But there is an interpretation to all this for "those of understanding." Bahais reject metempsychosis, but they have a doctrine of "Return," which must be borne in mind. This principle is expressed by Phelps as follows: "When a character with which we are familiar as possessed by some individual of the past, reappears in another individual of the present, we say that the former has returned."[182] Baha states it thus: "In every succeeding Manifestation those souls who exceed all in faith, assurance, and self-denial can be declared to be the return of the former persons who attained to these states in the preceding Manifestation. For that which appeared from the former servants became manifest in the subsequent ones."[183] Their classic illustration of this is John the Baptist. Abdul Baha says: "Christ said that John the Baptist was Elijah. The same perfections which were in Elijah existed in John, and were exactly realized in him. Not the essence but the qualities are regarded. As the flower of last year has returned, so this person, John, was a manifestation of the bounty, perfections, the character, the qualities, and the virtues of Elias. John said, 'I am not Elias'--not his substance and individuality."[184] Remey clearly states the idea: "The return of a prophet does not refer to the return to this world of a personality. It refers to the return in another personality of the impersonal Spirit, the Word or Spirit of God, which spoke through the prophets in the past.... People are mistakenly looking for the personal _individual_ return of their own special prophet."[185] In accordance with this theory of the "Return," Abdul Baha wrote to the Bahai Council of New York: "I am not Christ; I am not eternal."[186] To Mrs. Grundy he said: "Some call me Christ; it is imagination."[187] Yet the final word of his missionary, Mr. Remey, is: "The same Christ which was in Jesus is again manifest in the Bahai Revelation. The real Christians are those who recognize the New Covenant to be the return of the same Christ,--the Word of God."[188] In like manner this usurper of Christ's name is proclaimed to be "the expected one," the "desire of all nations" under other names to the various religions.