The Christian Science Journal
Have you discovered The Christian Science Journal yet?
Well, let us introduce you! It’s a monthly publication that reports healings through Christian Science care from people all over the world. For more than 120, The Christian Science Journal has published articles of spiritual inspiration and documented healings.
And regarding healings, along with the weekly publication, the Christian Science Sentinel, there are more than 80,000 recorded healings through prayer in Christian Science.
In this May 2021 issue, Mark Swinney wrote this article, "The Presence That Precludes Evil."
We hope you enjoy exploring this article.
The presence that precludes evil
By Mark Swinney
From the May 2021 issue of The Christian Science Journal
As a means of self-improvement, I have been doing a refreshing exercise lately: Throughout my day, I am simply noting every single instance when I mistakenly think or say something that would suggest evil is a real and acting power. I was prompted to begin this exercise when I read of Christ Jesus’ response to Pilate after he declared that he had the power to bring about Jesus’ death. The Master said: “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11).
Why would Jesus say such a thing? Aren’t evil powers real? After all, we see apparent evidence of them in action every day. Was Jesus just timidly ignoring what exists and is dangerous?
We might consider that perhaps Jesus understood something about the universe that wasn’t so obvious to the person threatening him. Was Jesus aware of a presence—an all-presence—that actually and thoroughly precludes the existence of evil?
Jesus hinted at his knowledge of the omnipotence of good when he said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). God, as Jesus often proved, is the single power in existence. God’s utter and unchallengeable goodness was the foundation of Jesus’ mentality, and therefore of all his healing work. God is one, a single power, who is not diluted good, but always entirely and fully good.
As an example of how Jesus perceived God’s power and God’s creation, at one time Jesus and some of his students encountered a person who was born blind (see John 9:1–7). The students immediately assumed that the evil, the blindness, was legitimate, even justifiable.
Jesus, however, saw the case quite differently, as was obvious by the way he began talking about how not evil, but the works of God, would be seen in the man. If God were an amalgamation of evil and good, then blindness could be an expected element of His creation. But Jesus’ awareness of God’s purely good nature precluded the option of admitting the presence of evil in anyone or in any place.
Finish reading the article here.