Misunderstanding about the reality of the station of Christ
has caused great difficulties among Christians for over nineteen centuries. It
has even caused grave separation among His followers. Christ’s station has been
described as everything from that of a human reformer and teacher to that of
the physical Son of God, even as that of God Himself.
The very symbol used by the early Christians called attention
to Christ’s exalted station. When the sign of the fish was secretly used to
identify Christian believers to each other (approximately AD 180), it was
chosen, we are told, “because the Greek word for it [fish], I-CH-TH-U-S, formed
the initials of the phrase Iesous Christus theou uios soter—‘Jesus Christ, Son
of God, Saviour’.” (1)
Christians now find it exceedingly difficult to believe in
or to accept any new Messenger of God, because of their misunderstanding of the
station of Christ. Although Jesus
Himself clearly promised that One would come after him, and referred to His own
return in over 250 separate New Testament passages, Christians still insist:
“Other Messengers or Prophets are of much less importance
than Christ. They are mere teachers, but Jesus is the Son of God. No other
station can rank as high as that.”
This attitude is reminiscent of what the people said at the
time of Christ. They took this very same position in relation to Moses. When
they were told about a new Messenger of God called Jesus of Nazareth, they
answered:
“He is but a poor, unlearned teacher. Moses was the
Interlocutor, the Mouthpiece of God. He actually talked with God and heard His
voice in the Holy Mountain. No other station can rank as high as this.”
Once again we find the outward symbol blinding the people to
the inward truth.
Christ wished to show the close relationship which existed
between the Messenger or Prophet and God.
Therefore, He used the clear symbol of the son; the only son, who is
granted special privileges in speaking for the father. In this light His
explanations were readily understandable.
The Apostles and later followers believed that the parable
of the Vineyard demonstrated the validity of the Mission of Christ, the Son, in
representing God. Christ’s symbolical explanation of the relationship between
Messenger and God was taken literally. This led to the belief among some that
Christ was the actual, physical son of God, His only son. “Jesus” they said,
“must be believed in, and accepted, not because of the great teachings which He
brought, but because He was the only begotten Son of God.” They ignored the
fact that this concept was in direct contradiction to Christ’s own words.
Jesus became supreme for these followers, not for the reason
He Himself gave, namely His teachings and the spirit of love and brotherhood
which He brought as a Messenger of God, but because His followers believed that
He, Christ; was the actual Son of God.
Bahá’u’lláh assures us that it was the Holy Spirit reflected
in Christ which was the means of His honour and greatness. It was not the
person of Jesus that was important, but the Holy Spirit of Christ which shone
within Him. The same principle was true of Moses. It is true of every Messenger
of God. They are all Mirrors that reflect the light of the Sun of God’s truth.
If the light does not shine within Them, they are merely frames and glass,
nothing more.
The writings of the Bahá’í Faith state:
“That which causes honour and greatness, is the splendour
and bounty of the divine perfections. …
“The splendour and honour of the holy souls and the Divine
Manifestations [Messengers] come from their heavenly perfections, bounties, and
glory, and from nothing else.” (2)
This is true of all the Founders of the great
religions: Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster,
Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, the Báb, and Bahá’u’lláh. However, for the sake of simplicity, and
because this book [The Wine of Astonishment] is directed to the Christian world,
we shall speak in these pages mostly of Moses, Christ, and Bahá’u’lláh.
Bahá’u’lláh points out that with the coming of each
Messenger of God, His followers mistake the outward form for the inward
reality. Hence they elevate His person to a station which was never intended by
the Founder Himself.
Christ expressed this theme of the sun (God) and the mirror
(Messenger) with great clarity to His own disciples. He said:
“If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also …
he that hath seen me hath seen the Father …” (3)
Unfortunately, these and other similar words were taken
literally, and gradually the church doctrine of the Son of God was built upon
them.
Yet Jesus Himself, in the verse which follows the one just
quoted, makes it quite clear that it is the light in the mirror, the Spirit
within, that is the all-important thing.
He told them:
“… I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in
me, he doeth the works.” (4)
It is the sun shining within the mirror that is responsible
for the light. It is not the mirror itself. Had the followers of Christ
understood this inner truth, they would have “watched” for His return in the
last days as He had commanded them. In this same chapter, Christ speaks several
times of His own return, and twice mentions the Comforter whom God would send.
