as yet unfallen and he it is who is addressed in the person of the Antichrist "How art thou

fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning" (Isa. 14: 12-15) to which stupendous

event the Saviour referred when He said:

Weighing all these terrible words in the balance, we find it impossible to believe that

the Saviour would actually say of the true seed "Ye are of your father (ek tou patros) the

devil" (John 8: 44). The words ek tou patros `out of the father' find an echo in verse 47

`He that is OF GOD (ek tou Theou) heareth the word of God; ye therefore hear them not,

because ye are not OF GOD (ek tou Theon)'. Note carefully the words here. The

passage does not teach that if a person persistently refuses to hear the Word of God, he

thereby exposes himself to the possibility of being numbered with the evil seed who are

`not of God'; the truth is the other way round, those addressed heard not the words of

God, because they were the evil seed. HEARING the word of God is a mark of the true

seed. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear", suggests the same teaching. So we get

such passages as the following "He that heareth My Word and believeth on Him that sent

Me", which is a spiritual anticipation of the day when the dead shall hear the voice of the

Son of God, and they that hear shall live. To some the testimony of the Saviour was a

hard saying "Who can hear it?" "Why do ye not understand My speech?" said the

Lord, and His answer is `even because ye cannot hear My word' (John 8: 43). "He that

is of God heareth God's words: YE THEREFORE HEAR THEM NOT, because ye are

not of God" (John 8: 47). "Ye believe not, BECAUSE YE ARE NOT OF My sheep"

(John 10: 26). Again we draw attention to this deep saying. It does not say "Because ye

believe not ye cannot become My sheep". Those addressed were not His sheep and as

only the sheep hear, they not being sheep, could not hear. All this may be in the realm of

high doctrine and scarcely comes within the province of the Evangelist. It is nevertheless

just as true as John 3: 16, and is a warning to all who preach not to load the English

word `whosoever' beyond the legitimate burden of its Greek equivalent.

The English word `whosoever' is exceedingly wide in scope, apparently precluding

none, but in many passages it translates the Greek pas ho, which literally rendered, makes

the blessing limited to a certain class, instead of being offered universally. Thus we read

in the original:

We now continue our examination of the teaching of the Scriptures concerning `the

seed' and shall be able to do so without the liability to ascribe to the evil seed that which

pertains only to the family of faith. Let us never forget that in themselves as far as merit

or demerit is concerned, there is no difference between the true seed and the false.

Ephesians, which ministers to the high calling of the Mystery, nevertheless reminds the

recipients of the grace there outpoured that they were: