Date: 7 Oct 92 23:38:48
From: Adel Faridani <faridani@MATH.ORST.EDU>
Newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai
Organization: <none>
Subject: Questions about Manifestations of God
Distribution: world

In a recent posting Matt Jones asks the question

mj> Where is the unity in God's message over the years then?

and refers to a number of points where the revelations of the past
seem to contradict each other. One of these points was the following:
 
mj>1  The New Testament proclaims Jesus' DEATH on the CROSS and his
mj>   victorious ressurrection.
mj>
mj>   Islam speaks of a 'divine substitution' - Jesus was swapped, and
mj>   never was crucified.

The reference to the teaching of Islam apparently refers to the
following passage of the Qur'an. I quote it at some length to preserve
the context. The translation is the one of Arberry.

     The People of the Book will ask thee to bring down
     upon them a Book from heaven; and they asked
     Moses for greater than that, for they said,
     `Show us God openly.' And the thunderbolt
     took them for their evildoing. Then they took
     to themselves the Calf, after the clear signs
     had come to them; yet We pardoned them
     that, and We bestowed upon Moses 
        a clear authority.
     And We raised above them the Mount, taking
     compact with them; and We said to them,`Enter in
     at the gate, prostrating'; and We said to them,
     `Transgress not the Sabbath'; and We took from them 
        a solemn compact.
     So, for their breaking the compact, and disbelieving
     in the signs of God, and slaying the Prophets
     without right, and for their saying,`Our hearts 
     are uncircumsized'-nay, but God sealed them 
     for their unbelief, so they believe not,
        except a few - 
     and for their unbelief, and their uttering
     against Mary a mighty calumny,
     and for their saying `We slew the Messiah,
     Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of God' - 
     yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him,
     only a likeness of that was shown to them.
     Those who are at variance concerning him surely
     are in doubt regarding him; they have no knowledge
     of him, except the following of surmise;
     and they slew him not of a certainty -
     no indeed; God raised him up to Him; God is 
        All-mighty, All-wise.
     There is not one of the People of the Book
     but will assuredly believe in him before his
     death, and on the Resurrection Day he will be
        a witness against them. 
     (Surih IV, Women, Verses 152-157)

It is obvious that this weighty passage requires meditation in order
to be understood. Shoghi Effendi gives an explanation of the apparent
contradiction to the Biblical account:

      The crucifixion as recounted in the New Testament is correct.
      The meaning of the Qur'anic version is that the spirit of Christ
      was not Crucified.  There is no conflict between the two.
      (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an
       individual believer, July 14, 1943, quoted in Lights of
       Guidance, Second edition, p. 491)
       
The Baha'i writings leave no doubt about the importance of Jesus
sacrificing Himself, and His world-embracing influence.  Baha'u'llah
Himself gives the following testimony:

       Know thou that when the Son of Man yielded up His breath to
       God, the whole creation wept with a great weeping.  By
       sacrificing Himself, however, a fresh capacity was infused into
       all created things.  Its evidences, as witnessed in all the
       peoples of the earth, are now manifest before thee.  The
       deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the pro- foundest
       learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the
       ablest hands have produced, the influ- ence exerted by the most
       potent of rulers, are but manifestations of the quickening
       power released by His transcendent, His all-pervasive, and
       resplendent Spirit.
         We testify that when He came into the world, He shed the
       splendor of His glory upon all created things.  Through Him the
       leper recovered from the leprosy of perversity and ignorance.
       Through Him, the unchaste and wayward were healed.  Through His
       power, born of Almighty God, the eyes of the blind were opened,
       and the soul of the sinner sanctified.
         Leprosy may be interpreted as any veil that inter- veneth
       between man and the recognition of the Lord, his God.  Whoso
       alloweth himself to be shut out from Him is indeed a leper, who
       shall not be remembered in the Kingdom of God, the Mighty, the
       All-Praised.  We bear witness that through the power of the
       Word of God every leper was cleansed, every sickness was
       healed, every human infirmity was banished.  He it is Who
       purified the world.  Blessed is the man who, with a face
       beaming with light, hath turned towards Him.
       (Gleanings, Chapter XXXVI, pages 85-86)

Additional material relevant to this question is provided by the
Baha'i teachings on the station of the Manifestations of God, the
immortality of the soul, life after death, and the meaning of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. These can be found in The Kitab-i-Iqan,
Gleanings, and Some Answered Questions.

Adel Faridani