Editorial December 28, 1968 Issue

Christ Destroys Carnal-mindedness

William Milford Correll

The "carnal mind" is a term used in the Bible to designate evil, devil, material-mindedness, that which is opposed to God, or good. In Christian Science it is defined more explicitly as the belief of life and intelligence in matter. This Science enables one to understand and to demonstrate the fact that there is no carnal mind and hence no source for sin and suffering.

God is infinite Mind, the one divine intelligence, which has created man in its image and likeness. This intelligence is reflected in man as a divine force, the law of good that controls all creation harmoniously. This intelligence is the substance of peace, the substance of health and harmony, the substance of joy and fulfillment. It is counterfeited by material sense, or the belief of intelligence in matter, which belief, because of its spurious nature, suffers, sins, and dies. In the book of Romans Paul drew the fine of demarcation. He said: "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."^{Rom. 8:6, 7;}

To be carnally-minded is not limited to the obvious sins of the flesh. There are many people today who support the belief that there is life and intelligence in matter, and insofar as they believe this they are carnally-minded. This belief is a lie, and a lie has no inherent power. But if enough people believe in a lie, it seems to have the force of fact and may pose as a formidable reality. It may even pose as law and support the belief that sin is necessary and desirable and that disease and death are legitimate and inevitable. Christ Jesus came to expose the carnal mind as a fiction and to lift humanity above matter to the spiritual sense of life. He proved that Spirit, God, is the Life of man and the only intelligence governing the universe.

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