Article October 1, 1984 Issue

Prophesying correctly

FLORENCE E. BERG

Do we realize how often we unwittingly make seemingly innocent remarks that prophesy erroneously, such as: "I (or she or he) will never learn!"; "I'm going to travel now while I can still enjoy it."

Mrs. Eddy has given members of her Church "A Rule for Motives and Acts." Part of it concerns the need to overcome prophesying erroneously. This sentence reads: "The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously." Manual of The Mother Church, Art. VIII, Sect. 1.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy defines the Biblical term "prophet" as "a spiritual seer; disappearance of material sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth." Science and Health, p. 593. Material, physical sense, or the carnal mind, is a false prophet that sees, hears, and reacts to evil. Material sense cannot fathom the spiritual and true. Evil seems real to this false sense, but it cannot be real, because God, being Spirit, does not create that which is the opposite of Himself—matter, whose fruits include sin, sickness, and death.

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