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THE INCREDIBLE PARADOX
Second
Revised Edition
By Vinson Brown
A study of emotion and religion.
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Copyright 1956, 1959, 1960, by Vinson Brown
Approved by the Reviewing Committee of the National Spiritual ‘Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States
' BOOKS BY VINSON BROWN
~ The Amateur Naturalist's Handbook How to Make a Home Nature Museum How to Make a Miniature Zoo
How‘ to Understand Animal Talk
The Californian Wildlife Region
The Sierra Nevadan Wildlife Region
Wildlife of the Intermountain West (co-author) Rocks and Minerals of California (co—author)
John Paul. Jones (a biography) Black Treasure (a novel of the Panama jungle)
- II! It * It ‘ t t 1*
EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES ON THE COVER
The two parallel lines shown on the cover appear to be unequal in length, but careful measurement shows them to be equal. This is a paradox similar to the paradox explained in this booklet. Human beings tend to take the easy path of thinking they can understand things from surface appearances instead of taking the time and the effort to seek for truths that are hiddenbeneath the surface.
This booklet is published by Natureg’raph Company, Healdsburg, California
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THE INCREDIB LE PARADOX
By Vinson Brown, M. A.
I. Emotion versus Reason
For century on century men's minds were so shrouded and shackled by hard and fast ideas about the world around them that progress was very slow. The first opening of the human mind was in the world of the physical sciences, and the wonderful flowering of modern civilization, with its conquest of space and time, has come from that opening.
Today, religion, muzzled off and on for ages by the closed mind, is ready for the same flowering. All that is needed is first the realization that our emotional attachment to traditional ideas may cloud our judgment, second the admission that we can be mistaken, and third the willingness to investigate every religious idea with the same humble and vigilant attitude as the scientist.
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord . . V. (in Isaiah, 1:18). God asks us to use reason in discussing religion. Only God knows the whole truth about religion. We imperfect human beings can only try humbly and with hard work to search for the truth, realizing other people may be more correct than we are. God's light shines best through open minds.
ll
One of the terrible paradoxes of history is the neglect, willful persecution and great blindness with which'the Prophets of God are received on earth despite the fact that the followers of previous Prophets have been warned of old against this very thing] Many of the most sincere Jews, the fundamentalists and adventists of that age, were waiting at the beginning of the Christian era for the appearance of their Messiah. The prophecies foretold Him and they expected Him. Yet when Jesus appeared and proclaimed His
Mission, most of them turned against Him and rejected Him.
Would it be wise, however, for the present day Christian to assume that he would have been any different in his attitude toward the new religion if he had lived in those days ? Suppose, for example, that you were a devout Jew, a strict believer in the Old Testament, who lived about 90 AD. in the city of Alexandria. This acquaintance comes to visit you and tell you about the new religion of Christianity. You have never heard of it before nor of Jesus. Just what would be your chances of accepting this new idea?
Remember that you would have been raised as a child in an emotional religious climate in which the Messiah was expected to appear to the Jews with the greatest possible glory and power, the sun was to be put out (E1 2:31) and many other wonders were to appear. Remember also that Roman and Jewish historians of this period never even mentioned Jesus. He was too obscure, too unimportant]. Very few people in those days did become Christians
If you were the above-mentioned Jew, you would likely go to your rabbi and ask him about Jesus. He would probably tell you the man was a wandering carpenter of no importance who had such dangerous ideas that the authorities were forced to get ridof Him to prevent mob rule. He would say that it was obvious this humble carpenter could not be the Messiah, because, according to the Old Testament, the Messiah was to come with the greatest power and glory to free the Jews from their bondage.
The Christian, of course, would answer that Jesus did bear out many of the prophecies 1n the Old Testament, though perhaps not always in the literal way. For example, in Daniel 9:25-26, it says: "Know. therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
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"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off,
but not for himself. and the people of the prince that shall come
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be
with a flobd, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."
The Bible and Daniel in this case meant the days mentioned to be counted as years (see Numbers 14:34). The year of the edict of Artaxerxes (King of Persia) for the rebuilding of Jerusalem --that is, 457 B. C. —-- was used by Daniel as the basis of his remarkable prophecies. The 69 weeks of Daniel thus meant 483 years, or 26 A.D. , which was approximately the time that Jesus began His ministry. As Daniel predicted, the Messiah was later "cut off“, which meant killed, as Jesus was on the cross. History tells us that in 70 A.D. , not many years after the death of Jesus, "the prince who came" (Titus, the son of the Roman Emperor Vespasian) destroyed the city of Jerusalem.
This was one of the great proofs that Jesus was the Messiah, but the Jews still rejected Him, because He came in a different way than the literal way they demanded. If you were a Jew in those days, your only chance of recognizing Jesus would have been if you had an extremely ogen mind, ready to see the Glory of the Prophet in His Message, instead of looking for it in His appearance. Unfortunately for the Jews, seeingthe Messiah come as only a humble carpenter from the inconspicuous town of Nazareth was too much for their sense of pride. For this pride, as their own Book foretold, their cities were not only destroyed, but they were banished from the Holy Land and forced to wander and be persecuted for many centuries.
In brief we can say that Jesus was rejected for the following
reasons:
1. He did not come in the literal way the Jews read their Bible prophecies. He did not appear with the glory expected.
2. The self-styled "wise men" and the religious leaders of His age were not impressed with Him and they misled the people.
3. He proposed changes inaccepted standards, such as His relaxation of the rigid laws of the Sabbath.
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4. He pointed out the hypocrisy and materialism of political and religious leaders, which antagonized them.
5. He broke the old law of the prophets, and, as the Voice of God, established new laws, which to the Jews was blasphemy, and they even called Him "Maseekh", the Demon.
