Christian Science: founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879, now lists 2,000 congregations in 80 countries. Eddy was raised Congregationalist but reacted against the Calvinistic view of predestination. In 1866, she fell on ice and reportedly was severely injured (denied by her doctor under oath), but attributed her recovery to “spiritual healing.” She determined to introduce a new church that emphasized this. In 1875, she published the textbook for Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures—a book heavily plagiarized. They reject the Trinity (God is a divine principle) and believe that matter and evil are illusions. Salvation is “life, truth, and love understood…sin, sickness and death destroyed.” Heaven is “not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal.” “Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding profane and idle babblings, and contradictions of science falsely so called” (1 Tim 6:20).

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