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Symbols & Metaphors Someone recently asked: << Josephus (37 – c. 100 AD) who has written extensively about the history of the Jewish history, why didn’t he mention Jesus Christ in any of his history books? >> My highly esteemed and dearly beloved friends, In the eighteenth chapter of the Gospel of Saint John, the trial of Jesus is described. The simple story in its naïve wording is one of the most sublime pieces of world literature and, without intending it, grows into a tragic symbol of the antagonism between what is human and what is divine. Pilate- -consistently-proceeded in a democratic way by putting the decision of the case to a popular vote, He went out to the Jews, relates the Gospel, and said to them: “I find in him no fault at all. But you have a custom that I should release to you one at the Passover. Do you wish that I set free to you this king of the Jews?” Then cried them all again, saying: “Not this man, but Barabbas.” The Gospel then adds: “Now Barabbas was a robber.” The Roman governor, after washing his hands from any responsibility, gave the Jewish people to choose what they should do with Jesus. When he asked the crowd, “… what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” (Mathew 27:23) The blind man that received sight was not there to defend Jesus. The deaf that received hearing was not there. The five thousand guests that Jesus fed, with five loaves of bread and two fishes, were not there. Not even the one that was dead and received life was there to defend Jesus. He died alone on the cross. If these miracles were literal, what was their purpose when Jesus performed them? If a dead person is resurrected, what is the use since he will die again? If a blind receives sight, what is the use since he will be blind again, that is, after he dies he will be blind again forever? If the purpose was to convert people to follow Christ, well, it also has failed. Where were the people upon whom miracles were performed, or the people that witnessed these miracles, when Jesus was being crucified? Where were they? Moreover, we are told, it was some 300 years later “[w]hen the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, embraced Christianity, the population of the whole Roman Empire, including Egypt, was by decree forced to renounce all other religions and adopt Christianity.”* Therefore, my beloved friends, these miracles are symbols and metaphors and they should not be accepted literally. The metaphor that the blind receiving sight means, the spiritually blind receiving spiritual sight; and the deaf receiving a spiritual hearing; and the spiritually dead resurrected spiritually. The meaning of the five thousand guests who were fed by Christ is that they were fed with the spiritual Teaching of Christ. Therefore, these expressions are symbols, metaphors, allegories, and mystic explanations. However, since the leaders of Christianity did not understand them, they simply took them literally. If these miracles are metaphors, then we can say Jesus was just a simple man. The New Testament mentions that there were many scribes, teachers of the law, and rabbis. But none of them wrote anything about Jesus. Why would Josephus or other writers write about Jesus when in the eye men, He was considered to be as one, poor, lowly, and without many supporters? If all these miraculous events took place literally, historians or other writers would have recorded it. However, despite the fact Jesus was alone to die on the cross, since his Cause was the Cause of God, Christianity spread everywhere until it has reached in every corner of the Earth. Furthermore, without a doubt, whether they are believers or atheists, Christianity was the foundation of the entire European civilization. The purpose of the coming of Jesus’ of Nazareth is to teach love. When He was brought before Pilate, He admitted that he was a king, he said: “It was for this that I was born, and for this that I came to the world, to give testimony for truth,” Whereupon Pilate asked, “What is truth?” The Roman procurator did not expect an answer, and Jesus did not give an answer to this question; for it was not the right place or the right time to give testimony for truth; but the essence of his testimony at that time was His divine mission as the Messianic King. He was born to give testimony for justice, the justice to be realized in the Kingdom of God, and for “this justice he died on the cross. Thus, behind the question of Pilate, “What is truth?” arises, out of the blood of Christ, another still more important question, the eternal question: “What is justice?”