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Humanity has progressed in a similar manner to that of the child progressing through various stages. At the time of Adam, man was only capable of receiving enough grace to develop its natural powers of adaptation to the earth and to slowly gain the powers of civilization (141:1) With the maturity of humanity's natural powers, there dawned in humanity the capacity of reason. And with the development of the first powers of reason in man, humanity was capable of receiving the news of the Spirit, of the Kingdom of God - a kingdom that lies beyond the human kingdom - and of the universal perfections of the spiritual world. The achievement of this mighty surge forward in the life of the children of men was the purpose of God's beloved Son (141:2) Where earlier there had been the seeds and roots of spiritual life, with the Manifestation of Christ, and under the influence of His Revelation, a veritable tree of spiritual life burst into visibility above the ground of nature; Christ caused the Tree of the Spiritual Life of Mankind to visibly appear. At the very height of the reign of The Kingdom of Humanity, Christ appeared as the incarnation of the spiritual essence of humanity and summoned humanity to the Kingdom of God beyond the Kingdom of humanity. His Manifestation was the Dawn of the Kingdom of God on earth, but only the Dawn; therefore, Christ spoke of the Kingdom of God as already here, as the Day is here with the Dawn. But, even more insistently, He spoke of the full and mature coming of the Kingdom of God, and He told His followers constantly to watch and to remain awake and to prepare for the Great Day of God when the Kingdom of God would come to earth in its fullness (141:3) That Day has now come. This is the Great Day of God of which Christ spoke, the full appearance and blossoming of the Kingdom of God on earth. We stand at the threshold of this mighty promise (141:4) In the above quoted passage, none but the Christ Returned is signified by "the Greatest Luminary". And it is Baha'u'llah Who has fulfilled His Return, and His Coming is the condition which makes possible the full development of the spiritual powers of humanity - "the perfection of the essence and its qualities", the visible appearance of the Kingdom of God on earth in its fullness (141:5) The appearance of Adam signalized the birth of man - the burst of humanity from the embryonic condition into the fullness of the growth and development of humanity's powers in the Kingdom of nature. Christ, however, was the divine Messenger to mankind at the dawn of the point when the kingdom of humanity first fails, and is therefore in need of the spiritual graces of the Kingdom of God. He embodies the spiritual rebirth, the Crucifying, definitive Turning Point of mankind; the point at which man must "die" to the world and must "live" in Him. And the Manifestation of Baha'u'llah comes as the kingdom of humanity utterly, finally, and miserably fails, as tragically witnessed in the world today: in Him, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, appears the Kingdom of the Father in the plenitude of its power and glory
(141:6)
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