christian science though, a lot of people really don't know anything about it, but I mean, it's got

Christian in the name, so it must be Christian, right? No. Well, so let me translate that statement that I just read that she has given

Christianity back to men. She is the true prophet of this age, like Charles Taze Russell, just like Joseph Smith.

She is giving the truth back to mankind. A few more facts, the mother church.

So Christian science has a headquarters. They call it the mother church that's still located in Boston to this day.

Pretty, pretty magnificent building. If you look at it, a few other things.

There is a Christian science reading room in Greenfield, but they're scattered throughout the world.

They put out a magazine called what, who knows the magazine, the Christian science monitor.

In all of all four of the major cults, including Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh -day

Adventists, Christian science now is by far the smallest. Worldwide there's only about a hundred thousand

Christian scientists. I mean, that's way less Jehovah's Witnesses, I think 1 .3

million Mormons were something like eight to 12 million Seventh -day Adventists, 21 million, but they're like a hundred thousand.

So this, this church has really shrunk and shrunk and is continuing to shrink.

The overwhelming majority of Christian scientists are, are women. So this has been a movement dominated by women.

So how did it all start? So to understand Christian science, you have to understand who

Mary Baker Eddy was, you know, you have to understand her background and what shaped her.

She was born in Bow, New Hampshire in 1821 and her father was a devout

Christian. She was raised in an Orthodox congregational church that we might have differences with the congregational church, but you know, they're within the bounds of Christian truth.

Mary was a sickly child growing up. She continually suffered from strange illnesses, which seemed to grow in severity as she got older.

She had often been subject to frequent fits erupting in violent spasms, which rendered her unconscious.

Mary Baker was also plagued with a neurotic temper, which exhibited itself in fierce anger whenever her wishes were denied.

She reacted strongly as she grew up. She really rejected her father's faith.

Mary, especially the thing she hated about Christianity the most was the doctrine of predestination, which,

I mean, there's some Christians who don't like predestination, but, uh, uh, but she also reacted against the idea of God having wrath to where Jesus had to die on the cross because God, the father had to sat, you know, satisfy his holy justice.

She rejected all of that. She viewed Jesus as simply an example for mankind.

Now I do believe Jesus was an example, but for her, Jesus, he's really only an example.

He was not the divine sacrifice for sin in her life.

She did deal with a lot, a lot of loss, a lot of pain. Like I said, the frequent illnesses, she experienced the death of her brother, her mother at an early age, the death of her first husband.

She was married three times. So her first husband died. Her second husband left her for another woman.

And then her third husband died. And then she found this mentor who really taught her all of this and he died as well.

And this is just my opinion based on everything I read and some of her statements. To me, it seems like she sort of blamed

God for all this because she was taught that God is sovereign. God is in control of everything.

So if something happened, God either caused it or he could have prevented it. So she's gone through all this sickness and loss and pain and suffering.

And well, that, you know, her traditional understanding of God, well, that's all his fault because he caused it or allowed it.

So I think that was a part of all of this. So based on that and based on her upbringing,

Mary Baker Eddy was an apostate. She knew the truth of Christianity. She just rejected it.

In 1862, Mary Baker Eddy became a patient and a student of a man named

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. Does anyone, does that name ring a bell? He was sort of the father of the mind sciences.

So he was a healing guru who lived and practiced in Portland, Maine. So most people believe that her beliefs and teachings, she really got them from this guy named

Quimby. But either way, this was a turning point in her life. Later on, it was reported that many of Mary Baker Eddy's writings were actually plagiarized from Quimby.

Later while living in Lynn, Massachusetts, Mary reportedly, this is the point she looks back to when she was older.

She points back to this time where she discovered Christian science. It's probably a little bit of revisionist history.

So she got it from this Quimby guy. But while living in Lynn, Massachusetts, Mary reportedly slipped on the ice and suffered internal injuries.

A lawyer found her and took her to his apartment where he cared for her during the night.

The newspaper reported the incident. This is all documented and that her condition was critical.

So as the story goes, she called for a Bible. The Bible was brought to her.

She started reading the Bible. Long story short, she discovered these keys to the scripture and miraculously recovered from these severe or critical internal injuries.

And that's basically the moment those days where she was laid up from falling on the ice. That's where she discovered

Christian science. So Eddie became convinced that illness could be healed through an awakening brought about by a clearer perception of who

God is, who is divine mind. Now, what that means exactly that God is divine mind.

Everything's an illusion. I mean, I don't know. To me, this doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but you have to get like deep into the into the religion or superstition or whatever you want to call it.

And even then, I'm not so sure you can understand it. But it was around that time that she was in Boston, Lynn, Massachusetts, Boston.

It was around that time that she did work as a psychic. One thing about Christian science, they're known for their censorship.

So there's a whole lot of things, people who died because they refused medical treatment, her working as a spiritual medium.

They have censored a lot of this information. So that's why I said she was a witch because she did work for a time as a spiritual medium because of these things and many other reasons.

Many people throughout New England while she was alive and she started getting notoriety.

I mean, she was not well liked by the people of Massachusetts and Southern, you know,

Southern New Hampshire, because I mean, this totally contradicted me. Most people back then were at least nominally

Christian, right? And we say we believe the Bible. I'm part of this church, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Baptist.

Most people identified as Christian and she had this far out teaching. So she was not a very popular person.

Most people regarded her as a con artist. Now, fast forward to 1872 after dabbling in the mind sciences and the occult and maybe even

Hinduism, Mary Baker Glover, that was her name at the time. She started writing the book,

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. So her book supposedly would give people, it would act as a guide that showed you the real teachings of Jesus, you know, what the

Bible really taught and that would kind of unlock miraculous power. So the miracles of Christ, the healing powers of Christ, you have them too.

You just need to discover it. You can be healed if you believe it. And you know, that's the way some television preachers and there's some people today that sounds like that's the way they talk.

You can have your miracle. You can have, you know, name it and claim it type of, if you really believe it, if you believe it hard enough, you can sort of create your own reality.

So there's actually some pretty well -known Christian preachers who say something similar, but it's all about your mind and what you believe.

Uh, you can't get healing or you shouldn't buy doctors and medicine.

Now, why do you think she had this reaction against doctors? Just based on what you've heard so far. What? Yeah.

Okay. She's, she's a little eccentric. Well, you think about it when she was growing up, she had all these problems.

Doctors couldn't figure it out. A lot of us can relate to that. You know, we have problems, you go to the doctor and they don't really know what's going on and that's not their fault, but you can at least understand that there are people who are sort of disillusioned with traditional medicine.

And if you're in enough pain, if you're sick enough and you've tried everything else,

Hey, you know, sometimes people get desperate and you figure, Hey, why not? Nothing else has worked.

So I think that's why a lot of people get into this kind of thing. Uh, the problem though, with not seeking out medical care, which is one of the doctrines of Christian science.

You just imagine how many people got sick. They were told by their church not to seek out a doctor.

Just pray, you know, argue with yourself. No, I'm not really sick. I'm fine. I'm not going to, you know, how many people didn't go to the doctor and died?

It's the same thing with the Jehovah's witnesses. All these people could have survived, including little kids.

All they needed was a blood transfusion, but Jehovah's witnesses said, no, you can't. You will forfeit eternal life.

If you get the transfusion and people died, well, same thing with Christian science. A lot of people have died because of their teaching.

Now, where does the Bible say that you can't go and seek out a physician? I mean,

I don't know. Do you tell me? I don't remember any commandment like that. So Christian science was very appealing to those who are disillusioned with traditional medicine.

It was also very appealing to women. I said the religion has been dominated by women, most of their history, even until today.

I think a lot of that was they looked at Mary Baker Eddy as something like a role model. I mean, here's a woman who established her own religion.

She was a self -made millionaire. I mean, she wasn't like early on, but she became that.

And, you know, she went through a divorce and yet here she is. She's successful. A lot of women really looked up to her.

And she had this new, I mean, whatever you want to say about Christian science. I mean, it is, well, some people,

I don't find it interesting, but a lot of people do. So people found her. The point is to be a compelling figure.

Mary Baker's, her theology though was a mess. So we're going to look at some of the teachings of Christian science and compare it to the

Bible. We're going to watch a video in just a moment, and then we'll get into some Bible verses. But does this resemble anything like Christianity?

I mean, this is of all the groups we've looked at, this is probably the most un -Christian.

But again, they will use Christian terms. They call themselves Christians. We believe the Bible. If you ask them, do you believe in Jesus?

Are you born again? They'll probably say yes. They just have a different definition. Remember, this is what all the cults do.

