birth. According to a number of Bible versions, Jesus later said to him: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” The man answered: “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?” Jesus replied: “Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.” Jesus did not ask the man to believe that he, Jesus, was more than the Son of God. The man confessed to believing only that.—John 9:35-37, AV; Dy; AS; ED; Lamsa; Murdock.

60. Before raising Lazarus, who did he say was to be glorified, and thereafter who did Martha say she believed Jesus to be?

⁶⁰ Before going to the town of Bethany in behalf of his sick friend Lazarus, Jesus said to his apostles: “This sickness is not with death as its object, but is for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Before Jesus reached the tomb where Lazarus now lay dead, his sister Martha confessed to believing what Jesus claimed to be, as she said: “Yes, Lord; I have believed that you are the Christ the Son of God, the One coming into the world.”—John 11:4, 27.

61. In sending a message to the congregation in Thyatira, whom did Jesus speak of himself as being?

⁶¹ Even in heaven the glorified Jesus speaks of himself as the Son of God. In Revelation 2:18, when sending a message to the Christian congregation in the city of Thyatira, the glorious Jesus says to John: “To the angel of the congregation in Thyatira write: These are the things that the Son of God says, . . . And to him that conquers and observes my deeds down to the end I will give authority over the nations, and he shall shepherd the people with an iron rod so that they will be broken to pieces like clay vessels, the same as I have received from my Father.”—Rev. 2:18, 26, 27.

62. In prayer, in what relationship with God did Jesus speak of himself as being?

⁶² On the basis of such a relationship to God Jesus addressed himself to God as a son and prayed: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your son, that your son may glorify you, according as you have given him authority over all flesh, that, as regards the whole number whom you have given him, he may give them everlasting life. This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:1-3) Thus Jesus did not claim to be “the only true God.”

63. Why did the Jews want to stone Jesus, and what did Jesus quote from the Psalms to show whether they were justified in doing so?

⁶³ In saying this, are we not forgetting John 10:31-39, according to which the Jews wanted to stone Jesus for saying: “I and the Father are one”? No, we are not forgetting. The Jews, who believed in the one God whose name is Jehovah, there wanted to stone Jesus. Why? Not because he taught such a thing as a Trinity and that he was one-third of it, but because he spoke of himself as the Son of God, the Son of their God Jehovah. Jesus said to them with their stones in their hands: “Many good works, from my Father, I have shown you; for which of them do you stone me?” The Jews replied: “It is for no good work that we stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, a man, make yourself god.” (Torrey) Jesus then referred the Jews to their own Holy Scriptures, to Psalm 82:6, and said: “Is it not written in your law, I have said, Ye are gods? If God said, that those to whom he was speaking were gods (and the scripture cannot be annulled), do you accuse of blasphemy him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even if you believe not me, believe the works, that you may perceive and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”—Torrey.

64. (a) What did Jesus there argue that he himself was? (b) Who were the ones whom Psalm 82 addressed as “gods”?

⁶⁴ The very argument of Jesus here proves he did not claim to be God. Had he claimed to be God, then the Jews would have been right in stoning him for blasphemy. But Jesus argues that he claimed to be less than God. To prove this, Jesus quoted to them from Psalm 82, verses 1, 2, 6, 7 (AV) of which read: “God [Elohím] standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods [elohím]. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? . . . I have said, Ye are gods [elohím]; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” In this psalm the Most High God speaks to the unjust judges on earth, mere men, and calls them “gods,” or elohím in the Hebrew, and he tells them to correct their legal practice. Because those judges fail of their duty, it becomes necessary for the Most High God to arise and judge the peoples of the earth.

65. Despite their being “gods,” what will happen to those judges and for whose death were such kind of Jewish gods responsible?

⁶⁵ Their being called “gods” will not save these judges; neither will their considering themselves to be “sons of the Most High” or sons of God. That gives them no immortality. They are still mortal and will die just like other men. They will fall in death just like other judicial princes on earth, and this by the execution of God’s judgment. God’s word was against them in adverse judgment. It was human gods like these, among the Jews, that caused Jesus to be put to death at the hands of the Romans.—Ex. 22:28, AV; Dy.

66, 67. What did Jesus not claim to be, and what did he not say to the Jews about his Father and himself?

⁶⁶ Jesus told those who wanted to stone him that he had not claimed to be God or a god, even though Psalm 82:6 had called some men, some Israelite judges, “gods.” Jesus had been speaking to the Jews about God as being his Father, which would mean that he, Jesus, was the Son of God. Jesus said to them: “No one will snatch them [my sheep] out of my hand. What my Father has given me is something greater than all other things, and no one can snatch them out of the hand of the Father. I and the Father are one.”

