Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.
~ Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 71
When looking at evil personalities, military tanks on a rampage, and missiles hitting civilian buildings, it may be hard to believe that evil is not a person, place or thing. But behind every evil act is an evil thought or motive that generates the outward picture of something bad. The enemy is the evil thought behind the evil act. When the evil thought is gone, the evil act and actor disappear.
Christian Science explains that the most effective way to rid the world of evil, is not to build it up as a formidable reality, but to tear it down with spiritual truth to its native nothingness. It needs to be stripped of power, prestige, and influence. And this is done through understanding God better.
By understanding God’s reality of omnipotent Love and omnipresent Truth, the claims of evil can be dismantled, neutralized, and rendered harmless. As Eddy wrote, “Nothing is real and eternal,–nothing is Spirit,–but God and His idea.” This reality, understood and demonstrated, leaves no room for evil to exist or operate. There is no better time than now to prove it!
Thank you, Evan, for explaining this so clearly. I am grateful for SpiritView, especially during these times when evil really does appear to be a person. Thank you so much. ❤️
Gosh this is better explained than anything I have ever read or heard before on the subject. Thank you so much Evan! Has helped me a lot.
Thank you, Evan. It is so important to know that evil is not a person. We are taught in
Science to separate evil from person, to understand evil’s unreality, and to know all men to be the reflection of God’s goodness and loving-kindness. The source of all evil is just impersonal false
suggestions, however dire it seems to be, and we help to dissolve it by denying its reality, and prayerfully holding to Christ’s teachings by loving our enemies, and doing good to those who despitefully use us etc. in our own lives, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount.
Thank you, Evan, for these clear ideas that explain how we must pray about war whether at home or abroad…LOVE MORE! We can do this…”God has made man (us) capable of this…” S&H page 393
Thanks also for everyone’s comments!
Thanks for mentioning this, Sarah, it’s one of my favorite Mrs. Eddy quotes. “Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate [weaken or diminish] the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.”
Love to all!
thank you. THANK YOU!!!
The comment on evil is so gratefully stated. This explanation and the contributions from its listeners is one of the reasons that I so enjoy the web site. It is the morning breakfast my daily bread it nourishes me through out my day.
WHIM, FABRICATION, OR GOD’S CHILD
Awake at three, not able to get back to sleep, I awoke laterfrom a very deep dream
The dream so real it was like a day’s event
I could see everything taking place as happening in reality
A picture so clear it more than mimicked a day’s activity
Speaking about day … is what we call day any more real thanthe night scenario
The comings and goings of the human mind
The fables made up to suit the whims of the conceiver
And who are they, concocting events.
God’s idea, child, does not dwell in the mortal picture … is not
deceived by false views, viewpoints, viewing points
Believing in a mortal depict life becomes uneven
Living God, Life manifests divinity, our true dwelling place
Melissa Baker
Loved that Melissa! Thank you
When in need of simplifying my effort to understand that all “evil” is illusion, Mind, God, keeps returning me to the fact that the earth is NOT flat, though it sure seems so!
Simple, childlike trust in Truth is the key….not wrestling with the illusions.
Onward!!
Hi Spiritview Fan. I liked what you said about childlike trust and not needing to wrestle with illusions. I think most people (including me) spend too much time wrestling with the things that error presents to our consciousness as being real.
I awoke this morning feeling kind of depressed and out of sorts, “my” first thought about myself was, you are a mess. It was a mean and nasty sentiment, as error often is. Then I thought – that isn’t from God, He would never say that to or about His child and in that nasty tone. So it was nothingness, pretending to be somethingness, trying to get me to jump in and wrestle with all the “reasons” why “I” am a mess. No thank you. I’d rather hear and trust what our loving God is knowing, about me, and about all of His creation.
Great example of Alertness to Duty, Rose. Thank you for sharing! I frequently wake up needing to clear my thinking of thoughts unlike God and His idea too.