The Mormons say they believe in God, but their God is the spirit child of some guy living on a planet near the star

Kolob, right? And you've heard this before. Jehovah's Witnesses, they say they believe in Jesus, but their

Jesus is who? The Archangel Michael. Seventh -day Adventists, they say, well, you know, we believe that we believe in hell, but their hell is annihilation.

So Mary Baker Eddy claims that she had the true Christianity, but in reality, she denies nearly every basic Christian doctrine.

So here, I just want to show this video, this book, Science and Health with Key to the

Scriptures. There are these things called reading rooms. Back in the day, books were very expensive.

So if you wanted to buy Science and Health, that would probably cost you a month's salary. So people just were not inclined to do that.

So they set up what are called reading rooms where you could go in and you could read all their literature, read her books, get all the propaganda, and you didn't have to pay for it.

And then if you really got deep into it, then you could buy it. So they set up these reading rooms and they're still around today.

So we're going to watch this video of a woman talking about her Christian science reading room.

I just want you to listen because there's something I want you to pick up on or see if you do pick up on. Okay, here it is.

What you'll find here is pretty much what you'll find inside reading rooms anywhere in the world. There are books and magazines about spiritual healing, music, and a friendly environment for reading and praying.

Everything in the reading room is about helping you find fresh and healing perspectives. We have the

Bible in a variety of formats, as well as our weekly Bible lessons that help you take the

Bible's teachings and apply them to your everyday life. We also carry a companion book to the

Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It was written by Mary Baker Eddy, and this book really unlocks the

Bible and millions of people worldwide. Anything jump out at all? No, she seemed nice, and I'm sure there'd be a nice environment to go in and read.

Read the Bible. I don't know what version of the Bible they have. But did you notice the one statement?

She mentions Mary Baker Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the

Scriptures. And she said about the book that it unlocks the Bible. Well, what does that tell you?

The Bible is locked. The Bible is locked. You can't understand it unless you have the keys, which is her book,

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. I don't think that's what they're saying.

No, that's exactly what they're saying. You can't understand the Bible without their literature.

So again, that's classic cult behavior. The word of God is just too high for you.

You can't understand it. You need us to explain it to you. I think the average person can understand the

Bible. I mean, yeah, there's parts of the Bible that are hard to understand. I grant that. But the overall message, especially when you get into the

Gospels and you see what Jesus was doing and what he said, it's not that hard to understand.

Okay, so going through what Mary Baker Eddy said about God, she referred to God as He.

You know, he's the father, but she also referred to God as she. So God is also a she mother.

She said that the Holy Ghost is Christian science. The Holy Ghost is

Christian science. So the other cults, they deny the Holy Spirit. Remember, Joseph's witnesses say that Holy Spirit is what?

Yeah. God's impersonal force. Well, here, the Holy Spirit is Christian science itself.

So, I mean, what does that mean that Mary Baker Eddy is the vicar of Christ? She's the

Holy Spirit. I don't know. She said that heaven and hell are not real places.

They are nothing but a state of mind. She accepted the creation narrative.

Here's what I found really interesting. She believes in Genesis chapter one that every person is made in the image of God.

But she says that Genesis chapters two and three are a myth.

So Genesis chapter three and the fall of man into sin is a myth, which it has to be a myth because in her teachings, there is no such thing as sin.

No such thing as suffering. No such thing as death. And there is that one statement. I think I already alluded to it.

She said if Jesus never existed, it would make no difference.

That's probably the worst thing she ever said. And again, with the prayer,

I mentioned this, their version of prayer involves the scientists engaging in a silent argument to affirm to him or herself the unreality of matter.

And that's also something that you can hire a Christian science practitioner to do for a fee.

So if you don't want to pray for yourself and convince yourself, they will do it for you. All right, let's just spend a few minutes that we have remaining on what the scripture says about some of these things.

Let's turn to second Timothy chapter three, because the whole point of this series on the cults and the occult and world religions and whatever else we get into, it's about testing all things over and against the scripture.

So this is sort of our theme verse first Thessalonians 521, where Paul tells the church, really it's a commandment to all believers that you need to test all things and hold fast what is good.

So whatever you hear out there, whatever you experience, you should test everything over and against the word of God.