6. He came from astrangeand little-known town, Nazareth.
Human emotion is good when it brings love and sympathy among men, but ‘when emotional conditioning causes men to blind themselves to truth it becomes dangerous. The Jews should have seen:
1. He came at the time prophesied.
2. He made prophecies that mme true (as in BE 19:43).
3. He taught a message that was desperately needed by the world of His time.
4. He led a life of the utmost purity, love and kindnesa and suffered for mankind without hate.
5. He glorified Moses and taughtasimilar message, but of more completeness.
Why is there such blindness? Why cannot men use their reason instead of their emotions? The question is an agonizing one, and it echoes down the ages. The question is vitally important in our age also. for again. exactly as in the time of Jesus, millions are refusing to acknowledge the appearance of the Promised One because He does not come in the literal and spectacular way they expect. Instead of using the modern, scientific method of thinking things through. and of looking at all sides of the question, they still cling to the fallacy of the Pharisees of thinking emotionally and blindly following literal words, traditions and dogmas. Why?
II Fear, the Father of Blindness
"My mind is made up; don‘t confuse me with facts! "
The unknown genius whose words are quoted above certainly described perfectly the state of mind of millions of people in the
world today who are unwilling to even investigate new ideas in religion because their minds are already made up that anything new or strange is wrong! The main reason men are so blind is because they are afraid, afraid to think. afraid to reason, afraid to seek with (men minds, afraid to break free of traditions and ideas that have bound them for centuries. It is far safer. they think. to rigidly search for the letter of the laws of God instead of for His Spirit. The Jews of' the time of Jesus set an inflexible pattern made by their priests and lenders and taken from the words in the Old Testament. Rigidly and fearfully they read the import of the prophecies; rigidly they laid down the steps their Messiah must take before they would accept Him. When Jesus did not follow their preconceived rules they rejected Him.
Today many of the most sincere among the Christians, those who most fear God, are takingpart in this same incredible paradox, making the same deep and grave mistake that was made by the Jews, and for almost exactly the same reasons. They have read from the Bible their own unyielding interpretations of the return of the VOICE of God to earth. If He does not come with the"signs" they say must accompany His coming. then He is not the One!
Theyforget that the people of Jesus' time also asked for "signs. " "This is an evil generation, " said Jesus. "They seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it - ". (£1113 11:29.) God tested the Jews by giving them hidden or allegorical signs instead of the literal or apparent signs they expected. If we use our intelligence and search with open minds. would it not be possible to discover the same kind of hidden signs today? It is unfortunately much easier and simpler and also more in tune with the emotional conditioning of most human beings to wait for and expect literal signs.
The Bible warns us againstwthis kind of emotional blindness of the spirit by showing that those who physically see may be blind spiritually to the truth of God. It says:
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"And he said. Go and tell this people, Hear ye lndeed,but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of
this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest
they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert. and be healed. " Isaiah, 6:9-10.
A child taught by afoolish mother to fear mice is emotionally conditioned to fear all mice. This kind of emotion is harmful because it is not based on reality. In the same way millions of children are emotionally conditioned to follow the Bible blindly and literally with very little attempt to get them to think, reason and investigate with open minds. They growup into adults with closed minds, blind to anything different from what they have been taught, and are psychologically prepared, in the same way as the Jewish children of the time of Jesus. to run away in fear from the challenge of new ideas. It is an astonishing fact that the great maiority of the religious Eegfle of the world belongto any articular religifli solely because of an accident of birth, because each was born into a family that was a part of a particular religion. This makes it almost certain that a man or woman who is a Christian nowwould just as surely be aBuddhist if he or she were born into aBuddhist family in Siam, or a Muslim if born into a Muslim family in Arabia. If we could only realize that our prejudice towards religions differing from our own and our own disinterest in them are based on misunderstanding and an early emotional conditioning that have no relation to honest seeking or reason, we would not be inclined to repeat the mistake the Jews made when they rejected Jesus without the slightest open-minded or honest investigations of His claim.
Has not every Prophet since the beginning of man been recognized by His deeds and His words, and nothy super-naturul Sim or portents? The Bible quite clearly gives us three ways in which a Prophet may be recognized:
(1) In speaking of prophets to come, Jesus said (Matthew, 7:
16-18): "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth
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forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. " It
seems perfectly obvious from this that if a man claims that He is
a Prophet of God, and is telling the truth, we should expect to find
deep logic, intelligence and wisdom in His Message, a Message
that answers the desperate needs of the world today just as the
Message of Jesus did in His time, and we would expect to find Him
leading a life of the utmost purity and of sacrifice for mankind. Yet
how few Christians are willing to make any such honest investigation or use such factors for judgment. Instead they insist, as did
the Jews. that all kinds of miraculous happenings come first.
(2) In Deuteronomx 18:22 Moses says: "When a Qroghet SQeaketh in the name of the Lord, if .the thingfollow not, nor come to pass,
that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumtuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him." In this passage it is shown clearly how we may test the claim of a prophet and plainly implies that if the Prophet's prophecies come true, then we shouldlisten to him, for He is a true Prophet of God.
(3) In the first Epistle of John 4:1—3 there is a description of how to tell the Anti-Christt or falseprophet from the true Proplr et of God: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: EverLspirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the fleshI is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of anti-christ whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is in the world. " False prophets we have in plenty who preach hate between men and towards the religion of Jesus, but the true Prophet glorifies Jesus as the Word of God and teaches the same love and kindness among men that Jesus taught.
Since these three clear and definite ways to test a true Prophet of God are given in the Bible, why is it so difficult for most Christians to put these tests to actual use? We have already seen how
the literal interpretation of the Bible clouds and blinds the minds of men so they cannot see a new Prophet of God, but most Christians are bothered by three specific difficulties of interpretation that require special study to understand.
