Article November 5, 2012 Issue

'Shaking off' the resistance

Nancy Atkins

Imagine the courage it took for Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, to follow through with proofs of Christian Science by writing, teaching, and healing, despite coming up against what must have felt like thick walls of resistance. She later wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “As aforetime, the spirit of the Christ, which taketh away the ceremonies and doctrines of men, is not accepted until the hearts of men are made ready for it” (p. 131).

The book of Colossians describes this spiritual transformation in terms of “put[ting] off the old man with his deeds” and “put[ting] on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (3:9, 10). As our hearts are being made ready, it shouldn’t surprise us when we meet some sort of resistance, either within our own thought or the thoughts of others. We need to learn, as Mrs. Eddy did, that whatever appears to be a personal attack on us is not so; it is merely an impersonal attempt of what the Bible calls “the carnal mind” (Romans 8:7) to silence the spirit of the Christ. These attacks are powerless as we align ourselves with God. 

I’m reminded of one story of St. Paul, the Bible’s most famous convert to Christianity, as he taught the message of Jesus Christ to people around the world. There was certainly institutional resistance to Paul’s ministry, but he consistently “put off the old man” in his healing and preaching. At one point, after he had survived a shipwreck and was washed up on shore, he was bitten by a poisonous snake. When the viper attached itself to his hand, he shook it off into the fire, along with the belief that the viper’s poison was lethal (see Acts 28:3–6). Those around him were amazed, but by this point in his ministry, Paul had seen challenges, including blindness and apparent death, overcome through God’s power, and he must have known that no attack could separate him from God.

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