So on the subject of the Bible, they will say they believe the Bible. They'll give lip service to the

Bible. Like you saw, they had a Bible in their reading room, but the

Bible is not enough. It's not sufficient. Well, what does the Bible teach? Second Timothy three 15 through 17,

Paul talking to Timothy says in that from childhood, you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to do what?

Yeah, that you've known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

I just find it interesting that Timothy didn't need science and health with key to the scriptures to understand he didn't even need the new

Testament to understand the old Testament was enough to make him wise for salvation.

Then he got the gospel and then he was saved, but he didn't need this other revelation, which we don't believe it is revelation for 16.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, right?

Complete thoroughly equipped for every good work. So this is what I would call the sufficiency of scripture that the scripture is enough to make us complete everything we need to know.

Everything God wants us to know is in the Bible. The Bible is sufficient, but according to the cults, no, you need the writings of the cult leader.

Okay. On the subject of God, I want you to give me a verse. God to the

Christian scientists is divine mind. So she rejects the orthodox teaching of the

Trinity that God is father, son, and Holy Spirit. Obviously the son had a human body.

What are some verses that you would counter that? How would you counter that? She said, nope, the

Trinity. Nope, that's not actually, maybe they would affirm the Trinity, but they don't understand the actual biblical teaching on the

Trinity. What would you say to that? First John four, I forget exactly which verse.

Okay. I think I would actually put the, uh, I would put that on them.

If you're going to tell me that God is divine mind, show me, you know, what verse says that God is divine mind, but there's plenty of places like, um,

Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Talks about father, son, and Holy Spirit, uh, on the subject of man.

Do you know how many times the Bible mentions the word sin? Anyone know say a lot, it's a lot, it's a lot, 1 ,153 times.

So how can you say that sin is an illusion? When the Bible talks about it so much. So Christian science in its anthropology denies the sinfulness of man.

Remember Genesis three never happened. Oh, wait a second. It almost sounds familiar.

Like the serpent, like have God really said, you know, did God really say that Genesis three, the passage that talks about the serpent telling that to Eve, she's, she says that God never said that that never happened.

It's not true. That's similar to what the serpent did, I think. Um, so yeah, sin is mentioned 153 times.

Uh, the fall it's, it's, it's really the whole story of the scripture is addressing the fall of man.

You realize God is good. God creates man. But in the, you know, the third chapter in the

Bible, man falls. The rest of the Bible is a story about resolving this issue through Jesus.

But she says, no, it's not real. It's just an illusion. Okay. Let's turn to first Timothy chapter one.

On the person of Jesus, uh, Christian scientists reject.

Jesus is suffering his death and his physical resurrection and ascension into heaven.

Well, let's just get a clear statement from scripture. First Timothy one 15. What does it say?

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom

I am chief. See Mary Baker. Eddie didn't believe that she was a sinner, but the apostle

Paul said, no, I am. And that's why Jesus came to the earth. So this all basically the whole thing, it just directly contradicts the

Bible. The Bible contradicts, uh, Mary Baker, Eddie's teaching, speaking of her teaching, since she is the founder and primary teacher, uh, let's go back to first Timothy two or skip ahead to first Timothy two.

I mean, this is a problem that, you know, they, they wouldn't want to talk about it. I'm sure. But, you know,

Mary Baker, Eddie is the founder and the primary teacher of Christian science. Well, what does the

Bible say about that? First Timothy two 12, Paul says, and I do not permit a woman to teach nor to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.

I suspect she didn't like that verse very much. Well, of course, a lot of people don't like that verse very much, but you know, it's a problem when she's the primary teacher in the church.

Uh, as I said, two out of the four major cults were founded by women. Uh, the other, uh,

Ellen G white of the seventh day Adventist. All right, let's turn to Isaiah chapter one and we will close.

Like I said today, all of the cults of all the four major cults,

Christian science is by far the smallest. They were pretty big, uh, but they're losing steam.

This was really, and it's hard to imagine just based on everything we know today and just what they say, what they teach.

It's hard to, it's hard for me to believe that this ever really took off, but I mean, this was really big way back in the day.

Yeah. Great. Um, do you know if she can justify that? I mean, when, when she says, you know, Genesis, Genesis one happened, but Genesis two is a myth or I'm sure people have asked her that question.

Well, how do you justify that? Do you know if she had an answer to that? Um, I mean, I, I don't know specifically what her answer would be, uh, but I, I know of evangelicals and you know, are they really evangelicals?

