In his Sermon on the Mount, recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, Christ Jesus warned the people to "beware of false prophets" who came to them "in sheep's clothing," but inwardly were "ravening wolves." Many of these false prophets would ask Jesus to gain entrance for them into the kingdom of heaven. But the Master would respond, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. 7:23
To me, Jesus' words serve as a reminder of some fundamental spiritual truths in the practice of Christian Science: first, that evil never existed, and does not exist now, having never been created by God; second, that evil never was a part of man, is not now, and never will be, because man is God's perfect, spiritual image and likeness.
Couldn't we think of the term false prophets as referring to suggestions of the materialistic, carnal mind, which would oppose these truths? The suggestions insist that man is a vulnerable mortal, subject to health hazards, contagion, hate, crime, war, immorality, dishonesty, lack of all kinds. Our study of Christian Science helps us see that the evil intent of these false prophets is always to subtly or blatantly separate us from a sense of our unity with God; to lure us away from our pure consciousness of Christ, Truth; to confuse us so that we think we don't know right from wrong; to discourage us and make us afraid; to stain our purity as a child of God. The carnal mind's fraudulent suggestions would bring us down from our spiritual altitude of thought to the level of corporeality and deceptive surface appearances. This is why it is vitally important, at the very moment of intrusion on our thought, immediately to recognize, deny, and reject evil suggestions, forbid them entrance into our mental home before they take form in sickness or sin—"nip them in the bud," so to speak.
