What A Good Beginning the Bible announces ! "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. . . . And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. 1:1,31 But what about evil? How does one explain it? "The origin of evil is the problem of ages. It confronts each generation anew," writes Mary Baker Eddy. "It confronts Christian Science. The question is often asked, If God created only the good, whence comes the evil?
"To this question Christian Science replies: Evil never did exist as an entity. It is but a belief that there is an opposite intelligence to God. This belief is a species of idolatry, and is not more true or real than that an image graven on wood or stone is God." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 346
At this point someone might ask, "If this is so, how do I respond when evil seems to be going on around me?" What Jesus did in his healing work offers a powerful answer to this question: he impersonalized evil. That is, he dealt with evil not as a person or a thing but as a falsehood to be rejected, and this was an important aspect of his healing method. For example, when a lunatic boy was brought to the Master, Matthew reports, "Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him." Matt. 17:18 Luke records the healing of Peter's mother-in-law by the Master: "And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her." Luke 4:39 The rebuke was not directed to the person, but to the impersonal belief that evil is real and powerful, that it can govern some individual and make him embody evil.
This approach is vital to the practice of Christian Science healing. Mrs. Eddy states in her Message to The Mother Church for 1901, "Evil is neither quality nor quantity: it is not intelligence, a person or a principle, a man or a woman, a place or a thing, and God never made it." Message for 1901, pp. 12-13
God's creation
is entirely good.
Which is the more intelligent way of taking down a tree? Taking off all the leaves first, then the twigs, the branches, the main stems and the trunk—inch by inch? Or, cutting the tree right off at the base? We do the latter when in our prayers we go right to work rebuking the devil, or evil, and denying its supposed power instead of fiddling around believing it is a person or persons.
Science And Health states, "The world believes in many persons; but if God is personal, there is but one person, because there is but one God. His personality can only be reflected, not transmitted." Science and Health, p. 517 In prayer we can acknowledge that God is the only Person, the only Principle, whom His children individually reflect. And this one divine Person is all good. From this it follows that there can be no mortal personalities on whom or through whom evil can operate. To the degree that we are willing to reason out from this truth, we are able to impersonalize evil in our own experience. That is, we are able to see that it is no part of anyone's real, God-created identity.
One of the first records in the Bible of the importance of impersonalizing evil can be found in the allegory in the second chapter of Genesis. In it, Adam blames Eve for eating, and causing him to eat, the forbidden fruit. But Eve says: "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Gen. 3:13 Science and Health throws new light on this verse with this spiritual interpretation of Eve's words: "...'Neither man nor God shall father my fault.'" Science and Health, p. 533
When error, or evil, seems to attach itself to persons, we can pray that the evil be recognized as no person or thing or power—and thus be destroyed. It's even necessary to impersonalize our own errors. We should recognize that they are wrong and that they are lies, incapable of beguiling us. And we should forsake them.
Let's take off the mask—separate evil from person. In fact, let's think less and less of man as a material person, and more and more see everyone as the man God truly created—His wholly spiritual image and likeness. Accepting this Christly truth, we will be more effective scientific healers. And there will be fewer problems to heal as we recognize that there is no personal vehicle for evil.
Mrs. Eddy admonishes in Miscellaneous Writings, "I earnestly advise all Christian Scientists to remove from their observation or study the personal sense of any one, and not to dwell in thought upon their own or others' corporeality, either as good or evil. " And she adds later, "To impersonalize scientifically the material sense of existence —rather than cling to personality—is the lesson of today." Mis., pp. 308-309, 310
Evil is no part
of anyone's
God-created identity.
We can learn how to do better healing work as we give up a false sense of self and accept the true, spiritual identity of ourselves and others as God's children. As we scientifically hold to the spiritual fact that God is the one, infinite Person—in heaven as on earth—increasingly the fact will be seen that God's creation, the only creation, is indeed "very good."
We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God. Ephesians 6:12,13
