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Taking Offense

Now there was a day when evil came to contend with the sons of God, telling lies about them and calling the lies truth.

Some people believed the lies, took them in, were emotionally hurt by them, became sick, and died. "It is our . . . egotism that feels hurt by another's self-assertion" (Mis 224:2).

Others reacted angrily to the lies and fought back. They went down into the fiery pit with the criminal mind, intending to do God's work as warriors. They were singed by the flames.

Still others heard the ridicule and began to laugh. The louder the evil outburst, the louder they laughed. They matched the perpetrator with an equal and opposite action. The belief of a good-and-evil power unwittingly defines itself, providing full-time entertainment and peril for all participants.

A few sensed the danger and just walked away, avoiding potential conflict. They made room for evil but wanted no part of it. Their kingdom was divided into two camps: those who knew the truth and those who mistakenly thought they knew the truth.

In all this mental commotion was found one Christian Scientist. This one did not react but humbly waited for the Word that would dispel the evil suggestion of a power opposed to Good. When the Word was discerned, it was broadcast with all the backing of its omnipotent source, bringing enlightenment and insightful hearing back to those receptive individuals who had become blind and deaf to Truth. Christian Science neutralizes poison and erases evil pretense, including all memory of the turmoil. Who is that one who chooses to stand alone for Principle? If you think it is not you, you have been fooled into complacency by animal magnetism. The evil one, or one evil, has stolen your seat of authority.


The people who died of self-inflicted wounds missed the healing event entirely. Weakness, timidity, self-condemnation, self-pity, and submissive poverty do not honor the vibrant radiance of life that God has bestowed upon us. "They who sin must suffer" until they tire of it and begin "leaning on the sustaining infinite"
(SH 37:2, vii:1).

The zealots who reacted angrily were too busy playing God to hear the inspired Word or to accept the healing. "It is our pride that makes another's criticism rankle, our self-will that makes another's deed offensive" (Mis 224:2).

Those who laughed thought they knew the Christ, and chose to applaud the material evidence rather than to ponder the inspired Word. To mortal personalities, both good and evil belong in God's universe, and matter and body are God's responsibility. Ritualistic worship, mystic miracles, and preaching without practice resist the spiritual purgation that destroys error.

Those who avoided the confrontation heard the answer of peace as a "still small voice." It was not "a loud voice, as when a lion roareth" because they were still mentally distant from God's thought of them, but they heard it and hid themselves, confident that they knew the truth to the exclusion of others. (Rev 10:3).

Christian Science feeds the multitude and explains divine Love as the Way that meets every human need, but only those who hear, understand, and love their neighbor enough to share it with signs following are advancing civilization. Our work is to be the ones who identify and record that which is already written in heaven - until our earth is heaven and the day of contention is gone.

Ref. "Taking Offense" Mis 223:24

George Denninger ©

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