came across an interesting link that the bahais believe in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ christianityrenewed/index.php/resurrection/general Quotation link Abdul-Bahas Explanations: Abdul-Baha says in SAQ that the Resurrection is a spiritual and divine fact and that our purpose is not to deny it but to affirm it (SAQ 104-105). He states explicitly that after Christs crucifixion the disciples saw Christ living, helping and protecting them (SAQ 106-107). (These events are known to Christians as the resurrection appearances) Abdul-Baha further explains that Christs Resurrection was a phenomenon not of this evanescent material plane, but of the divine, invisible World of Reality. It did not concern Christs mortal, flesh-and-blood body but rather His spiritual body: For Christ had an elemental body and a celestial form. The elemental body was crucified, but the heavenly form is living and eternal, and the cause of everlasting life ... (SAQ 98-99). These words of the Master - the terminology He uses agrees perfectly with that of Saint Paul, who states in I Corinthians 15 that Christ rose not in an earthly or terrestrial body of flesh made from the dust of the earth, but rather in a celestial or spiritual body. Flesh and blood, says Paul, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Thus Christ was not resurrected as flesh and blood but as a life-giving spirit. Also Peter explains Bahai Writings explain how the world is energized and renewed with the passing of the Manifestations: Bahaullah revealed: 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 profoundest learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the ablest hands have produced, the influence exerted by the most potent of rulers are but manifestations of the quickening power released by His transcendent, His all-pervasive, and resplendent Spirit. Shoghi Effendi describes Bahaullahs passing on p. 244 of God Passes By: ... the dissolution of the tabernacle wherein the soul of the Manifestation had chosen temporarily to abide signalized its release from the restrictions which an earthly life had, of necessity, imposed upon it. Its influence no longer circumscribed by any physical limitations, its radiance no longer beclouded by its human temple, that soul could henceforth energize the whole world to a degree unapproached at any stage in the course of its existence on this planet. Like Bahaullahs ascension, the Resurrection of Christ had a profound impact upon events of the material plane: It transformed the lives and actions of the disciples, galvanized and reanimated the early Church, and crystalized into a new civilization These earthly events were among the symbolic significances of Christs heavenly Resurrection -- but Abdul-Bahas point is that these outward activities happened because the disciples saw Christ living, helping and protecting them He cites the continuing influence of Christ on this earthly plane as a proof of immortality: Consider that today the Kingdom of Christ exists. From a non-existing king how could such a great kingdom be manifested? (SAQ 225). Bahais accept the Resurrection as a divine and miraculous fact, the question of precisely how it occurred becomes secondary. We shouldnt make an issue in any early discussion with Christians of whether Christ appeared to His disciples in physical form. Indeed there is no objection for a Bahai to believe that Christ communicated with His disciples in visions and spiritual encounters. The disciples knew no other way to record these interactions except as physical events; anything else would have, for most readers, conveyed a lesser reality.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 11:46:53 +0000
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