|
The Kingdom of God on Earth
Jesus said that when He returned, at "the time of the end," He would initiate the Kingdom of God on earth. Baha'u'llah fulfilled all the prophecies of this return. Jesus spoke of a "new heaven and a new earth" and how the stars would fall and there would be new stars in the sky. Here is one tiny sliver of Baha'u'llah's astonishing logic on this theme, of over 100 volumes He Revealed :
"In like manner, reflect how the elevated heavens of the Dispensations of the past have, in the right hand of power, been folded together, how the heavens of divine Revelation have been raised by the command of God, and been adorned by the sun, the moon, and stars of His wondrous commandments. Such are the mysteries of the Word of God, which have been unveiled and made manifest, that haply thou mayest apprehend the morning light of divine guidance, mayest quench, by the power of reliance and renunciation, the lamp of idle fancy, of vain imaginings, of hesitation, and doubt, and mayest kindle, in the inmost chamber of thine heart, the new-born light of divine knowledge and certitude. Know verily that the purpose underlying all these symbolic terms and abstruse allusions, which emanate from the Revealers of God's holy Cause, hath been to test and prove the peoples of the world; that thereby the earth of the pure and illuminated hearts may be known from the perishable and barren soil. From time immemorial such hath been the way of God amidst His creatures, and to this testify the records of the sacred books."
In today's computer language, the above can be seen as an infinitely dimensional sorting algorithm. One of the highest functions of the human mind is the allocation of attention. This happens when we feed certain beliefs and starve others. Bah'u'llah states that at the hour of our death, we either sink into the depths of self, or achieve eternal life. He also states that the whole purpose of the appearance of God's Prophets is to assure that every soul ascends with absolute detachment to immortality.
The means These Blessed Beings use to assure our salvation are, on one hand, detachment from worldly concerns, and on the other, attachment to God. In the above passage, Bah'u'llah states this very practically in terms of "reliance and renunciation"- two tools we can use to achieve a state of grace on the reliance side, and, in our hearts, achieve certainty via renunciation of all but God. He also states that death offers every "confident" believer the "cup that is life indeed" -- or immortality. "Confident" literally means "with faith" and encompasses both science and religion, the confidence intervals of statistical proof, and faith in God.
Baha'u'llah's passage above is astonishing in it's connections. He speaks of a "good light and a bad light" -- one of received opinion, imagination and idle fancy, the other of knowledge and certitude-- kindled in the HEART, not just the mind, an entirely new construct of consciousness itself. His words, on one hand, lovingly prove His Mission, and on the other, are also designed to test and prove the reader!
In modern data logic, the human consciousness is a process of search and sort: you Google a topic, then you sort the results for relevance. How does God's "search and sort" process relate to OUR search and sort process? Read the passage again. Astoundingly, this gives the answer to this most urgent search/sort question of all: How do we search and find the New Message for our age, and sort it out from the chaff, separating the signal from the noise, and then how does God sort those who choose right, from those who reject Him? This PRIMAL search and sort question is answered at infinite levels here!
Read with what amazing Wit, Genius and Art He uses the melody of "extinguish, distinguish and rekindle" in a complex sequence of search and sort logic, enshrined in a metaphor of Light! This goes to the heart of the sort matching via internal standards process-- DISTINGUISH the true from the false.
If you want to be lost in blissful WONDERMENT, you need to realize that a hundred volumes could not exhaust this one passage, yet it is nested with speed and complexity within volumes He revealed with an ease that is Divine, and yet said that He did not reveal anything at HIS level, only what we might apprehend ourselves! (Good God, literally). With characteristic wit (and even a wry bit of sweet teasing and gentle love?) He both USES metaphor, then explains WHY the Prophets do this, lovingly "tilting" the game in our favor! This is more of a give away than a hint!
The enemy of this search and sort algorithm is "doubt" and Baha'u'llah also states that we will all achieve "no doubt" immortality! If you study this passage carefully, you will find it is like a zip file, metaphors within metaphors, unfolding as you relate the key elements. Baha'u'llah states that testing the truth of any premise requires four search, sort and categorization "tools" - Reason, Intuition, Senses and Tradition.
The passage says "reflect" on the logic or reason to apprehend and distinguish the new light from the old; kindle the light of understanding in your heart (and see why the Prophets used abstruse metaphor, then let the light bulb of intuition go on in your heart INDEPENDENT of received opinion); senses-- vision, light, the lamp of guidance; and tradition: ending with the fact that the records or traditions of all the Holy Scriptures support this astonishing evolution from cycle to cycle.
If the "new heaven and new earth" actually take place in the universe of the human consciousness, and we see the PROCESS we have to follow (and we are a process of continual change), we see the INPUT of the Word of God for this new Revelation, the Means of Recognition, the Motive of God's Good Pleasure, and the Opportunity of grace-- then what is the Output?
The stars in the passage are His new commandments-- output is thus using the "tools" of reliance and renunciation to obey His new laws: the equality of men and women, the unity of science and religion, racial equality, religious democracy, and all the wondrous NEW systems our Beloved has Revealed. The CONTEXT of this, and EVERY passage, is the URGENCY of the brevity of our lives here, a quick spark, and the need to PASS a test: will we choose the New downpouring of grace, or sink into ego?
This gives a standard for testing, solves the puzzle of the test, tells us why we're tested, and teaches us how to pass the tests all in one brief diamond! As logically brilliant as this is, as consummately satisfying intellectually, the key is not just His astounding logic, is also is the fact that the driver is a sparking process: this is a spark intented to "kindle" our hearts-- literally LIGHT US UP, and turn the soul into a blazing eternal Light of the Ages in our love for the new Manifestation of God for our age, who suffered incalculable wrongs to save our souls.
Disclaimer: the above thoughts are humbly presented to express astonishment, but no one is allowed to "interpret" any passage for anyone else in this Revelation, as the sunburst of independence is so brilliant today. Each must INDEPENDENTLY investigate His Claims in this day.
|
|