This was so good to read Rose, and such an eye opener to our alertness to the fact that everything is in thought and not in person. Us or others. I many times get carried away into the thought that I made a mess, especially on my desk with all the wonderful articles from SV blogs and other CS writings, and books that I keep going through. I have a little sign with a line and half sun rising that says THIS IS NOT A MESS THIS IS A CREATIVE OPPORTUNITY. It makes me smile. The writing teacher who gave it to me was very open minded although to my knowledge didn’t study CS. I try to be
orderly but it many times gets away from me and I turn to Love to not admonish myself. I love what you said about hearing and trusting what our loving God is knowing, about us all.
Thank you.
Perfect spirit view about our current events—-thank you Evan!
From “We Knew Mary Baker Eddy”, Martha Wilcox Reminiscence
Mrs. Eddy came to Chestnut Hill January 26, 1908, and I became a member of her household Monday morning, February 10, 1908—just two weeks later. I was a very young student in Christian Science—just beginning my sixth year. And although the Principle of Christian Science to be demonstrated was the same for all members of her household, the instructions that Mrs. Eddy gave me, and her requirements of me, were different in their degree from those who were more experienced in Christian Science practice. It is only fair to Mrs. Eddy and to others that this be taken into consideration.
…
My first lesson from Mrs. Eddy
After removing my wraps, Mrs. Laura Sargent took me into Mrs. Eddy’s study and introduced me as Mrs. Wilcox from Kansas City. Mrs. Eddy said to me, “Good morning, Mrs. Wilcox, I felt your sweet presence in the house.” …
Then she began to talk to me on mental malpractice. In effect this is what she said: Sometimes a sense of a personality arises before your thought and leads you to believe that a personality is something outside and separate from your thought that can harm you. She showed me that the real danger was never this threatened attack from outside my thought where the personality seemed to be, but that the real danger was always within my thought. She made it clear that my sense of personality was mental—a mental image formed in my so-called mortal mind and was never external or separate from my mind. This supposititious mortal mind outlined itself as a belief of a material personality with form and conditions and laws and circumstances—in fact, with all the phenomena that are embraced in what is called material life or personality. And then she showed me that not one solitary fact in this whole fabric of supposititious evil was true.
She showed me that I must detect that all this mental phenomena was only aggressive mental suggestion coming to me for me to adopt as my own thought. She showed me that because mental malpractice is mental, the only place that I could meet it was within what seemed to be my own mentality, and the only way that I could meet it was to give up the belief in a power and presence other than God, or Truth. She also showed me that this seeming-within enemy could never harm me if I was awake to the truth and active in the truth. This lesson on mental malpractice was quite apropos for one entering a household comprised of never less than seventeen and up to twenty-five so-called personalities.
Thank you RH, I really get a lot out of the We Knew Mary Baker Eddy series. This hits the subject mark very well. Thanks Evan for such a clear explanation of this subject.
Love to everyone..
Thank you. That was just what I needed.
Hi, everyone!
Thank you, Evan and all pray-ers!
This is a featured article on JSH-Online.
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/1f6je2r5gc8?s=copylink
Increibly clear article. Thank you Christine. Many thanks, Evan, for covering this topic with strength snd firmness.
Thank God an Jesus and MBE for this TRUTH to know and practice. I thank all for this knowledge and understanding.
PLACE
Thanks to Evan and all for your insights, and that article is powerful and a half!
Just want to add how helpful it’s been to me recently to ponder how evil is not PLACE. Whether in the heart of a brutal tyrant or in a bombed out building or a suffering body, an imprisoning workplace or institution or point in time or memory. Turning to the light of God’s all-knowing, everywhere thought dwells (and all is thought), is a place of God’s ever-presence, a place of shining light, like a baseball thrown through the dark night sky to the moon. Light fills all space.
Thank you Evan and all other responders for giving all of us such clear instructions on how to handle our own thinking about what seems to be going on in the world at present
Love to all of you..