Article July 2, 1910 Issue

Belief in a devil possessing "great power" is at variance...

Gray Montgomery

Denver (Col.) Republican

Belief in a devil possessing "great power" is at variance with belief in one true God of infinite power, and breaks the First Commandment. Christ Jesus, speaking in the figurative language of the Orient, personified evil as the "prince of this world." He taught by metaphors and parables the people "dull of hearing,"—not capable of understanding the absolute statement of Truth. But Jesus understood and taught God to be the only power and of infinite goodness, and by this understanding he healed the sick and cast out devils. To array the devil in the garb of a person savors of the beliefs of Milton and Dante, who for the sake of imagery have given to the world their fanciful creations of Satan or Lucifer as a mighty archangel, a fallen god. Would one of reason and understanding be so attracted by this imagery as to believe in a personal devil, or be led into the by-paths of error by the siren songs of poets, or cling to misconceptions of the true teaching of the Master and thus doubt the omnipotence and infinite goodness of God?

Only a failure to discern the spiritual meaning of the Saviour's teaching would lead one to believe in a personal devil. Were the devil created by God, the devil must be good, and Jesus would not have cast him out. Evil then must be only an illusion, an unreality, which seems real to mortals. Mrs. Eddy says: "Only those, who repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand the unreality of evil" (Science and Health, p. 339). To those who have forsaken evil, the consciousness of Truth, God's allness, dawns upon their sight until the mirage of evil disappears. Man will finally become wholly free from the bondage to sin, sickness, and death; and God's kingdom be come on earth as it is in heaven.

Thus Christian Science repudiates any belief in pantheism. "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

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