God and the bomb

Recently I was thinking about the bomb. I began to consider how many other people around the world were thinking about it - wondering about it, worrying about it, fearing it. The more I thought about the bomb, the more I realized just how much it has increasingly demanded the world's attention.

Half kidding, I thought to myself, ''We've practically made a god out of the bomb!'' Suddenly I felt there was much more truth than kidding in that statement. In a certain sense people actually are attributing to the bomb what should naturally be attributed to God.

Take, for example, the concept of ''Almighty.'' Here is a term that should identify God exclusively. But in practice, is the bomb on its way to representing the ultimate might? When society discusses the nature of power nowadays, is it more likely to be referring to nuclear armaments than divine might?

One could almost say that the world has begun to ''worship'' the bomb. Some think it will destroy us; others think it will save us. Either way it occupies more and more of people's thought.

What's the solution? Is it to just stop thinking about the bomb and get on with other things? The bomb-god is too deeply rooted to ignore. It needs to be faced squarely and dealt with effectively. The only way this can be done is to begin reassigning power where it truly belongs. But this isn't some sort of intellectual exercise. If in our hearts we really do begin discovering that God, Spirit, instead of matter, is all-powerful, something significant begins to happen.

When people start feeling that Spirit is their God, they begin to be governed more by God-given spiritual sense. Then their actions are more likely to stem from compassion, integrity, and wisdom than from fear, anger, and ignorance. The more we worship Spirit, the more our world actually feels the government of Spirit. And the effect of such government is better security and stability for mankind. Spirit, God, is inherently stable. Matter, mortality, is inherently unstable.

We can hardly underestimate the impact that even a few people can have as they begin shifting their worship from matter to Spirit. Think of the impact that came from what Moses recognized on Mount Horeb. God's charge ''Thou shalt have no other gods before me'' n1 set the stage for a profound shaping of direction for mankind's development. Christ Jesus fully demonstrated what it means truly to have only one God. Literally he refused to bow down to such conditions of matter as sin, sickness, even death. He so completely worshiped Spirit that the glory of spirituality, with its health and perfection, reigned in the Saviour's life.

n1 Exodus 20:3.

The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes: ''The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri-unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal.'' n2

n2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 340.

To let only one God take the lead in our lives is not to ignore the bomb. But to look more fully to Spirit will give us the capacity to exercise dominion instead of having things of the world hold dominion over us.

Gradually God's full government will be proved. Finally it will be seen that having one God means having only one creation - Spirit and its manifestation of perfect harmony and security. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Glory and honour are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his namce. . . . Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth. I Chronicles 16:25-31