LET GOD BE TRUE

CHAPTER III

"WHAT SAY YE RESPECTING
THE MESSIAH?"

"THE Aramaic-speaking Jews of the first century of our common era called him "Jeshúa ham-Mashíahh". The Greek-speaking Jews and Gentiles called him "Jesus Messias" or "Jesus Christ". In either language it means "Jesus the Anointed"; and the name Jesus or Jeshua is just the shortened form of the Hebrew name Jehóshua, meaning Jehovah is the Savior. That a Jew bearing that name and title walked and taught in Palestine in the first half of the first century is so fully established by history that it needs no further proof here. Now we take the authentic records written by his personal companions and their friends to learn some details about him.

² This Jew's life and teachings have affected the course of all human history and are destined to affect it still further in the next thousand years. Before he appeared on earth he had already had a wonderful past. To get facts about this we turn to the words of a man formerly his bitter enemy but who became a faith-

ful friend and who said as regards himself: "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church." (Philippians 3:5,6) In this same letter to the Philippian believers this same Hebrew tells us something as to the prehuman past of Jesus, saying: "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."  — 2:5-11, A.S.V.

³ This One was not Jehovah God, but was "existing in the form of God". How so? He was a spirit person, just as "God is a spirit"; he was a mighty one, although not almighty as Jehovah God is; also he was before all others of God's creatures, because he was the first son that Jehovah God brought forth. For this reason he is called "the only begotten Son" of God,

for God had no partner in bringing forth his first begotten Son. He was the first of Jehovah God's creations. He speaks so of himself, at Revelation (or Apocalypse) 3:14: "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Also at Colossians 1:15 he is spoken of as the One "who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature". Thus he is ranked with God's creatures, being first among them and also most beloved and most favored among them. He is not the author of the creation of God; but, after God had created him as his firstborn Son, then God used him as his working Partner in the creating of all the rest of creation. It is so stated at Colossians 1:16-18 and at John 1:1-3.

⁴ In John, chapter 1, he is spoken of as being the Word of God, that is to say, the mouthpiece or representative speaker for God. In the Greek Bible text the Word is Logos; hence he may be culled "the Word or Logos". Being a mighty one and holding this high official capacity as Logos and being before all other creatures, he was a God, but not the Almighty God, who is Jehovah. This distinction is shown in the Emphatic Diaglott translation of John 1:1-3, as follows: "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with GOD, and the Logos was God. This was in the beginning with GOD. Through it every thing was done; and without it not even one thing was done, which has been done." (Note:

The typographical difference between GOD and God is just as found in the Diaglott.) The Diaglotts interlinear translation of the Greek, word for word, makes the distinction between Jehovah as "GOD" and the Logos as "God" still more clear, reading as follows: "In a beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and a god was the Word. This was in a beginning with the God." (For a further discussion of this text see the chapter on "Is There a Trinity?") Thus the Logos came into existence long before one of God's later creatures made a devil out of himself and became, as he is called at 2 Corinthians 4: 4, "the god of this world." — See the chapter on "Satan the Devil".

⁵ That Jesus Christ had a prehuman existence he himself testifies, saying: "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" (John 6:62) "Ye are from beneath; I am from above. . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." (John 8: 23, 58; in the original Greek text this "I am" differs from the "I am" in the Greek Septuagint translation of Exodus 3:14, where Jehovah God speaks.) In his last prayer together with his disciples Jesus said to God: "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. . . . And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to

thee." (John 17:4-11) Less than two months later his faithful disciples, as his witnesses, saw him ascend heavenward and then disappear from their sight. Ten days later they had the evidence by means of the outpouring of God's spirit through Jesus that he had reached the heavenly presence of his Father above. — Acts, chapters 1 and 2.

