FALSE BELIEFS ARE THE COUNTERFEITS OF TRUTH
At a meeting in Washington, District of Columbia, bankers from different parts of the United States were taught how it was possible to recognize counterfeit bills and coins. Later, addressing a member of this group, someone said, "I suppose you saw hundreds of samples of counterfeit money at your meeting."
"No, we didn't see a single counterfeit during the entire meeting," replied the banker; "in fact, all we studied were the genuine coins and bills. We were drilled and drilled on the characteristic markings of government money and were told that if we became thoroughly familiar with the real bills and coins, we would be able to detect a bogus bill or coin instantly."
So it is in Christian Science. As one earnestly and assiduously studies the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, together with her other writings, he learns the truth about God and man, His image and likeness. This Science reveals and emphasizes again and again the allness and perfection of God and the spirituality of man—his perfectness, immortality, purity, uprightness, and his inseparability from his Maker. Having learned the truth about God's man, the student of Christian Science recognizes so–called mortal man as the counterfeit, the inverted likeness. He readily detects sin, sickness, death, false appetites, lack, sorrow, restlessness, indecision, doubt, and all discords as false beliefs, counterfeits of Truth, having no relationship to his real manhood.
Before there can be a counterfeit of anything, there must be the authentic or real. For example, no one has ever seen a counterfeit three dollar bill, for the simple reason that there are no three dollar bills. Mrs. Eddy states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 60, 61 ): "Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand."
One cannot entertain false beliefs about man and accept them as true and still expect to express perfection. As a counterfeit bill can never become real, so a genuine bill can never become a counterfeit. God's reflection, man, can never express anything unlike perfection; nor can mortal man, so called, ever become the real man, for he is always the counterfeit of God's likeness, having no true identity, no real origin. A counterfeit is without power; it is always nothing claiming to be something.
The student of Christian Science learns to cast out of his consciousness every false belief and to identify himself as really being God's image and likeness, not a material counterfeit.
Christ Jesus never once identified himself or others with the counterfeit. When asked to heal blindness, insanity, fever, and other errors, he did not entertain any of these erroneous beliefs as the truth about man; instead, his starting point was perfection. Where others saw the counterfeit, Christ Jesus saw in Science the perfect man, the son of a perfect God. He knew that man, God's likeness, always has been, always is, and always will be expressing Life, Truth, Love. This truth enabled Christ Jesus to raise the dead.
The United States Government sends its agents out to all parts of the country to give instructive lectures to retailers and bankers so that they will not be deceived by counterfeit money. Mrs. Eddy saw the necessity of sending authorized messengers to carry the truth to this and other lands, so that people would not be helpless victims of mortal mind and its counterfeit concepts. Through divine guidance she was led to start the publication of the Christian Science literature, which includes The Christian Science Journal, Christian Science Quarterly, Christian Science Sentinel, The Herald of Christian Science, and The Christian Science Monitor, and to establish the Board of Lectureship. These activities, which are governed by By–Laws in the Manual of The Mother Church, are enabling many to rise above the temptation to accept counterfeit beliefs of sin, disease, and discord.
Christ Jesus once said (Mark 13:5, 6, 21, 22, 37): "Take heed lest any man deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.... And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: for false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. ... And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."
As the bankers were warned to be on the alert for counterfeit money, so Mrs. Eddy bids her followers be on guard against acceptance of false beliefs. In Science and Health (p. 392) she says, "Stand porter at the door of thought." Farther on she continues (pp. 392, 393): "Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance." And in the next paragraph she adds, "Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good."
