OPENING ONE'S MOUTH AND PROVING ONE'S IGNORANCE

In John 5:18, the religious leaders and so-called experts on the Word of God, clearly displayed their absolute ignorance of the Scriptures!  When Jesus said, "...My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (v. 17), this was their response:  "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God."  They clearly made two errors in their interpretation of what Jesus said: 

1)  by calling God His Father, He did not necessarily make Himself equal to God.  The Old Testament makes it clear that to God, the children of Israel, were His children!  In the following five examples, none teach that being a child of God makes one equal to God: 
*     Deuteronomy 32:6 - "Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise?  Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee?  Hath He not made thee, and established thee?"
*     Isaiah 63:16 - "Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not:  Thou O LORD, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting."
*     Isaiah 64:8 - "But now, O LORD, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we are the work of Thy hand."
*     Jeremiah 3:19 - "But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations?  And I said, Thou shalt call Me, My Father; and shalt not turn away from Me."
*     Malachi 2:10 - "Have we not all one Father?  Hath not one God created us?  Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?"

2)  Here are some that recognized Jesus:  Satan (Jn. 13:2), Demons (Mt. 8:29), a Roman Centurion (Mk. 15:39), His disciples (Mt. 14:33), and, of course, we have Peter's famous statement, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt. 16:16)!  There is irony in the fact that common fishermen recognized Him, while the religious leaders, either did not, or they refused to accept His as such.  The High Priest knew that the Messiah would be the Son of God (Mt. 26:63), and even Pilate recognized Jesus as to be the "King of the Jews" (Jn. 19:19-22)!

There are none so blind, as those who will not see!