⁶ Prior to coming to earth, this only begotten Son of God did not think himself to be co-equal with Jehovah God; he did not view himself as "equal in power and glory" with Almighty God; he did not follow the course of the Devil and plot and scheme to make himself like or equal to the Most High God and to rob God or usurp God's place. On the contrary, he showed his subjection to God as his Superior by humbling himself under God's almighty hand, even to the most extreme degree, which means to a most disgraceful death. To quote the Emphatic Diaglott translation, at Philippians 2:5-8: "Christ Jesus, who, though being in God's form, yet did not meditate a usurpation to be like God, but divested himself, taking a bondman's form, having been made in the likeness of men; and being in condition as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

⁷ Jesus asked the Jews concerning the Messiah's descent, saying: "What think ye of

Christ? whose son is he?" His enemies admitted from whose ancestral line the Messiah should come, saying: "The son of David." (Matthew 22:41,42) Just so, the Son of God on coming to the earth was horn in the line of David, for his virgin mother Mary was descended from David. Joseph, to whom the young woman was betrothed, was also a descendant of David, but before Mary was united to him, the angel from God announced her coming motherhood, saying: "Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. . . . The holy spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God." — Luke 1:30-35, A.S.V.

⁸ The angel said Mary's child should be called "the Son of God". Hence it is blasphemously improper to call her "the mother of God". That title was borrowed by the Roman Catholic clergy from pagan Babylon, where Rhea (Semiramis) or Venus was worshiped as the "mother of the gods". Jesus did not address Mary as "Blessed Mother". In every case on Bible record he addressed her as "woman" (John 2:4; 19:26; Matthew 12:46-50); and his apostle Paul writes: "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." (Galatians 4:4) At the time that the young woman conceived by the miracle-working power of Almighty God

then the life of the Son of God was transferred from his glorious position with God his Father in heaven to the embryo of a human.

⁹ Mary conceived at the city of Nazareth in Galilee, but, due to Caesar's taxation decree, she transferred to Bethlehem in Judea, where King David had been born about eleven centuries previous. There Jesus was born, about October 1, B.C. 2. This was in fulfillment of the prophecy at Micah 5:2. To the Jewish shepherds out in the fields that fall night the angel announced: "This day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David." Then a multitude of the heavenly army appeared also and sang: "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will." (Luke 2:8-14, Douay) On the eighth day he was circumcised like any normal Jewish boy, and then after the fortieth day Mary was permitted to enter the temple at Jerusalem and present him. Later the child was carried down into Egypt to escape King Herod's murderous soldiers, but was brought back at Herod's death and was taken up to Nazareth to live and grow up. This fulfilled another prophecy, at Hosea 11:1: "Out of Egypt have I called my son."  — Matthew 2:13-23.

¹⁰ Jesus' mother's cousin married a priest, Zacharias, to whom she bore a son, Jesus' cousin John. Six months before Jesus became thirty years old, John began to preach as a forerun-

ner of Jesus and he also baptized in water in connection with his preaching. To the Jews exclusively he preached, saying: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." After this announcement of the Kingdom Jesus went to John, showing the primary purpose for which he came to earth, namely, to bear witness to God's kingdom which will vindicate the sovereignty and holy name of Jehovah God. When Jesus stood on trial before Governor Pontius Pilate three and a half years later, he said: "My kingdom is not of this world: . . . now is my kingdom not from hence." "Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." (John 18: 36, 37) It was to this kingdom of God that Jesus was anointed to be Jehovah's Messianic King. When?

¹¹ Jesus at thirty years of age went to John the Baptist to be immersed in water. After John had dipped him in the Jordan river and Jesus came out of the water, then "the heaven was opened, and the holy spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased". (Luke 3:21-23, A.S.V.) By his water baptism Jesus showed his submitting of himself to do God's will; and now God consecrated him by His holy spirit. By acknowledging him as His beloved Son, God begot

Jesus to be his spiritual Son once more instead of a human Son. By pouring out His holy spirit upon the baptized Jesus, God anointed him with the spirit to be the long-promised King in God's kingdom. By being thus anointed with the spirit Jesus became the Messiah, or Mashíahh or Christ, which words all mean "Anointed". Thus he became in fact Jesus Christ, or Jesus the Anointed. His Jewish disciple, Peter, declared: "Even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the holy spirit and with power." —  Acts 10:38, A.S.V.

