It is probable that all of us who believe in God use the term Almighty God. But do we believe it as well as say it? And can we know that God, or good, has all power and still believe that there is some other power, known as evil, apparently making itself felt as sin, sickness, war, and death? How can there be any more than all? And if God is almighty and has all power, how can there be any power left over for an evil entity to possess or utilize?

Christian Science gives the answer. It designates evil as unreal— as absolutely false. Christian Science does not deny that distressing world conditions, diseases, and tragedies seem real to our frightened material sense of things, but it does point out that they could not possibly be actualities of a perfect universe made by an omnipotent God who is Love. Christian Science teaches that just as the optical illusions of the mirage shimmering in the desert and the railroad tracks meeting in the distance are unreal, so from the divine standpoint sin, disease, war, and death are mental illusions or falsities. Hence we are capable of overcoming them through that spiritual understanding which gives us a better sense of God and of His perfect universe.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, uses many different words to indicate the unreality of sin, disease, and discord of every kind. One of these words is illusion. On page 495 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, we read: "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious as Life eternally is—can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not."

The Bible tells us that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). And our revered Leader tells us we can more properly say that God is Spirit. Then if God is All, Spirit is All, and Spirit's opposite, matter, can have no actuality. Mrs. Eddy also points this out where she says (Science and Health, pp. 109, 110), "The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience,—Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science,—contradict forever the belief that matter can be actual."

Shakespeare discerned something of the unreality of the mortal sense of existence when he said,

And we can see that the modern moving picture, even more than the stage, illustrates strikingly the illusion of material appearances when we consider that the humorous or tragic scene on the screen which makes us laugh or cry is the result of a strong light from a projector passing through a film.

The spiritual or true account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis shows that a mortal sense of existence is a falsity or illusion. This chapter includes the account of the creation of man in the likeness of God, or Spirit, and the fact that he was given dominion over all the earth. The chapter ends with a verse that states (Gen. 1:31), "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." In the second chapter is the account of a so-called man made of dust. This account begins with the statement (Gen. 2:6), "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground."

Here we might ask ourselves: "If creation is complete, perfect and finished, and if God's man has dominion, how could there have been another creation? Was not this merely an illusion, a falsity, a supposition?" Did mist or mystification ever deceive infinite intelligence? How could perfect understanding be confused? Surely it never could be. Was the all-knowing Mind or creative Principle ever mystified? It never was. Then the second account is without a trace of actuality.

The protective power of affirming God's allness and denying matter's actuality was proved in the case of a young man in active service in Korea. He had been a pupil in a Christian Science Sunday School, but his mother was somewhat doubtful as to whether he had retained enough of the teaching to be useful to him. She also was not sure he would use the Bible and the Science and Health she had put in his overseas kit. She asked a friend who was a student of Christian Science to pray for his protection while he was away. This her friend did every day during the serviceman's absence, a period of about a year.

This student's protective prayers were of two parts. First, he realized that since God is Spirit, or Life, and man His reflection, man is as indestructible as God; that since man is a spiritual idea, he does not consist of blood, bones, or any other physical elements. He saw that there is nothing in God's man that mortal belief could actually touch or injure; that in reality man is immune to injury from weapons, explosions, and the like. Secondly, he recognized that since God, or Spirit, made all and could make nothing unlike Himself, no destructive matter has ever really been made; that therefore bullets and shells are part of an unreal mortal mind picture and are no more capable of injuring God's spiritual man than the bullets fired in a movie are able to hurt someone in the audience.

The young man's experiences showed the effect of this protective work and also the power of his own right spiritual thinking when faced with great perils. When he went into the front lines he was put in charge of a bunker. He had been reading Science and Health shortly before taking up his position, and when put in charge he felt something telling him that the men should be moved out of there. The lieutenant in command agreed to this, and as soon as they had moved, a shell demolished the bunker where they had been. In a letter to his mother he said: "I know that good work is being done for me in Christian Science. I can actually feel it. Later I came out of my bunker and set up my machine gun; but, before I had gotten it into working order, I saw an enemy pointing a burp gun at me. There was nothing for me to do but to know the truth. I knew that there was no matter— no matter at all. And, Mother, he didn't hit me."

At one time when he had only thirty minutes left to serve in the front lines, a shell, landing within ten feet of where he was, failed to explode. And there were other instances of protection. Once when his hands were frozen, because of his being out on patrol at a time when a sudden cold wave struck the area, he again found protection. Amputation was threatened; his hands were numb and apparently useless. He was told something would have to be done about it the next day. That night he worked vigorously to know the perfection of Life and his true selfhood as the reflection of Life. The next morning his hands had circulation in them again, and they became normal.

In Christian Science we learn that what we call our human experience is a mental experience, and the nature of it is entirely the result of our own thinking. Jesus pointed this out in saying (Luke 17:20, 21), "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." And Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 167), "Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence, —our health, our longevity, and our Christianity."

This being the case, a bodily ailment, a false condition in business or church, a discordant home relationship, or a problem in government has no true entity; it is merely evil's suggestion that something other than God and His perfect creation exists. If we take error's statement at its face value and allow ourselves to believe in its existence, then it seems real to us and appears to be a part of our experience. But if we reject it as a false suggestion, which could not possibly be true in God's perfect universe, we shall find all phases of the illusion disappearing, and in its place will be "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7).