9/16/01 Why did God let this happen?


Sunday School Class Notes for 9/16/01

Why did God let this happen?

Is there a God? In light of the recent National tragedy, how could there be? And if so, how could He let this happen? Have you been having these thoughts? Perhaps you have heard these thoughts from others. The National Prayer Service in the Nation Cathedral last Friday on TV featured representatives from all major faiths: Islam, Judaism, Catholics, Protestants and even Billy Graham. None were able to answer the question about why God let this evil happen. The best that could be offered was that this was a mystery?

Only one religion and only one person has been able to successfully explain the evil the world has witnessed. Only one religion and one person has been able to explain God so completely that these questions are not only answerable but simple. Mary Baker Eddy would not allow her students to "humanize" God. If God could stop such events or if God could cause such events as punishment then God must know evil. It must therefore be real. We are taught that evil is unreal. The mistake in the questions at the beginning of these notes is that we are starting with trying to explain something that is material, a product of human invention and, yes, unreal. Whenever you start with the material evidence you can’t answer the question. There is no there, there!

Remember my little story of or Sunday School in the dark? Try walking through it at night with the lights off. You will trip over all those benches. Turn on the lights and it’s easy. But, even with the lights on, if you close your eyes, what happens? You still are in the dark, tripping on the benches. The light is everywhere but you are in the dark. Did the light send the benches? Why didn’t the light stop the benches from tripping you? Silly questions aren’t they?

Another wrong assumption is being made-- that Life is finite. We know God to be infinite. Thus Life is infinite.

96:12

This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.

Mrs. Eddy tells us here that there will be disturbances. She says that they will continue until their nothingness appears. She never put her head in the sand and pretended there were not problems. Just the opposite. She has made us alert to the nature of error. I sent you the following Tuesday morning. Let’s read it again:

Mis 177:4-20

The hour is come. The great battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and operative in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard-bearers.

What will you do about it? Will you be equally in earnest for the truth? Will you doff your lavender-kid zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science which are necessary to the salvation of the world from error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practically, and answer aright!


As you can see, she was a fighter. The battle, however, was never personal. It is the battle between Spirit and the senses.

Here is another one:

225:8-22

The powers of this world will fight, and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass the guard until it subscribes to their systems; but Science, heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth's standard.

The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator.

When I heard those theologians speak I was reminded of the story of Job. The book of Job is a 3 act play that tries to explain how evil came into thew world. Terrible things happened to Job: Job 1:6-9; 1:12; 1:13-20; 2:1-4; 2:7. He was a perfect man yet terrible things were happening to him. Now enters four characters: Eliphaz, Zophar, Bildad and young Elihu. The first three represent old theology and try to figure out what Job did to deserve his problems. But, Elihu represents a new thought that comforts job and gives him the inspiration to rise above his difficulties and prevail. The three "miserable comforters" are still with us with a human approach to Deity. Well meaning, humanly inspiring but devoid of the explanation that really meets the need, traditional religious thinking falls short of a scientific Principle. You are the world’s "Elihu". You are the thinkers for the world. You have learned that God is a constant. God is always good. The variable here is our relationship to God.

The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not God to man; for the divine Principle of Christ is God, and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself. The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ, Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ's purpose to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and Truth are not at war with God's image and likeness. S&H 18

So, what is the answer? Our thinking has to change. Here is what Paul says in II Corinthians: II Cor 10:4,5

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Look at that. Long before Mrs. Eddy, Paul is telling us to govern our thinking. Look at the Crudens Concordance under the word "imaginations. The definition there is as follows: The devising or plotting of evil. Imagine that. Everytime you are entertaining fear, anger, revenge, lust, …any material will, you are devising or plotting an evil. That is where evil comes from. It is a mistake in thought manifesting itself in our experience. How could be so naïve as to accept something unreal into our thinking? The answer is simple. It looks like the real. You see, all things real have their counterfeit in mortal thought. Have you ever seen a counterfeit $7 bill? Why not? Because, there is no such thing as a real $7 bill. The only chance evil has of being believe is to imitate the real. It’s is our misconception of reality. Don’t start with the belief. If you do that then you are starting with the depravity defines in the following:

SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND

First Degree: Depravity.

PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, deceit , hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, death.

Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing.

MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion , hope, faith, meekness, temperance.

Third Degree: Understanding.

SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness.

All healing, all reality is seen by starting with God and working out form there. Your thought needs to reflect Mind.

115:12-3

SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND

GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind.

MAN: God's spiritual idea, individual, perfect , eternal.

IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate object of understanding. — Webster.


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