Article May 22, 1937 Issue

Rejecting False Prophecies

BEATRICE CLAYTON

In that wonderful digest of spiritual teaching contained in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew, commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus warned his followers, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." He was referring to false or mistaken teachers, of which there were many in Jesus' day, as there are in our own. But in a wider sense, may we not interpret his words as applying to all evil suggestion, in order to ensure our intelligent obedience to Truth?

Christian Science, while unqualifiedly condemning evil in all its forms, teaches that though individuals, ignorantly or intentionally, permit themselves to be avenues for its expression, evil is but illusion, the claim of an evil mind. It is not primarily as person or personal. Hence, we may think of false prophets as false suggestions or evil beliefs continually besieging human thought, to reject which involves our keen spiritual alertness. These false prophecies, or evil suggestions, may find utterance through friends and acquaintances, even through those nearest and most beloved.

How may false prophecy or suggestion be detected? By the fact that it is deceiving, always claiming power for evil, or presenting evil as though it were good. Its whisperings vary according to the mentality addressed, thus: "That's a chronic ailment, and will grow worse." "You are heavily handicapped and will break down." Such are some of the falsities voiced. And in a larger way, broadcast over the air and teeming from newspaper pages, the prophecies of evil pour forth suggestions that hatred is dominant, that the restraints of religion must fail and atheism be enthroned—and how many more! Yet Christians speak of God as the Almighty, and recite the prayer which ends, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory."

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