Article April 9, 2018 Issue

To honor and obey God, good, alone

Charlene Anne Miller

One of the major themes in the Bible is that we are to honor and obey but one God, who is good itself and is All. God is to be worshiped spiritually because He is the one divine Spirit. This is the essence of the First Commandment, which the Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, interprets in this way in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual” (p. 467).

Yet, the ever-deceptive material senses continually clamor for us to bow down to the belief that evil is real and powerful—even more powerful than good—making existence a fateful mixture of discord and harmony, sickness and health, sorrow and joy. A soured business or family relationship, an unyielding physical problem, bad habits, and other claims of limitation—all are issues that arise from the mortal belief of dualism, the belief that both good and evil are real powers.

This belief, termed animal magnetism, is explained as follows in Science and Health: “As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind. It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and is both evil and good; that evil is as real as good and more powerful. This belief has not one quality of Truth” (p. 103).

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To honor and obey God, good, alone

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