When Jesus was taken before the high priest, [pg 192] Caiaphas, and was asked about the charges against him, he “held his peace.”
When he was asked by Pilate. “What is truth?” Jesus was silent; and when Pilate again asked, “Whence art thou?” Jesus “gave him no answer.”
When Herod “questioned with him in many words,” “he answered him nothing.”
What are we to infer from this silence? What the minister wishes us to infer, or that Jesus saw that he was unable to maintain his claim and so sought refuge in silence?
The silence of Jesus condemns him. He was in duty bound to prove that he was the Christ, the Son of God, as he claimed to be, or else have impostor written on his forehead.
The world will some day grow large enough not to be fooled by a minister. When it does, Jesus will take his place where he belongs,—in the graveyard of the gods.
Does The Church Save
The church pretends to save man from a hell hereafter, but does it do so? How are we to know whether it does or not? We cannot take its word for it. We want the proof. We do not want to pay for work unless the work is done. We do not want to believe in order to be saved, unless we are sure that the church can deliver the salvation it takes pay for. The world has taken the promise to save long enough. It has not seen a single soul that has been saved, nor does it know for a fact that a single soul has been saved.