102. There is a belief that the Lord in his human manifestation not only was but still is the Son of Mary. This is a blunder, though, on the part of the Christian world. It is true that he was the Son of Mary; it is not true that he still is. As the Lord carried out the acts of redemption, he put off the human nature from his mother and put on a human nature from his Father. This is how it came about that the Lord's human nature is divine and that in him God is human and a human is God. The fact that he put off the human nature from his mother and put on a divine nature from his father - a divine human nature - can be seen from his never referring to Mary as his mother, as the following passages show: "The mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine. ' Jesus said to her, 'What do I have to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come'" (John 2:4). Elsewhere it says, "Jesus on the cross saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing next to her. He said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son. ' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother'" (John 19:26-27). On one occasion he did not acknowledge her: "There was a message for Jesus from people who said, 'Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to see you. ' Jesus said in reply, 'My mother and my brothers are these people who are hearing the Word of God and doing it'" (Luke 8:20-21; Matthew 12:46-49; Mark 3:31-35). So the Lord called her "woman," not "mother," and gave her to John to be his mother. In other passages she is called his mother, but not by the Lord himself.

[2] Another piece of supporting evidence is that the Lord did not acknowledge himself to be the son of David. In the Gospels we read,

Jesus asked the Pharisees, saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They say, "David's. " He said to them, "Why then does David in the spirit call him his Lord when he says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet?"' If David calls him Lord, how is he his son?" And no one could answer him a word. (Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; Psalms 110:1)

[3] Here I will add something previously unknown. On one occasion I was given an opportunity to talk to Mother Mary. She happened past, and I saw her in heaven over my head in white clothing apparently made of silk. Then, stopping for a while, she said that she had been the Lord's mother in the sense that he was born from her, but by the time he became God he had put off everything human that came from her. Therefore she adores him as her God and does not want anyone to see him as her son, because everything in him is divine.

From the points above another truth now becomes manifest: Jehovah is as human in what is first as he is in what is last, as the following passages indicate: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the One who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8, 11). When John saw the Son of Humankind in the middle of seven lampstands, he fell at his feet as if dead; but the Son of Humankind laid his right hand on John and said, "I am the First and the Last" (Revelation 1:13, 17; 21:6). "Behold, I am coming quickly to give to all according to their work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last" (Revelation 22:12-13). And in Isaiah, "Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel and its Redeemer, Jehovah Sabaoth: I am the First and the Last" (Isaiah 44:6; 48:12).

341. To believe that a person who lives a good life and holds a proper belief is not saved, but that God has freedom to save or damn at His whim anyone He wishes, would enable the person who is lost justifiably to accuse God of lack of mercy and unforgivingness, not to say cruelty. In fact it would amount to denying that God was God, and to asserting that what He said in His Word was worthless and that His commandments were of no, or at any rate trifling, importance. Moreover, if a person who lives a good life and holds a proper belief is not saved, he too can convict God of breaking His covenant which He made on Mount Sinai and wrote with His finger on two tables. It is evident from the Lord's words (in John 14:21-24) that God cannot avoid saving those who live in accordance with His commandments and have faith in Him. Indeed anyone who has a religion and sound reason can convince himself of this, if he reflects that God, who is continually present with man, giving him life and the ability to understand and love, must inevitably love him, and by His love link Himself to those who live a good life and hold a proper belief. This is surely something God has imprinted on every human being and on every living thing. Can a father or mother reject their young children, can a bird reject its chicks, an animal its whelps? Not even tigers, panthers and snakes can do this. For God to act differently would be contrary to the order in which He is and according to which He acts, as well as contrary to the order He imposed by creation on man.

[2] Now just as it is impossible for God to damn anyone who lives a good life and holds a proper belief, so in the reverse case it is impossible for God to save anyone who lives a wicked life and as a result holds a false belief. This second proposition is also contrary to order, and therefore contrary to His omnipotence, which can only proceed by way of justice; and the laws of justice are immutable truths. For the Lord says:

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one dot of the law to fall out, Luke 16:17.

Anyone who knows anything of the essence of God and of man's free will can grasp this. For example, Adam was free to eat of the tree of life, and of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If he had only eaten of the tree or trees of life, would it have been possible for God to drive him out of the garden? I hardly think so. But after he had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, would it have been possible for God to keep him in the garden? Again, I hardly think so. Likewise I hardly think God could cast any angel who had been received into heaven down to hell, nor admit anyone judged a devil into heaven. Neither of these things are possible for God by His own omnipotence, as may be seen in the section on the Divine omnipotence (49-70 above).