True Christianity # 82
82. 1. Jehovah God came down and took on a human manifestation in order to redeem people and save them. The belief among Christian churches nowadays is that God, the Creator of the universe, procreated a Son from eternity. That Son came down and took on a human manifestation in order to redeem people and save them. This belief is wrong, however. It spontaneously falls apart as long as our thinking focuses on the fact that there is one God. To sound reason it is worse than nonsense to think that the one God procreated some Son from eternity and that God the Father together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is individually God, together make one God. This fiction completely vanishes like a shooting star in the air when the Word is quoted to show (a) that Jehovah God himself came down and became human and (b) that Jehovah God also became the Redeemer.
[2] As for the first point, the following passages show that Jehovah God himself came down and became human:
Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a Son, who will be called God with us. (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23)
A Child is born to us; a Son is given to us. Authority will rest on his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
It will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him to free us. This is Jehovah whom we have waited for. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. " (Isaiah 25:9)
The voice of one crying in the desert, "Prepare a way for Jehovah; make a level pathway in the solitude for our God. And all flesh will see it together. " (Isaiah 40:3, 5)
Behold, the Lord Jehovih is coming with strength, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him; like a shepherd he will feed his flock. (Isaiah 40:10-11)
Jehovah said, "Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Zion. Behold, I am coming to live in your midst. " Then many peoples will cling to Jehovah in that day. (Zechariah 2:10-11)
I, Jehovah, have called you in justice; I will give you as a covenant to the people. I am Jehovah. This is my name. I will not give my glory to another. (Isaiah 42:6, 8)
Behold, the days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous offshoot who will reign as king and execute judgment and justice on the earth. And this is his name: Jehovah our Justice. (; 33:15-16)
Then there are the passages where the coming of the Lord is called "the day of Jehovah," such as Isaiah 13:6, 9, 13, 22; Ezekiel 31:15; Joel 1:15; 2:1-2, 11, 29, 31; 3:1, 14, 18; Amos 5:13, 18, 20; Zephaniah 1:7-18; Zechariah 14:1, 4-21; and elsewhere.
[3] That Jehovah himself was the one who came down and took on a human manifestation is clearly established in Luke, when it says, "Mary said to the angel, 'How will this take place, since I have not had intercourse? The angel replied to her, The Holy Spirit will descend upon you, and the power of the Highest will cover you; therefore the Holy One that is born from you will be called the Son of God'" (Luke 1:34-35). In Matthew it says that in a dream an angel told Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, that the child that had been conceived in her was from the Holy Spirit. And Joseph did not have intercourse with her until she gave birth to a Son and called his name Jesus (Matthew 1:20, 25). The "Holy Spirit" means the divine power that radiates from Jehovah God, as we will see in the third chapter of this work [138-188].
Everyone knows that an offspring's soul and life come from its father, and the body comes from that soul. To state it very openly, then, the Lord's soul and life came from Jehovah God; and because divinity cannot be divided, the Lord's soul and life was the Father's divinity itself. This is why the Lord frequently called Jehovah God his Father, and Jehovah God called the Lord his Son. What would be more absurd to hear therefore than the idea that the soul of our Lord came from Mary his mother? Yet this is the very thing that both Roman Catholics and Protestants are dreaming today, and they have not been awakened by the Word yet.
Joel 1
1
The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
2
Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3
Tell your children about it, and have your children Tell their children, and their children, another generation.
4
What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
5
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
6
For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.
7
He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.
8
Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
9
The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's ministers, mourn.
10
The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.
11
Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.
12
The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.
13
Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.
14
Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.
15
Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16
Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17
The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
18
How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
19
Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20
Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
