Article October 10, 1936 Issue

From Letters, Substantially as Published

The April 15 issue of the Register quoted a local minister...

J. Latimer Davis, Committee on Publication for the State of Iowa,

Des Moines Register

The April 15 issue of the Register quoted a local minister as saying in a recent sermon that the religion with which he is affiliated "does not try to explain away evil by denying its reality." And because Christian Science denies the reality of evil I should like to make clear to your readers just why such denial is made, so none may form a misconception of this Christian religion from what appeared in the Register.

Christian Science never attempts to make a reality appear unreal, but holds that the Scriptural account of good and evil furnishes undisputed basis for the logical conclusion that only good is real and that evil is unreal. For the Bible certainly portrays God as only good; it also shows that God pronounced His creation "very good," and that He made all that was made. Obviously then, evil, which is admittedly wholly unlike good, could not have been created by God, and consequently has no actual existence. And so Christian Science ascribes reality only to God and His creation, while all that is unlike Him it designates as unreal.

Again, the standpoint of Christian Science is identical with that taken by Christ Jesus when he was confronted with the man having a withered hand. He did not accept or admit this appearance of evil as a reality, but denying the evil he restored the hand to normal condition. This incident illustrates the Master's declaration that he did not come to destroy the law, but rather to fulfill it. If evil, then, were supported by a veritable law, Christ Jesus' works would not have been directed against it, but he recognized as real only the law of God, the law of good.

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