God’s Word completely refutes any such teachings. “ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23); “ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us . . . If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8, 10); “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18); “ But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags . . . and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isa. 64:6). We have no righteousness, innate or otherwise. We have no Christ-consciousness which we can develop. We come to Christ as lost men and women, crying for mercy. We have nothing in which to glory except the cross of Christ. “Neither is there salvation in any other . . .” (Acts 4:12). Here is another definition of the Unity way of salva tion: “When like Jesus we have developed love for all things, even for our enemies, then the body and all of its elements become plastic to thought and we have all power in heaven and in earth. The energy of light, through which Creative Mind rules Heaven and earth, is amend able to man when his mind of love synchronizes with Creative Mind and he can say, ‘I and my Father are one’ . . . When man understands that he is always right in the presence of a supermind force that is perpetually pushing him into higher states of consciousness and finer physical radiations, he cannot help co-operatihg with it in the divine urge toward higher things” (Teach Us to Pray, pp. 69, 109). It was Satan who said to Eve in the Garden of Eden: “ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, know ing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Unity members believe the lie of Satan that they may be gods by recognizing their own inner divinity, thus “making themselves equal with God.” Fillmore plainly stated: “I am the Christ of God. Of a truth, I am the son of God. I and my Father are one” (Christian Healing, p. 27). In Unity, Vol. 48, No. 2, p. 128, it is stated: “ In his true state, man is the Christ, the head of the body.” UNITY AND SIN Christian Science _ declares that you are to divest yourself of the idea of the reality of sin. Close your eyes and it will go away! Unity mixes some of this idea with a little psychology and adds some of its own novelties to explain sin. As in all Unity’s other teachings, it is a confused jumble, hard to classify or define in any way, full of contraditions and inconsistences. Unity denies the fall of man. “We are prone to think of the ‘fall of man’ as something that happened long ago, in the infancy of the race, told, as indeed it is, in alle gorical form. Instead, we should realize that the scene depicted in the Garden of Eden is being reenacted in our lives every day. Whenever we accept a restricting condi tion as having reality of finality, it proves that we have eaten of the ‘forbidden fruit’ and our eyes are open to evil. “ Unity believes that evil is the result of man’s dis obedience to divine law. It does not exist as an entity in and of itself . . . We all know why Adam disobeyed the Lord God; the arguments of Eve (the feeling nature) were too strong for him! Metaphysically interpreted, this signifies that every man’s human inclination is to yield to the temptation of the sense consciousness by the feel ing nature” (W hat Unity Teaches, Turner). (continued on next page)
to know the shortest way to it. That way is the Jesus Christ way” (Talks on Truth, p. 164). Not the forgiveness of sin hut the “ higher conscious ness” is the goal. Jesus Christ is never represented as the One Who gave His life to save us from our sins. The Cross of Christ, the substitutionary death of Christ, is made of none effect by Unity. Here is their statement of the purpose of the Cross: “What died on the Cross was the consciousness of all mortal beliefs that hold us in bondage— such as sin, evil, fleshly lusts—and death —which He overcame” (Talks on Truth, p. 164). “What died on the Cross”—what a blasphemous ex pression! The One, the Person, Who died on the Cross was the only begotten Son of God, God’s Lamb, who taketh away the sin of the world. “What is the Christ? The Christ is the perfect-idea man, whom God created, the real self of all men. Jesus Christ is the Christ self brought into perfect expression and manifestation. Christ is the Saviour of mankind, the free, divine gift of God to us” (W eek ly Unity, Dec. 19, 1954). It is clear from these metaphysical interpretations that Christ is denied as a Person, a Saviour, Very God of Very God. He is brought down to the level of sinful man— the real self of men! While the word Saviour is employed, it is obvious that Unity does not mean what the Scriptures do by the word. Many people are deceived by Unity with a statement like this about the atonement: “ Atonement means recon ciliation between God and man through Christ.” But one must read on to comprehend what Unity means by atone ment: “ It means a reuniting of our consciousness with the God consciousness. Jesus Christ became the way by which all who accept Him may ‘pass over’ to the higher consciousness . . . We all have the power to detach our selves from the realm of worldly thoughts and lift our selves into God-mind consciousness” (Unity, April 1954, Vol. 120, No. 4, p. 4). Why Unity has no need of a Saviour is obvious. Its followers believe themselves to be their own Saviour. What are they looking forward to for salvation? A com plete and perfect union with this “ inexorable Principle” which is their god. It is the same thing as the Nirvana of the Buddhist, Brahm of the Hindu — an imaginary God-mind, God-consciousness, into which all will finally be absorbed. The deadly pantheism of Unity shows through every statement of their leaders and teachers. UNITY AND SALVATION What kind of salvation does Unity teach if it does not believe in the salvation from sin revealed in the Word of God? In one word, it is eternal life in the body. Christ- consciousness for which they strive is a means of ac quiring health, prosperity and happiness here and now. Sickness and poverty are not to be the experience of Christians. “ Salvation is finally attained when the cycle of rebirth is broken and ‘man comes to birth no more.’ The true spiritual body is to replace the physical body and the man becomes like Christ. This is to be done here on earth . . . Eternal life means conscious existence in the body” (Talks on Truth, pp. 150-51). How is this change taking place? “These life germs of Jesus’ body form the nucleus of a new race organism for all people. All persons everywhere may partake of (eat) the radiant body (bread) of Jesus by exercising faith in Him as the great source of pure Spirit substance, sown as soul seed for the saving of humanity from sense consciousness” (Teach Us to Pray, pp. 68, 69).
JULY, 1961
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