Baha'u'llah & the New Era 2006 by -J. Esslemont- 1 Para

Return of Christ
In many of His conversations Christ speaks of the future Manifestation of God in the third person, but in others the first person is used. He says: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself" (John xiv, 2 - 3). In the first chapter of Acts we read that the disciples were told, at the ascension of Jesus: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Because of these and similar sayings, many Christians expect that when the Son of Man comes "in the clouds of heaven and with great glory" they shall see in bodily form the very Jesus Who walked the streets of Jerusalem two thousand years ago, and bled and suffered on the cross. They expect to be able to thrust their fingers into the prints of the nails on His hands and feet, and their hands into the spear wound in His side. But surely a little reflection on Christ's own words would dissipate such an idea. The Jews of Christ's time had just such ideas about the return of Elias, but Jesus explained their error, showing that the prophecy that "Elias must first come" was fulfilled, not by the return of the person and body of the former Elias, but in the person of John the Baptist, who came "in the spirit and power of Elias." "And if ye will receive it," said Christ, "this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." The "return" of Elias, therefore, meant the appearance of another person, born of other parents, but inspired by God with the same spirit and power. These words of Jesus may surely be taken to imply that the return of Christ will, in like manner, be accomplished by the appearance of another person, born of another mother, but showing forth the Spirit and Power of God even as Christ did. Baha'u'llah explains that the "coming again" of Christ was fulfilled in the advent of the Bab and in his own coming. He says: - (142:1)

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