Christ also mentions the “unsealing” of His own words by this Comforter:
“… he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (5)
The sun that shines in the mirror on Saturday is the same
sun that shines in the mirror on Sunday and Monday. Thus the light of God that
was reflected in each of the Prophets was one and the same. From the day of
Abraham to that of Christ, the same sunlight of God shone in each of His
Mirrors or Messengers. Unable to understand this, the people stoned Christ:
“Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years
old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Before Abraham was, I am.
“Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple …” (6)
Christ was speaking of the light of the sun (God), not the
light in the mirror (Messenger). The light of God’s Sun of Truth shining in the
mirror of Christ did indeed exist and shine from the beginning of time in the
mirror of other Messengers. Hence, Jesus might well say, with unquestionable
truth when speaking of that light:
“Before Abraham was, I am.”
An almost identical story is told of Krishna,, long before
the days of Jesus, the Christ. In the Song of God, the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna
speaks to his disciple, Arjuna:
“I taught this yoga first to Vivaswat …”
Arjuna replies:
“Vivaswat was born long before you. How am I to believe that
you were the first to teach this yoga?”
Krishna explains:
“I am the birthless, the deathless.
In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness.”
Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, in their
translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, say: “Hinduism accepts the belief in many
divine incarnations, including Krishna, Buddha and Jesus and foresees that
there will be many more” (7)
Krishna spoke of the difficulty of making the people of His
day understand the inward truth behind the outward symbols. He said:
“Those who lack discrimination may quote the letter of the
scriptures, but they are really denying its inner truth. They are full of worldly desires, and hungry
for the rewards of heaven … they teach elaborate rituals which are supposed to
obtain pleasures and power for those who perform them.”
Krishna spoke almost the same words as Christ in trying to
get His followers to seek the inward truth. He said:
“I am … the Word that is God … I am the path …”
Yet the people could not see that He was speaking of the
light within, and not of His physical person. This was the inward meaning of
the outward symbol of these words spoken by both Krishna and Christ.
Surely the people should have understood that Christ was
delivering the Message given to Him by God when He said, “Before Abraham was, I
am.” This same “I am”, or Holy Spirit, was the one that spoke to Moses saying:
“I am that I am. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of
Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you … This is my name forever, unto all
generations.”
This was confirmed again when the Voice (Ahura Mazda) spoke
to Zoroaster:
“My name is I Am … I am the Keeper, the Creator, and
Maintainer; I am the Discerner, I am the Most Beneficent Spirit.”
The teachings of the Bahá’í Faith tell us that Christ was
speaking of the Holy Spirit within Him, the “I Am”, the light of the sun
shining in the mirror; the eternal sun which had existed from the beginning.
Christ was not referring to His physical body. This is why He said: “Before
Abraham was, I am,”
The difference between His inner Spirit and His outer self,
Christ made clear in the words:
“… Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one,
that is, God …” (8)
Bahá’u’lláh also spoke of this spiritual sunlight which is
reflected in God’s perfect Mirrors, the Messengers of God. He testifies to its power, saying:
“Know verily that whenever this Youth turneth His eyes
toward His own self, He findeth it the most insignificant of all creation. When
He contemplates, however, the bright effulgences He hath been empowered to
manifest, lo, that self is transfigured before Him into a sovereign Potency
permeating the essence of all things visible and invisible.” (9)
Thus in every age, Bahá’u’lláh tells us, each Messenger Who
appears is both the “first” and the “last”. He is the Alpha and the Omega, for
He is referring to the Holy Spirit which dwells within—the sunlight in the
mirror—and it is the same in every age.
Bahá’u’lláh, in his Book of Certitude, repeatedly refers to
such symbols, pointing out that man has ignored the greatness of the Spirit
while exalting that of the Flesh:
“If one will ponder but for a while … one will surely
discover all mysteries hidden in the terms ‘grave’, ‘tomb’, … ‘paradise’, and
‘hell’. But oh! how strange and pitiful!
Behold, all the people are imprisoned within the tomb of self; and lie
buried beneath the nethermost depths of worldly desire! Wert thou to attain to
but a dewdrop of the crystal waters of divine knowledge, thou wouldst readily
realize that true life is not the life of the flesh but the life of the spirit.
