Occasionally, I’ve heard students of Christian Science voice concern and fear over evil’s ability to attack them and cause harm.
A classic scenario is a person is preparing to make a major step forward in his career or personal life and some tragedy suddenly hits that threatens to prevent progress. Perhaps a severe illness happens without warning, the economy turns for the worse, a job is lost, a friend turns into an enemy….
Whatever form evil takes, it’s critical that we never empower it to rule our lives or threaten our success.
The spiritual truth that evil does not have power is a fundamental rule of Christian Science.
Jesus Christ overcame every claim of evil when he walked out of the tomb alive and soon ascended. Life triumphed over death and proved it nothing to fear.
Mary Baker Eddy was clear that evil is not the power it appears to be. “Mankind must learn that evil is not power,” she declared.
We too must not arm evil with power to destroy our lives, prevent our progress or make existence difficult.
Mortal mind lives out its own beliefs.
Don’t get caught up into mortal mind’s erroneous mindset of “Evil has power.” It doesn’t! But we need to know it to prove it.
God has all power, and it’s a good power working for your benefit to keep you healthy and well.
So, next time something evil happens, in belief, and you’re tempted to think, “Right when I’m ready to take a major step forward, the carnal mind jumps in and wreaks havoc.” Don’t consent to the temptation. Don’t arm evil with a knife and gun to attack you with. Take the gun and knife out of the hands of mortal mind, strip it of its illusive claim to power and march on free of hindrance.
Don’t fear evil anymore.
Thank you – This is perfect for today! As each of your posts has been pinpointed on the process at hand for me. I was inwardly acknowledging this conclusion, and it is so wonderful to open up your page and find the Truth being reinforced. It is proof of God/Divine Mind omniscient and omnipresent. Thank you.
Thanks for this comment Evan, it’s an important one that can’t have too much attention. I didn’t grow up in Science, but will say that when I came to it, I felt overwhelmed by all the attention to evil, animal magnetism, and what “they” are all trying to do to Christian Scientists. (As if there’s more than one Mind, one man). Until then, I’d pretty much given short shrift to “the devil”. Am still finding my way out of this “belief”.
I don’t get it. If God has all power, why does evil happen? Ít’s hard not to fear something when real people lose their lives.
I remember in a Wednesday testimony meeting, someone said “9/11 didn’t really happen; evil isn’t real, because God has all power.” Right then and there, several people stood up and walked out of the church.
Evil may just be be a belief, but some people are waking up to find their loved ones no longer with them. I’ve often heard it said that evil is but a dream, but in dreams, you wake up and your loved ones are still there.
To above,
The unreality of evil is perhaps the biggest and toughest question for the human mind to reason with. It takes faith to see all the way to evil’s end. But Jesus has demonstrated it and that gives us hope that we can too.
The unreality of evil is learned through experience, step by step. As one evil is conquered, faith and hope grows that the next evil can be conquered too.
The downside of believing evil is real is the liability to experience more of it. Belief fosters its own conditions. That’s not cool! If you don’t like to suffer. This rule is proved many ways. Thought inclined to indulge disease is more susceptible to catching it. Thought experiences what it thinks and believes. So, there is no benefit to believing in evil! It does not protect us from harm, but puts us closer to it.
The wiser way is to put one’s effort into tearing down evil claims and overcoming them with truth and love. This is done through a growing understanding of God as all-powerful good and able to be all-powerful.
In your example, I agree, that telling a public audience 9/11 never happened, is not sensical. It did happen in belief. The need was not to say it never happened, but to heal broken-hearts, crushed souls and unbounding fears that people were struggling with in trying to deal with the horror.
Hope that makes sense…