Born: Mary Morse Baker July 16, 1821 Bow, New Hampshire
Died: December 3, 1910 (aged 89) Newton, Massachusetts
Basic Beliefs:
Died: December 3, 1910 (aged 89) Newton, Massachusetts
- Founded by Mary Baker Eddy who took most of her ideas from the teachings of faith healer Phineas P. Quimby.
- According to Quimby, all diseases are caused by invisible factors in the mind and that it was possible for a healer to take the illness and destroy it.
- Based on this philosophy, Eddy stated that all causation is mental and that every effect was of the mind.
- Because of this, illness, death, sickness, lust, hatred, and all things tragic do not really exist and all one must do is decide they don't exist.
- "God is in all and all is in God."
- They deny the existence of matter. All is metaphysical.
Jesus:
- Jesus and Christ are different entities. Jesus existed, but Christ is the measure of perfection in us all.
- Since death does not exist, Jesus did not really die.
- They teach that Jesus was a fallible being that attained perfection as an example for us all.
- "Life, truth, and love represent the trinity. They are merely principle, not being.
Salvation:
- They teach that one sacrifice for all mankind was insufficient for salvation. It requires "constant self-emulation" of the individual.
- Sin and death do not really exist, so Christ came to destroy the effects of sin, to show it is possible to rise above it.
- "Hell is what you make of it in this life."
- "Work out your own salvation is the cry of life and love."
Witness Focus:
- Point out that since Mary Baker Eddy died and is in the grave, death exists and is inevitable.
- "It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgement." (Hebrews 9:27)
- Ask them if they are ready to stand before a holy, righteous God, and show them that they are not.