(1) Jesus said "I go away, and come again unto you.” (w 14: 28). This sounds like the return of the literal Jesus, and so 'Chrietians say: "Why should we waste our time testing a prophet with a strange name when Jesus Himself will come back to the world in all His glory?" The answer is that the Biblegives strong evidence in other places that, while the same spirit of God that talked to mankind through Jesus would come back again, it would not be the same individual. Jesus Himself casts considerable doubt on His own personal return, when He says: "For manyshall come in my name, saying, "I am Christ: and shall deceive many. " Matthew 24:5). Also He tells how the new Prophet shall "testify of me"(J_ol_xg 15:26)} and "shall glorify me". (John 16:14).
Elsewhere in the Bible 9. new name is predicted. In the Book of Revelation, 2:17, we read: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give uim a white mom, and in the stone anew name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." And this prophecy is repeated in Revelation 3:12, and in Isaiah 62:2. Besides this, in Mark 9:11-13, it is told that John the Baptist is the return of Elias, the prophet, whom it was promised would come to make the way ready for the Messiah, and yet John the Baptist himself denies this Qoh_n 1:21), so making it clear that the idea of "the return" is not 2.1 literal return.
There is good evidence in the Old Testament that God warned the Jews they would be too blind to see the Messiah. We canfind similar warnings to the Christians in the New Testament.
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say: Lo herel or,Lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20 21).
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From this we can see that there is at least considerable doubt
that Jesus would return to the world with literal glory and establish a literal Kingdom of God. Abraham, Moses and Jesus have all
been new Prophets, reawakening the hearts of men. Why not again?
"Watch therefore; for ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up." (BBEth_ew_ 24: 42—43%.
We are warned here "to watch", but what are we to watch for? If ‘Jesus were to come suddenly with great glory in the skies, we would not need to watch because everybody would see this at the same time and no preparation of watching would do any good. But a coming in secret in the form of a new Prophet. who would show His reality not by obvious glory but by His pure character, farseeing words of wisdom, true prophecies of What was in store for mankind, and His sufferings for humanity, this would indeed bear considerable watching!
"If therefore thou shalt not watch, Iwill come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour Iwill come upon thee." (Revelation 3:3).
(2) A second stumbling block appears 'in Revelation 1:7 where it says: "Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. " If taken literally, this appears to mean every human eye shall see the return of Christ, including those who are dead, such as the men who nailed Him on the Cross. About the dead we know that they may see what we do not see, but, about the living, we know that the word "see" in the Bibleoften is given different meanings. A little real searching soon shows us that the literal interpretation conflicts with other interpretations given elsewhere in the Bible. Why would the Bible speak of the return of Christ as being "like a thief in the night" if He were to be literally seen by all eyes? And think of how often the Bible
speaks of the blindness of the people, "the blind leading the blind" and "shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes -" (Isaiah 6:910) and so forth. Also the words "he cometh with clouds", found in the above quoted sentence from Revelation. is a sign that this coming is obscured by clouds of misunderstanding so that most of the people would not really "see" any Promised One. The words "all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him" show that there is great disappointment because He does not come inthe literal way expected. it is thus every spiritually opened eye that is capable of seeing the return. So John and Peter and the other disciples and followers of Jesus "saw" Him as the Messiah, while all the rest of the Jews were blinded by their own pride and theirfear of things strange and new. Spiritually they could not "see. "
(3) A third great stumbling block is the verse in the Bible: "For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (ALts 4:12. ) This naturally refers to Jesus, and the Christian who takes the Bible literally will say that no later Prophet can take the place of Jesus because of this saying. The whole trouble stems from an emotional clinging to words without really understanding them. The Jews emotionally clung to the word Moses, rejecting the new word Jesus, and the Christians repeat this mistake. not realizing that, just as Jesus fulfilled the Prophecy of Moses and was equally the Voice of God' so a Prophet who comes with a new name not only fulfills Jesus' prophecy that "when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13), but is, so far as we human beings are concerned, the actual return of Jesus. During “the day of Jesus", which, like "the day of Moses", came to an end with the advent of a new Prophet. His name was the only saving name and the above quotation was literally true, but with the coming of the new day and the new name, the meaning changes,for the new word or name has the same power as the old. Ifwe will remember that Jesus came not to destroy Moses, but to fulfill Him, we can see that there is really no conflict of the old with the new, for they are both the Voice of God.
III. The People Who Forgot to Ask Questions
"I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all lknew). Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who."
Rudyard Kipling.
Children are naturally curious and ask questions. This is how they learn, and all human beings should keep this natural curiosity. because learning should never stop. But it is astonishing how many adults have lost this wonderful giftfrom God and have stopped asking questions. In one part of their life they have literally died!
Consider how this deadness of the mind and the spirit acted to blind a great body of people in all lands in the early nineteenth century, not only Christians, but also Muslims and men of other creeds, who were waiting at that time for the appearance of the Promised One. Both Muslims and Christians had set the date as 1844 A.D. because of the prophecy in the Bible where it says:
"Then I heard one saint speaking, and‘ another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice. and the transgression of desolation. to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then 'shall the sanctuary be cleansed. " Daniel 8:13-14.
Religious people recognized that the cleansing of the sanctuary in the Holy Land symbolized the return of God's spirit to earth in the form of a Man. As the Bible often means years instead of days (see Numbers 14:34), the prophecy was to come true in 2300 years. Therefore it was 2300 years from 457 B. C. , the date of the edict of Antaxerxes for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, to the "time of the end." (See also Daniel 8:17). We see that 456 years plus 1844 years gives a total of 2300 years. The figure 456 is used because 457 B. C. is actually 456 years from 0 A.D.
