Independent Christian Science articles

LOOSE HIM AND LET HIM GO

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(Written to a woman who was having issues with her ex-husband.)

Dear Heather,

Your thinking needs adjustment. Just like Lazarus in the tomb, you have wrapped up Josh in mortal beliefs.

• he is unreliable
• he is ungrateful
• he is selfish
• he is violent at times
• he has PTSD
• Etc., etc.

When Jesus raised Lazarus, he did it by refusing to accept the lie that he had died. He told his disciples that he needed to wake up Lazarus from sleep. The disciples misunderstood Jesus, so he spoke to them on their level of understanding and said, “He is dead.”

This shows that Jesus refused to believe what the material senses said about Lazarus. Instead, Jesus “knew the truth” about Lazarus — that he was eternally the image and likeness of God — alive, not dead.

“Loose him, and let him go.” You, Miss Heather, need to loosen the grave clothes that have bound Josh. See him as Jesus saw Lazarus. See him as God sees him — spiritual and perfect — the reflection of his Maker. Take off the bindings for Josh. Like Lazarus, he cannot do it on his own. Stop seeing him as a sinning mortal — the devil wants you to see that viewpoint.

And how did Jesus speak to the devil? “Get thee behind me, Satan!” Put off those false suggestions about Josh every time they come knocking on the door of your thinking. Jesus also said, “You are a liar, and the father of it.” Josh is not a mortal sinner — he is God’s beloved child. We need to impersonalize the error — take it off of Josh — and recognize its true source — the one evil, or evil one.

So, sweet Heather, start seeing Josh as God made him. Put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man. “New” in this instance means “not brand new, but always there, dusty from lack of use.” Remove Josh’s graveclothes and wrap him up instead in God’s love. And, be obedient to Jesus’ command — loose him, and LET HIM GO.

How to Save the World

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Mary Baker Eddy made a rather bold statement to Martha Bogue, one of her early workers. She stated, “The truth that God is All-in-all and that there is no evil, held faithfully by Christian Scientists, will save the world and it is all that will save it.” (Miscellaneous Documents) Apparently, Mrs. Eddy was speaking about the not so distant future. She gave us a hint at what this future world-wide calamity might be when she quoted St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians on page 106 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The hint, you ask? She italicized the word witchcraft. It is not italicized in the King James Bible, (Galatians 6:19-21). We as Christian Scientists are to handle the belief of witchcraft, of a belief in a power apart from God where evil is worshipped. The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines witchcraft as “the practice of witches; sorcery; enchantments; intercourse with the devil.” Sorcery is defined as “divination by the assistance or supposed assistance of evil spirits”. Enchantments are “the use of magic arts, spells or charms”. So, are we to be afraid of witchcraft and evil spells? No. As Christian Science teaches, God is the only power in the universe, and we all bow our knees unto Christ. The first commandment is to “have no other gods before Me.” We should have no faith or belief in any other supposed power.

And Mrs. Eddy has given us the means to handle this belief or mesmerism in her statement to Mrs. Bogue, “The truth that God is All-in-all and that there is no evil, held faithfully by Christian Scientists, will save the world and it is all that will save it.” We are to hold to the truth of an all-powerful God who fills all space, who leaves no room for evil of any sort. God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.” (Habakkuk 1:13) We must cast out the demon belief that witchcraft, hypnotism, evil spirits have any power or existence. One of Christ Jesus’ commands to us is to cast out demons, or demonic thinking. And how can we as Christian Scientists do this? Mrs. Eddy tells us “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.” (S&H, p. 201:17-18)

We must love our fellow man and hold to the truth that God’s image and likeness can never be attracted to evil of any sort. And we must pour in this truth through flood-tides of Love for all humanity. That is all that will save our world.

Love is the liberator.