1st Coming - Understanding Prophecy
by
D. Yamartino
Page 99 of  57

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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