Divine Authority

Duncan Sinclair

Christian Science teaches that God is divine Principle, and that the universe including man—God's creation—is governed and sustained by perfect spiritual law. Thus, the real spiritual universe continues to exist by divine authority. Moreover, the spiritual universe, which is the full manifestation of God, Mind, consists of divine ideas. And, furthermore, since Mind's creation of ideas exists under divine authority, it is indestructible, eternal. What a revelation is this of God and His universe! How wonderful to behold the universe of reality existing by divine decree, and to know that because of this it will continue to exist forever!

Whatever, then, is of God exists by His authority. It has the divine right to exist; and it does exist, and will persist. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 93 of "Miscellaneous Writings," "Science sanctions only what is supported by the unerring Principle of being." Thus, for example, good is of God. Good therefore has divine sanction; so it exists and will continue to exist: it is indestructible, eternal. It is similar with life, which is of God—infinite Life. It exists and will continue to exist; it is indestructible, immortal. Love, also, being of God—infinite Love—exists by divine authority, and it will continue to exist eternally. And so it is with every idea, attribute, or quality of God: each exists by divine authority, and is eternal.

But what of those beliefs which often hold mankind in bondage, such as sin, sorrow, suffering, disease, discord? They are not of God, infinite good; they are not a part of the full manifestation of God—the real universe—and are not supported by "the unerring Principle of being." In other words, whatever is unlike good is unreal. Thus Christian Science maintains that all that is good exists by divine authority and is real, and that whatever is not good is without divine authority and is unreal. In this way a clear line of demarcation is drawn by Christian Science between reality and unreality, between that which exists by divine authority and that which apparently exists, but does not.

The human consciousness seems to be an arena in which is being fought a battle between the real and the unreal, good and evil, Truth and error; and sometimes the one, sometimes the other, appears to be in the ascendant. What men need is an understanding of divine Science to enable them to distinguish between the real and the unreal, between that which exists by divine authority and that which does not, in order to discern the latter and to nullify its false claims. Our Leader says on page 14 of her Message to The Mother Church for 1901, "To overcome all wrong, it must become unreal to us: and it is good to know that wrong has no divine authority; therefore man is its master." And she adds these words of exultation: "I rejoice in the scientific apprehension of this grand verity."

Wrong has no divine authority. When we scientifically understand this, we can rejoice with the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. And we do understand it, because as Christian Scientists we know that wrong, error, evil—whatever is not good—is not of God. Further, because of this knowledge we know how to handle the false beliefs of envy, jealousy, malice, hate, injustice, and all such like: they are not of God; they are not supported by divine authority, by divine law; they are unreal. We can thus deny that they have either presence or power. Where the greatest wrong may seem to be, there is the presence of God, infinite good. Where envy and jealousy and hate seem rampant, there infinite Love is to be found. To realize the truth is to defeat the error, the evil, the wrong.

It is similar when we are dealing with disease. Divine Science shows us that since disease is a form of evil it is not supported by divine authority and is therefore unreal. As our consciousness becomes spiritualized, as we realize that only that which is good is real, we can deny the claim of disease and overcome it. This is what Christ Jesus was able to do, and did. In the fourth chapter of Luke's Gospel we read that "with authority and power he [Jesus] commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out." And Mrs. Eddy writes on page 395 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal senses and to assert its claims over mortality and disease."

Christian Science enables all who study it fervently and with sincerity to attain to an understanding of "the unerring Principle of being," an understanding which enables them to speak to all forms of evil with authority, and in the measure thereof to destroy them.

Duncan Sinclair

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