If you mean to say that the thief in the night metaphor is somehow referring to modern American consumerism, of which they had no notion of back then, and had no relevance to anyone before us in history, then why did you apply it to Bahualla as the 2nd coming of Christ?
No, these references to the apocalypse in Jewish and Christian literature of the day was referring to something very specific, not just what happens to everyone after they die and come to realize they had lost out on a spiritual life while they were alive. It's about events of this world. Try applying the following to either of the two different applications of the metaphor you have tried to make it say:
But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.
That's just a smattering of the apocalyptic language from the Bible, and the authors were always referring to the destruction of world they lived in, like the prophets of old, like Jeremiah when he said of the coming destruction of Israel as a nation, "Alas! That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it."
The thief in the night metaphor is always referring to this sudden, abrupt, and violent event that will happen upon the world as a whole. Bahaullah is not that "thief in the night", and if he was, then he'd be more the
angel of death, the herald of the destruction of the world. Is that how you view him?
It's more than that. There are definitely cultural beliefs and values of the time that are reflected on its pages as cultural and historical artifacts. Not everything on its pages has hidden, spiritual meanings. A great deal of it is spiritual of course, such as the teachings of Jesus' sermon on the mount. But "women keep silent in the church", is not one of those! That is a cultural artifact and has no spiritual value whatsoever.
Point is, you can't always try to "spiritualize" everything in it. Sometimes a cigar, is just a cigar, and not a hidden symbol of some deeper truth. Trying to take the Jewish expectation of the "Day of the Lord" and apply that to the problem of modern American consumerism, is simply bad hermeneutics.
Heavenly language? I think what you mean is creative interpretations of vague passages of scripture which ignore historical and cultural contexts. I see the exact same thing with those who try to make the bible authors aware of modern science by saying, "He stood upon the circle of the earth", to mean the prophet had supernatural knowledge that the earth was a globe!
This is just creative license, an extreme license to play with the words to make them fit whatever we want to make it say. I see this not just with the Bible, but with the Koran, with writings of Nostradamus, and anything they want to make it. If you start with the belief there are hidden coded messages in whatever book you have in hand, you literally can make it say anything you want it to!
Reading the Bible like it's a supernatural book with hidden truths that only the select few who were chosen by God to be able to decipher them, has also led countless people to go astray and fall prey to their own desires.
Their reading of it to make Christianity the "one true religion" is a misguided as those who read it as a promise of their prophet yet to come in their newer "one true religion". It's really not any different. Sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander.
And yet, aren't you saying that "we have the real truth that they all missed", exactly the same as each of them?
