When the oppression and afflictions that are to befall
mankind will have come to pass, then shall the sun be withheld from shining,
the moon from giving light, the stars of heaven shall fall upon the earth, and
the pillars of the earth shall quake. At that time, the signs of the Son of man
shall appear in heaven, that is, the promised Beauty and Substance of life
shall, when these signs have appeared, step forth out of the realm of the
invisible into the visible world. And He saith: at that time, all the peoples
and kindreds that dwell on earth shall bewail and lament, and they shall see
that divine Beauty coming from heaven, riding upon the clouds with power,
grandeur, and magnificence, sending His angels with a great sound of a trumpet.
Similarly, in the three other Gospels, according to Luke, Mark, and John, the
same statements are recorded. As We have referred at length to these in Our
Tablets revealed in the Arabic tongue, We have made no mention of them in these
pages, and have confined Ourselves to but one reference.
Inasmuch as the Christian divines have failed to apprehend
the meaning of these words, and did not recognize their object and purpose, and
have clung to the literal interpretation of the words of Jesus, they therefore
became deprived of the streaming grace of the Muhammadan Revelation and its
showering bounties. (Baha’u’llah, ‘The Kitab-i-Iqan’)
