What the world needs more than its religious doctrines is the willingness to abide by them, if they are true. While the creeds and doctrines of Christian sects are practically a unit in their statement of the fundamental truths concerning Deity, there is but little agreement as to the measure of their applicability to human affairs, and less willingness to adhere to them if they conflict with personal opinion or the deductions of material hypotheses. On the contrary, there seems to be a general tendency to repudiate the responsibility for their application at all, some going so far as to imply that these truths have no practical utility in daily experience. When, therefore, in elucidating Christian Science as practical, scientific Christianity, Mrs. Eddy made the rather startling statement. "Evil is not power" (Science and Health, p. 192), it was not, perhaps, to be wondered at that religious teachers did not, as a rule, agree with her, although claiming to stand on the same doctrinal platform which affirms the omnipotence of God. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that upon the verification of this statement human salvation depends, for if evil is power it is necessarily a part of the eternal government of the universe, and no mortal could ever hope to escape from it.
The evident reluctance of other Christian denominations to endorse the Christian Science teaching of the powerlessness of evil, might well cause one to ask what the teaching of God's omnipotence means, since the only correct or logical deduction possible therefrom must be that any supposed opposite to God is minus power. Mrs. Eddy wrote, as she always did, from the standpoint of the infinite nature of Deity, presenting proof in support of her statement, and challenging all equivocation or subterfuge on this point by pertinently concluding, "Either there is no omnipotence, or omnipotence is the only power" (Ibid., p. 249). Which of these two positions should one take, since there is no neutral ground: that God is not omnipotent, or that He is the only power? It is absolutely essential that the truth concerning this question be understood, for without a true concept of God it is impossible to serve Him aright. The tenor of Scriptural teaching is that mortals do not worship God acceptably while they believe in both good and evil. The attempt to serve two masters always has been useless, and always must be. If one would be at peace he must become acquainted with God; that is, he must know the truth about Him, and this truth must become the unvarying rule of his thought and life.
It should be evident to the thoughtful religionist, if he will carefully examine the situation, that to affirm the existence of evil power is to deny the omnipotence of God, or so to modify his acceptance thereof as to nullify, for him, its original and only vital meaning, which is that there is no other power. No one can avoid the consequent inconsistency if he accepts the all-power of God as a premise and denies its obvious conclusion. The too common theory that an almighty God, otherwise defined as good, and a powerful devil, otherwise defined as evil, coexist or cooperate, is a manifest absurdity; and scholastic theology is forced to assume an arbitrary position in order to formulate or defend this theory. Evil is indefensible from any point of view, since, as Jesus declared, it is a lie from the beginning; hence no theory that includes evil can present the truth regarding God or man; on the contrary, the belief in such theories is responsible for all the woes of mankind. The patent fact, that to the degree one is sensible of good he is insensible of evil, should dispose of the assumption that good and evil have ever blended, or could ever blend, in the divine truth of creation. As one begins to prove the power of good by obeying it, he becomes aware of the deceptive nature of evil, and it is only on the basis of obedience to God that the powerlessness of evil can ever become evident.
When Christians, in all good faith, subscribe to the teaching of God's omnipotence, why do they, as a rule, evade the position to which this teaching inevitably leads, and admit the existence of evil power as well? What can possibly induce them to turn from this fundamental Christian truth, by which the Master healed the sick, and endorse the claim of a power apart from and in opposition to God, when they should know that through the suppositional activities of this belief their Lord was crucified, and that on its basis all the iniquities of the race have been conceived and perpetrated? What possible right influence could persuade one of rational mind, taught to believe in and revere God as Supreme Being, to give assent to evil as having any reality whatever, when he should know that in so doing he shuts the door against his own freedom from this error and its effects. It is of a surety the climax of human folly to assume to limit infinite power, for humanity has no other means but the truth of God's omnipotence whereby to meet and overcome the suggestion of evil by which men have been deluded.
Mortals are urged by their religious instructors to resist sin, and to deny wicked passions and impulses; which means, if it means anything, that, to a certain extent at least, they should deny power to evil. But why not go a little farther in the same direction, until evil is found to be without any power whatever, a lie against the supremacy of good? One must reach that point some time, before salvation from the sense of evil can be consummated, for one cannot be wholly saved from error so long as he believes it. Christian Scientists have found that there is no necessity to acknowledge evil at all, except it be as an illusion of human belief, which loses its supposed power and disappears as the true knowledge of God is gained. The wonder is, not that Mrs. Eddy alone of the world's religious teachers should hold unreservedly to the literal sense of the omnipotence of God, but that there should be any hesitation on the part of professing Christians to take the same position, and to practise Christ's teachings from that standpoint.
