Jesus In India — Page 44
44 J e s u s i n I n d i a unbeliever and that he is not from God. (We again take refuge with God for this). These exaggerations and detractions were so unjust that it was but natural that God Himself should exonerate His true prophet from these charges. The verse of the Gospel quoted above also points to this fact. The statement that all the nations of the earth would mourn and lament suggests that all those people to whom the term ‘nation’ applies would mourn on that day; they would beat their breasts and cry, and great would be their mourning. Christians had better study this verse a little carefully and consider. When the verse prophesies that all the nations would beat their breasts, how then is it possible that Christians shall stay away from this mourning? Are they not a nation? When, in accordance with this verse, they are a part of those who shall beat their breasts, why then are they not concerned about their salvation? The verse clearly says that when the sign of the Messiah appears in the heavens, all the nations inhabiting the earth will mourn. Anyone who says that his people will not mourn denies Jesus. Only those who are yet a small minority cannot be the people hinted at in the prophecy, as they are not yet numerous enough to be described as a nation. These people are none but us. Ours is the only community which is outside the sense and scope of this prophecy, for this community has yet only a few adherents to whom the term ‘nation’ cannot be applied. Jesus, on the authority of divine revelation, says that when a particular sign appears in the heavens all the people of the world who, on account of their numbers, deserve to be described as a nation will beat their breasts; there will be no exception but those who are small in number and to whom the term