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Man's redemption thus comes about through steadfastness in the Covenant, aspirations towards a "godly way of life" lived in humility by good thoughts, words and deeds, and deliverance from attachment to the things of the world: deliverance (not flight from the world and asceticism) from the finite and a turning to the infinite, to God. The deeper spiritual foundations of the progress of the soul to its destination have been set out in great profundity by Baha'u'llah in two works written in the style and language of Islamic mysticism, 'The Seven Valleys' and 'The Four Valleys'. All men are called to travel this right path to redemption: "The Sun of Reality hath appeared to all the world. This luminous appearance is salvation and life; but only he who hath opened the eye of reality and who hath seen these lights will be saved" ('Abdul-Baha). (100:2) Jesus appeared at a time when the Jews were gripped with a Messianic and apocalyptic excitement. The arrival of the promised Messiah was expected, and with him the destruction of the pagan empires, especially Rome, and it was believed that the visions of the prophets of the kingdom of peace would be fulfilled in the near future under the rule of one God. Suetonius reports in his biography of Vespasian (4:5): "An ancient superstition was current in the East, that out of Judea would come the rulers of the world." Tacitus writes in his 'Histories (5:13): "Most of them were convinced that according to the old writings of the priests it would come to pass in that time that the East would grow strong and the power which would gain world dominion should come out of Judea." This expectation was pitched very high: "The end of all things is right at the door. Only a few more decades, years, months, perhaps only a few weeks, then the Kingdom of God will appear with power and glory" (Stauffer).
(100:4)
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