In 1875, Mary Baker Patterson published the first edition of Science and Health, referring to it as her “textbook,” through which she reinterpreted the Christian faith. She taught that God is Love, Mind, the All-in-all. Most importantly, she argued that since God is good and all-encompassing, evil cannot exist. Those things that people perceive to be evil are merely powerful illusions. These novel views on God and healing attracted followers; one of them, Asa Eddy, became Mary’s husband in 1877.1

The 1800s turned American religious orthodoxy on its head. By the end of the century, streams of dissent turned into raging rivers consisting of Universalism, Spiritualism, and Transcendentalism, to name just a few. Meanwhile, Eddy’s popularity skyrocketed. In 1906, the year that she founded the Christian Science Monitor, the federal census reported 85,717 followers. Thirty years later, there were 268,915.2

When one thinks of aberrant religious movements sown in American soil, the Christian Scientists and, of course, the Mormons quickly come to mind. Sadly, then as today, numerous little sects won the hearts of small groups with their strange take on the Bible, theology, even sexuality. Clearly, these religions were more than belief systems; they were ways of living in the world that contradicted the Bible they claimed to read. Two examples further make the point:

Jehovah’s Witnesses.3 Raised a Presbyterian in Pennsylvania, Charles Taze Russell (1852 – 1916) became a skeptic at age 17. It was not long, though, before interest in end-times prophecy drove him to the Bible, but he soon fell into fantastical speculation and heresy. In 1879, he founded Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, the periodical through which he would spread a new teaching.4 Though JWs claim to use the Bible, their translation concludes John 1:1 with “and the Word was a god,” consistent with their Arian teaching that God created Jesus. They also deny that the Holy Spirit is a person, and they proclaim a two-tiered, works-based salvation, with 144,000 going to heaven and the rest living in an earthly paradise. As for the damned, they are simply annihilated; there is no hell.5

Oneida Community. John Humphrey Noyes, its founder, was educated at Andover Seminary and Yale Divinity School in the 1830s, but he strayed far from biblical Christianity, embracing perfectionism, even encouraging “complex marriage,” where men and women lived together sharing sexual partners. He advocated “biblical communism” whereby he dictated the lives of the Oneida members, going so far as to implement a eugenics plan; Noyes decided who should procreate for “the improvement of the race.” Noyes eventually faced so much opposition that he fled to Canada in 1880.6

Some maintain that these cult leaders tested and proved America’s commitment to religious liberty.7 However, the Church should look at this brief history of dissent and lament that the gospel was distorted. Eddy, Russell, and Noyes may have seen themselves as reformers in the mold of Luther or Calvin when, in reality, they presented a false gospel and offered their people a fleeting hope. It is not enough to hold a religious value deeply; one can be sincere and be sincerely wrong.

Where there is religious liberty, new religious movements will continue to rise. Some will be relatively peaceful, like the examples here. Others will prove tragically cruel like Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple in the twentieth century. In each case, it is up to the Church to be aware, alert, watchful, and attentive—ready to spot false prophets who are eager to blaspheme the truth (2 Peter 2:1-3).
Footnotes:
1

Stephen J. Stein, Communities of Dissent: A History of Alternative Religions in America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 94-97. The Christian Scientists followed instructions carefully prescribed by Eddy in the Church Manual. She prohibited pastors and preaching, preferring instead for lay members to devote time in the services to the reading of Scripture and Science and Health. Though healing is central to the movement, Eddy made sure that finding it took effort. Christian Science is a modern Gnosticism—a secret knowledge available to a select few willing to come to study Science and Health as she prescribed. In each case, it is up to the Church to be aware, alert, watchful, and attentive, comparing what is taught to the Bible—ready to spot false prophets who are eager to change the truth (2Peter 2:1-3).Ibid., 98.
2

Sydney Mead, A Religious History of the American People (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979), 1025.
3

Officially the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. See Watchtower Website, http://www.watchtower.org/ (accessed May 14, 2008).
4

Anthony A. Hoekema, The Four Major Cults (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963), 223-225.
5

“Jehovah’s Witnesses,” North American Mission Board (SBC) Belief Bulletin, North American Mission Board Website, http://www.namb.net/atf/cf/%7BCDA250E8-8866-4236-9A0C-C646DE153446%7D/BB_Jehovahs_Witnesses.pdf (accessed May 14, 2008).
6

Stein, 62-65.
7

Ibid., xii-xiii. Historian Stephen Stein argued that religious leaders such as Eddy, Lee, and Noyes contributed something important to American history. They “affirmed their deepest religious values, often in the face of physical hardship and overt hostility,” they “bravely faced opposition, and in most cases, the difficulties they confronted did not deter them.”

article adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located at 4800 W. Pulaski Hwy., Perryville, MD, one and a half miles east of Rt. 222.