Article April 22, 1991 Issue

Whatever the circumstances ...

When we truly feel the power and presence of God, every event, regardless of circumstances, brings more of His goodness into view.

Brian Berry

If it is true that God is both infinite and good, then logically we should be able to conclude that no room is left for evil. But this is more than just a nice-sounding thought. The fact is, people have been proving it to be true—in small and big ways throughout human experience.

One such person was John, the much-loved disciple of Jesus. The early Christian writer Tertullian records the tradition that the Apostle John was put into a caldron of boiling oil by order of the Roman emperor in an effort to halt the spread of Christianity. Amazing though it may seem, he escaped from this ordeal unharmed. Later the Roman authorities banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he was apparently consigned to hard labor. But Patmos was evidently not merely a place of persecution for John, for it was there that he received the messages to the seven churches and the visions which he later recorded in the inspiring book of Revelation. So out of a situation that seemed fraught with evil there came great, lasting good.

Mrs. Eddy, in her book Science and Health, commented on the way in which good came about for John. She explains that "the very message, or swift-winged thought, which poured forth hatred and torment, brought also the experience which at last lifted the seer to behold the great city, the four equal sides of which were heaven-bestowed and heaven-bestowing." And she goes on to point out the application of this point to our lives when she writes, "The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares."

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