Fact or fable, you can find out

How is it possible to know if something is a fact or fable?

We know that if something is a fact, it can be proved, such as the aerodynamics of airplane flight. If something is a fable, it’s a story not founded on facts, such as that man will never fly because flying machines are heavier than air. People believed this fable for centuries until the Wright brothers flew their homemade Flyer in 1903. Even then, in 1906, Scientific American published an article, “The Wright Aeroplane and Its Fabled Performances.” 

The public and press eventually took the Wright brothers seriously, and a major change in thinking occurred. Once a fable is proved false, the fact is then learned and can be demonstrated widely and in expanded ways, as man’s flight proved with landing on the moon a little more than 65 years after the law of aerodynamics was proved to be fact.

Here’s another illustration, a common statement we often hear or read: Jesus’ healings were miracles that only he could do. Is it a fact or a fable? I’m learning through Christian Science that it’s only a fable. The reverse is true: Jesus’ healings were the result of spiritual laws that anyone can learn and prove.

Mary Baker Eddy discovered and understood this. She worked to shift the conventional thought about healing—by proving it’s God, divine Love, not material means, that really heals. After years of suffering under material methods of treatment, she discovered lasting health for herself through spiritual means alone. 

Based on the inspired Word of the Bible and the remarkable works of Christ Jesus, she discovered and proved that the Science of divine healing is available to all, to lift human thought above belief in material causes and lead to cures through understanding the power of God, good. In this way, individuals have found restoration and relief from sickness and sin.

Mrs. Eddy’s lifework revealed the timeless spiritual facts to mankind. Through her healing works, writings, lectures, and classes, she taught others to heal. And she committed her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “to honest seekers for Truth” (p. xii). 

Jesus’ healings of the sick, blind, dumb, diseased, lame, and even the dead, as recorded in the New Testament, overcame every material obstacle. Yet, it was divine power, not personal, for he explained, “I can of mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30). By his example he taught his disciples how to heal, then told them to go and heal others, and they did (see Mark 16:15, 17, 18). Jesus said, “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). 

Noting that the eternal Christ is here for us all, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea,—the reflection of God,—has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth” (Science and Health, p. 333). 

As followers of Christ Jesus today, are we prepared to receive the Christ, Truth, and to heal in some measure? What better mission can we strive for? We can trust his words, “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these” (John 14:12, New Revised Standard Version). Perhaps spiritual healings may seem like miracles, but Mrs. Eddy gives a metaphysical definition for miracle that reads in part: “That which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly; …” (Science and Health, p. 591).

We all can turn wholeheartedly to God and find healing. We can cherish the power of the Christ, Truth, to heal, here and everywhere. 

Jesus’ healings were the result of spiritual laws that anyone can learn and prove.

Healing involves acknowledging and understanding spiritual facts and correcting material fables. Mary Baker Eddy gave this wise instruction: “If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can discover it by reversing the material fable, be the fable pro or con,—be it in accord with your preconceptions or utterly contrary to them” (Science and Health, p. 129). I find this teaching helpful when I wish to understand and prove the healing power of a spiritual fact, whether it applies to praying for physical healing, or in regard to correcting misperceptions about personal, regional, or worldwide issues. 

For example, several years ago, I had a rash on my face that would not go away. I read various verses in the Bible and passages in Science and Health, searching for specific truths and filling my thought with God’s goodness. Rather than believe the fable of a flawed material condition, I knew that I needed to see the reverse—the spiritual fact of the flawlessness of my being as God’s child. Through my prayers I realized that I must be very clear that it is God who does the healing work. In other words, it wasn’t me making many petitions to God, but the truth coming into my consciousness as I opened my thought to ideas from God. 

This well-loved statement reminded me of the healing power of God: “Truth’s immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries, gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning” (Science and Health, p. 55). My thoughts were embraced in this loving, powerful Truth, enabling me to reverse world beliefs of allergies, or sensitive matter of any sort. In reality, God’s child is not subject to material laws. The healing followed my renewed recognition of God’s law of good in action, and the skin condition has never returned.

This healing, along with many other healings over the years, has shown me the factuality of how Mrs. Eddy describes the second part of her revelation of Christian Science. The first part is discovery. That second part is: “The proof, by present demonstration, that the so-called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an ever-operative divine Principle” (Science and Health, p. 123).

The fable that only Jesus could heal is reversed by thousands of healings through Christian Science. Examples are published in the Christian Science textbook and periodicals, and in books, such as A Century of Christian Science Healing (The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1966). “It is possible,—yea, it is the duty and privilege of every child, man, and woman,—to follow in some degree the example of the Master by the demonstration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness” (Science and Health, p. 37).

If challenges seem to bring discord, we can prove that in reality our Father-Mother, God, gives only harmony to man, His perfect child. When sickness attempts to threaten our health, we can prove that God, Life, heals and restores us. When fear or terror confronts us, we can prove that God, Love, is our refuge and strength, a precious fact to know and trust. 

Jesus, the greatest teacher, pointed to what’s required to understand this—“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). It’s natural for us, as man, God’s beloved spiritual idea, to know all that the Father gives His children. Problems of daily living diminish as we claim our true heritage and reverse the fable that suffering of any kind is normal.

Every healing is proof to me of the glorious, spiritual facts revealed in Christian Science. Then when material fables seem to parade in my thinking, I can work to be a good witness; I can help prove the truth by reversing the fable. 

The study of the Bible and Science and Health, along with heartfelt prayers, improves my ability to be a spiritual fact finder. Refusing to believe material fables and, instead, working to understand the facts of spiritual creation, helps deliver us from fables, step by step.