What does Religious Science teach about the nature of salvation, evil, heaven, and hell?
There cannot be a Law in the Universe which demands evil, lack, limitation, and the experience of unhappiness, to provide shades to magnify Its glory. Therefore, the mystics have taught that evil has only the power to destroy itself; that it is not God-ordained. From the viewpoint of Reality, it is an illusion, but it is not denied as an experience. It is an experience all have had. The great have not failed to recognize the appearance of evil, but they have separated the appearance from the reality. They have done away with evil as a cosmic entity—NO DEVIL, NO HELL, NO TORMENT, NO DAMNATION outside of one’s own state of thought; NO PUNISHMENT outside of that which is self-inflicted, through ignorance; and NO SALVATION OUTSIDE OF CONSCIOUS COOPERATION WITH THE INFINITE. Heaven and Hell are states of consciousness.
