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Prophets sufferings, new Civilisations
10/18/2008 1:34:42 PM
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Hello
And thank you all for reading my last letter. We all know about the sufferings of Christ, and of His diciples too, at least some of them. We know about the fate of Johannes, John the Baptist.We remember also that the early believers in Christ were chased and persecuted. This is a story which is repeated every time a Messenger of God appears. Abraham had to flee from Ur to Kanaan, Muhammed too, and others.
There is a saying that" nobody is Prophet in His own country" at least in Swedish.( Maybe it comes from the Bible?) Sounds like that.The fate of the deniers is never glorious.The most powerful of empires have fallen. Christ however, won the crown of glory and as such He was portraited in the early Christian ages.
The adherers of each of the faiths also say that "their prophet" has suffered the most. Death is the cruelest punishment for introducing a new faith, some say. I won't add anything about that. This "can be discussed" as we say in Swedish.
Only add that the Messenger which I follow, Bahaullah, also suffered. Like Christ he was tortured, He was also imprisoned and after that, banished from His native country. All the way to the so called "Promised Land". He did not come there willingly, intending all by Himself to fulfill prophesies, coming" by way of the East" (Old Testament)..
The people who, mocking Christ gathered around Him while He was crucified, said: free yourself and prove your power. You know the exact words I believe. No doubt Christ could have done so, if that had been Gods purpose.
It seems that was not God's intention. Once I asked a priest why Christ cried out to God, "o God, why have you forsaken me?", since He could have stepped down from the cross and again performed one of His miracles. The priest said that Christ had to show that He was meant to be the One Who, suffering all the various difficulties and cruelties that life may overwhelm us with, also shared the lowest abasement, thereby showing that He is with us wherever we may be, just like an ordinary human being. I don't think that was all.
Bahaullah says: "Know thou that when the Son of Man yielded up His breath to God, the whole creation wept with a great weeping. By sacrificing Himself however, a fresh capacity was infused into all created things. Its evidences, as witnessed in all the peoples of the earth, are now manifest before thee. The deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the profoundest learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the ablest hands have produced, the influence exerted by the most potent of rulers, are but manifestations of the quickening power released by His transcendent, His all-pervasive, and resplendent Spirit.
So the intention of God was to create a new civilisation, wasn't it!?
But where is that going today, you may well ask yourself. Every thoughtful person may make his own conclusions.Here are some thoughts of mine, seen in the light of Bahai..
My theme today started with the sufferings that the prophets of God have to endure, to create new civilisations and to uplift mankind into ever wider areas of undertakings,- in this age global ones. But I'll also touch upon the global threats. Recently all have come to realise that the world is one on the financial plane. A bankcrisis in US grew to cause reverberations all over the world.At least 27 countries , EU decided upon common treatments to the sick economic system.Next time there is a huge crisis we will also see other global efforts to handle them, the crises becoming more and more global as it has been like, for years and years. or about 160 years. Since many decades the growing conscience of the global unit in the midst of which we live is accelerated, because of many widespread calamities which closely following each other, the worst one being the danger of the heating up of the entire environment, our life sphere.(Whatever the cause) The metan gas in the Ice sea north of the Russian territory and in the Siberian realms which have began pouring out into the atmosphere may create the letting loose of devastating climatologic disasters, People are now, even from Sweden, Norway and Russia take measurements in the Russian rivers to be able to see how" it behaves". I follow the reports on the Swedish radio.
So what I want to say with a few examples is that we are working together to solve global problems, more and more consciously, being forced to.Whatever the cause, selfimposed or emanating from the sun.
My conclusion is :This is the way we can realise the global connections, the global society. SO... .If we had no global catastrophes, why should we approach each other? That would be a slow process indeed.Wouldn't it? It may astound you but my belief is that these calamities, the ones which have already occurred and the ones that the scientists are expecting to occur and also try to warn the governments of, are there to bind us together. This is the hard way that mankind has to learn that "Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens".
It didn't have to be that way, if the governments and rulers of the age of Bahaullah had listened to His warnings, which He sent out to all of them, even to all the clergies of the world.He knew what was on the way.
If the Russian Tsar had listened to His wise counsels to treat His countrymen well and not burden them with exorbitant taxes he wouldn't have had to see how His dominion fell" into the hands of the people", leading to the unfolding of a cruel regime. In our time we have seen the Russians coming along with demonstrative posters like. "70 years on the road to nowhere". We wouldnt have seen the two world wars! Bahaullah predicted them, but nobody listened.
However He said," Now that you have rejected the Most Great Peace, hold on to the Lesser Peace!" With this is meant a political peace, the forming of a world government and a world federation.
The Most Great Peace, sooften predicted envisaged in all the worlds! Holy Scriptures is further away, because of the negligence of mankind to listen to the Message of the Almighty, through the intermediary of Bahaullah.This is the choice of
mankind, behaving like a teenager who doesn't want to follow the advice
of the elder ones, and therefore meddle with dangerous habits and stumbles on the stones in the darkness. We fall back to old habits and dare not become
mature with a new responsibility as grown ups. When we fall back on
previous "non-grown up behaviour" like developing selfrighteous nationalistic ways with or without the producing or boasting about nuclear weapons
and regard others as strangers, being victims of war, having other
colours, and refugees of all kinds, we are not yet inhabitants of one
country. But the maturing process is going on. Hopefully we do not have
to be brought to the brink of extinction because of all the threats we
are surrounded with.
This is, in short, the world Explanation.
For the purpose of the unfoldment of a prosperous world civilisation Bahaullah suffered.
About His sufferings Bahaullah says:
"I sorrow not for the burden of My imprisonment. Neither do I grieve over My abasement, or the tribulation I suffer at the hands of My enemies. By My life! They are My glory, a glory wherewith God hath adorned His own Self. Would that ye know it!
The shame I was made to bear hath uncovered the glory with which the whole of creation had been invested and through the cruelties I have endured, the Day-Star of Justice hath manifested itself, and shed its splendour upon men.
My sorrows are for those who have involved themselves in their own corrupt passions, and claim to be associated with the faith of God, the Gracious, the All-Praised."
"I fear no one, though the powers of the earth and heaven be leagued against me. "
"I have come in the shadows of the clouds of glory, and am invested by God with invincible sovereingty. He verily, is the Truth, the Knower of the things unseen....If ye have resolved to shed the blood of Him1) Whose coming the Bab hath proclaimed, Whose advent Mauhammad hath prophesied, and Whose revelation Jesus Christ Himself hath announced, behold Me standing, ready and defenseless, before you. Deal with Me after your own desires."
1 Bahaullah, God speaking.
Dear friends, this was all for tonight
Laila in Sweden
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