For the life of the flesh is common to both men and animals, whereas the life
of the spirit is possessed only by the pure in heart who have quaffed from the
ocean of faith and partaken of the fruit of certitude. This life knoweth no death, and this
existence is crowned by immortality. …
If by ‘life’ be meant this earthly life, it is evident that death must
needs overtake it.” (10)
We have dealt generally with the title Son of God. We have
shown that it is a title which is symbolic of one who represents the Father.
Let us now be more specific. Let us examine the Old and the New Testament in an
effort to determine the true meaning of the term itself; “Son of God”.
Although Christ made His own relationship to Almighty God
crystal clear, still it has been misunderstood, misrepresented, and
misinterpreted for centuries. Those to whom Christ first spoke of this
relationship thought He referred to Himself as a person and not to the Spirit
within Him. These people objected violently. They became outraged and stoned
Christ. They said He claimed to be God.
Christ said:
“I and my Father are one.” (11)
The Sun and the Mirror are one with regard to the
light: this was His meaning. Yet he was
misunderstood, for the Gospel records:
“Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. “Jesus answered them … for which of those
[good works] do ye stone me?
“The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone
thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself
God.” (12)
Then Christ exposed their lack of understanding of His
words. He said:
“Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
“If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and
the scripture cannot be broken:
“Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent
into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? …
“Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand …” (13)
He, Christ, was the mirror; God was the sun that shone in that
mirror. They were thus one as to the light, but not as to essence. The mirror
was not, and never could be, the sun itself. This was the lesson Christ taught.
Jesus tried in every way to make sure that this truth would
not be misunderstood. The people sought “to kill him, because he not only had
broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal
with God.” Christ tried to show them their error and that He was but an
instrument of God: that He did not in any way consider Himself the equal of
God; nor had He any power that was not God-given. He insisted:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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.” (14)
He again assured the people:
“For 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.” (15)
It was not sufficient for them. Christ was a blasphemer and
in no way what they expected. Bahá’u’lláh has written that the people in every
age deny the Messenger of God because He does not appear in the manner they
expect. He says:
“Were these [people] to ask the Light of Truth [Messengers]
concerning those images which their idle fancy hath carved, and were they to
find His answer inconsistent with their own conceptions and understanding of
the Book, they would assuredly denounce Him Who is the Mine and Wellhead of all
Knowledge as the very negation of understanding. Such things have happened in every age.” (16)
When they “denounced” Christ for blasphemy and for breaking
the Sabbath, Jesus pointed out that they did not understand their own
Scripture. Christ accused them of interpreting it as they wished, and from an
outward, not an inward, point of view. He told them:
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal
life: and they are they which testify of me.
“And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life …
“I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not …”
(17)
Bahá’u’lláh spoke of those same misguided ones who, in every
age, insist that God’s Messenger conform to their own limited standard.
Bahá’u’lláh pointed out that despite the fact that He had “unsealed” the Books
so that all might understand the Truth, the people in this day were still
acting as they had acted in the day of Christ. He warned:
“… it behoveth no man to interpret the holy words according
to his own imperfect understanding, nor, having found them to be contrary to
his inclination and desires, to reject and repudiate their truth. For such,
today, is the manner of the divines [religious leaders] and doctors of the age,
who occupy the seats of knowledge and learning, and who have named ignorance
knowledge, and called oppression justice.” (18)
Christ’s words show clearly that they had done the same
thing to Him:
“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is
one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
“But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my
words?” (19)
Bahá’u’lláh has called attention to the tragedy which,
unhappily, takes place with the appearance of each new Prophet. The people
remember the former Mirror, but forget the Light that shone in that Mirror.
They are misled because the name, and the outer physical characteristics, of
the new Messenger are different. They fail utterly to see that the inner Spirit
is exactly the same. They remember the Messenger, but they have forgotten the
Message which He brought.
Thus the Christians, like the people before them, exalted
Christ, the Messenger of their Faith, while neglecting His Message. They began
to worship the Mirror of Jesus instead of the Light of Christ within. The
station with which they invested Christ as the actual Son of God, because of
their love for Him, now became an obstacle to their own spiritual progress.
Consider: If Christ’s
greatness were to lie in the fact that He was born of a mother only, having no
father, then Adam must be considered greater than Christ; for Adam had neither
father nor mother. Whether Adam came into existence slowly or immediately, he
was without parents.
