THERE is much in the Scriptures to furnish a basis for the teaching of Christian Science to the effect that there is no evil in the divine consciousness. In the Old Testament we have the testimony of the prophet Habakkuk, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity;" and the psalmist sang, "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish." The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous because He hath established that way. By inference and contrast the way of the ungodly must perish, because God established no such way and does not know it; therefore it has neither truth, reality, nor permanence. In the New Testament, John the beloved disciple wrote, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;" and the apostle Paul, that sturdy defender of the faith, assures us that Love, who is God, "thinketh no evil."
In the account given in the second and third chapters of Genesis, it is recorded that the primary curse fell on mortal man for eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." In the first chapter of Genesis we learn that God made every thing that was made, and that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. . . . Thus the heavens and the earth were finished." God having made all things good, it is manifestly a fundamental error for mortal man to believe that evil has reality or existence. To believe in evil, to know evil, is to misinterpret God's work and turn the lie on Him at the very basis of thinking. To do this is to fail to recognize God, good, as all-powerful, and so is to fail to render unto Him the complete recognition and reverence due unto His holy name. It was a lying serpent, the devil, who, in support of his contention that no harm could come from eating of the forbidden fruit, said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." It is therefore the devil, who is not a truth-teller but a liar, who argues to mortal man that it is godlike to know good and evil. and that God Himself is conscious of evil.
It is easy to determine from a philosophical standpoint that God is not and cannot be conscious of evil, if we trust our reason, which, with revelation, is the most reliable guide we have. God, who is unadulterated good, could make no evil; and as He is the sole creator, therefore no evil is made. It is inconceivable that God should know that which He did not make and which has no real existence, and it is manifestly not a reflection or limitation on God's omniscience so to declare. If evil appears, it is unreal, an appearance without actuality, an illusion. Accordingly, if God knew evil, He would be subject to illusion. Strictly, to speak of knowing evil is an improper use of words, for it is hardly proper to speak of knowing that which is not. How is it possible to know that which is no thing, nothing? Mortal man is subject to this illusion; but God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," and cannot "look on iniquity." Mortal man cannot know that he is in evil until he has discovered the opposite good with which to compare it. When mortals become acquainted with God, good, then they become aware of the extent to which they are in evil. Thus their knowledge of God may be said to create evil; that is, to awaken in them the sense of evil. But, from the divine standpoint, which is the only true standpoint, God does not create evil, and does not know evil.