We pray for deliverance from evil, and it is right that we should, but can this prayer avail while we virtually take evil under our protection in admitting its claim to power? Can we reasonably expect this deliverance while our prayer is a practical acknowledgment that God Himself admits this claim? From whence are mortals to derive the wisdom and strength to overcome their sense of evil if God, in whom is their only hope, allows it to have reality and power? What else than distress and tribulation can be looked for so long as mankind are taught to regard evil as having divine permission to afflict them? It is surely inconsistent to condemn atheists for their disbelief in the existence of God, while avowed Christians are allowed without rebuke to believe in the existence of evil, the supposed opposite of God — for the Christian acknowledges God to be infinite. Probably every Bible student has in his thought censured the early Israelites for their worship of "strange gods;" but is it not as truly idolatrous to give evil a place of power beside God, when God expressly declares that there is none beside Him? The First Commandment, which is always in force, requires mankind to acknowledge God alone; which plainly means that they are to know no other reality, no other power, than good.
Because the supposed material senses of mortals appear to corroborate the claim of evil power, they have been taught to honor that claim unquestioningly, notwithstanding that Jesus charged the Jews to "judge not according to the appearance," and Paul said, "We look not at the things which are seen;" that is, we do not look to material things for truth. The logic of the Master's teaching is that he came to save humanity from evil as a false sense of being, as an illusion of mortal belief, and not from evil as a reality. If the illusive nature of evil were fully discerned by mortals, there would be little occasion for religious reform. History testifies that Christendom has not combated evil effectively on the basis of its assumed power, as it has attempted to do, for the truth of God's omnipotence necessitates the overcoming of evil on the basis of its nothingness. There can be no other effective way. The failure of the churches to apprehend the purely spiritual nature of Truth, and to break its truce with materialism, made necessary the appearing of Christian Science to declare God aright, and to honor His omnipotence above all mortal evidence.
The fact that the Scriptures represent God as condemning evil should be sufficient authority for us to do likewise; not only to condemn its works, but to condemn its very claim to existence. No command or precept of the Bible enjoins the recognition of evil as a power or reality, but mortals are therein exhorted to turn from it to find happiness and Life. It is evident, therefore, that it is the false sense itself of evil that urges its own recognition, for even the better side of human nature disapproves of any active cognizance of this evil sense. "Unto the pure all things are pure." Honesty is not deceived into believing in dishonesty, nor does love take any account of hate, for it is the essential nature of every quality of goodness to know no opposite to good, the being of God. We must therefore conclude that it is but a belief of evil in mortal thought, and not truth, that denies the omnipotence of God; and it is this erring thought, and not a powerful reality, against which mortals contend, and which they must correct through the knowledge and demonstration of the infinity of good.
While it may be admitted, humanly speaking, that the material senses support the claim of evil power, it must be noted on the other hand that these so-called senses have nothing to do with defining the truth of things, since their testimony has been proved false again and again. What can material sense know of infinite Spirit, Life, and Love? By what right or upon what basis is matter asked or permitted to define boundaries for limitless Mind, or to decide how much power God has or has not? According to its own testimony material sense condemns man to extinction; yet Christians reject this testimony, for they believe man to be immortal, despite the physical evidence. Why, then, should they accept the evidence that would make man a sinner, a victim of disease and misfortune, when it rests upon precisely the same basis as the testimony that man is extinguished by death? It is reasoned, and truly, that because man derives his being from God he cannot be annihilated; but by the same rule it follows that the real man is also spiritual and perfect, because God, Spirit, is his only intelligence and creator.
The common misapprehension appears to be that God is omnipotent in a potential but not in an actual sense. In other words, God has all power if He chooses to exercise it; but since, as mortals believe, He does not assert His omnipotence, evil is permitted to have power to that extent. That is, evil exists with the sufferance of good, and afflicts mankind by divine consent. According to this view, God Himself is influenced by evil in withholding from man the succor and protection which is in His power to afford. Even the best among mankind would not be guilty of such an offense; therefore it cannot be true of God, for the divine is infinitely above the human and transcends the highest concept of mortals. The belief that Deity permits evil to exist and to work its will upon humanity would degrade the divine below the level of the human, and leave mankind without a God better than themselves.
