Of all the thousands and thousands of Bible verses that Mrs. Eddy could have chosen to open page 1 of her most important book, our textbook, she chose Mark 11:23 – “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Mark 11:23 makes it clear that I am actively to rise up and speak to any mountain that needs to be removed from my life, not simply to remain passive, beseeching God to remove it.
As to the nature of any mountain of sin, disease, or death that confronts me, Mrs. Eddy breaks it down in the 1st edition of SH (p. 37-38):
“…God is the only Intelligence and cannot believe because He understands. There is neither substance nor Intelligence, in the mountain mirage that seemeth what it is not, and such is mortal man; nor in a face reflected from the mirror; but such is not immortal man the image of God. Intelligence is Soul and not sense, Spirit and not matter, and God is the only Intelligence, and there is but one God, hence there are no believers! So far as this statement is understood will it be admitted, and the true idea of God, which is the only real man, will appear to the understanding, and the old belief of Intelligence and Life in matter, named by Paul ‘the old man,’ will disappear or ‘be put off,’ for ‘dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return;’ man never dies, it is only a belief of man” [emphasis added].
It is important to note that the word “believe” in Mark 11:23 is derived from the same root as the Greek word for “understanding” — it has nothing to do with wishful thinking. Mrs. Eddy’s use of the word “belief” is examined in Webster’s 1828 dictionary: “In some cases, the word is used for persuasion or opinion, when the evidence is not so clear as to leave no doubt; but the shades of strength in opinion can hardly be defined, or exemplified. Hence the use of qualifying words; as a firm, full or strong belief.”
This is a major theme in Mrs. Eddy’s writings: “Until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual understanding, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine” (SH, p. 297). A wonderful practical example of this achievement is Elisha walking the floor, walking the floor, walking the floor, patiently building up his faith until, finally, he attained the understanding requisite to remove the “mountain mirage” of death and restore the Shunnamite’s son back to life (2 Kings 14:36).