He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the Earth belongs to the Earth, and speaks of the Earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
Therefore, we shall note the glaring weakness of the reasoning of such scholars, whose allegation of a change of style turns out to be nothing but a change of tense!  And, as Westcott said: "The use of the present tense in  John 3:32 is not inconsistent with the position of the evangelist."[27] Despite such an admission of Westcott, that scholar favored the position of understanding these words as of the apostle instead of the herald; but his argument is not convincing.  For example, he said, "The use of the title `Son' (used singly and absolutely) appears to be alien from the position of the Baptist."[28] This is refuted by the fact that the first person ever on earth to hear Jesus called `Son' (singly and absolutely) was John the Baptist  (Matthew 3:17), God Almighty himself being the speaker!  It is therefore impossible to view John's use of the single title "Son" as having been anything alien to his position.  These and other considerations confirm the conviction of this writer that the words should be understood as belonging to the person to whom they are ascribed in the Gospel.  As Hovey said: "(There is) the improbability that the Evangelist would have passed without notice from the record of the Baptist's words to his own testimony concerning Jesus."[29]