Article August 7, 1920 Issue

The rabbi's sermon, "The Problems of Evil," extracts of...

Harry K. Filler

Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer

The rabbi's sermon, "The Problems of Evil," extracts of which were printed in a recent issue, takes plain issue with some Old Testament teachings on the question of God's knowing or permitting evil. He asks, "If God is all-powerful, why does He permit these things?" In the first chapter of Genesis we have the statement, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Elihu, in his accusation of Job for charging God with injustice, writes, "Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity." The distinguished Jewish prophet Habakkuk, about 610 B.C. wrote, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." Jesus, the Godlike man, who taught mankind the way to God by demonstration, had to say of evil that it, the "devil" [alias evil], "is a liar, and the father of it."

Christian Science teaches exactly what the Bible teaches on the subjects of evil and suffering. The great mission Christian Science has to fulfill is to take away the sin of the world. One of the duties of every member of the Christian Science church is to pray each day (Church Manual, p. 41), " 'Thy kingdom come;' let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!"

One only becomes a Christian Scientist as one rises above the desire to sin and the tendency to believe that evil has any God-given authority or power. Evil, as a false claim, has to be reckoned with, but evil, as something that enjoys, suffers, or is real, does not exist. In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 460), Mrs. Eddy has to say of sickness or suffering: "Sickness is neither imaginary nor unreal,—that is, to the frightened, false sense of the patient. Sickness is more than fancy; it is solid conviction. It is therefore to be dealt with through right apprehension of the truth of being."

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