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However, we know that to this meeting, the Christian person will come with knowledge of reality - belief in Christ and the record of His life and teachings: the New Testament. Through all their discussions, faith and the New Testament will inform the believer's words with divine authority. The Jewish person, however, will be unaware of this reality. Of course, he will realize that the believer is using the words and stories of Jesus of Nazareth, but the Jewish person will not regard them as the Word of God. He will see them, in fact as not only a departure from the Word of God, written by mere men, but actually a trespass against the divine authority of the sacred scriptures (73:2) The believer and the seeker, although looking at the same reality, will see different things. Whatever the seeker sees will be "tinted" by his view of the world, whereas the believer will see plainly. The Jewish person will, of course, object to many, possibly all, aspects of the doctrine and thinking of the Christian, and is of course free to do so - one cannot be forced to believe, and the Christian person will allow this. These objections, as viewed from the world of the seeker, are not only perfectly valid, but represent evidence of his sacred obligation to defend his Faith. However, in the view of the believer, these objections have been overruled by higher Authority - the Will of God (73:3) The believer will approach this meeting with full understanding of the objections that the seeker will raise. In most cases these objections do not even need to be pointed out by a seeker; the believer, from his knowledge of the quite unexpected manner of Christ's Coming, is fully aware of how time-honored assumptions and long-held visions of the Coming have been shattered, causing indignation and opposition, and how these assumptions and visions are not easily let go of (73:4) Although Christ's Coming seems to have occurred in a manner that was certainly not predicted, the attitude of the believer is simply "God has divine authority. We, who are only his children, cannot question or oppose it. We must accept it. And once accepting it, and having had it explained through the life of Christ, it makes perfect sense." The attitude of the seeker, on the other hand, may be "We who are chosen of God, will not so easily be deceived. We must stand firm in our faith and await the true Messiah." (73:5) The Christian person understands that these two views seem irreconcilable. At the same time he desires to share his faith. How can he do this? How can he awaken the seeker? (73:6) It was earlier pointed out that for a few souls, the light which Christ, who referred to Himself as the "Light of the World" , radiated, was enough to awaken them from slumber and to bestow upon them the gift of faith. That light, the source of everything good and holy, was the eternal joy and the very life of those who perceived it. Who among us would not desire to have humbly knelt - even for a moment - in His wondrous presence and to have bathed in that eternal light?
(73:7)
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