Jesus specifically referred to this prophecy of Daniel and also warned His followers about it when He said (in Matthew 24:15): "When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy. place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)." Since the previous verse (v. 14)says "and then shall the end come," this whole passage therefore is of vital importance to alerhristians in giving the exact time of "the returning of the Christ Spirit." just exactly in the same way that the verse already quoted of Daniel 9:25-26 (page 3)‘gave with fine exactness the time of the appearance of the Messiah to the Jews.
Now we need to consider a most amazing and incredible paradox. Just as in the early years of AD. the Jewish World was filled with great numbers of adVentists waiting the imminent advent of the Messiah, so the world of 1844 A.D. was filled with myriads of adventists all over the earth expecting the sudden advent of Jesus or His‘equivalent. In America' the great Christian movement of the Millerites called on people to leave their earthly possessions and all their ambitions and climb to the hilltops to pray and wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
The incredible paradox was that scarcely one of all these millions of fervent adventists in 1844 had the plain common senseto look back into history and realize, or understand in any way, why the Jewish adventists of 1800 years before failed to see their Messiah when He came. Instead the 1844 adventists went blindly on and repeated the same time—worn and emotional mistake of reading their Bible literally, and of closing their eyes to any possible appearance of the Christ spirit that would be different from their emotional idea that He must appear in the heavens with great glory and conquer the world at asingleblow! How sad, howterribly sad!
When 1844 passed and no great visible event of glory happened in the‘sky, when no literal Jesus came with open arms to receive those who waited so expectantly for Him, what did the great majority of these millions of adventists do? They said
they had made a mistake,that the prophecy in the Bible had some other time in mind or that what happened, happened up in heaven ‘where it could not be seen. They said the return of Jesus would happen later. Can you hear the defeated whispers of the Jews of the time of Jesus in these words? Can you see the incredible paradox that these 1844 adventists took part in. their givingup without even seeking to find the Promised One when they knew about the mistake the Jews made, when they had even been warned in their Bible not to expect His coming in a literal way. that He would appear as a thief in the night?
They should have had the courage to seek over the whole world for the One whose coming was foretold so clearly. They should have had the intelligence and the good common sense to say to themselves: "We have been wrong. just as the Jews were wrong about Jesus. We will find Him, just as Jesus was found by those whose eyes were open, a humble man among men, not with outward Glory, but with the Glory of God within Him. God help us to search the world over until we find Him! "
But; alas, they had no such courage, no such intelligence. Even to this day millions of similar ndventists are still waiting, as the Jews waited through the centuries for their Messiah, .waiting for the literal coming of Jesus in the skies, when God's Voice has already come and spoken. And they still mumble that 1844 was a mistake. for the incredible paradox continues. The dream of ages has been realized, the Spring flood of God's Word again awakens the world from sleep, but some people are still asleep.
"I go away, and come again unto you. " John 14:28.
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IV. Fulfillment Dawns
"Forget not that I shall come back to you. A little while, and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body. A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall hear me. "
- IQalil Gibr'an, in THE PROPHET
What had actually happened? Had Daniel's prophecy failed? There are now millions who do not think so. The Promised One did appear in the year 1844. they believe, in Persia, in the city of Shíráz. bearing out also the prophecy of Jeremiah (49:38), which says: "And I will set my throne in Elam. . . t." Elam is the ancient name of seuthern Persia, where ghfréz is today the chief city.
Not all the adventists of 1844 became discouraged and gave up thesear'ch without any genuine seeking. In Persia there had arisen in the early nineteenth century two wise men, Shayfl Ahméd and his chief disciple, Siyyid Káẓim, who prophesied that the Promised One was soon to appear, but not in the spectacular way the more literal adVentists thought. Both men died before 1844, but Siyyld Káẓim, who must have been a man .of very remarkable knowledge, met, talked to and recognized the coming Prophet in His youth, some years before the advent of His Ministry. Though keeping this secret from his followers, except by some strange stories they only understood later, Siyyid Kafzim gave this last messagebefore he died:
"It is incumbent upon you to renounce all comfort, all earthly possessions and kindred, in your quest of Him who is the Desire of your hearts and of mine. Scatter far and wide, detach yourselves from all earthly things, and humbly and prayerfully ask your Lord to sustain and guide you. Never relax in your determination to seek and find Him who is concealed behind the veils of glory." (T_h_q Dawn-Breakers, by Nabil, p. 4‘0).
- Reprinted from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran with permission
of the Publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright 1923 by Kahlil Glbran; renewal copyright 1951 by Administrators C.T.A. of Kahlil
Gibran Estate and Mary G. Gibran.
After the death of Siyyid Kafzim many of his followers started out prayerfully and with steadfast hearts to find the Promised One. One of these, Mulié flusayn, a man of considerable learning and renowned for the beauty of his life, proceeded. as if drawn by a magnet to the city of giraz in south Persia. At the gate of this city he met a young man whose face shone with a wonderful radiance and who embraced him and urged him to visit Him in His home. The young man was named Muhammad ’Ali', a merchant of §_hiraz, but was destined that night to take the name of the Báb, or Gate. as the word means in Persian.
