If matter is nothing, then nothing matters.
(By Tom Stewart)
Christian Science is based on a very unusual concept: the unreality of matter. If matter isn’t real, that creates many problems, since we all live in a material world. If matter isn’t real, my body isn’t real, or my house, my car, my friends, my family, my country, my planet; and the list never ends of the realities I must deny. Everything I can sense with my sight, hearing, taste, touch, or smell is not real. It does not exist. It is an illusion or a hallucination. If matter is nothing, then nothing matters, and my life has no meaning in an unreal, pointless world, and neither does yours, my reading friend.
Let’s examine some Christian Science texts to confirm for ourselves that Christian Science does teach this concept. The “Scientific Statement of Being” is a liturgical text read aloud every Sunday by the congregations of every Christian Science church in the world. I heard it repeated hundreds of times growing up in the Christian Science church. It is found on page 468:8-15 of Science and Health and reads as follows:
Question. — What is the scientific statement of being?
Answer. — There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.
In Miscellaneous Writings page 47:1-9 the question is asked:
How can I believe that there is no such thing as matter, when I weigh over two hundred pounds and carry about this weight daily?
By learning that matter is but manifest mortal mind. You entertain an adipose belief of yourself as substance; whereas, substance means more than matter: it is the glory and permanence of Spirit: it is that which is hoped for but unseen, that which the material senses cannot take in.
In Miscellaneous Writings, p. 64:29-65:2 we find:
The only evidence of the existence of a mortal man, or of a material state and universe, is gathered from the five personal senses. This delusive evidence, Science has dethroned by repeated proofs of its falsity.
So we see that Christian Science teaches that matter has no substance, is not real, and that what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell with our five personal senses is “falsity” and “delusive evidence”. Now let’s examine what the Bible teaches about matter.
In Genesis Chapter 1 we find God creating the universe (e.g. light, water, earth, moon, stars, plants, animals, people). All of these objects are made out of matter. Here a few passages:
- Gen 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
- Gen 1:3 – And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
- Gen 1:9 – And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.
- Gen 1:11 – Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so.
- Gen 1:20 – And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.”
- Gen 1:24 – And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.
- Gen 1:26 – Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
God the Father certainly believes in matter… he created it! Everything He made in this universe is made out of matter. God the Father does not say to Adam and Eve on the sixth day: “Everything I have made is a hallucination. When you look at a tree, a bird, an animal, or a person, please remember that your senses are deluding you and none of this is real.” Listen to what God the Father says (Gen 1:28-31) at the conclusion of all His creating:
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
God not only created matter, He confirms its existence by making Adam and Eve rulers over a material earth containing material plants and material animals! They were to have material sons and daughters.
In the Gospel of John we find Jesus (God the Son) changing one form of matter into another form of matter; He changes water into wine in John 2:1-11:
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman,why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Jesus certainly believed in the existence of matter. He is Lord over all matter. He can change water into wine, walk on water, stop storms from raging, make diseased flesh healthy or dead bodies alive. The first miraculous sign by which He reveals His glory is a manipulation of matter from water into wine!
In Revelation 21:1-4 God the Holy Spirit reveals to the Apostle John that the old Heaven and Earth will be replaced with a new Heaven and a new Earth:
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth”, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
God the Holy Spirit believes in the existence of a material Earth and a material Heaven that will be replaced with a new material Earth and Heaven at the end of all things, a real place where God and man will dwell together, a place devoid of death, suffering, crying and pain! Christian Science denies the existence and reality of matter. Christian Science teaches that we can’t believe the evidence of our five senses.
The triune God of the Bible (Father, Son & Holy Spirit) created the universe out of matter. He can change matter into different forms. He can even create a new material Heaven and Earth if He wants to! But nowhere in the Bible is it taught that matter is not real. This is a comfort to me, because I can’t conceive of the Christian Science world where matter isn’t real. No one can live sanely in a world where everything is an illusion; this is called insanity! If you want to read more on this topic, it is found in Chapter 1 of the book Christian Science in the Light of Holy Scripture. The book is available on the ScriptureLight.org website in paperback or e-book formats.
Note: Bible verses are from BibleHub.com, NIV version