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Hi everybody
Today I am very glad. I have got hold of the Bahai interpretations of the Book of Revelation, of which all are clarifying and understanable for us.
Of course many attempts have been made to understand these abstruse chapters of the Bible. Many methods have been used.
As a Bahai I'd unhesitatingly suggest that the best Interpreter of them is the One of Whom the Book is telling.
Who would that be?
It would be The Son Come in the Glory of His Father.
Since I believe that Bahaullah , Founder of the Bahai Faith (a name meaning the Glory of God) is the One intended I herewith invite you to study with me His interpretation, + the Interpretations done by the One He has appointed to be the Interpreter of both the abstruse chapters of previous religions and the Bahai Faith. That Person is Abdu'l-Baha, eldest son of Bahaullah, and He in turn has also appointed as an Interpreter the grandson of Bahaullah, Shoghi Effendi. So I'll quote these three and the person Ruth J.Moffett who has gathered all these interpretations in her book: New Keys to the Book of Revelation
I would like to remind you of the apostles of old, Peter James and John and all the rest. Were they not the ones who would be the best interpreters of the old Testament and it's hidden meanings and prophecies? They explained everything to eager listeners when they told them of the Glad tidings of Christ.So...
In the same way I hold for a truth that the best Interpreters of the Christian prophecies would then be the ones belonging to the Faith that has been revealed after the Christian Faith , beginning in 1844 with the Coming of the returned Elijha, the Bab (meaning the Gate = The Gate to the New Age of Fulfillment) Now, 2000 years after Christ the world has seen these Personages and it just so happens that I have come to know about them and believe in them..
So, here we go, shall we?
The messages to the churches( in what is now western Turkey) are also meant for the whole religious world
"The curtain rises on the greatest drama in all history.
'This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ', the clarion call that hath rung through the centuries. It is established that this Book of Revelation was given by Christ to John:'to show unto his servants the things which must shortly come to pass.' Most scholars state that the Book was received and recorded by John in 96 A.D. on the island of Patmos."
John was to send the message of Christ to the "seven churches which are in Asia." -1:11 to Ephesus, Smyrna...etc forming "the first little missions"
According to the Bahai understanding, these "churches" are not only to be seen as the first Christian communities but as symbolic mention of the 7 worldreligions. One reason for this is that those "churches" soon crumbled to ruins. These collective centres and its communities ceased to exist, so why would Christ send messages of great importance to them, only. No, He," the faithful witness" is addressing the whole religious world and here the first of the many double meanings of the Book of Rev. is gleaming forth.
The main addressees are the religions: Sabeanism ( possibly founded by Enoch,this is somewhat uncertain),Hinduism. Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianty and Islam. These are the seven great divinely revealed religious systems of the past in the Adamic Cycle.
Shoghi Effendi tells us: "The successive Founders of all past Religions,Who, from time immemorial, have shed, with ever-increasing intensity, the splendour of one common Revelation at the various stages which have marked the advance of mankind toward maturity, may thus, in a sense, be regarded as preliminary Manifestations (Messengers), anticipating and paving the way for the advent of that Day of Days when the whole earth will have fructified and the tree of humanity will have yielded its destined fruit."
It is interesting to see that the names of the "churches in Greek have various meanings:
Ephesus - Pure
Smyrna (Izmir) - Persecuted
Pergamos - Popular
Thyatira - Sacrifice
Sardis - Lack of zeal
Philadelphia - Brotherly love
Laodicca - Lukewarm
Jesus Christ is as we can see in 1:5 "the faithful witness" Then we may ask, the witness of whom? The answer is: Of the One Who is to come! Jesus ,witnessing, is then letting John see and hear the One who is to come: "I am Alpha and Omega" (the eternal Holy Spirit of God, the Almighty speaking) v 1:10-11- And I turned to see the voice that spake to me . And being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks One like unto the Son of Man...His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire." 1:12-14.
We must remember that Christ is telling us of things which must shortly come to pass", so it is not Himself that John sees, but the One Who is to come and He is "like unto Christ", a Holy Personage like Himself.
This is, the Bahais believe, none other than Bahaullah, "who is like unto Christ", the "Spirit of Jesus Christ returned in the Glory of His Father" according to many references and Who is standing amidst the seven candlesticks which are the seven religions.
We should notice how the whiteness is re-emphasized, "His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. " Why? It is just a detail, but details of Johns "story"are actually revealing important things for us. This is a "Key" for identification of this fire eyed Figure:
After the horrible persecutions of the Bab and His followers, (which I have related to you before), Bahaullah was, in 1852, chained with very heavy chains and thrown into the Black Pit of Teheran. In order to die and be done with!
Bahaullah describes that dungeon thus:
"We were consigned for four months to a place foul beyond comparison. As to the dungeon in which this Wronged One and others similarly wronged were confined, a dark and narrow pit were preferable. Upon Our arrival We were first conducted along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow-prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves,assassins and highway-men. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered, No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!"
Abdu'l-Baha, then at the age of nine years "was extremely troubled about His Father's having been put into that awesome, horrible pit. One day he walked right past the sentry and guards, just as they were bringing Bahaullah up, chained to two other prisoners. The chains were so heavy that He bore their marks the rest of His life. Little Abdu'l-Baha was horrified and heart-broken to see that his Father's hair, in this very short time and though He was only 35 years old, had turned "white like wool, white as snow." (Moffett) -1:14
Later when released Bahaullah dyed His hair as was the custom among the orientals.
So, since John had noticed the very white hair, we can too and this is how a Bahai would identify the Person wearing it in this vision of John from 96 A.D. on Patmos.
Bahaullah is the One Messenger and no one else Who calls all the various leaders of the worlds religions including the pope in His Mighty Messages to turn to the New Revelation of God, as well as turning to the Kings and emperors of the world. And this He did from the Prisons!
In that dungeon, which once had served as a water supply for Teheran, Bahaullah received His Calling.
He has described how:
"One night in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side:
'Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. Erelong will God raise up the treasures of the earth -men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him."
When realising the tremendous import of the Revelation of Bahaullah one is also tremendously impressed by the Bahai interpretations of the Book of Revelation by John the slave miner on Patmos.
What is more satisfying, taking everything he said litarally or to penetrate into the mysteries of hidden meanings of the Bible?. You decide. As I have done.
That was whole lot already
I'll come back to John later
Kind regards
Laila
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