The first book of the Bible sets forth an explanation of what lies behind mankind's experience with evil—sin, disease, and death —and what to do about it. In the second chapter of Genesis the writer or compiler uses the illustration of two trees. Evidently, one of these—the tree of life—has to do with the spiritual facts of creation, so clearly stated in the first chapter and summed up in this profound statement: "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." To eat of this tree is to prove the eternality of Life.

The other—the tree of knowledge of good and evil—is the one Adam was commanded not to eat of, "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). This command is, of course, continuous and so applies to us today.

The teachings of Christian Science enable one to eat of the tree of life and to cease eating of the other tree, the one which presents the seeming blending of opposite qualities in man and the universe. This Science enables one to hold steadfastly to the fact that only what God creates is real. The corresponding fact is that what God has not made is unreal. To make a reality of that which God has not made is sin.

But Christian Science does not teach one to ignore evil or its false claims. Far from it. This Science teaches that the only reality evil has is the reality that is attributed to it through a misconception of the nature of good —its allness—a misconception which evil fosters. Knowledge of evil, then, is nothing but the product of ignorance or disobedience.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 207), "We must learn that evil is the awful deception and unreality of existence.'" If one believes that evil in human experience is real, he will reject the declaration that it is unreal. But if he realizes that his experience with evil is deceptive, he will accept this fact and immediately begin to prove it.

Christian Scientists do not deny that evil seems to be real and quite overpowering at times. They have only begun to prove that its claims are deceptive and unreal. But in their encounters with evil they are demonstrating progressively their superiority over its false claims which this understanding of evil gives them. As a result they are less impressed by evil's deceptive claims and so are less susceptible to them.

Students of this Science are at least glimpsing what it will be like when they have overcome the perverting influence of sin, Satan, and so are able to refrain from eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This, they understand is the way to overcome death. It must be that Jesus ate only of the tree of life, for he vanquished death and said, speaking of the Christ, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:20). And he promised (John 8:51), "Verily, verily, I say unto you. If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death."

One who approaches evil as deception cannot help being impressed with the one great experience of Christ Jesus which completed the preparation for his ministry. In what is termed his wilderness experience, he met and overcame the deceiver, the suppositional source of all error, all deception, all falsity, called devil, or Satan. In whatever way the three temptations may be explained, they represented the effort of evil to assert its supremacy over the Master and to thwart his divine mission, which was to bring about the total failure of evil and its claim to a place in the economy of being.

The Revelator pictured evil's downfall as the result of a war in heaven in which Michael and his angels overcame the dragon and his angels; "neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" (Rev. 12:8, 9).

Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 222, 223): "I shall not forget the cost of investigating, for this age, the methods and power of error. While the ways, means, and potency of Truth had flowed into my consciousness as easily as dawns the morning light and shadows flee, the metaphysical mystery of error—its hidden paths, purpose, and fruits—at first defied me. I was saying all the time, 'Come not thou into the secret'—but at length took up the research according to God's command."

This part of her work prepared Mrs. Eddy to be the God directed Leader of all who would win their way to a complete victory over the workings of the devil, whose wicked purpose it is to thwart the divine government and make men helpless victims of sin and disease.

Spiritual consciousness, which cannot be deceived, is the true consciousness of man. It is a state of enlightenment in which there is no darkness, no evil, no sin, disease, or death. When human thought is spiritualized through yielding to the facts of Spirit, the allness of good and the nothingness of evil will be understood. Then there will be no more eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Ralph E. Wagers