Article June 22, 1907 Issue

Christian Science does not teach that "things do not exist."

Willard S. Mattox

The San Francisco Examiner

Christian Science does not teach that "things do not exist." The belief that it does so teach is based upon misapprehension. Our position here is strictly Scriptural.

All things were made by him [God]; and without him was not any thing made that was made." "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." This included everything in creation, everything which God made. It is pronounced good, hence the conclusion that what is not good God did not make, and that it only seems to be, but is not. Sin, disease, death, are either good or they are not good. If they are not good, and most of us will agree that they are not, then they do not really exist, because all that God made is good, and He made all that was made.

Sin, sickness, and death must be accounted for in some other way than by declaring that God made them, or that He simply permits them to be. Both of these statements are morally as well as logically impossible. Sin, sickness, and death are not included in the list of things which God made. They are, according to Christian Science, only false beliefs about that which is—a perverted sense of the spiritual. To the Christian Scientist it is easier to understand this explanation than to take in the usual theological account, which practically makes God the author of disease and pain and sin, and at the same time declares that He is all good, a loving Father, an ever-present help, etc. And it should be remembered that many members of the Christian Science Church wrestled with this theological paradox and tried to believe it before they found satisfaction in the Christian Science view.

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