Diagnosis reversed
From the beginning of my marriage, I was eager to start a family. As a schoolteacher, I enjoyed working with children, and it felt natural to think about wanting my own. But when I didn’t get pregnant right away, I began to wonder if I’d ever have a child. So I prayed. I’d learned in Christian Science to turn to God for comfort, guidance, and healing. And prayer had proved successful for me many times.
As I prayed about having a child, my thoughts evolved from wishful thinking and willful impatience, to gratitude for the opportunity to work with children every day. Also, I realized that to properly love and educate a child, I’d need a better understanding of God, the real Father and Mother of everyone. So I joined a Christian Science branch church, became active in it, and took Christian Science Primary class instruction. In that course, I learned that God is perfect Cause, creating each of us to reflect Him spiritually as His perfect effect.
One day at school, as I was pushing a child on a swing, I mentally heard these words: “Father, where Thine own children are, / I love to be,” which are lines from a poem written by Mary Baker Eddy, set to music in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 253). From that moment, I felt contentment in loving the children I taught, right where I was. I felt freer to relinquish the task of creation to God, the only Creator.
Very soon, and unexpectedly, I became pregnant. In keeping with the laws of the state where we were living, I found a local doctor who agreed to deliver the baby. My husband was not a Christian Scientist, and he wanted me to comply with the doctor’s suggested monthly visits, which I did, even though I wasn’t experiencing any side effects, not even “morning sickness.”
Just before my husband and I were supposed to go on a month-long trip abroad, I made an appointment to have a routine obstetric checkup. I was about four months pregnant at the time. To my surprise, the doctor announced that there was no heartbeat, and he openly conjectured that the baby was not living. He then expressed concern about the probability of the baby aborting, and recommended that I take a test to confirm his diagnosis. But I was so shocked by his prediction that I could not go through with the test at that time.
I fled in tears and contacted a Christian Science practitioner for treatment through prayer, and went immediately to his office. When I arrived, I couldn’t stop crying. Gently he asked what was wrong. “The baby’s dead,” I blurted out. He responded, “Who said so?” I said, “The doctor.” Again he asked, “Who said so?” I gave him the same answer. But he asked this question a third time. The repetition provoked me to think, Why is he asking me the same question over and over? Then I started to understand that if God hadn’t said so, I didn’t need to accept a verdict of death or give it credence.
I began to consider more deeply the fact that God, or Life, was the Father-Mother creating and sustaining all things—spiritual, whole, and healthy. God alone had power in this situation. I knew in my heart that it would never be God’s will that anyone should suffer or die—not the baby and not me.
During the appointment, the obstetrician had advised me not to go on our trip, explaining that I’d very likely miscarry. He’d added that if I did go, I must stay near a hospital. I shared these precautions with the practitioner, who agreed to pray for me daily. My husband and I decided to proceed with our trip. Even though our hotel happened to be on the opposite side of the island from the hospital, I was no longer afraid. And neither was my husband. He knew I’d turned the situation over to God and entrusted us to Him.
Every day that month, I prayed earnestly to God and studied the Christian Science Bible Lesson. I wasn’t outlining the course of those prayers, but I knew that I needed to overcome all fear and feel surer of God’s control in my life and the baby’s. I grew to understand that God, Life itself, created the child as a spiritual idea to express life. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy states it best for me: “It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love” (Science and Health, p. 467).
I also read every word of Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy. One quotation that stood out to me was: “In Science, form and individuality are never lost, thoughts are outlined, individualized ideas, which dwell forever in the divine Mind as tangible, true substance, because eternally conscious” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 103). This quote helped me learn that God’s divine law had supreme power over any human hypothesis.
By seeing that God was the Father and Mother of our child, I gradually regained my peace and joy.
When we returned home, I made an appointment with the same doctor. He examined me and said, “I don’t know what you did, but this baby is perfect.” In due time, our healthy daughter was born without complications. As a child and young adult, she excelled in academics and athletics. Today she has a happy baby of her own.
To me, this experience demonstrated how each one of us has worth and value as God’s own child, with a divine purpose to live and express the very best of divine Life.
Elizabeth Beall | Park City, Utah, US
This testimony appeared in the Christian Science Sentinel. The statements made in these testimonies with regard to healing have been carefully verified by those who know of the healing or who can vouch for the integrity of the testifier.
Comments:
1. ckonrad Says:
The heart isn’t necessary for life according to Mary Baker Eddy since life isn’t in matter so why would a beating heart matter in the first place? Having faith in God and receiving healings are great but dont be sucked into thinking that you have to follow the teachings of Science & health to receive them , dont be fooled by these people.
