The Baha'i Studies Listserv
On Behalf Of Naison Jones
Sent: 23 December 2010 04:17
How can you be the return of Jesus without possessing Jesus qualities?
Obviously by return is not meant Jesus actually came back into the world. So by
return is meant Jesus powers his attributes his station his glory...
Consider this. The station of the manifestation is utter selflessness.
Therefore They consider themselves only reflectors of the light. This being the
case It is logical that they claim each is the return of the other. That is
they are refereing to the light within them since their own self they do not
regard at all as being significant. Does this make sense? Naison Jones
Dearest Naison
You wrote a wonderful point. ** They consider themselves only reflectors of the
light **i wish people would really and cordially read your pure hearted
postings.
No one seems to read my postings. I posted so many beautiful things including
all the Moojan Momen essays on Islam and the Bahai Faith…not one response.
A Persian poet says that often when we make a point it is exactly as if a
concert should play for the deaf or a mirror be brought for the blind…
( بقول شاعر (پیش کر بربط سرای وپیش کور آیینه دار )
A friend of mine wrote this in relation to your *reflectors of light** point
which I take to heart
Commenting on what ‘Abdu’l-Baha has said
"Christ is an Expression of the Divine Reality, the Single Essence and Heavenly
Entity, which hath no beginning or ending. It has appearance, arising, and
manifestation and setting in each one of the Cycles."
(Abdu'l-Baha)
http://www.paintdrawer.co.uk/david/
In considering the Trinity presented in the New Testament, a particularly
useful analogy to explore is that of the Sun, which itself is employed a number
of times in the New Testament.
The Sun is the glorious power from which all human life, and nature, is
sustained, both knowingly and unawares, and is a most perfect and beautiful
symbol for God.
The sun sheds its life-giving influence upon the world through its rays of
light, warming and illuminating the earth and its peoples; by these rays, night
is turned into day, and all work and life is empowered. These life-giving rays
spreading from the Sun out into the world, are the symbol of the Holy Spirit,
being the creative flowing of God into the world of existence; also called the
Word of God: for the Holy Spirit is the direct commanding of God through which
He says 'Be' and it is.
These rays of light travel into the world by virtue of a pure and stainless
medium that mediates their spiritual power from the world of God in to the
world of man. This mediator is Christ, and in the symbol of the sun He is the
clear open space through which the sunlight of the Holy Spirit travels to the
world, the windows through which the Spirit enters into the daily homes of
people's lives. The spiritual mediation of God to mankind is through virtue of
a perfectly pure and devoted nature wholly devoid of ego, called sinless,
through which the divine influence may travel to man's world unsullied. Of
primary importance is the mediation of God to the inner spirit of each
individual, so that they are revolutionised in spirit, 'a new creation', though
to all outer worldly eyes no change appears: "Therefore if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things
are become new" (2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15). John the Baptist referred to Jesus'
mediating the Spirit to man as 'baptizing' people with Spirit: "He that sent me
to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the
Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with
the Holy Spirit." (Jn 1:31-33)
The station of mediator of the Holy Spirit, is one of a humble servant
conveying the glorious Spirit from the Master Fashioner to the world: thus in
Acts, he is called the Servant of God (e.g. Act 3:13, 3:26, 4:27, 4:30), and
the same is included more lovingly in the title 'Son of God'. Hebrews depicts
this humble servitude vividly: "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he
offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could
save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission... he
learned obedience from what he suffered, and once made perfect... was
designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 5:7).
Christ's greatness in pure mediation of the Holy Spirit into the world of man,
is like the greatness and perfection of a window in allowing the sun to shine
through. It is forgiveable to curse the window as an object in itself, but not
the light that shines through it. Thus Jesus says: "Whosoever shall speak a
word against the Son of Man [Jesus], it shall be forgiven him: but unto him
that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven" (Lk 12:10)
- just as you may speak ill of a flute, but if you abhor the music which plays
through it, then you are denying the very creative breaths of the Master
Musician. On the other hand, in recognising the purpose of the window in
mediating the Light of the Sun, to curse the window is generally equivalent to
abhorring the Light, and so through coming in God's name, to deny Jesus is to
deny God (1 Jn 2:23), rather as to accept or deny Jesus' apostles when they
come in Jesus' name is to accept or deny Jesus (Mk 9:41-42). These distinctions
usually exist between a thing and its appointment in a role - it is forgiveable
to throw eggs at Churchill, for as an individual he must forgive, but not
forgiveable to throw them at the Prime Minister, for by doing so you are
throwing them at the Queen and State: at the authorising order and authority.
