Our link with God can thwart terrorist attacks

The Bible records that thousands of years ago, the prophet Elisha, through spiritual foresight, was able to warn his king of impending attacks by the enemy, pinpointing again and again the exact location of the enemy camp, and saving the king and his armies (see II Kings 6:8-12).

Is it possible for someone today to foresee, foretell, and therefore forestall, terrorist attacks? And how does this relate to our link with God?

Moral qualities such as watchfulness, alertness, follow-through, cooperation, obedience, honesty, courage, humility, and unselfishness, derive solely from God, the divine Mind, the only source of good. So the practice of these qualities reveals and reinforces our link, or unity, with God, and enables us, as God's children, to receive power over evil - to have dominion over evil, demonstrated by Christ Jesus.

Most of us will remember, with gratitude, instances when individuals expressing these moral qualities have thwarted terrorist plots and saved innocent lives. It has also become evident that sin - laxness, apathy, inanity, pride, procrastination, anger, for example - has literally left the door open, in some cases, for such plots to succeed.

Spiritual foresight, on the other hand, is a quality that derives from our unity with divine Mind. The Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, explains, "Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee and foretell events which concern the universal welfare, to be divinely inspired, - yea, to reach the range of fetterless Mind" (pg. 84).

Many years ago, I had an experience that illustrated spiritual foresight - an experience which, although not encompassing the magnitude of the terrorism in the news today, was nevertheless credited with possibly saving my life and the lives of the family I was living with at the time.

I was a student living overseas and had taken a room with a family in a suburb of a large city. Their apartment was the only one on the ground floor of the building, and my room was right by the door to the apartment. The front door was often left unlocked during the day, but was faithfully locked every night by a family member. Before going to bed, I always spent time in prayer. And by the time I went to sleep, I was filled with a strong sense of God's presence and of my oneness with Him.

One time in the middle of the night, I was wakened by what seemed to be a voice telling me to get up and lock the apartment door. I wasn't obedient at first, telling myself that the door had certainly been locked. Again the "voice" came, telling me to get up and lock the door. Finally, I roused myself. The door was unlocked. Surprised, I locked it and went back to bed.

In the morning, I related the intriguing story to the family and went off to my classes. That evening when I returned, they were excitedly waiting to tell me that the police had informed the concierge that a criminal had entered the building, trying to gain access to one of the apartments. Since only my room was anywhere near the front door, we all felt very distinctly that I had been saved from a criminal act.

One might wonder, however, if this method of thwarting criminal activity indicates that God would have to know evil in order to forewarn and save us from it. This remarkable summary of Jesus' teachings points to the answer to this question: "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5).

Light doesn't need to know darkness to banish it. God, supreme good, the divine Principle of all existence, doesn't need to know evil in order to destroy it. Divine Love destroys evil simply by being omnipresent, omnipotent Love.

Through the conquest of sin, or whatever would separate us from God, through lives lived more in accord with perfect Love - whose will is only good, whose purpose is only harmony - individuals will be enabled to know and do whatever is necessary to perpetuate harmony. And it will be seen that the attacks of evil in all of its forms can and will be thwarted.