This same station of superior greatness must also be awarded
to Melchizedek, for he also was without parents, and he was also called the Son
of God, and a king of righteousness and a king of peace:
“Without father, without mother, without descent, having
neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God:”
(20)
We can find other examples where this station, the Son of
God, was attributed symbolically to others beside Christ. When we trace the
lineage of Jesus, we find this same station bestowed upon Adam:
"Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which
was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.” (21)
The privilege of becoming sons of God was given even to the
followers of Christ, under certain conditions:
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (22)
In the Old Testament, it is pointed out that the sincere and
faithful believers are gods and the sons of God:
“God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth
among the gods.” (23)
Or in yet another way, the verse which Christ himself
quoted:
“I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of
the most High.” (24)
In the New Testament it is written of the faithful
believers:
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, that we should be called the sons of God:” (25)
And in the closing Book of the Bible, Revelation, it is
established once and for all that this term “Son of God” is a symbolic term. It is a station which is reached by belief in
God and in drawing close to His Teachings and His Works:
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be
his God, and he shall be my son.” (26)
The teachings of the Bahá’í Faith make it quite clear that
there is a vast difference between the station of the followers of Christ, and
that of Christ Himself. It is not the intention of the examples given above to
imply that these followers are in any respect His equal. The respect, love and
reverence which the members of the Bahá’í Faith have for Christ is unequalled,
and in most cases even unapproached, in the Christian congregations of the
present day.
God is the Sun, Christ and the other Messengers of God are
the Rays of the Sun, and their followers are the earth. The Sun through its
Rays brings life and light to the earth. The Messengers of God are in this way
the source of all of man’s spiritual life. Hence, Christ said, “I am the Way,
and the Light, and no one cometh unto the Father except through Me.” Christ was
the rays of the sun in that day. There was no other source of life or light
except in the warmth, heat, and brightness of His, Christ’s, Teachings.
The intent of such examples is to show that these terms are
outward symbols of inward truths. These examples prove that becoming a Son of
God is a spiritual, not a physical thing. These verses make it obvious that the
true being of a disciple is created by a spiritual reality, and not by a
physical power.
Verse twelve of the first chapter of John confers the
station:
“As many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God. …”
Verse thirteen shows that this station is solely a spiritual
one:
“… Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The disciples were born of human parents, but their true
being (that of the spirit) was born of their belief in God through the
acceptance of Christ and His Message. This is one inward meaning of the phrase
“son of God”.
As it applied to Jesus, it had even a richer
significance. As all men are children of
one God, and members of one human family, the eldest son commands special
honour and respect. This place of honour was the station of Christ. This is
another inward truth. There are even greater meanings. The Writings of the
Faith of Bahá’u’lláh state:
“But as Christ found existence through the Spirit of God, He
called Himself the Son of God.” (27)
This is a glimpse of the inner truth behind the outer symbol
“Son of God”. These are just a few leaves taken from the tree of Bahá’u’lláh’s
explanations. Bahá’u’lláh Himself says of the great variety of examples which
He gives in His Book of Certitude:
“All these things which We have repeatedly mentioned, and
the details which we have cited from divers sources, have no other purpose but
to enable thee to grasp the meaning of the allusions in the utterances of the
chosen Ones of God, lest certain of these utterances cause thy feet to falter
and thy heart to be dismayed.” (28)
References
1. Caesar
and Christ, p. 601
2. Some
Answered Questions, pp. 89 and 90.
3. John,
14:7–9
4. ibid, 14
10
5. ibid,
14:26
6. ibid,
8:57–59
7. The Song
of God: Bhagavad-Gita, Translated by Swami Prabhavannda and Christopher
Isherwood, p.133
8. Matthew,
19:17
9. Gleanings,
p. 102
10. The
Kitáb-i-Íqán, pp. 120–121
11. John,
10:30
12. ibid,
10:31–33
13. ibid,
10:34–39
14. ibid, 5:19
15. ibid,
12:49
16. The
Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 182
17. John,
5:39, 40, 43
18. The
Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 182
19. John,
5:45–47
20. Hebrews,
7:3
21. Luke, 3:38
22. John, 1:12
23. Psalms,
82:1, 6
24. ibid, 82:6
25. I John,
3:1
26. Revelation,
21:7
27. Some
Answered Questions, p. 63.
28. The
Kitáb-i-Íqán, p.134
- William Sears (‘The Wine of Astonishment’)