Thus it is not the mediator that is great, but the thing that is mediated and
the authority that appoints it, is great. Making this quite clear, Jesus
exclaims, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but only God!" (Mk
10:18), and elsewhere, "My Father is greater than I" (Jn 14:28), and "My
Father, who hath given to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck
out of the hand of my Father" (Jn 10:29), and "The servant is not greater than
his lord; neither He that is sent greater than He that sent Him" (Jn 13:16),
and "To sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give" (Mk
10:40), and, "But of that day [of return] and that hour knoweth no man, no, not
the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father," (Mk 13:32)
Whilst this embodiment of servitude and egolessness is what makes the mediator
perfect, yet the window by being mediator can say quite earnestly, "Whoever
looks at me, looks at the Sun"; and so Christ speaks words such as these: "He
that seeth me seeth Him that sent me" (Jn 12:45), and, "He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father" (Jn 14:9), and "No man hath seen God... the... Son... in
the bosom of the Father... hath declared him" (Jn 1:18). By being the servant
of God's glory into the world of man such that whoever gazes upon him gazes
upon God, Jesus is called variously the "image", "likeness", "exact
representation", and "mediator" of God and God's covenant, mediating the
"brightness of His glory" (2 Co 4:4, Col 1:15, Heb 1:3, 1 Ti 2:5 etc). Jesus
does not judge, yet because He mediates God's judgment, His judgment is right:
"I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone,
but I and the Father that sent me." (Jn 8:15-6; also 5:30)
Whilst Jesus explains that the Father is far greater than he, yet they are in
perfect unison: "I and the father are one" (Jn 10:30). This is obviously not a
unity of essence but a unison of attributes, for the Father is greater than he,
knows the day and hour whilst the son does not, and determines who sits on the
right and left of Jesus whilst the son does not. By being the 'image' and
'representation' of God, a unison of attributes is meant. This same unison
Jesus requests also for his disciples: "that they may be one, even as we are
one" (Jn 17:21-23)
The servitude and dependency of Jesus upon 'the one who could save him from
death' (Heb 5:7) is inculcated throughout the gospels, with Jesus asserting
that he is simply saying and doing whatever he is told to say and do by the
Spirit, and knows only what he is told or shown: "The Son can do nothing of
himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth,
these also doeth the Son likewise," (Jn 5:19), and "I can of mine own self do
nothing," (Jn 5:30), and "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught
me, I speak these things" (Jn 8:28); "I speak that which I have seen with my
Father" (Jn 8:38); "I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me,
he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak...
whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." (Jn
12:49-50), "the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the
Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" (Jn 14:10), "the word which ye
hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me" (Jn 14:24), "as the Father
gave me commandment, even so I do" (Jn 14:31), "all things that I have heard of
my Father I have made known unto you" (Jn 15:15).
When a man comes to visit you in a car, and goes away saying he will be back
again in a few years, there is no intent as to whether he will be coming back
in the same car or some other. You have to look out for the driver. He may have
come by a Toyota, but if you insist he will return in a Toyota, you may miss
him if he comes in a Porsche or a Lada. Jesus is the mediator of the Holy
Spirit, and what he is says is just whatsoever the Holy Spirit wishes to
communicate from God to Man. So when the Holy Spirit says that it will return
again, this has no bearing on what vehicle it will choose to take - what name,
colour, shape or form it will come by. The Jews were thrown by this same issue,
expecting a clear promise of Elijah's return but getting John the Baptist (Lk
1:17) - for Elijah and John were merely mediators of the Holy Spirit. The
driver - the Holy Spirit - returned as promised, but people were looking at the
car. So in the Holy Spirit promising to return through the mouth of Jesus,
people are again looking out for the car, and yet the Spirit promises of that
time: "I will write upon him my new name" (Rev 3:12), and that it shall return
in the clouds. Those that look in the material way will see just clouds not the
Sun.
Speaking of the return of the Holy Spirit through a different vehicle at a time
when his church would become corrupt and worldly with the influence of Jesus
lost from people's hearts (a fact which occurred most particularly in the sixth
century, and again recently), Jesus says of that future vehicle: "I shall
beseech the Father, and He will provide you a different Intercessor, with the
purpose that he remain with you for the age, the Spirit of Truth which society
is unable to receive, such that it neither discerns it [the Spirit of Truth],
much less knows it deeply... Now the Intercessor, the Holy Spirit which the
Father will send in my name: that very one shall train you in all things, and
put in your minds all things, which things I have conveyed to you... but I tell
you truthfully, it benefits you that I stand aside: for if I do not, the
Intercessor will not come among you; yet if I travel, I will send him on to
you. And when he has arrived, it is he who will confront society on sinfulness,
and regarding decency, and of a just reckoning... I have still many things to
convey to you, but ye are unable to carry them at present. Howbeit, whensoever
that one should appear, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you into the whole
truth: for he shall not utter from of himself; but as many things as he should
hear, he will utter: and he will announce to you the things that are to come."
(Jn 14-16)
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