The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his073/othr07.arj/OTHR07.TXT

Text File | 1987-11-23 | 14KB | 249 lines

                     UNITY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY
                                VERSUS
                       THE TRIUNE AND TRUE GOD

.    "The Father is Principle, the son is that Principle revealed in a
creative plan, the holy spirit is the executive power of both father
and son carrying out the creative plan."

.    The Unity School commits one of the basic errors of Christian
Science in that it makes God the same as love, and in the next breath
reverses the proposition, making Love the same as God.  One can easily
see from this that God thereby becomes impersonal, which concept is
the direct antithesis of all biblical revelations concerning the
person and nature of God.

.    "God is loving ... God does not love anybody ... God is the love
in everybody and everything ... God is love ... God exercises none of
his attributes except through the inner consciousness of the universe
and man."

.    From the preceding quotation, we find that it is quite evident
that unity in no sense worships the personal God of the bible, the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It would be possible to list
many more perversions of the biblical concept of God from Unity
literature, but none speaks more clearly against the doctrine of the
triune God than does the abject pantheism of the definition found in
Unity's Metaphysical Dictionary.  One cannot have been born into Gods
family by the Holy Spirit nor redeemed by the blood of Christ unless
he feels the utmost revulsion in the depths of his soul for Unity's
complete unconcern for truth as revealed in the foregoing quotations.
.    The father objectively loved the world, hence He is a person
capable of Love, not just love itself, as Unity would have us believe.
For Unity, then, the God of the Bible is an impersonal "It", a
principle, Supreme intelligence, Divine mind, etc. In no sense, they
teach, is he a personable Being.  It must be very evident to even the
most devoted Unity adherent that the voice of the Lord speaks most
clearly through the scripture, bearing testimony to his personal
being, as distinguished from Unity's pantheistic, unchristian concept
of God.
.    The attempts of the Unity School to obscure this Biblical
doctrine with a confusion of terminology pales beside the triumphant
witness of the law, the prophets, and the Christ, that God is
personal, that he has countless times proclaimed in his word: "Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and
there is none else" (Isaiah 45:22).  Biblically speaking, then, Unity
fails in its basic premise - a non- Christian definition of God which
at one time describes him as neuter, and at another time makes him
both masculine and feminine - an error shared, incidentally, by
Christian Science, from which the Fillmores came.

                        UNITY VERSUS THE BIBLE

.    THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE CONTENT OF UNITY'S VAST WAREHOUSE of printed
propaganda, literally thousands of times the Bible is perverted and
misinterpreted at direct variance with its own language and context by
numerous Unity propagandists who are admittedly ignorant of the basic
languages of the Bible and therefore totally unqualified to engage in
deep exegetical translations of the original texts.  No better
illustration of this can be given of this than the almost-sickening
"Metaphysical Interpretation" of Psalms 23, as recorded in the late
Charles Fillmore's book Prosperity.

.    "The lord is my banker my credit is good.  He maketh me to lie
down in the consciousness of omnipotent abundance.  He giveth me the
key to his strongbox.  He restoreth my faith in his riches.  He
guideth me in the paths of prosperity for his name's sake.  Yes,
though I walk through the very shadow of debt, I shall fear no evil,
for thou art with me.  Thy silver and Gold, they secure me.  Thou
preparest a way for me in the presence of the collector; thou fillest
my wallet with plenty; my measure runneth over.  Surely goodness and
plenty will follow me all the days of my life; and I shall do business
in the name of the lord forever."

.    Any reasonably intelligent man cannot fail to see that this
interpretation by Fillmore is a direct and absolute perversion of
David's Psalms, which stressed dependence upon a personal God, not a
glorified impersonal Banker.  Space does not permit detailed analysis
of this cult's further assaults upon God's word.  However the
interested reader may obtain a thorough study which is both historical
and theological, including a full and detailed refutation of the Unity
movement, in the book Kingdom of the Cults.

          UNITY VERSUS THE DEITY, PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST

.    "We do most certainly accept the Divinity of Christ and of Jesus
Christ, and we believe most thoroughly in the work he did for
mankind."

.    The average Christian (or non-Christian layman for that matter)
who pursues the literature of Unity would doubtless accept the above
statement at face value.  Yet, like the ancient Gnostics, Unity denies
the complete and absolute deity of Jesus of Nazareth and insists
instead that he and the Christ, the spiritual of Jesus, are two
separate entities.  The Bible says that god so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, but the Bible here does not refer to Jesus
of Nazareth, the outer man; it refers to the Christ, the spiritual
identity of Jesus, whom he acknowledged in all his ways, and brought
forth into his outer, until even the flesh of his body was lifted up,
purified, Spiritualized, and redeemed.  Thus he became Jesus Christ,
the word made flesh.  And we are to follow into this perfect state and
become like him, for in each of us is the Christ, the only begotten
son.  We can through Jesus Christ our redeemer and example, bring
forth the Christ within us, the true self of men, and be made perfect
even as our father in heaven is perfect, as Jesus Christ commanded his
followers to be.

.    The Bible declares the eternal word of God (John 1:1) became man
in Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14) and that He never ceased to be the
Deity - that He was and ever shall be (Philippians 2:6-8; Colossians
2:9; John 8:58; Revelation 1:8-18 etc.).

.    Jesus Christ was not Jesus and Christ as the Gnostics and Unity
cultists would have us believe; rather he was the God-Man, two natures
in one being, immutable forever.

.    The interested reader should know the following quoted examples
of repeated term-switching, all applied by them to man, but Biblically
only applied to Jesus Christ.  "I am the Son of God" (Matthew 27:43;
John 10:36); "...the only begotten Son dwelling in the bosom of the
father" (John 1:18); "I am the Christ of God" (Matthew 16:16); "I am
the beloved son in whom the father is well pleased" (Matthew
3:17;17:5) "of a truth I am the son of God" (Matthew 27:54); "All that
the father has is mine" (John 16:15); "He who has seen me has seen the
father" (John 14:9); "I and my father are one" (John 10:30).