¹² After spending forty days in the wilderness, where he beat back the Devil's temptations, Jesus returned to John's locality, to get in touch with his first disciples. On seeing Jesus approaching, John said to his hearers: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1: 29, 36) Thus John showed the secondary purpose for which the Son of God came to earth, namely, to die as a holy sacrifice to Jehovah God in order to cancel the sins of believing men and to free them from death's condemnation, that they might gain eternal life in the righteous new world which God has promised to create. Jesus was suitable to be such a ransom or redemptive sacrifice. By having his perfect, sinless life transferred from heaven to the womb of a Jewish virgin, Jesus was born as a perfect human and grew up to be a perfect man, absolutely sinless, holy, harm-

less, undefiled. (Hebrews 7: 26) Hence, when he presented himself in full dedication to God's will, Jehovah God accepted him for sacrifice as humankind's Redeemer. Because Jesus was thereby bound to lay aside his humanity forever as a sacrifice, God begot him by his spirit to become again a spirit Son of God. Hence Jesus said: "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20: 28) He therefore laid down his human life forever.

¹³ On his return visit to Nazareth the anointed Jesus spoke in its synagogue. There he applied to himself the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1, 2. He confessed that he had been anointed with God's spirit in order to preach the good news or gospel to meek persons seeking release from bondage to sin and religious error. (Luke 4:16-21) After that he preached "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" up and down the land of Judea and Galilee and Trans-Jordan. He gathered about him twelve apostles and other disciples, whom he trained to preach the heavenly kingdom to which he had been anointed. He exposed religious traditions and errors and preached the truth to make men free. This brought him in conflict with the Jewish rabbis, priests and sectarian leaders, who sought his death. At passover time A.D. 33, with the aid of the traitorous apostle Judas Iscariot, they seized Jesus, gave him a mock trial, handed him over to the Gen-

tiles for trial by Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas, and then blocked his release by stirring up the misguided Jewish people to cry for Jesus to be impaled on a tree like a seditious lawbreaker and blasphemer. He died obedient to God, without ever renouncing God's kingdom.

¹⁴ On the third day of his being dead in the grave his immortal Father Jehovah God raised him from the dead, not as a human Son, but as a mighty immortal spirit Son, with all power in heaven and earth under the Most High God. Says the Jewish witness, Peter: "Being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit." (1 Peter 3:18, A.S.V. and Douay) For forty days thereafter he materialized, as angels before him had done, to show himself alive to his disciples as witnesses. He then ascended to heaven and appeared in God's presence with the value of his human sacrifice as God's High Priest, and this he applied in behalf of all those who should believe in him. — Hebrews 9:11, 23, 24; 10:12,13.

¹⁵ God exalted his Son Jesus to be higher than he was before he lived and died as a man. If Jesus had been "equal in power and glory" with the Supreme Being, then Jehovah God could not have elevated his Son any higher than he was in his prehuman state. But now Jesus is made the Head under Jehovah of God's capital organization over the entire universe. Says the apostle Peter: "By the resurrection of Jesus

Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." (1 Peter 3:21,22) This proves Jesus did not take his human body to heaven to be forever a man in heaven, because, had he done so, that would have left him ever lower than the angels. By his becoming a man, "we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." (Hebrews 2:6-9) God did not purpose that Jesus should be humiliated thus forever by being a fleshly man forever; but, after he had sacrificed his perfect manhood, Almighty God raised him to deathless heavenly life as a glorious spirit creature. He exalted him above all angels and all other parts of God's universal organization, to be next-highest to himself, the Most High God. What Christ Jesus does in this exalted capacity, we leave to succeeding chapters herein to tell.