Editorial January 18, 2016 Issue

‘When the enemy shall come in like a flood …’

Barbara Vining

That phrase from the Bible was my first thought when I heard of the terrorist attacks in Paris; the next thought was how deeply we should treasure the true identity and magnificent worth of every human being. And the rest of that verse pointed the way: “… the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him [the enemy]” (Isaiah 59:19).

The real terrorist, or enemy, is the concept of man as a disposable mortal; and the standard that God lifts up against that enemy is the idea of man as the indispensable and permanent image and likeness of God, Spirit. God lifted up this standard when He “sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). That Son, of course, was Christ Jesus. And divine Science is the Comforter God sent to reveal and uphold for all time the Christ-idea of man Jesus represented and demonstrated—as the remedy for every form of evil that would terrorize, rather than save, human lives.

Persons are most vulnerable to being terrorized, or to being induced to terrorize others, when their sense of value as individuals is either at a low point or an egotistical high point based on assessing themselves, and others, as mere human personalities rather than as spiritual ideas treasured and cared for by their Maker, divine Love. Jesus’ mission was for his followers to heal and save individuals from this mistaken view by seeing them as God sees them and valuing them as God values them.

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