The cry, "I can never believe in God again!" has been wrung from many whose world has seemed to collapse about them. When tragedy strikes us personally, or when we are faced with a national disaster, such anguish is understandable only if we believe God to be the cause of the evil or if we believe Him to be unwilling or unable to avert it. Upon such a personal and material assumption of the nature of Deity we may indeed suffer disillusionment and loss of faith.
Christ Jesus, however, gave a parable which, while it was intended to illustrate the nature of what the Bible refers to as "the last days" (II Tim. 3:1), is equally applicable to our personal misfortunes. According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said (21:29–31): "Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." If, rather than turning away from God in times of trouble, we turn more completely to Him, we shall be able to perceive more clearly the truth of being. Turning away from Him only plunges us deeper into the darkness of ignorance.
When the mental suffering that is the result of misfortune brings us closer to God and we gain the right understanding of Him through the study of Christian Science, we are lifted out of a sense of grief and separation, and the glory of His allness is revealed to us. We learn that it is not God who causes evil but rather the misunderstanding of Him, based upon the belief that there is a power besides Him capable of causing evil. The more severe our experiences seem to be, the more we should seek an understanding of Him and His spiritual creation.
