Article March 30, 2015 Issue

Can our harmony be invaded?

Andrew Wilson

The terror attacks this year in Europe, where I have a home and family, are yet another example of why there is understandably a lot of concern and fear, worldwide, over man’s susceptibility to invasion. We appear to be vulnerable on multiple fronts—from harassment over the phone and Internet and the invasion of personal privacy as a result of online hacking to the perceived or actual threat of violence by an individual, group, or country.

More than a century ago, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, observed, “The looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 102). Today we are seeing even greater evidence of this across the globe, but mankind has in Christian Science a powerful antidote to aggression and oppression of every sort. Its teachings, firmly rooted in the Bible, show us that individually and collectively we have a sure defense in God, and to the degree that we demonstrate His all-power and presence in our daily lives, we are contributing to a broader understanding among humanity that one’s peace and well-being can never truly be threatened.

There are a number of accounts in the Scriptures that illustrate how mankind has been protected from the invading elements of fear, hatred, and misguided reason—evils that engender strife—through a spiritual understanding of God and trust in Him. One of the most encouraging and enlightening of these is in Second Kings, chapter 6, where we read that the prophet Elisha’s servant wakes up one morning to find that the city of Dothan, in which he and Elisha are residing, is surrounded by an invading Syrian army. Full of fear, he asks Elisha, “Alas, my master! how shall we do?” Elisha replies: “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Growing spiritually, not just fixing a problem