. The kingdom of God is not children’s game where one asks one miracle and the other another miracle. Jesus did not come to perform miracles. It was for justice that Jesus had to die on the cross. In the Psalm 118:22, it is written “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;”. Then, on Matthew 21:43, Jesus, having quoted these strange words, adds: “Therefore the Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” The Latter means, progress and civilization will be taken away from the Christian nation and given to another nation. We can learn this pattern from the history of religions. The prosperity, progress and civilization of Egypt sunk into an ocean of ignorance after the Revelation of Moses –this is the meaning of the symbolic story of the Pharaohs and his armies perishing into the Red Sea. Had they listened to Moses and accepted monotheism instead of polytheism, they would not have sunk into the ocean of ignorance. Therefore, the parting of the Red Sea, and the sinking of the Pharaoh and the annihilation of his army in the high seas of the Red Sea are all metaphors. Ancient Egyptians were well known for documenting everything. Many archeologists and scholars have uncovered many documents, idols and images; however, after meticulously examining them, they could not find any evidence or proof of the existence of the Jews in Egypt, let alone any of the miracles mentioned in the Bible. The story of Noah and His Ark is also symbolic. That Ark is the Religion of God. The different animals that came into the Ark were the people that were enemies with each other became united under that Religion of God. Those who refused to enter the Ark simply perished into the ocean of ignorance. Similarly, when Mohammad came with the gift of Islam, the Europeans (as well as other Christian nations) rejected Him. Consequently, they all sunk into the ocean of ignorance while the nations under Islam progressed. That's the meaning of the "…the Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”. It is also a historical fact that while the Islamic Civilization prospered in the Middle East, the European and other non-Islamic civilizations sunk into the Dark Ages. Perhaps, the fast decline and fall of Islam with the coming of Bahaullah will be remembered as the most astonishing historical record in the history of the world. Archeologists and scientists agree that the world has been in existence for millions of years and human beings have lived on this earth for millions of years. However, it is only during the past 170 years or so (i.e., ever since Bahá'u'lláh has come) that this world has been transformed with the lightning speed. The world has suddenly shrunk into a neighborhood. Now, look at the world around us. The nations that opposed Bahaullah have been fast declining while those who welcomed Him and His followers in their nation have been prospering. The Muslim nations that betrayed Bahaullah and His message are fast withering and dropping as dead leaves. What we are witnessing is the sinking of the Islamic nations into the ocean of ignorance, just as the Jews became exiles after the coming of Christ, Egyptians sunk with the coming of Moses, and the Europeans sunk with the coming of Mohammad. Among the biggest signs of the Day of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth prophesied by all three greatest Middle Eastern religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are: 1. The rolling up of the heavens. 2. The darkening of the sun 3. The darkening of the moon. 4. The falling of the stars from heaven. 5. The resurrection of the dead from their tombs. 6. The harmony of vicious animals with grazing animals. 7. The children will play with poisonous serpents. Since the literal fulfillment of these prophecies would mean contradictory to nature and science, the hermeneutics of these verses that leave open a different interpretation seems more viable than their literal fulfillment. The Resurrection of the Dead Let's say for example, there were some cannibals in some remote islands. Let's say, those first Christian evangelist that went there to preach them the gospel of Christ were all cannibalized. On the second attempt, the second group of evangelist were able to convert the cannibals to accept Jesus. The question is, who will be resurrected on the day of the resurrection --The cannibals or the evangelists that were eaten by the cannibals? In fact, not too long ago, BBC reported that in the island of Erromango, the aborigines asked for forgiveness from the descendants of the Christian missionaries whose ancestors were eaten by their cannibal ancestors. Therefore, the resurrection of the dead doesn’t mean the physical resurrection of the dead body. There are compelling evidences in the Bible that support to the spiritual meaning of the resurrection. Thus, whenever Jesus says "dead", He only meant "spiritual death", not "physical death". We read in the gospel: "...another of His disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead." --(Matt. 8:21-2) This verse does not mean physically dead people burying another dead man. It only means spiritually dead people bury their physically and spiritually dead man. Moreover, in John, we read the following words: "Whoso eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. " --(John 6:54-6) Now, is Jesus talking physical blood and physical flesh or spiritual? This obviously does not mean that the disciples were eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His blood. St. Paul has also written: "But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" --( 2 Tim. 1:10) Even though