Where Does a Lie Come From?

Bringing a spiritual perspective to world events and daily life.

At a time when I heard predictions that a contagious disease would spread through my area, I thought of a statement by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science. It reads, "Nothing is real and eternal,--nothing is Spirit, -- but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 71).

That statement may sound pretty farfetched to some people. But the many examples of spectacular healings given in the Bible indicate that evil, including disease, is not actual. Spiritual laws of good that support healing were proved true in Bible times, and are still as true today. Christ Jesus, because of his understanding of God, demonstrated that he could depend on irreversible spiritual laws to heal sickness. Evidently Jesus saw people and events in the light of these laws, and this enabled him to heal. God is at once all power and only good; anything not good is therefore without power. As the Bible says in the book of Genesis, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (1:31).

One healing performed by Jesus and related in the Bible illustrates clearly the possibility of healing. Leprosy was a dreaded disease in those days. But Jesus confronted leprosy fearlessly, even touching a man who was afflicted with it. The man was instantly healed (see Matthew 8:2-4).

Jesus once classified evil, or the devil, as a liar, saying there was no truth in him (see John 8:44). By understanding disease to be included in evil, and therefore voiced as a lie, we can reason that, as a lie, disease comes from nowhere, is nowhere, and can go nowhere.

No lie ever has a law behind it to make it true. Instead of fearing a contagious disease, we can affirm that all disease is a lie. And something that has no actuality cannot be transmitted from one person to another. The only way a lie can ever seem to gain truth is if someone consents to believe it. By not consenting to disease as real, we are able to detect the lie of disease and expose the nothingness of it.

Where does a lie come from? From a false statement. Where can a lie exist? Only in a misunderstanding. Where does a lie go when discovered? Nowhere, actually, because it never was real.

The next time you are confronted with the statement that a contagious disease is going around, you can correct the lie in your thought, with the spiritual fact that God is all good and that God's creation contains nothing unlike Him. Through the understanding that God is infinite and good, you can state with confidence that contagious disease is nowhere but in a lie. The situation at hand must conform to what you understand to be true.

In learning of God's laws, we can find protection from contagion. When we understand the facts of God's creation, it is impossible for disease to come from somewhere, to lodge somewhere, or to go somewhere. We need never consent to believing a lie about ourselves or anyone else. And that's all contagion is.

Two weeks after the predicted spread of that disease had caught my attention, a small announcement appeared in the newspaper that not one single case of the disease had been reported, and that the threat was over. Since God answers prayer, the prayers given for the community at this time surely had the effect of protection.

When we expose a lie and know it to be untrue, we cease to fear it. In the same way, we can quickly dissolve fear of disease. Try turning to God the next time you hear a news report of contagion. Expose disease as a lie in your own thought and see that it comes from only one place -- nowhere. You'll find your fear of contagion destroyed and your health maintained.

*You can find more articles that discuss prayer in a weekly magazine, the Christian Science Sentinel.

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