Bahá'u'lláh and the New EraEsslemont, J. E. (John Ebenezer)
Religion
Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era
Esslemont, J. E. (John Ebenezer)
Bahai Faith; Bahá'u'lláh, 1817-1892
According to the Bahá’í interpretations, the prophecies which speak of
“the time of the end,” the “last days,” the coming of the “Lord of hosts,”
of the “everlasting Father,” refer especially, not to the advent of Jesus
Christ, but to that of Bahá’u’lláh. Take, for instance, the well-known
prophecy in Isaiah:—
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they
that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the
light shined.... For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and
the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day
of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise,
and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and
fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The might God, The everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and
peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon
his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and
with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord
of hosts will perform this.—Isa. ix, 2–7.
This is one of the prophecies that has often been regarded as referring to
Christ, and must of it may quite fairly be thus applied, but a little
examination will show how much more fully and aptly it applies to
Bahá’u’lláh. Christ has, indeed, been a light-bringer and Savior, but for
nearly two thousand years since His advent the great majority of the
people of the earth have continued to walk in darkness, and the children
of Israel and many other of God’s children have continued to groan under
the rod of the oppressor. On the other hand, during the first few decades
of the Bahá’í era, the light of truth has illumined the East and the West,
the gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man has been
carried into all countries of the world, the great military autocracies
have been overthrown, and a consciousness of world unity has been born
which brings hope of eventual relief to all the downtrodden and oppressed
nationalities of the world. The great war which from 1914 to 1918
convulsed the world, with its unprecedented use of firearms, liquid fire,
incendiary bombs and fuel for engines, has indeed been “with burning and
fuel of fire.”(39) Bahá’u’lláh, by dealing at great length in His Writings
with questions of government and administration, and showing how they may
best be solved, has “taken the government upon His shoulders” in a way
that Christ never did. With regard to the titles “everlasting Father,”
“Prince of Peace,” Bahá’u’lláh repeatedly refers to Himself as the
manifestation of the Father, of whom Christ and Isaiah spoke, whereas
Christ always referred to Himself as the Son; and Bahá’u’lláh declares
that His mission is to establish peace on earth, while Christ said: “I
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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