in this verse it says that Jesus "hath abolished death" with the light of the gospel, all Christians have been dying ever since the beginning of Christianity. Then again, we read: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’” --(John 11:25). Furthermore, while hanging on the cross, Jesus told to one of the thieves: "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43) How is that possible to enter into Paradise before the Second Coming of Christ and the Day of the Resurrection? All these verses indicate that if we believe in Jesus, we will never die (spiritually). Therefore, the meaning of resurrection is the raising of spiritually dead people and giving them a spiritual life. With these explanations, the meaning of "The dead shall arise from their tombs" is the spiritually dead people arising from their tombs of heedlessness. The rolling up of the heavens, darkening of the sun and the moon and the falling of the stars On Mathew 24, as the signs of His return, Jesus had predicted that the rolling up of the heavens, darkening of the sun and the moon and the falling of the stars. These prophecies are symbolic. For example, Jesus "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." -- (John 8:12; see also John 12:46) From the above verse, we can see that Jesus is a spiritual light and the truth. Similarly, these prophecies about the sun, the moon and the stars should be symbolic. Therefore, when Jesus says the sun will be darkened, He is not speaking about turning the physical sun into complete darkness. The sun shall be darkened is meant the truth will disappear. Now that we have over 40,000 Christian divisions each claiming to interpret the truth, this prophecy has been fulfilled. If that was to be fulfilled literally, i.e., if the sun was literally turned in to darkness, there would not be any life left on this planet. Moreover, after the sun goes down, it is the moon and the stars that give us the natural light. So, after Jesus died, it was the priests and the preachers that were giving us the spiritual light. Therefore, the meaning of 'the stars shall fall from heaven' means the priests, that were heavenly and spiritual, will fall and become earthly and physical. Since the moon does not have its own light and since it only reflects the light from the sun, once the truth disappears, it means, the preachers and the teachers shall not teach the truth. When Jesus says “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (Jn 9:5), obviously, He is not talking about the physical light. He is talking about the spiritual light. Therefore, the darkening of the sun means the darkening of His spiritual guidance. Out of these 40,000 sects and denominations of Christianity, which one of them is teaching the Truth? Adding the meaning of these metaphors together, the rolling up of the heavens also means the rolling up of religions and their being cleft asunder into many divisions. Otherwise, if we take the darkening of the moon literally, if the stars fall on earth and if the sun stops giving light for even one second, the entire solar system will disintegrate and there will not be earth anymore –even if one star falls on this earth. Where will then be the kingdom of God established? Shall the lion dwell with the lamb in on abode? "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." --(Isaiah 11:6) By their nature since these animals cannot mingle and associate with each other in kindness and love, therefore, this prophecy symbolizes unity and agreement of races, nations, and peoples. It means the agreement of races, nations and peoples who will come together in attitudes and intelligence, illumination and spirituality. It means ferocious and contending religions, hostile creeds and divergent beliefs will reconcile and associate overcoming their former hatred and antagonisms. Having explained these symbolic prophecies, we all can see now that science and religion are not necessarily contradictory. In fact, science and religion are like the two wings of one bird. They both are neither static nor exclusive. Both are progressive and universal. It is just the misinterpretation of what the prophecies mean with our limited understanding of them that they seem contradictory. If religion is without science, it becomes superstition and if science is without religion it becomes materialism. All these conclusive proofs, unmistakable evidences and clear texts from the Holy Bible are indicating that the hour has at last struck. This takes us to the next topic: The Day & The Hour Salutations! End note: *'Abdu'llah Suhrawardy's Sayings of Muhammad, Wisdom of the East Series, E. P. Dutton, M.Y., 1941; 17- 46). In 312, Constantine the Great was proclaimed emperor by his troops at Eboracum (York) in 306. He embraced Christianity after deciding that he owed victory in the battle of Milvian Bridge to the Christian God. He had earlier served in the court of Diocletian, though, at a time when Christians (rather than Christianity) were being spread about the place! Salutations! Barnabas (Barnie) Yohannes "So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth." ~Baha'u'llah |