82. (i) JEHOVAH GOD CAME DOWN AND TOOK UPON HIMSELF HUMAN FORM, IN ORDER TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND.
Christian churches to-day believe that God the Creator of the universe fathered a Son from eternity, who came down and took upon Himself human form to redeem and save mankind. But this is an error and collapses of its own accord, so long as the mind concentrates on the oneness of God, and the reason looks upon as fiction or worse the idea that the one God fathered a Son from eternity, and also that God the Father together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is severally God, is one God. This fiction is utterly exploded, like a meteorite in the atmosphere, when it is shown from the Word that it was Jehovah God Himself who came down and became man and also was the Redeemer.
[2] The first point, that it was Jehovah God Himself who came down and became man, is established by these passages:
Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, who shall be called God with us. Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23.
A boy is born for us, a son is given to us, on whose shoulder the dominion shall be; and his name shall be called Wonderful, God, Hero, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. Isa. 9:6, 7.
On that day it will be said, Behold, He is our God, whom we have awaited to free us. He is Jehovah, whom we have awaited. Let us exult and rejoice in His salvation. Isa. 25:9.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way for Jehovah, make smooth in the desert a path for our God; and all flesh shall see it together. Isa. 40:3, 5.
Behold, the Lord Jehovih comes in strength, and His arm shall bear dominion for Him. Behold, His recompense comes with Him; He will tend His flock like a shepherd. Isa. 40:10, 11.
Jehovah said, Shout for joy and rejoice, daughter of Zion; behold, I come to dwell in your midst; then shall many nations cleave to Jehovah on that day. Zech. 2:10, 11.
I Jehovah have called you in righteousness, and I will give you to be a covenant with the people. I am Jehovah, this is my name; my glory I shall not give to another. Isa. 42:1, 6-8.
Behold, the days will come when I will raise up for David a righteous shoot, who will reign as king and do judgment and righteousness upon earth; and this is His name, Jehovah our righteousness. Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16.
There are also the passages where the Lord's coming is called 'the day of Jehovah', as Isa. 13:6, 9, 13, 22; Ezek. 31:15; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 2, 11, 29, 31; 3:1, 14, 18; Amos 5:13, 18, 20; Zeph. 1:7-18; Zech. 14:1, 4-21; and elsewhere.
[3] It is openly stated in Luke that Jehovah Himself came down and took upon Himself human form.
Mary said to the angel, How shall this happen, since I have no knowledge of a man? The angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so that the holy thing that is born of you will be called the Son of God. Luke 1:34, 35.
And in Matthew the angel said in a dream to Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, that that which was born of her was of the Holy Spirit; and Joseph did not know her until she had borne a son, and he called His name Jesus. Matt. 1:20, 25. The Holy Spirit means the Divine which proceeds from Jehovah God, as will be seen in Chapter 3 of this book. Everyone knows that a child gets its soul and life from the father, its body from the mother.* So how could it be more openly stated that the Lord's soul and life were from Jehovah God, and because the Divine cannot be divided, that the Father's Divine itself was His soul and life? That is why the Lord so many times called Jehovah God His Father, and Jehovah God called Him His Son. Can anything more ridiculous be said than the idea that our Lord's soul was from His mother Mary? Yet such is the dream of both Roman Catholics and Protestants to-day, and they have not woken up to what is said in the Word.
* Reading ex matre 'from the mother' for ex anima 'from the soul', apparently a repetition from the preceding clause, cf. 92:1; 103:1.