Footsteps of Israel: From Eden to the City of God
Greenwood, Samuel. Footsteps of Israel: From Eden to the City of God. Washington, DC: CQ Press, (1922) 1958.
The thesis of Greenwood’s book is not Mary Baker Eddy’s theology. He claims that Israel—the origin of God’s revelation of spiritual reality to humanity—was lost and is now restored by Christian Science through an Anglo-Israel lineage. Christian Science stands at the end of the line, demonstrating the consummation of the New Covenant with Israel and the coming of the Comforter. Through Greenwood’s interpretation of biblical history, he concludes that Israel lost its way through materialism and disobedience. However, Jesus and his apostles accepted the Hebrew prophecies that the Jews rejected. But Jesus also foresaw that the Messianic prophecy would not be completely fulfilled in him; a second appearing of Christ would be necessary. The spiritual lineage passed to the Anglo-Saxon people. It begins “when the Israelites broke from their Assyrian captivity…made their way along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea…” and ends with “…identif[ying] the English people with the ancient house of Israel” (278). After the ‘great war’ (WWI) Greenwood sees Israel returning from its battle of Armageddon to be fully restored in Christian Science. “The restoration of Israel means the bringing back of the spiritual sense of being the lost Israel which Jesus came to save, and which Christian Science is here to restore” (314).
ISBN-10: 1230393889
ISBN-13 (Softcover): 978-1230393889
See also annotations:
“The Bible and Christian Scientists” by Michael W. Hamilton