Nothing will ever destroy God—or God’s goodness. Good appears and reappears in all times and places, and even under the most challenging circumstances, because God is always present. This has been repeatedly proven to me in my work teaching English online in several countries.  

One of my students living in a country confronting war told me a story in March reported by his country’s chief military advisor. An army doctor had gone onto the battlefield to care for a wounded soldier. Suddenly he looked up to see an enemy soldier above him aiming his rifle at him. But then, without explanation, the soldier lowered his gun, told the doctor he wouldn’t shoot him or the wounded soldier, and walked away. It’s not the first time I’ve heard such a story. 

A close friend with whom I worked many years had a similar experience. He spent years working to end regional conflicts, and his work periodically took him into war zones. One night my friend was caught in a surprise attack, facing a soldier with gun raised, ready to shoot. My friend began to talk to the soldier, telling him that he had no reason to kill, didn’t want to kill, and didn’t have to kill. The soldier lowered his gun and told my friend to leave quickly.

Evil never removes God’s presence or power, but only claims to keep us from seeing it. 

Such stories are very moving, but they would be of little lasting comfort unless we understood that there is a law at work enabling such things to happen—even God’s law of good.

Then why aren’t we more aware of God’s goodness? 

Primarily because we’ve been educated to accept, not even question, what our limiting physical senses tell us is going on. But they are actually misinformers, and their lies can be proved false by actual, ever-present Truth. This was powerfully shown in the life of Christ Jesus. For example, in the biblical record of Jesus walking over a storm-tossed sea (when he could have stilled the storm), the very act of walking over the waves showed that the storm had no effect on him and did not hinder God’s control of him (see Matthew 14:22–33). 

This actual presence, and omnipresence, of God deserves our sincere consideration. The spiritual discovery of Christian Science is that God is literally All. While our material senses deny this, a spiritual consciousness of God’s presence is wholly normal and natural. Spiritual sense is God-given. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, explains, “Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 209).

Christian Science, based on God’s allness, necessarily requires that we refuse to give reality to evil in our thought by attributing it to a person or condition through which it can act. All evil “asks” is to be accepted as a person or power, because in reality it is neither; it is only a boast of a false, material sense. But once it is accepted as a person or power, then follow the beliefs of victims, perpetrators, participants, observers, and escalation.

Actually, any sense of material personality—good or bad—(the supposed opposite of our true, God-given spiritual individuality) is a denial of the one, infinite God. The Master, Christ Jesus, refused to be called good, declaring, “There is none good but one, that is, God” (Mark 10:18). Likewise, when the Roman ruler Pilate claimed the power to kill him, Jesus refused to acknowledge a personal evil power defying God’s power. “Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11).

Christian Science, in following the master Christian, shows evil at all times to be a lie. Evil is a denial of Truth, not an actual reality. It never removes God’s presence or power but only claims to keep us from seeing it. Yet, even then, only material sense is deceived or discouraged. God is not deceived, nor is our innate spiritual sense. As we refuse to accept evil as real, our experience changes. 

Further, Christian Science states clearly how this deception is to be brought to a halt. “Evil is destroyed by the sense of good” (Science and Health, p. 311).

There is no other way.

Turning to God—through prayer and through study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health—as preparation before teaching my English-language students each day has, again and again, enabled me to see God’s goodness right where the world claims it is absent. For example, in my students there’s been a growing freedom from fear, as well as a feeling of spontaneous joy. Regardless of what country they’re from, it’s been possible to speak with them of the need to begin now the work of overcoming hatred. They have willingly and humbly contemplated the fact that the enemy is never really people. Rather, hiding behind that mask is an unnatural, not-native-to-us, educated hatred and fear accepted as fact and unquestioned. They have glimpsed that hatred is its own lie. It doesn’t come from people but is an imposition on them coming from limited, materially based thinking rather than from spiritual understanding. Separating evil from persons has brought a clearer sense of what is to be fought.

On several occasions I’ve had the experience at a church service or testimony meeting (held each Sunday and Wednesday by Christian Science branch churches and societies), where the message of the readings from the Bible and Science and Health was so obviously true that during and after the service it remained more believable to me than evil’s claim of preponderance. While the aggressiveness of the images presented by the physical senses can seem overwhelming, they are not a reason to deny God or God’s presence. We can know and experience good and have an intelligent confidence in good, for God is right here with us being good itself.