2. rubix Says:
most logical explanation, the doctor made an error in diagnoses it happens sometimes.
3. David Says:
It’s obvious from your various comments on this site, ckonrad, that Christian Science isn’t for you. That’s fine. But the fact that it’s not for you doesn’t mean that it’s fooling other people. Yes, there are any number of ways to care for one’s health, none with a perfect record but some quite effective. Thousands and thousands of people have been healed through Christian Science, some of them of conditions that doctors pronounced incurable. I’m in that latter group myself. Christian Science really does work.
4. David Says:
Rubix–
Yes, the doctor could have made a mistake, but it’s a huge leap to say that’s the most logical explanation. If you look around this site, you’ll find a good number of medically diagnosed cases cured through Christian Science. It’s really not logical to assume all those diagnoses were wrong, especially given the thousands of authenticated accounts of healing through Christian Science.
5. Blog Administrator Says:
Ckonrad submitted another comment that repeats and embellishes points made in previous comments about this testimony and another one in the News of healing section. Nothing is to be gained by loops of repetition, so we will not post the latest comment.
6. ckonrad Says:
I don’t really believe most of the “healings” are really real i think its just like the phenomenon in Catholicism where people see Mary. Its just a mass hysteria, when people really really want to experience something there subconscious will find a way to convince them that they HAVE experienced it, even if it has to make things up or delete memories, create memories etc. I recall speaking with a Christian Science acquaintance of mine, she said she had been healed and that her tumor in her uterus went away and that she had been cured of a blood clot in her neck. However upon further conversation and investigation into the matter it was clear that she never had any of the problems she thought she had, she convinced herself of the entire thing and it was all a delusion the illness she thought she had was something she made up, the healing was something she made up. Most other cases where people actually go to the doctor they usually take there doctors advice for awhile and then stop and resort to christian science and then go back to the doctor and it goes back and forth like that until it isnt clear what is going on, is it Christian Science or the doctor. You see David (and this is probably going to be deleted so i dont know why i am wasting my time) but these issues are more complicated than they appear. What this website doesn’t tell you is all the people that i have known over the years who have died from simplt treatable problems because of christian science and this website also doesnt tell you about the children in the US, right now, who are in very serious pain, who are scared, and there parents don’t take them to the doctor to get it taken care of. Christian Science needs to end and i am going to do whatever i can to put it to an end.
7. levity Says:
ckonrad,
I’m sorry if your experience has left you with misperceptions about what Christian Science is, or about what it means to be a Christian Scientist. But you have come to the right place to find out more. I hope, if nothing else, this site gives you the opportunity to see that Christian Science is about finding answers, comfort, and healing. It’s about feeling the power of God’s love in your life.
Without knowing your friend, I of course can’t comment on her experience. What I can comment on are the healings I’ve seen in my own life, in my friends’ and family’s lives, and the healings authenticated by doctors that have been published in the Christian Science Sentinel, Journal, and Herald over the years. There’s actually a healing of a blood clot on this website right now–a new video testimony, which you can find by going here:
http://www.christianscience.com/diagnosed-blood-clot-healed.html
It may be that there are cases out there that are psychosomatic, or situations where something is mis-diagnosed. But that does not negate the power of Christian Science to heal, or the healings experienced by those who have successfully relied on Christian Science to deal even with situations or illnesses deemed impossible or incurable. Of course, there’s nothing I can say to convince you of this, but the record of healing stands, regardless of whether or not you feel you can believe it.
I think the bigger point, though, is that Christian Science is not about suffering. It’s not about being a martyr. It’s not about blind faith in some system, regardless of the effects on yourself, or on your children.
Christian Science is about love. I’d say that’s the point of it all, the very heart of it. So how on earth could a parent, who loves their child more than anything, ever allow that child to suffer? How is that standing for love?
To me, love means being responsible. It means doing what’s best for yourself or your children. And it means getting the help that you need. The reason my parents raised me in Christian Science was because they saw it was effective. They saw it brought fast, complete results. They saw healings in their own lives, so they trusted it to heal me. And it did. And it continues to. I’m a Christian Scientist not because I was raised in it, but because I’ve seen it work indisputably. And yet, I continue to test it, to practice it, because I want to make sure I’m not doing anything just because “it’s the way I’ve always done things.”
Thus far, I’m grateful to say that I continue to see the power of God at work in my life–healing me and taking care of me. That power of God is at work for you and your loved ones, too.
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