.    The interested reader will also observe that Unity reduces the
Lord Jesus Christ to a mere man who had within him "the perfect Christ
idea," and that "that same Christ idea is in every man."  Thus it is
taught by Unity that all men are miniature christs, sharing in his
nature and power.  Should any doubt this assertion, we quote Unity's
own literature to substantiate our contention:

.    "Jesus was able to say, 'All authority has been given to me in
heaven and on earth' - we, too, can say truthfully that this authority
has been given to us."

.    Unity cannot deny that these are its teachings and that the word
of God in its entirety stands arrayed against such outright
perversions of the true gospel.

        UNITY VERSUS THE ATONEMENT AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

.    As Unity perverts numerous other Biblical doctrines, so does it
attack the great and true teachings of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
In the tradition of Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science, Unity first
of all denies the very obvious reason for Christ's atonement in the
first place by maintaining that sin is merely "discordant belief" or
"mortal mind," not rebellion against the laws of a Holy God.  To quote
the Unity literature once again, which makes its stand very clear,
"There is no sin, sickness, or death."
.    Opposed to this outright denial of sin's existence we find the
plain declarations of Scripture.  "All have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God" (Romans 3:23); "All unrighteousness is sin" (1 John
5:17); "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).
.    How futile it is for Unity or any other cult to attempt to escape
from the paralyzing reality that "sin is the transgression of the
law," and "the wages of sin is death" (1 John 3:4; Romans 6:23)!  The
Bible clearly teaches that the atonement of Christ was the fulfillment
of the old testament sacrifice of a lamb for the sins of the people
(Exodus 12:5-14), and that Christ as the "lamb of God" (John 1:29)
made full and complete payment for all sin, forever, upon the cross of
Calvary, "once", and then seated himself at the "right hand of the
majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3).  Through his holy and precious blood,
therefore, we have peace with God (Colossians 1:20), "and the blood of
Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

.    In sharp contrast to this Scriptural picture of the atonement,
the Unity veil projects itself in unmistakable language: "The
atonement is the union of man with God the father, in Christ.  Stating
it in terms of mind, we should say that the atonement is the at-one-
ment or agreement of reconciliation of man's mind with divine mind
through the superconsciousness of Christ mind."

.    The original Hebrew and Greek languages of the Bible leave no
room for the chopping apart of syllables, such as Unity practices on
the English translations; therefore, linguistically speaking, the
entire view they promulgate, based on a purely arbitrary dissection of
the term atonement, is a monstrous face hardly worthy of refutation.

.    Respecting the doctrine of the resurrection of our Lord, and of
all men for that matter, it should be noted that Unity believes in and
boldly teaches reincarnation in place of resurrection, as this
quotation from their statement of faith amply demonstrates:  "We
believe that the dissolution of spirit, soul and body, caused by
death, is annulled by rebirth of the same spirit and soul in another
body here on earth.  We believe the repeated incarnations of man to be
a merciful provision of our loving Father to the end that all may have
opportunity to attain immortality through regeneration as did Jesus.
'This corruptible must put on incorruption.'"

.    One may see in this thoroughly pagan view that Unity, theosophy,
Hinduism, Buddism, and countless other Oriental philosophies go hand-
in-hand down the primrose path of reincarnation, which the Scriptures
flatly contradict by declaring for the Christian, "To be absent from
the body [is] to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8); and
for the non-Christian, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).  Innumerable
passages of Scripture belie the concept of reincarnation, which brands
Unity irrevocably as a dangerous non-Christian cult.

                        THE CHRISTIAN APPROACH

.    Many persons ask, "Conceding that the facts as you present them
are true and that Unity is a threat to the gospel of our Lord, how can
we best meet Unity's challenge to our faith?"
.    To this question I propose the following plan of action to be
adopted when one deals with Unity adherence.

1.   Insist that, whenever Biblical terms are used, you define the
words to mutual satisfaction.  This is important because followers of
this cult repeatedly misuse common Scriptural terms and thus mislead
the unwary into believing that they agree with the basic gospel, which
they do not, as their literature clearly shows.

2.   Emphasize from the Scripture the personality of the living God;
show how incorrect it is to believe in an "It" when the Bible teaches
that God is our living, loving, heavenly Father, and not just an
impersonal principle.  Remember, a principle can not hear, think, see,
speak, create, or save; but God does all these things and much more
because He is a Person (Genesis 1:1; Exodus 3:14; 20:1).

3.   Drive home the inescapable fact of human depravity (Romans 3:23),
universal evil, and personal sin.  Appeal to reason to show that God
loves sinners but hates sin.  "If we say we have no sin we deceive
ourselves," says John (1 John 1:8).  Ask the Unity adherent if he or
she knows what can remove sin other than the sacrifice on the Cross.
Stress the desire of God to receive and forgive the sinner (Acts
7:30,31) rather than eternally punish him.

4.   Finally, in a spirit of Christian love, tolerance, and patience,
stress the need for redemption from sin, the awful penalty of
rejection of the Cross, and the certain reward for obedience.  Never
attempt to win the argument forcefully, do not condemn unless on a
Scriptural basis, and, last but not least, stand firm, "reprove,
exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine," "contend for the faith,
and preach the word."  Always remember that "this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be
saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3,4).

.    In these closing days of grace, it is the duty of the Christian
church to defend as never before the gospel of our Lord and the
doctrines of our common salvation.  That God, who is rich in merciful,
may see fit to raise a powerful standard in this needy field must be
our earnest prayer.

Computers for Christ - San Jose