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Hello again
I hope you are all well and healthy and happy.
I have just conveyed to other friends on the net my answer to the question of the "uniqueness of Christ".
I thought I might as well address my old friends here concerning this mighty issue, this crucial matter.
I believe I have received the right Christian approach to it ,- that Christ is unique because He died, dwelt in the tomb of death for three days, and was then ascended to heaven. This earthly sky.He is said to have overcome death.
My approach to this theme is not literal, rather it is symbolic,- of the DISCIPLES AGAIN RECEIVING FAITH IN THEIR HEARTS after a period of three days doubting and sorrowing at the death of Christ upon the cross.
So...
The story of the ascension of Christ contains a depicting of the death or absense of faith in the hearts of the disciples for three days. When the news came to them, transported to them by a woman in their midst, that He was alive, arisen, this was the conveying to them of His FAITH,=His teachings, BEING ALIVE, thus giving spiritual life. The body of Christ is His Teachings. The saying that "He has arisen" is a way of explaining that His Teachings and Guidance are the Life Giver, imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit for men and had thus " ascended into the heaven" of the disciples hearts.
The ascension of the faith into the heaven of their hearts is therefore the real Ascension.
I am quite satisfied with this Bahai approach, because this is the way I have come to believe in Christ. I have not been helped to believe in a corporal ascension at all.
There are other implications too of this story, spiritual ones.
Why this story then, why , seemingly make people believe in miracles this way. Especially when Christ Himself say that the miracles He made should not be talked about to others. I believe, I am sorry to say, that this is the very double edged language of The Holy Scriptures. The Word is like a sword, it can kill spiritually,= making some people believe in literal interpretations,and they are at a loss then,spiritually dead and, also make people spiritually uplifted who see in the stories a hidden symbolic lifequickening meaning .
I know what it means to be spiritually dead, that was before I met the Bahai Faith 40 years ago. I was in a state of mind which can be depicted as h e l l, being afraid of all sorts of things, being afraid of becoming scared into extinction. They call it existential anxiety. Many artists get into this kind of fear. "In the inmost inner of nature fear is hidden" says Bahaullah :(My own perhaps falty translation.)Now I embrace the spiritual teachings of not only the Bahai Faith but also the spiritual teachings of the previous revelations.
Life is a school, between the cradle and the grave, its most Prominent Teachers the Messengers of God. We are in each age taught about the spiritual way anew because we forget, the old faiths being turned into mere childs play, literal sagas.
I'd like to add that I believe the uniqueness of Christ are His Teachings of Gods Love and the Teachings about a heavenly Father. (the last concept, the Father, originating from my studies at the Lund University)He has also taught mankind more about next life than the previous Teachers, a life that can begin already in this life. You do not have to die to come to the precints of the Lord. His sufferings and His death upon the cross imbued the whole creation with new life. He was the seed Himself, creating a rich harvest of revived hearts, who saw Gods heaven.
Moses taught about the Law, He was the Lawgiver. Christ tells us about the Love of God, for which He gave His precious life, in all, one step forward, following the concept of progressive religion. Just like we know more and more in each class at school. The latest teacher not denying the previous ones.
Bahaullah tells about Justice and all the previous teachings as well.Justice is, among other things to have the right to judge for ourselves and not rely on "the preachers" and other self appointed interpreters. Everybody must learn to read and write and must make the best of his or her own abilities in this new "age of the maturing of mankind."
O SON OF SPIRIT!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbour. Ponder this in thine heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily Justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.
Bahaullah
Well, what do you think?
Greetings from Laila
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