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In His writings, Baha'u'llah has expounded the meaning of some of the prophecies referring to the Second Coming. Regarding the meaning of "clouds", He writes: (99:1) It is evident that the changes brought about in every Dispensation constitute the dark clouds that intervene between the eye of man's understanding and the Divine Luminary which shineth forth from the day spring of the Divine Essence. Consider how men for generations have been blindly imitating their fathers, and have been trained according to such ways and manners as have been laid down by the dictates of their Faith. Were these men, therefore, to discover suddenly that a Man, Who hath been living in their midst, Who, with respect to every human limitation hath been their equal, had risen to abolish every established principle imposed by their Faith--principles by which for centuries they have been disciplined, and every opposer and denier of which they have come to regard as infidel, profligate and wicked,--they would of a certainty be veiled and hindered from acknowledging His truth. Such things are as "clouds" that veil the eyes of those whose inner being hath not tasted the Salsabil of detachment, nor drunk from the Kawthar of the knowledge of God. Such men, when acquainted with those circumstances, become so veiled that, without the least question, they pronounce the Manifestation of God as infidel, and sentence Him to death. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 27 (99:2) It behoveth us, therefore, to make the utmost endeavor, that, by God's invisible assistance, these dark veils, these clouds of Heaven-sent trials, may not hinder us from beholding the beauty of His shining Countenance, and that we may recognize Him only by His own Self. 99:>Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 27 (99:3) In His writings, Baha'u'llah also refers to yet other meanings of the word "clouds". In referring to the causes of the rejection of the Promised One, Baha'u'llah speaks of the "clouds of tyranny" , "clouds of oppression, which obscure the day star of justice" , the "intervening clouds" , "the thick clouds of waywardness" , and "the clouds of idle fancy which the foolish ones have conceived" . Furthermore, in referring to the power of God and His blessings, Baha'u'llah speaks of the "clouds of heaven" , "clouds of revelation" , "clouds of His bountiful favor" , "clouds of His limitless grace" , "clouds of Divine glory" , and "the clouds" through which God's "never-failing providence rain down their gifts upon the realities of all created things." (99:4) Baha'is believe, that He has indeed come again, and that He has once again suffered for the salvation of the world. The sacrifice of Christ, far from being an indication of His weakness or humiliation, is, according to the Bible, the sign of His glory and the cause of the outpouring of God's mercy upon His creatures. That which His followers chose as the sign of His Faith, symbolizing at once His sacrifice and glory, was the cross. It was through His very blood, willingly offered in the path of God that the world was redeemed. The greatness of the gift of His sacrifice is magnified by the fact that despite His being All-Powerful, He Himself never arose to inflict pain on His persecutors who eventually crucified Him. His mission was to sacrifice. And through this sacrifice, all blessings come (99:5) Baha'u'llah writes of Christ's suffering and the outpouring of this mercy: (99:6) Reflect how Jesus, the Spirit of God, was, notwithstanding His extreme meekness and perfect tender-heartedness, treated by His enemies. So fierce was the opposition which He, the Essence of Being and Lord of the visible and invisible, had to face, that He had nowhere to lay His head. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 57 (99:7) 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
(99:8)
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