What Is Scientology? What Do They Believe? Are They Christian?

What is Scientology? Is it Christian? What are their beliefs and do they believe what the Bible teaches?

What is Scientology?

The word Scientology is taken from the Latin word “scio” meaning “knowing” or “knowledge” and the Greek word “logos” which means the “study of.” Essentially Scientology means the study of knowing, but knowing what? Why is something that is the “study of knowing” called a religion or a church? What truth are they seeking to find? It seeks to bring mankind to the highest meaning of life possible to achieve total freedom and truth. Freedom from what though and what truth is being sought after? Jesus said that “I am the truth” so why not just believe what Jesus taught (John 14:6)? It should be that simple but it most certainly is not.

The founder of Scientology is L. Ron Hubbard who founded it in 1954. He claimed himself to be a naval hero but was later exposed to be a fraud. In 1957 he falsely claimed to be a nuclear physicist but was exposed to be lying about that. After failing college and two bigamous marriages, he dived into pulp science fiction. He once said in 1941 that if anyone wants to be a millionaire, all they have to do is start a religion and that is just what he did. Hubbard wove together practices of Eastern religions and Buddhism, Freudian theories, and hypnotic techniques and called it Dianetics. Hubbard claimed to have discovered the human soul and his religion strived to free souls from the physical or material world that had entrapped it. His purpose was to free these souls to achieve total freedom and absolute truth which would bring the members of the church to an awareness of the real meaning of life.

The IRS nailed Hubbard in 1970 for bilking the Church of Scientology out of millions of dollars while he used phony companies in Panama to launder the money. For the vast majority of his life, Hubbard was in trouble with federal and state authorities.

What do Scientologists Believe?

… humans originated from another planet, the “parent planet”, due to overpopulation there.

Scientologists believe that mankind is basically good and not evil which is contrary to the Bible’s teaching. They strive to increase the intelligence and ability of humans so that they might achieve total truth and freedom to bring about the meaning of life and find their true purpose. They also believe that humans originated from another planet, the “parent planet”, due to overpopulation there. Their belief of the afterlife is that humans are immortal and really never die and that this “immortal spiritual being” has lived another life before and will live another life again. This means that they have lived many lives before and will live other lives after death and will continue to do so for all eternity. The person that dies in their present body will later inhabit another body.

Scientologists do not see the need for Jesus as Savior since they basically believe mankind is good and not evil. They see no need of a Savior since they are immortal and they feel that humans are basically good. They believe that He was a good teacher who never quite reached a high enough of a spiritual awareness. To reach higher levels, you have to pay higher amounts. The more money you pay, the higher you go up. Study courses and training materials go up in cost the higher in the levels you go.

Are Scientologists Christian?

No one who knows the Bible even partially should believe that Scientologists are Christians. They believe that mankind is basically good, but the Bible says all of mankind has fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) and that the heart of mankind is basically evil (Jer 17:9). They believe humans are immortal and have many lives in the past and will have many in the future, ignoring the biblical fact that humans live and die only once and then comes a judgment (Heb 9:27). They do not believe that Jesus is God (John 1) and that since humans are intrinsically good, they don’t need a Savior because sin is just a lack of intelligence or knowledge. This is in direct opposition to the wages of sin being death (Rom 6:23). They don’t believe in God as the Creator of human life because humans were supposed to come from another planet…the “parent planet.” They are trusting in their own intelligence while God says that the wisdom of man is foolishness (1 Cor 1:25, 3:19). They also believe that the truth is something that can come from human achievement through the mind when Jesus said that He is the truth (John 14:6).

Conclusion

Clearly, Scientologist’s are not Christian. They are a cult. Scientology is somewhat of a smorgasbord of religions and beliefs. They were originally created as a money-making religion by L. Ron Hubbard and this is still the way that they operate. They reject the truth of God and exchange it for their own human truth. They believe that they have immortal life when only Jesus can impart that (John 3:16). It is a mixture of false Eastern religions that puts weight on human achievement through effort, completely ignoring the fact that human works are worthless in achieving eternal life (Eph 2:8-9). They also do not regard the Bible as the inspired Word of God and do not believe what the Word teaches. By rejecting Jesus as Savior, they do not pursue the only possible way to gain eternal life (Acts 4:12). Sadly, many celebrities are involved with Scientology. Why? Perhaps they have more money with which to achieve “higher levels” or they have rejected the God of the Bible because of their lifestyles or they could simply be deceived by the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4, 1 John 3:8). The Church of Scientology may be a church, but it is not the church that Jesus Christ built. If it is not His church, then we know who the father of this church is (2 Cor 11:13-15). And the head of this church is not God the Father but just may be the father of lies (John 8:44).

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