All that night (May 23, 1844) the stranger talked to Mulli flueayn, showing the learned man so much greater wisdomthan he had that Mullá Ḥusayn later said: "I sat spellbound by His utterance, oblivious of time and of those who awaited me. . . . All thedelights, all the ineffable glories, which the Almighty has recounted in His Book as the priceless possessions of the people of Paradise—- —these I seemed to be experiencing that night. . . . I was enthralled by the music of that voice which rose and fell as He chanted; now swelling forth as He revealed verses. . . again acquiring ethereal, subtle harmonies as He uttered the prayers He was revealing. "
"O thou who art the first to believe in Me!" cried the Báb at last. "Verily I say, I am the Báb. the Gate of God, and thou art the Babu'l-Bab, the gate of that Gate." (Dawn wn-B____reakers, pp. 62- 63. )
Seventeen other disciples. unwarned and uninvited. mysteriously found the Báb, making eighteen in all, of whom one was a woman of great spirit and courage, the immortal and beautiful Táhirih, who became the Báb's only woman disciple without even seeing Him. With these as the first army of His Word, the Báb began to spread a new religion throughout Persia, a religion of light and love and kindness. At the same time He stated in forthright terms that He Himself was but the forerunner of One far greater than Himself. who, after the Báb's death, would bring a Message that would unite the world.
It is impossible in the short spaceavailableto give an adequate picture of the heroism, the strange events, the healing of hearts and the wisdom shOWn forth during the short, six year Ministry of the Báb, from 1844 to 1850. He came to a Persia caught in the depths of the utmost degradation and corruption when evenpriests accepted bribes as a matter of course and superstition and ignorance were the rule among the masses. Like Jesus, all who_ met the Baib either adored Him on sight or hated Him violently bec-ause He courageously exposed the evil within them. He showed an innate knowledge of all things so great that even when a child His teacher soon refused to teach Him any longer, protesting that the pupil knew more than the master! Again and again He showed remarkable knowledge of things to come. Thus, whena‘powe'rful and very wealthy governor of the Province of Isféhén offered to use all his wealth and influence to advance the Cause of the Báb, the Bath replied with the deep wisdom only a Prophet could show:
"Not by the means which you fondly imagine will an almighty Providence accomplish the triumph of His Faith. Through the poor and lowly of this land, by the blood which these shall have shed in His path, will the omnipotent Sovereign ensure the preservation and consolidate the foundation of His Cause. . . . Of the span of your earthly life there remain only three months and nine days, after which you shall, with faith and certitude, hasten to your eternal abode." (Dawn-Breakers, p. 213.)
The governor died on the day the Báb prophesied and, as the Bab had also foretold, thousands of Persian followers of the Báb were, in the next few years, martyred in the most terrible manner by the fanatical Muslim priests and theirfollowers, some being torn to pieces by savage dogs, others sawn in two, out with knives, burned with fire, and whipped. This blood, shed by the innocent, watered the infant Faith and give it a vigorous life that produced a hundred new believers for every one tortured to death.
The Bib spent most of the yen; e of His Ministry as a prisoner of the Persian Government, some of it including torture with the
bastinado, a long bamboo rod. But no imprisonment or even the indignity of torture could take from Him the wonderful kindness and forgivingness of His nature or His tremendous courage and dignity in the face of His enemies. When called before a tribunal of leaders of the Muslim Faith, includingthe Crown Prince of Persia, the Báb walked like a king among them and took, as a matter of right, the as yet unoccupied seat of the Crown Prince. In the shocked stillness of the great chamber the leading religious dignitary asked: ”Who do you claim to be '7"
"I am, " three times cried the Báb, in a musical voice, "I am, I am, the promised One! I am the One whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at whose mention you have risen, whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten. " (Dawn-Breakers, pp. 3157316.)
In that awesome moment a new sincere listeners became believers in the turn of a heart beat, but others became enraged at hearing this claim and vowed that the Báb must die and His teachings be destroyed. Again He was thrown into prison, while the authorities debated what to do with Him, worried at the sight of thousands who flocked to be near Him, but still afraid to kill Him.
When the Bath one time was being taken as a prisoner through the village of Urfimi’yyih, the prince of that area decided there was one way to prove Once and for all if the Báb were'a true Prophet. He owned a most terrible stallion, who had killed many of the brav-y est and most expert of riders. He sent an order that the Báb was to be given this horse to ride to the public bath.
When the horse, held by a shaking groom, was approached by the Bath, 1t trembled ail over, rolled its eyes, and its body ran with sweat. The Báb spoke to the stallion for afew moments in a gentle. voice, ordered the man to let go of it, and stepped softly into the saddle. The horse bore his precious burden without the slightest sign of his former wildness to the public bath where hundreds of amazed watchers, knowing the savage nature of the horse, knew that only a true Prophet could so tame this animal, and believed.
At last the enemies of the Báb had the courage to order His death. He and ayoung believer were hung on the wall of the great square of Tabrfz, the capital city of the Province of Azerbaijan. The Christian Colonel of an Armenian regiment, ordered to shoot the Bz'lb, explained to the Prophet: "I profess the Christian Faith, and entertain no ill will against you. If your Cause be the Cause of Truth. enable me to free myself from the obligation to shed your blood. " The Bfib had already told those who arrested him that He had yet a message to give and was not ready to die. To Colonel Sém Khén, the Christian, He said: "Follow your instructions and if your intention be sincere, the Almighty is surely able to relieve you' from your perplexity." (Dawn-Breakers p. 512).
The Armenian regiment fired, but as soon as the black smoke of the five hundred rifles had disappeared the thousands of watchers were awed to see that the Báb was no longer there, although His disciple still was, and that the ropes had been cut by bullets without harming either man. This miracle was witnessed not only by numerous Persians but by diplomatic officials of the French afid British governments, and is recorded in their Foreign Offices.
In the darkness caused by the black smoke from the rifles the Báb had slipped away and gone back to the prison where He completed a talk with one of His followers. Meanwhile the Armenian Christian regiment walked away in great fear. refusing to again try to kill the Beth. A Kurdish regiment was called to take over the job, and the Báb, now finished with His talk, and ready to die, was led once more to the wall to be hung beside His companion.
