- 29 - Mark 3: 21: ‘And when his relatives heard it, they went out to lay hold on him, for they said, he has lost his wits.’ John 7: 5: ‘For not even his brothers believed in him.’ That his mother and brothers should have disapproved of his conduct in public is easy to understand. They believed that the doctrines of the Jewish religion were correct. That is how they were brought up. Their ancestors had lived and died in that faith, and the fact that now their own son and brother should preach publicly that this faith embodied many errors was more than these simple and inexperienced people could bear. Whatever they were told by their clergy was valid as far as they were concerned. Moreover, they lived in fear of their fellowmen. They were pointed at as the relatives of a man who was assailing the faith of his fathers. They were frequently criticized on that score by the head of the synagogue of their village. They had business losses to fear as well. Especially hard to bear was the news that the supreme ecclesiastical council had excommunicated Jesus, and had threatened to do likewise with all those who followed him or acknowledged him as the Messiah. John 9: 22: ‘For the Jewish leaders had already agreed to excommunicate all who acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah.’ The Jewish priesthood warned the people against Jesus and his doctrines, resorting freely to slander as a weapon, and alluding to him as a ‘false prophet’, ‘a man possessed of the devil’, ‘an agitator’, ‘a wine-imbiber’, ‘a profligate’, who passed his time in the company of wayward women and sat down at table with publicans and known sinners. There was no expedient so low that they did not avail themselves of it to render him harmless, as he was a menace to their hold over the people. They could not tolerate the great mass of the people accepting as a religious truth something that differed from what they themselves preached. It was to them that the people owed obedience. What the clergy did not believe, the people must not believe, under penalty of being damned. John 7: 48-49: ‘Is there a single member of the High Council or a Pharisee who has been brought to believe in him? No, only the common people, who know nothing of the law. Damn them!’ • It is always the same old story, intoned by the clergy of all denominations, as soon as they see their influence on the people threatened by an evangelist of the truth. You, too, will become better acquainted with that circumstance than you have been in the past, as soon as you have made public the truths imparted by me, when you will witness a repetition of everything that took place in those days. The servant is not greater than his master, and you will be called a renegade priest, a false prophet, a madman, a man possessed by the devil, a degenerate. Even your relatives will heap reproaches on you, and tell you that you should have left well enough alone, and that what was good enough for other clergymen was surely good enough for you also. But be not afraid! Trust in God! What have you to fear of men? On the other hand, by disseminating the truth you will be of great benefit to many. Even members of the clergy who read your book will become convinced that it contains the truth, even though they may not be disposed to admit this openly. Things were no different in the days of Christ. John 12: 42-43: ‘Even many members of the High Council believed in Jesus, although they dared not admit it openly for fear of being excommunicated by the Pharisees, for they valued honour among men more highly than honour before God.’
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