Article July 2, 1955 Issue

DOES GOD SEND SICKNESS?

JOHN A. T. LLEWELLYN

Our faithful study of the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy brings us a sense of joyous discovery as one great truth after another unfolds in our consciousness. The understanding that sickness is not sent by God, who is Love, shines among these truths like a precious gem, and shines especially for those of us who did not have the privilege of attending a Christian Science Sunday School. It is good to remind ourselves that sickness is not sent by God, in fact, that it is unreal. We should not lose sight of this fact as other truths of Christian Science unfold to us.

Multitudes have for years struggled with sickness or else have sought to become resigned to it in the belief that God sent it. This writer remembers his anguished cry, "What have I done to God that this should come to me?" Behind this cry in the darkness was the belief that sickness is a God-sent reality. The acceptance of this belief made it logical to pray to Him to take the sickness away, hoping that He would be swayed by supplication.

Jesus once referred to a woman who had been ill for eighteen years as "this woman, ... whom Satan hath bound" (Luke 13:16). Does God, who is Love and the Almighty, work with Satan, the symbol of evil? Christian Science answers this question with the uncompromising declaration that God neither sends sickness nor knows it. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 206), "God does not cause man to sin, to be sick, or to die." She also says on the same page, "Instead of God sending sickness and death, He destroys them, and brings to light immortality."

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