"Had you believed in Me, 0 wayward generation," were the Báb's last words, "every one of you would have followed the example of this youth, who stood 11: rank above most of you, and willingly would have sacrificed himself in My path. The day will come when you will have recognized Me; that day I shall have ceased to be with you. " (Dawn-Breakers, p. 514.)
In a few seconds the rifles roared forth their shower of steel, and the Báb and His disciple were riddled with bullets. But the Bib before His death had predicted: The Lord of the Day of Reckoning will be manifested at the end of nineteen years from the beginning of this andation (1844 + 19 = 1863). " He had often repeated that He, like John the Baptist, was a forerunner for One who was greater than Himself, the Prince of Peace who would come to unite the world.
At the death of the Bib a wind roared down on the great square of Tabrfz with such violence that immense clouds of dust arose and completely cut off the light of the sun. Three years later ahiraz, the city in which the Babwas born and which had rejected Him, was thrown into shambles by a terrible earthquake in which about 7000 people died. The figure M9 is deeply significant because in the Book of Revelation (11:13) this same figure is given in connection with the coming of a Prophet.
V. The s_Lirngjulfilhgelt’
In 1852 a young follower of the Bib, made insane by the death of His Master, attempted to assassinate the Shéh of Persia. Though clearly the act of a madman and in no way connected with the rest of the believers, this deed inflamed the fanatical Muslims of Persia into a holy war. Thousands of believers were slaughtered and tortured in a most terrible manner, andeven the greatest follower of the Báb, Mirza Husayn, Prince of the House of Ntir, was tortured and then imprisoned in the ghastly, below-the-ground dungeon of the Siyah-ghél in Tihran, the capital of Persia. Mfrza fiusayn, known as "the Father of the Poor", whose deeds of kindness and charity had endeared him to all who knew him, was there chained to the wall with the condemned murderers and left, expecting to die.
- Cfl Passes By, p. 29.
But one night in that terrible place, filled with the stench made by complete lack of sanitation, Mirza flusayn‘has written: "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. Ere long 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. "' Writing of the feelingthat began tocome to Himat this time, He said: "...in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Everylimb of mybody would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments My tongue re cited what no man could bear to hear. " Ina message sent later to the Sháh of Persia, He wrote: "0 King! I was but a man like
others, asleep upon my couch, when 10,, the breezes of the All— Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me; but from One Who is Al; mighty and All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift up My voice between earth and heaven . . . " *
Mitzi {lusayn later took the spiritual title of Bahá’u’lláh, meaning "The Glory of God." This is a name predicted several
places in the Bible as being the title of the great Prophet of God who would unite the world, though not so clearly as to be under stood without honest searching and thought. Although He now knew He was a Prophet, He kept this secret until 1863, the year prophesied by the Báb as the year of the next Manifestation of God.
To tell the story of Bahá’í'u'llsh ina few words is most difficult. Bahix'u‘lláh, like Jesus and the Báb, filled those who met Him with either utter adoration or terrible hate, while those who were sick and had faith could be healed by a touch or a look. But his ene mies kept Him for most of His life in prison in astrongattemptto
- God Passes Bv. pp. 101—102.
destroy utterly His enormous influence on those who came near Him. We know that as a child His teachers soon threw up their hands in despair at ever finding anything He did not already know from the strange, innate knowledge a Prophet gains from God.
After four months in the terrible prison of the Siyah @211 in Tihran, Bahá’u’lláh was liberated, but, even though He was avery sick man from His unhealthy imprisonment, He was ordered to leave Persia as soon as possible with His family, a religious exile. The dangerous and often freezing journey across the mountains to the city of BaLhdéd in I'Irafq caused much hardship to the littlefamily. However, in Baghdad Bahá’u’lláh slowly began to recuperate His health and gather around Him thelast remnant of the followers of the Báb. In 1854, realizing the need to go into the wilderness and commune with God in preparation for the strenuous time of His Ministry, Bahá’u’lláh left Baghdad and retired into the mountain fastnesses of Assyria, then known as Kurdistan . In these mountains He spent two years, worshipped by the wild tribesmen as a holy man, but without revealing His identity.
On His return to Baghdad, strengthened for the great struggle, Baha'u'llah found the fo‘llowers of the Báb disunited and in great distress, but He began immediately to train and strengthen them, filling them with love and obedience by the magic of His personality and His great wisdom. So far did His fame spread in‘iraq and Persia and so many thousands flocked to see Him, that a group of powerful religious leaders in Persia sent Hima challenge to show a miracle that would prove the truth of His teachings. This He accepted, though warning them that "God should test His creatures, and they should not test God. " *
Three days later the messenger from the Muslim leaders sent word the group had decided to drop the matter, proving that they were afraid to accept the challenge for fear that in being proved wrong they would lose their power over the masses. A similar
- God Passes By, p. 144.
challenge was made to Bahei'u'llaih later in Turkey, was again accepted by Him, and again backed away from by cowardly religious leaders. It is significant that in both these instances Bahá’u’lláh said, in effect, "name your miracle, set a date and place, and! will do what you will if you will promise to stop doubting Me thereafter."