Uh, but there are people that people I know Christians I know would look to as teachers and they say, yeah, it's an allegory, right?

It didn't really happen. It's just, it's just a story to try to teach you something. Or I suspect her view was the

Bible has been corrupted. I'm pretty sure I did read that somewhere. She believes that the Bible has been corrupted.

So somehow that got in there and it shouldn't be in there. I mean, that's, that's always what they resort to.

Um, okay. So they're the smallest, but there used to be a lot of Christian scientists and there actually was a lot in Hollywood.

There's a concentration of Christian scientists in the film industry. Uh, Joan Craw, here's some names of famous Christian scientists,

Joan Crawford, Mickey Rooney, Robert Duvall, Val Kilmer.

So, you know, some of these names, uh, those raised by Christian scientists include

Ellen DeGeneres, Henry Fonda, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Robin Williams, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Uh, the lead singer of Metallica, James Hetfield, who was also raised by a

Christian scientist. So, you know, these are some pretty prominent names that tells you how big the movement was.

So the thing that hurt the movement, you say, if it was that big and it was that popular and it was big with these celebrities, how did it get so small?

Well, I re I really think it's the issue of you can't go see a doctor and the people that died.

I mean, few things will taint a person, uh, more than that. So many children passed away when church members refused to have treatable illnesses handled by doctors.

Instead, they prayed and turned to Christian science practitioners. One church spokesman said that Christian scientists were free.

This is how they justified it. Hey, you're free to go and seek medical care, except if you do, you will be completely shunned.

Right? Just like the Jehovah's witnesses were free to go get transfusions, but they're being told by people they trust that you will lose everlasting life.

So yeah, you have the freedom to do it, but we've brainwashed you into, this is like the worst thing you could possibly do.

Mary Baker Eddy died in 1910. Since her death, the leadership of the movement has been in the hands of a self -perpetuating board of directors.

There are no pastors in Christian science churches. Her book is considered to be the pastor.

You know, I mean, obviously somebody has to, uh, organize things and do the talking, but that's, that's what they say.

The book is the pastor, but the organization and all the money, they still have a lot of money.

It's dealt with by a board of directors. So in conclusion, I told you to turn to Isaiah chapter one.

I always like to leave, um, these discussions like, what would I do?

What would I recommend? If you come into contact with a Christian scientist, like, how do you talk to them?

How do you approach this? This, this is my approach. Isaiah one 18 says, come now, let us reason together says the

Lord, though your sins are like Scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they are red, like crimson, they shall be as well based on what this religion teaches.

I would just try to reason with them like, come on, you're sick. You know, you're sick.

You can try to convince yourself. Otherwise you can try to say, you're not going to die. You can try to say that none of this is real, but let's reason together deep, like deep down.

They know it's real, right? And deep down, they know they have sin. They can say that sin isn't real.

It's an old, but deep down, they know God's law. According to Romans chapter two is written on our hearts.

So somewhere in their mind, not in the divine mind, but somewhere in their mind, uh, they know these things.

So Hebrews chapter two tells, so what are they afraid of? I boil it all down.

I think they're afraid of getting sick. They're afraid of dying. This is like universal to most people out there.

Most people are afraid of getting sick and dying, right? This is universal. Hebrews chapter two tells us that Satan is able to control people and keep them in bondage through the fear of death.

I think that's what keeps people in bondage in this religion. So simply just tell them the gospel walk through the 10 command.

If they deny they're a sinner, walk through the 10 commandments and say, have you broken this? How about, you know, indeed, how about in thought, take them through the commandments.

Once they understand the bad news that they have broken God's commandments, then you're in a position once they know the bad news to give them the good news.

So, uh, they're going to be saved the same way everybody else is saved. They need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So once they understand that, then they're in a position to understand the true

Christ, not the Christ scientists that quite frankly, Mary Baker, you know, concocted in her own mind.

They get to know the real Jesus of scripture. And here's the thing. If they want healing, there is true healing in heaven.

So for the Christian, there's nothing to be afraid of. Once we receive the gospel, once we're saved, we receive everlasting life.

There's no more need to be afraid of death because Jesus said in revelation 118,

I am he who lives and was dead and behold, I am alive for evermore.

Amen. Jesus Christ has conquered death and that's what they need to know.