While flying home from Southern California Saturday night, I studied the chapter, “The Apocalypse,” in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy.
I wanted to understand better the subtle and overt ways evil works to mislead and deceive the human mind into suffering and sin.
This very question sounds contradictory to the teachings of Christian Science, because the premise of Christian Science is that God is All, Good is All, and thus evil is not real. But it is not contradictory. An illusion appears real to the believer of the illusion. Yes, the believer and the illusion are both unreal in absolute Truth, but right now, my guess is, you are believing some of those illusions to be true, as I am. And the need, as Christian Science points out, is to understand the realities of God better so you can see and prove the unreality of evil, and thus find freedom from its claims.
In this effort, it helps to understand how evil operates in belief so you can defend and protect yourself from its lies. The ultimate result will be total triumph over all the claims of evil and life eternal in heavenly perfection as Jesus has shown. But until then, we each have much understanding to gain.
As I read the first half of the chapter, I noticed several times that Eddy wrote about evil’s pursuit of the good, the spiritual idea. For instance,
“The Revelator sees that old serpent, whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health, holiness, and immortality.” (p. 563)
“…evil, holding untiring watch…” is a sobering thought to consider.
“The serpent is perpetually close upon the heel of harmony. From beginning to end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual idea.” (p. 564)
She wrote about how the malicious animal instinct pursued Jesus Christ and crucified him (p. 564).
She writes about “holy wars” (p. 567).
By the time you read through these references, and more, its tempting to think that evil has real power to devour, pursue and destroy the good in our lives. But Eddy doesn’t leave her reader in the throes of evil. She is explaining John’s vision in Revelation as proof that evil is not what it claims to be, is not real, and will be seen as unreal as the allness and goodness of God is understood.
But how to shake the fear that evil can pursue us was agitating in my mind… I didn’t doubt it. I’ve experienced it. But still, if evil is unreal, how can evil pursue us in our good works? I kept wondering.
Then I got it!
The belief that evil could seek out good people; work to destroy their good works and stop them cold is one of the beliefs of evil!! It wasn’t a reality. It was just another attitude of the carnal mind that needed to be SEEN as unreal and powerless and proven as such.
Oh my goodness. Finally it made sense.
I know that I’m not supposed to hate my neighbor. I know not to be jealous, envious or selfish. Hatred, envy, jealousy, etc., are evil attitudes that must be demonstrated over by all of us to experience the fullness of God’s love. Right!
Well, ALL the different lies of the carnal mind have to be met, not just the ones we personally indulge like moral shortcomings, but ones the world indulges at large too.
For instance, take the belief that evil can make a plan, target a victim, hunt down the unsuspecting victim, trip them up, cause them harm and stop them from progressing. That is a major belief in the world today! It plays out in the movies all the time. Terrorism is an overt form of it. Political assassination, moral assassination, ugly competition turned viciously selfish, and more, all manifest the belief that evil can make a plan, execute it and harm other people in the process.
This is what Eddy saw and learned firsthand. We must meet ALL the claims of evil. We must not be ignorant about the different forms and attitudes evil takes. And this belief that evil can target a good-doer and injure, even murder them, must be handled with truth to prove it unreal.
I find great solace in Eddy’s words, “To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death. Against Love, the dragon warreth not long, for he is killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with them. Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and Spirit.” (p. 567).
Don’t be naïve. Assiduously work to mentally stand in the realm of infinite, ever-present Love, where evil has no power to hurt or harm, and you know it!
This is so helpful!
I’ve wondered these very things.
Especially why- when I’m doing my best spiritually, evil seems to nip more at my heels than usual. I’ve often dealt with it by backing off spiritually just to get error off my back-but that leaves you nowhere. Stuck at sea with no wind in your sails…. This is great. Thanks. 🙂
Thank you for this post. It really addresses my concern / fear that as I commit more to CS there will be more trouble, more to prove and demonstrate.
It’s not just that the question is an illusion, but the entire context of the question is the illusion. That is very revealing and healing.
Thanks Evan.
Oh yes, how easy to go back to sleep,to dream on and try to ignore the day’s demands. But our Mother, divine Love, gently nudges us to awaken, prepare for Her Day of good, of joy, of Life…protected from false beliefs, and also alerting us to our need to stay close to Her protection and care.
Proverbs 6:10 is stirring…
This is so good. It’s the very toppic that the attitude of fear would have us hesitate to bring up especially with a Christian Science teacher… It is a question many of us have at one point or another. I find the blog comments also to be so informative and helpful. Thank you for addressing this so directly and so clearly.
The reminder here if we try to attempt to heal or fix evil, that is starting from a standpoint of belief in it. It has to be a whole-hearted knowing it’s not real,and if there’s some lingering fear, at least start with an exploration, “…hmmm, what if it really isn’t real?!” I did that once. It was a long, physical and metaphysical, exploration that ultimately revealed the Truth.
And this draws a parallel to something I read recently in the July 19, 2010 Christian Science Sentinel, “News of Healing” section, page 26, “The practicioner stressed a need for unconditional commitment to spiritual identity… the only substance is Spirit and is expressed in us as right activity and right health.” (And here’s the really good part:) “But we do not use prayer to change a matter body in poor shape to a matter body in better shape. We can’t be both mortal and spiritual! We are entirely spiritual.”