⁶⁷ After Jesus said that, his very argument that followed proved that he was not claiming to be God, nor was he saying that he and his heavenly Father were one God, a trinitarian God in which he and his Father were two Persons along with a third Person, “God the Holy Ghost.” Jesus did not say, I and the Father and the Holy Ghost are one. He mentioned no “Holy Ghost.”—John 10:28-30.

68. Using Psalm 82:6, how did Jesus prove that he did not claim to be God by saying: “I and the Father are one”?

⁶⁸ Jesus argued that his statement, “I and the Father are one,” did not mean claiming to be God. How so? Because Jesus told those Jews that he was calling himself less than God his Father. He told those Jews that their own law in Psalm 82:6 called the men against whom God’s word came in criticism “gods,” and that the Jews could not annul this scripture that called human judges by the title of “gods”; nor could they deny that this scripture said this, and they could not take this scripture out of the inspired Scriptures. And yet, when Jesus Christ, who performed so many wonderful good works among the Jews, spoke of God as his Father and spoke of himself as merely the Son of God, they said he blasphemed and were ready to stone him as a blasphemer. Still he was more than those men whom Psalm 82 had called “gods,” because he, Jesus, was the one whom the heavenly Father had sanctified and sent into the world. If it was not blasphemy for Asaph to compose a psalm calling human judges in Israel “gods,” then it was far less a blasphemy for Jesus to speak of himself as merely the Son of God and not as a god.—Psalm 82, superscription.

69. (a) In the material thus far from John’s writings what have we failed to find about Jesus Christ? (b) Why is the reader invited to join us in considering further material from John’s writings?

⁶⁹ Thus not once in all the above material from John’s writings have we found that Jesus Christ called himself God or let others speak of him as God. But ah! the trinitarians will say, not all the pertinent texts in John’s writings have yet been considered, Scripture texts that will surely prove that Jesus did speak of himself as God and let himself be addressed as God, and these will prove that the many Bible translations are correct in rendering John 1:1 to read: “And the Word [or, the Logos] was God.” So in our next three parts of this article on “The Word” we shall deal with those texts. Let the reader join us in the consideration of them.

Sowing Seeds of Truth at School

GUEST SPEAKER

● A young witness of Jehovah in California recently told about an experience he had at a school. One day he met his former American Problems teacher. “Since part of the curriculum is to discuss the different religions in the community, he asked me if I would like to be a guest speaker for Jehovah’s witnesses in his classes. It was to consist of an hour in which I gave a thirty-minute talk about the work of Jehovah’s witnesses, followed by a question-and-answer period. After the talk, the teacher informed me of another teacher who was interested in my talking to his class also. Since he did not come to me, I went to him and offered myself as a speaker for Jehovah’s witnesses. He was very enthusiastic about this offer and we made the arrangements. In each class it was the same, a thirty-minute talk and a lively question period.

THE LOCKED GATE

● One of Jehovah’s witnesses in Texas writes this experience about the time she was a young girl in school: “We lived back in the woods on a farm, and since my father didn’t want people coming to our house, he kept the gate locked. But that locked gate didn’t keep the truth out! In grade school there were several Witness children who took an admirable stand for true worship in the war days; they seemed always to be so kind. Their conduct stood out in contrast to all others. And to this day I thank Jehovah that they witnessed to their playmates.

“One day a ten-year-old girl explained to me about the hope of living on earth forever; her words really seemed to have the ring of truth. All this made an impression on my mind, until finally when I was fifteen years old and my sister was thirteen years old, we both decided at the same time that this must be the truth and said: ‘Let’s become Jehovah’s witnesses.’ So we started studying, but Dad was furious!

“Since he hadn’t sent us to high school, we had no way of seeing those Witness children, and he would not let us go to their home; but they wrote us many letters, helping us. We subscribed for The Watchtower and Awake! and ordered many of the books from the Society. Because Dad forbade our going to the meetings or out in the service, we had our own meetings regularly at home, just the two of us, thereby building up much background knowledge. And we did incidental witnessing, mostly by mail.

“It was Dad’s plan to send us both to business school when I became eighteen; so with the hope of eventually getting away from home and to the meetings, we settled down to ‘bide our time’ for three years. Dad spent many hours, many days, trying to get us to turn from the course we had chosen, all to no avail. After leaving home to attend business school, we located a Kingdom Hall, began attending meetings, going in the service. Soon we were baptized. With every step of advancement we took, Dad put forth more frantic effort to get us to stop. About the last time he tried to get us to give it up was when I quit a good-paying job, took up part-time work and began pioneering. Now after 18 years, we are still grateful that those children witnessed to us at school, and that the truth reached us behind that locked gate!”