Christian Science teaches that God is Himself always, the unchangeable, supreme, infinite, ever-active good, and is as incapable of diminishing His omnipresence to permit the presence of evil as He is of committing evil. The supposition that the infinite becomes less than all, or that He allows the existence of that which is enmity to His own being, would also include the possibility of continuing this to the point of allowing good to be extinguished. Such a conclusion is unthinkable; but what is the alternative so long as we acknowledge evil to be a real positive force which operates in God's universe and which divine power has hitherto been unable or unwilling to destroy? Mortals can never work out their salvation with this limited concept of good, for the failure to discern God as all, so long as it remains in human thought, will be fraught with fear and a sense of evil, and to this unenlightened thought these illusions will seem dire realities. Hence the only hope of success for the Christian church is to establish its work on the truth of the undivided, unshared, infinite power of God, if it is to accomplish the full redemption of mankind.
If we as Christians affirm the omnipotence of God,—and we cannot consistently do otherwise,—our attitude toward the belief in evil should obviously be that of denial; hence the utter repudiation of every claim of evil is the only obligation which Christians are under regarding that belief. Divine wisdom or intelligence acknowledges no power apart from God, for it has been proved that evil has no actuality outside of the consciousness that believes or obeys it. Mrs. Eddy writes, "When man makes something of sin it is either because he fears it or loves it" (Messages, p. 49). Then, instead of arguing in defense of evil, let mortals cease loving and obeying it, and they will find it has no reality to fear and no power to harm. Disputing the logic of Christian Science is a waste of time when it can readily be proved, and thus taken out of the problematical. Reliance upon the all-power of God, in the face of all physical testimony to the contrary, has delivered men in thousands of instances, and the same spirit is enabling Christian Scientists today to demonstrate, in a degree, the verity of Jesus' teaching, and the possibility of following his example, even as he commanded.
It does not express the truth sufficiently to speak of God as having almighty power, if it is meant that God uses this power at one time or in one person's behalf, and not at all times and for all mankind; for God is omnipotence itself, whose expression is the ceaseless, spontaneous activity of the divine nature and being. "God rests in action," writes Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 519). Like light that never ceases shining nor gives place to darkness, so omnipotence never ceases its infinite activity, never becomes quiescent before suppositional evil, and is never less than all power; therefore the conclusion that there is not a moment, and never was, when evil has opportunity to be power. Thus, instead of doubting the truth of God's omnipotence because material sense contradicts it, Christian Science denies this material evidence because it contradicts the allness of God.
The meaning of omnipotence in Christian Science is that God is literally and absolutely the only power. It means that He is the only creator and governor of the universe, including man; that nothing contrary to the nature and being of Deity exists or has been created; that wherever real consciousness is, God (good) is, and is all. It means that disease, want, pain, sin, death have neither been set in operation, nor brought into being, nor permitted, by the God who is infinite Love. Therefore it means that these wrong conditions have absolutely no truth or true being: that they never had and never can have an infinitesimal degree of real power; that they cannot touch and never have touched the real man, the child of God. It means that no one need fear any more than he need obey evil in any form, and that Christians of the present day have the authority and encouragement of the Master, of the Scriptures, and of common sense, to reject this claim entirely. What less could the omnipotence of God mean?
When humanity ceases to support the assertion of an evil power, it will begin to cease fearing and obeying evil, and human suffering will proportionately lessen; but so long as power is believed to exist apart from God, this belief will continue to terrify mankind and to extract its toll of sin, disease, and death. The most pathetic feature about all human misery is that it is so needless. No law of God lays the curse of suffering upon the race, but the right understanding of His law destroys these wrong conditions. (See Science and Health, p. 472.) The First Commandment is the law of God's supremacy, and it is a fundamental of the Science of being. Through its scientific interpretation and understanding in Christian Science, the omnipotence of God is being demonstrated and the powerlessness of evil is being made apparent.
Mrs. Eddy lays the burden of proof upon the Christian ministry in this declaration: "When the omnipotence of God is preached and His absoluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the sick" (Ibid., p. 345). This statement has been and is being verified in Christian Science churches in this and other lands. In obedience to the Master's command, Christian Science for more than a quarter of a century has been healing the sick and sinful, thus proving to its beneficiaries that "evil is not power." And Christian Science will continue to preach the gospel of the all-power of God by its healing works, a definition of omnipotence that is best capable of being understood by mankind.