This was such a powerful nugget of Truth for me. It was so clear to me in my own experiences over time of when there has been instantaneous healing and when there has not been. Wow! Most times I’m “thinking” my prayers with an undercurrent of worry about the situation or manifestaion or discomfort and trying to “change a matter body in poor shape to a matter body in better shape” instead of fully aligning myself with my spiritual identity! And yet one time at the outset of an attack of flu or food poisoning that I could get graphic about, but I won’t. (I wasn’t a “practicing Christian Scientist” at that time, but I’ve also never not practiced it! Once you’ve heard Truth, it stays with you.) Anyway, in the midst of the vile experience, I doubted the reality of itf – really doubted it – and in retrospect I see that I had, as the practitioner in the article said,an “unconditional commitment to spiritual identity”. I just was tunnel visioned with my attention on the Scientific Statement of Being, sometimes dropping lines or words from it in my head but always getting the essentials, “There is no Life, Truth, Intelligence nor Substance in Matter…” I repeated it in my head over and over and over and over, like an Eastern religious mantra (although I didn’t know about mantras). I had, in those moments, an “unconditional commitment to Truth”. My attention was not focused any longer on what was happening in my matter body, it was focused on the fact it wasn’t real or even the potential that it wasn’t real. I don’t even know that my attention was on trying to get what was happening to go away, because my attention was so fully on the the Scientific Statement of Being, and the unreality of the physical experience. And it vanished right there where I was crouched on the bathroom floor. Gone! Not another symptom! Not an after-effect! Nothing! Completey gone! I literally walked out of there free only moments after it had begun!
So now bringing this attention of our True spiritual existence, from the microcosm to the macrocosm, well… I’m learning like the rest of you.
Thank you, bloggers for your insightful responses and THANK YOU, Evan for your daily articles, quotations, poems, videos, and your own experiencial discoveries and the clarifications you share with us. Thank you for this forum. Thank you thank you thank you.
With Love,
Nancy
Thank you for this post.
This one quote brought to light something I’ve always struggled with.
One thing from Matt 5, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him…” And Mrs. Eddy talks about on pg 390. She also talked mentioned “agree to disagree.”
I’ve had trouble grasping this. In your post you quoted this. “Truth and Love prevail against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with them.”(p 567)
I think it makes sense now. The dragon cannot war with Truth and Love. If they war with the dragon, it would give power and credibility to the false belief. Instead what is done is to dismiss the evil completely. To not even give it a chance to present it’s case.
It’s like an impostor enters a classroom and begins teaching wrong ideas. There is no reason to give the impostor the creditably of a teacher and listen to the lesson. He is dismissed as false and the students leave the classroom.
This is seeming to make sense to me. Thanks!
Wow Evan all your posts are so good but this one – all I can say is amazing. You have given the exact answer here to a problem I have been having a lot lately about belief in evil.
Thank you for giving me something that is going to change much in my life right now!
Absolutely great post Evan, this one and others that begin and end with the Bible and S&H. And thanks to all the wonderful commentors for their added insight, and healing accounts.
This post reminds me of a healing I read years before in print, can’t recall the exact source (a CS publication, sometime during the late 90s maybe). As best I can recall:
A family (mother, father, own and adopted children) wouldn’t be dissuaded from adopting a baby so physically challenged and unresponsive that doctors said he would require constant then ultimately institutional care for the rest of his life, which they also expected to be short. The implication was that he would be nothing but grief for the family, and they wouldn’t receive back any love from him. And for years, there was little apparent progress, but the family kept treating him as lovingly and inclusively as they would have had he been able-bodied and responsive.
One afternoon while alone and taking simultaneous naps (the mother and the child), the mother heard someone break into their house and immediately began to pray. Then she heard from the hallway outside her bedroom: “You don’t belong here. You must leave.” The child had crawled out of his bed, crawled out to the hallway, and said that to the man who broke in. That was the first time the child had moved all by himself — and spoken.
The intruder immediately turned and left the house.
Overjoyed, the mother fought back tears and any indication whatsoever that what just transpired was extraordinary, lest she feared the child might then also think so, and lapse back from the healing they both experienced. She just picked him up, kissed him, and put him back down to finish their naps.
Neighbors who happened to be outside at the time later reported to the mother that they saw a strange (as in disturbed) man walk straightway past them right out of their neighborhood to the end of the street, turn, then continue walking until out of sight. The account also mentioned that the child kept progressing until as a young adult, no one could have imagined how challeged his start as a baby was.
What I take from that wonderful account is that while we might not address all the forms evil can take in it’s lurking pursuit, what we do pour our love into unselfishly — when least anticipated that can unleash the power of God to show forth manifold healing.
That’s the only recourse, the only thing to commit to, loving more. Keep loving!
“Wow” is all I can say to everything posted here — your blog and the comments, especially the last lovely healing account.
Well, I might add that now I understand better what the author of Science and Health meant by what the angel’s right foot and left foot are doing (see page 559). The right foot is squashing the basic belief that evil is real, and the left foot is conquering all the world’s and our individual moral shortcomings that arise from the belief in evil’s reality. Neither foot can be effective solo; they must work together. They are both as necessary as the two wings of a bird.
Thank you Evan! I think this is very important in defending every good work from the impersonal claim of evil that attempts to bite the heels of our church, our marriages, our healing etc. It is a call to be alert to the claim and then see the unreality of it rather than “standing aghast at it”.