Wine of Astonishment - William Sears
 <<   <<   >   >>
Page 109 of  excerpts

The dead will speed out of their sepulchres in the last day, according to Scripture. Again, this is a spiritual truth, Bahá'u'lláh tells us. It means that when the Prophet or Messenger of God appears, it is the Day of Judgment for all. It is the last days of the old religion. A new spiritual springtime has come. The spiritually dead will be awakened and will speed out of their sepulchres of unbelief. Their physical bodies do not come back from physical graves. Never! (109:1)

The physical body is of little importance other than as a channel or instrument for the ever-developing spiritual qualities within man. Christ Himself told the young man who wanted to delay his acceptance of Jesus long enough to bury his father: "...let the dead bury their dead...."28 He meant, let those who do not believe (i.e. the spiritually dead), bury the physically dead. In another place He says: "The flesh profiteth nothing" and "that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit".29 (109:2)

Bahá'u'lláh writes:
In every age and century, the purpose of the Prophets of God and their chosen ones hath been no other but to affirm the spiritual significance of the terms "life","resurrection", and "judgment" ...Wert thou to attain to but a dewdrop of the crystal waters of divine knowledge, thou wouldst readily realize that true life is not the life of the flesh but the life of the spirit. For the life of the flesh is common to both men and animals, whereas the life of the spirit is possessed only by the pure in heart who have quaffed from the ocean of faith and partaken of the fruit of certitude. This life knoweth no death, and this existence is crowned by immortality. Even as it hath been said: "He who is a true believer liveth both in this world and in the world to come." If by "life" be meant this earthly life, it is evident that death must needs overtake it.30 (109:3)

According to Bahá'u'lláh’s teachings, resurrection is the birth of the individual into spiritual life. It comes through the gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon man by Christ and the other Messengers of God in whatever age they may appear. The grave from which the individual arises is the grave of ignorance and negligence of God. The sleep from which he awakens is the dormant spiritual condition in which many await the dawn of the new Day of God. This dawn, or coming of the Messenger of God, illuminates all who live on the face of the earth. Everyone, except those who are spiritually blind, will see and recognize it. (109:4)

The present Day of resurrection is not a day of twenty-four hours, but an era which has already begun. It will last as long as men are being called from their graves of spiritual death or lack of faith and belief. The Messenger of God for this day, Bahá'u'lláh, is calling upon all men to arise from their graves of doubt and error, just as Christ called to them in the reign of the Roman Caesars. (109:5)

This is the true meaning behind "being born again". From spiritual death man is brought to spiritual life. Jesus said: "Ye must be born again." Whoever was quickened by His Word attained to new life and to resurrection. It is the same in this day. Bahá'u'lláh has breathed the Words of God upon humanity, and all those who are quickened by this life-giving spirit, attain to the Day of resurrection and are thus delivered from the graves of spiritual death. (109:6)

There is a verse concerning this truth in the sacred Scriptures of Islam, which says: (109:7)

When the Qa'im (Promised One) riseth that day is the Day of resurrection.31 (109:8)

This is the day when new "life" has been bestowed upon man by God’s Messenger; therefore, man has been rescued from "death". (109:9)

Get Next Page

  Wine of Astonishment
  Citation Source List
: see