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(A theologian).. wrote "Throughout the Old Testament we hear of man suffering through God's justice and his own sin, and of his ending in helplessness and despair. This is why the Bible speaks of "Fallen Man," who has not the power to heal himself. It speaks of the failure of the experiments with commandments and laws." In his book he referred to the Bible's answer to the basic problems of human existence-- the account of Man's enslavement of guilt and hostility to God, his bondage to sin, and his inability to redeem himself-- and to the testimony of Christ's crucifixion, through which Satan's power was broken. He asked "So what point would there be in a new revelation, while man has not abandoned his age-old state?-- and said that faced by this message of the Cross, all reformers end in helpless and embarrassed silence: that Baha'u'llah breaks off where Jesus is only beginning. (77:2) Whenever Christian theologians wish to prove the uniqueness, peerlessness and absolute superiority of Christianity over other religions, they all retreat to this doctrine. It is the kernel of the Church's faith, which distinguishes itself from all other religions by having at its centre not just a revealed doctrine and God-fearing obedience towards the will of the Eternal, but belief in a divine figure, the Word made Flesh. Anyone who holds that the quintessence of the Christian revelation is this doctrine of the incarnate Son of God who, through his various sufferings, has reconciled God to the world, is bound to reject belief in a cyclically recurring progressive revelation of God and in the unity of all religions. To that extent I quite understand.. (his) viewpoint. But this plan of redemption proclaimed by the Church for almost nineteen centuries, the orthodox Church doctrine which.. (he) took as his standard of judgment-- is this the real message of Jesus?
(77:3)
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