On April 21,1863,fulf111ingthe prophecy of the Bib, Baha'u'— ' llah called a few friends together in the beautiful garden of Riḍván in Bag_hd2id and declared to them that He was the One, promised of God, who had come to unite the world by the power of His word. He was the Comforter, foretold by Jesus, who had come in the G10ry of the Father to lead the people into truth. All who were present flung themselves at His feet. filled with a joy so tremendous
that they were speechless. At the same hour other people nearby were suddenly "aware of an extraordinary exhilaration, some
marvellous exaltation in the atmosphere of that day." *
On the day Bahá’u’lláh declared Himself His followers were already aware that His enemies had influenced the Sultan of Turkey to have Him arrested and brought as a prisoner to Constantinople. This journey was finished in the summer of 1863, but Bahá’u’lláh's influence in Constantinople soon became so great that He was banished again to Adrianople. Here He declared Hts Mis-stou publicly and challenged the Sultan of Turkey and the religious leaders of that country to examine His claims. Instead they became frightened of His influence and had Him shipped south with His family on August 31, 1868, to the frightful prison city of ‘Akki ln the Holy Land near Mt. Carmel and on the Bay of Haifa.
When the ship bearing Bahá’u’lláh and His family stopped off at Alexandria in Egyptfor supplies. aBahá'fwho was in prison there and Dr. Farts, a Christian, sent a message to Bahi‘u'lláh, asking when the doctor would be released from prison. The messenger, a young Greek Christian named Constantine, later came back, his face beaming with joy, and cried: "By heaven, I have seen the
“ The Chosen Highway, 123.
Father of Christ!" and telling Dr. Farts that Bahá'u'llih promised that he (Dr. Farts) would soon be released from prison.which happened three days later. *
The reaction of the young Greek Christian was typical of the effect Bahá’u’lláh had on those whose spiritual hearts were open, and recalls the effect of Jesus on Peter. James, John and others of that time who embraced the new religion almost on contact. For those of us not so fortunate as to have the inspiring experience of meeting a Prophet of God face to face, the same result can often only be reached by careful study, meditation and prayer.
The orders from the Sultan of ’DJrkey were that Baha'u'llah was to be kept in solitary confinement in the barest kind of stone cell for the rest of His life. Though He was kept in sucha celltortwo years, the attempt of the Sultan to isolate Him failed 'because the power of His personality was so tremendous that even the guards and the goVernor of the prison were mellowed and changed bycontact with Him. Gradually His imprisonment was lightened until. in the last few years of His life. though still technically a prisoner. He even pitched His tent, as He Himself had prophesied. on the slopes of Mt. Carmel, and He cametolive in the Mansion of Bahjl'. some mites away from Aksz. where He lived in comfort, surrounded by the beauties of nature. which He had missed so sorely when in the grim surroundings of mud. Here He was visited by many leaders of thought and men. including the famous orientalist and archaeologist, Professor E. G. Browne ofCambridge University. who wrote:
"The face of Him on Whom I gazed, I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow..... No need to ask in Whose presence I stood. as I bowed myself before One who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain...
- The Chosen Highwax, p. 249.
”Here did I spend five most memorable days, during which I enjoyed unparalleled and unhoped for opportunities of holding intercourse with those who are the fountain—heads of that mighty and wondrous spirit, which works with invisible but ever-increasing force for the transformation and quickening of apeople who slum-V ber in a sleep like unto death. It Was, in truth, astrange and movh ing experience, but one whereof I despair of conveying any save the feeblest impression. " *
In 1892 Bahá'u'lla'ih died, still the Great Prisoner of the Turks, but His tremendous influence on the world is still, like that of Jesus in the first century A. D. , only beginning to be felt. His eldest son, Abdul Bahá’í, whom'Bahá’ís call "The Exemplar" because he led a life of such love and service to mankind, was freed from prison by the Young Turk rebellion of 1908, and vigorouslybrought the new Faith to western Europe and America. Today, at near a hundred years since the Declaration of Bahá'u’lle'ih at Baghdad in 1863, there are approximately four million Bahá’í's in the—world, and almost every single country and state has been reached by believers. Africa and the South Seas are seeing a rapid growth, as more and more people are finding that Bahá’í' shows the way for unity, understanding and love between all the ggeat eWorld Faiths and :1 way to break down once and for all the walls of prejudice and misunderstanding that keep men apart and cause trouble, grief and hate.
You ask perhaps: "Why have I not heard of Him?" And the answer is another question: "Why did so few know of Jesus during the first century A.D. 7" Neither of these great Spirits ruled literal empires or killed thousands of people in battle, the things required to catch the headlines in the newspapers. One died forsaken on a cross, the other passed most of His life in prison, cut off from the world. But They said and wrote words destined to rule nations and bind the hearts of men, for true religion grows as
- God Passes By, page 194.
a mighty oak from a tiny acorn, not at first visible to a pleasurehunting world, but slowly and then majestically through the centuries. The Kingdom of God is not a visible Kingdom. but is realized when men learn to become true brothers, and kindness, cooperation and understanding become the rule among men. The function of the Bahá’í World Faith, as founded by the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, is to unite the races, nations and religions of the world in a mature manner, without the danger of a religious dictatorship or the domination of people by religious fanatics. How it plans to do this we shall see later.
VI. A Few of the Prophecies about Baha'u'llah.
If we remember how Bahá’u’lláh came to the Holy Land as a Prisoner of the Turks, we can see how perfectly He‘fits the following prophecy in Micah 7:12.
"In that day also he shall come even to thee from AssEia [where He lived two years in the wilderness] and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress tl‘fhranl even to the river [the Tigris] and from sea to sea ZCaspian to Mediterraneati], and from mountain to mountain [mountains of Persia to Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land]. Notwithstanding, the land shallbedesolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. "
Because the people of these lands refused to recognize Baht?u'lláh as God's Prophet, the early twentieth century saw their desolation by war, pestilence and famine. This is a fact of history. Another prophecy, this time in Ezekiel 43:1-2, tells how the Báb, or Gate, prepared the way for Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God, who came (like the lightning) from the east to the west.
”Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and his voice was like the noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. "
In other places in the Bible there are references to the "Glory of God", expecially in connection with Mt. Carmel (Isaiah 35:1-2); and Jesus said (Matthew 16:27) "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father." The plain of Sharon, where Bahá’u’lláh spent His last days, and 'Akka (spelled Achor in the Bible), where He was so long a prisoner, are named as places of great value to mankind in Hosea 2:15 and Isaiah 65:10.
VII. A Few of the Prophecies of Baha'u'llah.
Most of the following prophecies, briefly paraphrased here, were written between 1868 and 1871 at Akká.
1. He prophesied the first and second World Wars, along with the defeat of Germany in both of them ("and I hear the lamentations of Berlin, though she be today in manifest glory, and she shall have another turn.") I
2. He prophesied man‘s discovery of a terrible power within the earth (the atom and hydrogen bombs).
3. He prophesied several years before it happened, the loss of temporal power by the Pope in Rome.
4. He foretold the downfall of both the Persian and Turkish dynasties of His time, and the destruction of the power of the Muslim priests and other religious leaders in both countries.
5. He foretold the coming of a "Lesser Peace”, when all the world would become united politically, to be followed by a "Most Great Peace" when the world would be united spiritually.
6. In ringing terms He said: "These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace’ shall come. But first oppression will envelop the world, and, following a universal convulsion, the sun of justice will rise from the horizon of the unseen world. "
7. He foretold that the kings of the earth, if they did not deal justly with their people and did not rise to serve the Cause of God, would lose their kingdoms, as so many have done already.
VIII. The Great Bahá’í Princigles.
The teachings of Bahá' u 'llah are far too extensive to mention more than briefly in this booklet, but they are based on the following principles:
1. The oneness of mankind. All human beings are the children of God and they must become as brothers.
2. Independent investigation of the truth. This is a guarantee that the Bahá’í World Faith will never become a subject of fanaticism in which its ideas are forced on others. We are encouraged to investigate all religions and ideas with equal open mindedness.
3. The foundation of all religion is one. This means that all the great religions of the world came from God and that the differences between them are caused by the different needs of different times and different places in history plus supplementary dogmas and superstitions developed by their followers that rarely have anything to do with the true teachings of the Founders.
4. Religious must be a cause of unity. Since God sent the Messengers for all the great religions, once this is understood and accepted all the hate and misunderstanding between them will fall away and be replaced by unity and love.
' 5. Religion must be in accord with science and reason. All that science disagrees with are the superstitions and too literalexplanations of religious books, not with true religion. All our ideas must be subject to scientific investigation and the application of reason and intelligence. Most stories in the Bible, for example, that appear contrary to science and reason are actually allegories of great spiritual events that are not to be taken literally.
6. Egality between men and women. This means equal op-' portunitles and equal rights, but does not imply that the two must become alike in other ways.
7. Prejudice of all kinds must be forgotten. Prejudice is always based on emotional conditioning and not on reason or fact. If
people become educated so they can understand this, and are willing to change hate to love, all prejudice will disappear.
8. Universal Peace. This can only be brought about by the formation of a justly-developed and wisely—planned world govern merit. subject to God's moral law.
9. Universal education. All the children of the world should have the right to and be given an adequate education so that ignorance and superstition should disappear from the world. This includes spiritual education. but this should not conflict with human rights nor science and reason.
10. Spiritual solution of the economicgroblem. A11 human beings should have the right to work and the right to ajust return for their work. This does not imply a paternalistic society, but does imply that by correct training we can turn men and women to creative work and away from the moral degeneracy of parasitism, and do this in combination with a full encouragement of individual initiative. All work needs to be done with love and work done with such love in the service of mankind is worship of God.
11. A universal langgage. All children should learn two languages. their native tongue and an international language. This would destroy many of the barriers of misunderstanding that now exist between the nations.
12. An international tribunal. This body would be chosen by world suffrage and secret ballot to represent all peoples and to keep the peace of the world.
Besides these principles that lead to world unity, Bahá’í'u'llfih reinforces the highest moral. standards brought to the world by previous Prophets, and teaches men new ways to understand their inner selves. "The Purpose of the one true God, exalted be His Glory, in revealing Himself unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of their true and inmost selves." * These gems of character they find by purifying their hearts so that the will and love of God may move within them.
- Gleaningifrom the Writings of Bahá'u'llsih, p. 287.
1X. AWarning from Jesus.
This booklet is best ended by an explanation of one of the most important statements Jesus ever‘ made. awarning to the people of His time about how easy it is to blind one's eyes to a Prophet.
"And he said also unto the people, when ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye'say, There cometh a shower, and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth: but how is it that ye do not diecern this time?" (Luke 12:54—56.)
This saying places Jesus squarely in tune with modern scientists who tell us that we must look at ideas with an open mind. investigating them carefully. The Jews of the time of Jesus made use of common sense and science in studying the weather. They knew from actual experience and observation that clouds from the Mediterranean would bring rain. and a hot wind from the southern deserts would bring a drouth. But they allowed their emotional conditioning, their childish desire to take the Bible literally, to come between them and an understanding of the wonderful teachings of Jesus, the very Messiah they said they longed to see!
Christians today, as can be seen, are again refusing to use reason and science in investigating the claims of the Bib and Babe?u'llah in eXactly the same way and under the influence of the same emotional blindness that prevented the Jews from seeing the Messiah some nineteen hundred odd years ago. When will the Christians open their eyes and see that He for whom they say they long has actually come?
5 s: :0: at * * * t at:
"Bestir yourselves, O people, in anticipation of the days of Di vine justice, for the promised hour is now come. Beware lest ye
fail to apprehend its import and be accounted among the erring. " (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 17.)
