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Re: Adventist Belief Number 26 - Death and Resurrection
5/17/2008 8:15:21 AM
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Dear James
You have taken up the very important subject of RESURRECTION.How wonderful. I have something to tell.
I guess many religious people regard it with some awe and expectation
at the same time. In their minds some people are postponing this sure Divine Event with a thousand year, year after year, just like they postpone
the Judgement Day. Do they they believe they have to be doomed?
I think they should otherwise pray God to make the Resurrection come as early as
possible.
But, I know, all too many believe that while in the grave, under the
lid of a coffin we will all of a sudden brake through it and up to the
surface of the earth and fly to heaven. Of course that would be very
dramatic and chaotic so maybe it should be postponed. If I believed
that I might have postponed it too. For who knows what God knows about us and our innermost.
As a Bahai I am released from belief in such a description of Resurrection, which is called a literal interpretation of the text.
.
Here is the non-literal explanation with exemples.:
The diciples of Christ were resurrected through their Faith in Him. The
Israelites were resurrected through Faith in Moses. Surely the diciples
of Christ did not die first in order to reach the heaven of their
hearts, which is Faith in the Almighty God, through the love-creating works and Words of His Son Jesus.Neither is there any records of the Israelites dying first when turning to the life giving Words of His Holiness Moses.
I believe.:
In the Bible by death is meant spiritual death.Not physical death.
I was dead spiritually before I received Faith in God through the Holy Spirit .
By grave is meant to be remote from God, to roam the desolate"
wilderness of unbelief", to be lost in the whims and fancies and what not of the age
in which we live,
Moreover: this is an age when the seekers for Truth are looking for another
death, which is how to die from the world and live in God. It is a time
when faith has taken on the character of belief in the letter, just as it was
when Jesus came, and not belief in the spirit. The Pharisees and their followers were literalists.
The Great Resurrection Day after Jesus , what is that then? My answer is that it is the Arrival of the BAB, The Herald of Bahaullah,
and that was also the return of Elijah. Elias. This happened in 1844.
By then the sign of which Jesus has spoken occurred. The GOSPEL HAD
REACHED EVERY COUNTRY AND REGION OF THE GLOBE.The interior of Africa was reached by the Word of of Jesus!!!!! People all over the
world were sent out to spread the Gospel IN ORDER TO DELIBERATELY HELP
GOD ADVANCE THE RESURRECTION DAY. To study the enormous missionary work
that was done by Christians all over the world is most fashinating. I
promise you.If you do you have a brave heart, eagerly seeking the whole and
pressing Truth behind the huge never ever seen global outburst of
activities among the Christians of the time? Then go for it. It is all
well documented.
If you just look at this single sign of Jesus , the Gospel having
reached all corners of the earth, and follow it up with examining what God has brought for us in 1844 and
do not bother about all the other signs, (Which actually form a
streaming flood) you will be so amazed, and be so filled with
thankfulness to the loving beneficent God that you'll never forget it.
It will be imprinted in your soul forever and fill your heart with
everlasting
joy and an abiding sense of security. And your love for Jesus and His gladness will increase greatly.
And you will understand what this means: "No one knows the joy of the mystic".
Now, see, this. the Bab founded a religion too, containing laws and
prescriptions on top of giving the Glad Tidings of the near Advent of
"HIM WHOM GOD WILL MADE MANIFEST".
By HIM the Bab meant the arrival of the Glory of God, Bahaullah, who is the Son COME IN THE GLORY OF HIS FATHER.
After only 19 years, in 1863 Bahaullah declared to His hearers that He was the One the Bab had predicted to come.
Talking about Resurrection, that Day in 1863 was the Resurrection day,
once again, for the Babis. Some believed in Bahaullah, some hesitated
and were of the lost ones. There are still Babis in the world. It
sounds strange to me.
For me when having gained my Faith in Bahaullah, through the
intervention of Gods helping hand, I was also resurrected, after having immersed myself "in the Ocean of His Revelation". As can all
and everybody be.
You do not have to die first. You are in heaven, heart soaring in the
heaven of Gods love, when you just turn your heart to Bahaullah, which is to turn to the "Whole Truth which the diciples couldn't bear."Remember Jesus' words. His
name is everywhere in the Bible, "the Glory of the Lord," coming "through
the way of the East". "Even from Assyria".
So this time it is a global resurrection day or time, and this experience is in
another way, a wonderful way, just as dramatic as the literal
understanding of the resurrection.
The first message of Morse,, in 1844 (oct) was ."What has God wrought?"
There is a practical point to this way of looking at it. One gets the
great advantage of being able to tell people on earth about it, to help them find the means to resurrect. Spiritually.
If this event was to be taken literally then how would you be able,
while floating in the atmosphere, to tell people the Glad Tidings of
the arrival of Gods Mightiest Manifestation, after a long period of
about 1300 years,(since Muhammed) or if you prefer, after about 2000
years since the time of Jesus. You would indeed have to scream very load then.
With the spiritual understanding one doesn't need belief in miracles,
such as soaring up into this firmament or something else , vaguely
imagined, which is equally contradictive of Gods Mercy and Wisdom. And
in this way you understand that the greatest Miracle is the intense
gladness , love and strength you receive from God through the Holy Spirit. If you want to soar, I tell you, to soar is simply to be glad in the love of the Lord. Find that joy and that heaven instead!
What did Jesus mean when He said,He came from heaven, do you think. Of course it is this heaven of eternal bliss and spiritual reality. It is so clear , clearer then the light of the sun in the sky.
So, a conclusion: God knows well that He must treat us humans according
to our finite minds, He doesn't violate our intellect either, forcing miracles upon us. The Holy
Being, God, still exceeds all that we ever can imagine and His eternal and inscrutable sovereignty is not diminished, by giving us this
solution which I have presented here.On the contrary, we see God as a
still higher Sovereign and Helper.
Still, it is not easy to get the heart filled to the brim with this heaven, one must make some effort, one must dispel the mists and clouds of misinterpretations of the Holy Books that has been done formerly by almighty leaders of the churches. One must empty oneself of superstitious concepts that has been handed down through the centuries. The heart must be fully prayerfully exposed to Gods mercifulness in order to receive His Guidance, Above all: be a seeker of the Truth. Not any more be an adherent to unwise dogmas that obscure the emergence of the Holy Truth. These dogmas are the clouds that follows the Holy Return, which Jesus talks about.
Concerning death, physical death. Bahaullah reveals this:
O SON OF THE SUPREME!
I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendour.
Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?
O SON OF SPIRIT!
With the joyful tidings of light I hail thee;
rejoice! To the court of holiness
I summon thee; abide therein that thou mayest live in peace for evermore.
Bahaullah
The Glory of God
The Lord is All-powerful in all His Kingdoms and where we dwell after physical death and in His wisdom He will rescue those who are dead and restore their Faith, through His Messenger Bahaullah,
I may have spoken very cathegorically, but all I have said is due to my firm Faith , to spiritual arguments and according to reason .Such is my Faith.
"You should love God with all your heart, your soul and your understanding," says the Holy Oldest Texts.(My faulty translation)
Bye for now. I hope this will make your forum explode with interesting viewpoints. That arguments for and against will appear abundantly.
Kind regards from
Laila
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