In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy explains ideas that she found in the Bible. One of these is that sickness is “error.” Referring to Jesus’ parable of the tares and wheat, where what passes away is separated from what endures (see Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43), she defines the tares spiritually as: “Mortality; error; sin; sickness; disease; death” (p. 595).
But how can it be said that sickness is error? Because God is perfect, infinite good, whatever is unlike Him is illegitimate and wrong. The very thought of any illness is fundamentally flawed, unnatural, and erroneous because that thought assumes illness has legitimacy and reality. It is the human mind, not God, the divine Mind, that appears to know illness. Thus, while illness looks like and feels like a human “reality”—and an individual experiencing illness deserves great compassion—to the degree that we recognize that the illness is but a mistaken view, not to be feared or sympathized with, we master it, showing forth the highest compassion. Jesus exemplified this, healing sickness and sin.
According to conventional thinking, illness isn’t considered necessarily wrong but as a normal part of biological life. Christian Science teaches that the true life of each of us is the expression or reflection of divine Life, infinite Spirit, God, and that God’s will for His entire creation is harmony alone. Knowing this gives us moral courage not to accept fear, nor cede to illness, but to resist and protest it mentally with moral authority. This mental protest, a form of prayer, prevents and heals illness.
