At the Feast of Tabernacles

162:5.1On the evening of the next to the last day of the feast, when the scene was bril­liantly il­lu­mi­nated by the lights of the can­de­labras and the torches, Je­sus stood up in the midst of the as­sem­bled throng and said:

162:5.2“I am the light of the world. He who fol­lows me shall not walk in dark­ness but shall have the light of life. Pre­sum­ing to place me on trial and as­sum­ing to sit as my judges, you de­clare that, if I bear wit­ness of my­self, my wit­ness can­not be true. But never can the crea­ture sit in judg­ment on the Cre­ator. Even if I do bear wit­ness about my­self, my wit­ness is ev­er­last­ingly true, for I know whence I came, who I am, and whither I go. You who would kill the Son of Man know not whence I came, who I am, or whither I go. You only judge by the ap­pear­ances of the flesh; you do not per­ceive the re­al­i­ties of the spirit. I judge no man, not even my arch­en­emy. But if I should choose to judge, my judg­ment would be true and righ­teous, for I would judge not alone but in as­so­ci­a­tion with my Fa­ther, who sent me into the world, and who is the source of all true judg­ment. You even al­low that the wit­ness of two re­li­able per­sons may be ac­cepted—well, then, I bear wit­ness of these truths; so also does my Fa­ther in heaven. And when I told you this yes­ter­day, in your dark­ness you asked me, ‘Where is your Fa­ther?’ Truly, you know nei­ther me nor my Fa­ther, for if you had known me, you would also have known the Fa­ther.

162:5.3“I have al­ready told you that I am go­ing away, and that you will seek me and not find me, for where I am go­ing you can­not come. You who would re­ject this light are from be­neath; I am from above. You who pre­fer to sit in dark­ness are of this world; I am not of this world, and I live in the eter­nal light of the Fa­ther of lights. You all have had abun­dant op­por­tu­nity to learn who I am, but you shall have still other ev­i­dence con­firm­ing the iden­tity of the Son of Man. I am the light of life, and ev­ery one who de­lib­er­ately and with un­der­stand­ing re­jects this sav­ing light shall die in his sins. Much I have to tell you, but you are un­able to re­ceive my words. How­ever, he who sent me is true and faith­ful; my Fa­ther loves even his erring chil­dren. And all that my Fa­ther has spo­ken I also pro­claim to the world.

162:5.4“When the Son of Man is lifted up, then shall you all know that I am he, and that I have done noth­ing of my­self but only as the Fa­ther has taught me. I speak these words to you and to your chil­dren. And he who sent me is even now with me; he has not left me alone, for I do al­ways that which is pleas­ing in his sight.”

162:5.5As Je­sus thus taught the pil­grims in the tem­ple courts, many be­lieved. And no man dared to lay hands upon him.