Interpreting the Bible involves comparing different verses. Jesus said that He was going to come back and take His disciples to be with Him.
Other places tell us what will happen when Jesus comes back, and part of what happens is that the dead are raised into their spiritual bodies (and "spiritual" does not mean "composed only of spirit") and go to be with Jesus.
This is Biblical interpretation. Someone who does not believe the Bible can say that all that is not true and that they believe something different but Biblically they cannot say that for example John 14:2-3 does not mean that Jesus will come back to earth when the Bible shows that when Jesus comes back it will be to raise the dead and take His disciples to be with Him.
All you have is to say that you believe Baha'u'llah and not the Bible.
Correct, and that is what I am saying.
We get the part of coming back to the world both in other parts of the NT and also in the verse itself since "I will come again" implies that since Jesus was going from the world that means that He is coming again "to the world".
Sounds like the Bible contradicts itself. That is no great surprise since it was written by men who claimed to speak for Jesus. Had Jesus written it there would be no contradictions, like the Writings of Baha'u'llah that contain no contradictions.
Yes the Bible actually does say that, in fact Jesus in the Bible does say that He is coming back to get His disciples.
Yes it does say that, but so what? The Bible is not my holy book so I don't have to believe it.
And no, I still do not have those verses you gave to contend with because I have already done that and have not answered what I said about them and how I have debunked your so called "interpretation".
No, you have not debunked those verses.
So what? If you want to be a Baha'i you must believe that the Biblical prophecies do not mean the plain meaning and you also have to deny that other prophecies are even true at all.
If you want to be a Christian you must believe that the OT prophecies do not mean the plain meaning and you also have to deny that other prophecies are even true at all.
Well we know and have just been talking about Jesus saying "I am coming again".
Jesus did not say that. Biblical authors wrote that.
I suppose so, but Jesus said: John 16:16
In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while you will see Me.”
This means that Jesus "no more" cannot be taken literally in the verses you cite.
John 16:16 A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.
I just figured out what that means! Jesus was telling the disciples that in a little while they won't see Him because He is leaving this world and ascending to the Father in heaven. Then in a little while, the disciples will see Jesus again because Jesus had prepared a place for them in heaven.
John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Yes, what I think Jesus will do when He returns is a belief, but what Baha'is say has happened is not more than a belief.
What Baha'is say has happened is not a belief, it is a fact that is chronicled in Baha'i history.
Much unlike Jesus, we know exactly what Baha'u'llah did. All we have are stories about what Jesus allegedly did, it is not verifiable history.
Certainly the graves have not been opened and the dead have not come out of them, that is what Jesus said that He would do.
Actually that is classed as "resurrection" unless you are a Baha'i and define "resurrection" to mean "dying". You only believe that the dead have been raised, that they go to heaven in a spiritual body at their bodily death.
No, that is how you interpret what Jesus allegedly said, believing that it means physical bodies will come out of physical graves.
I just cannot understand why you cannot see how absurd such a belief is, people coming out of graves in graveyards all over the world and coming back to life.
The Great Resurrection
The Day of Judgment is also the Day of Resurrection, of the raising of the dead. St. Paul in his First Epistle to the Corinthians says:—221
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.—I Cor. xv, 51–53.
As to the meaning of these passages about the raising of the dead, Bahá’u’lláh writes in the Book of Íqán:—
… By the terms “life” and “death,” spoken of in the scriptures, is intended the life of faith and the death of unbelief. The generality of the people, owing to their failure to grasp the meaning of these words, rejected and despised the person of the Manifestation, deprived themselves of the light of His divine guidance, and refused to follow the example of that immortal Beauty. …
… Even as Jesus said: “Ye must be born again” [John iii, 7]. Again He saith: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” [John iii, 5–6]. The purpose of these words is that whosoever in every dispensation is born of the Spirit and is quickened by the breath of the Manifestation of Holiness, he verily is of those that have attained unto “life” and “resurrection” and have entered into the “paradise” of the love of God. And whosoever is not of them, is condemned to “death” and “deprivation,” to the “fire” of unbelief, and to the “wrath” of God. …
In every age and century, the purpose of the Prophets of God and their chosen ones hath been no other but to affirm the spiritual significance of the terms “life,” “resurrection,” and “judgment.” … Wert thou to attain to but a dewdrop of the crystal waters of divine knowledge, thou wouldst readily realize that true life is not the life of the flesh but the life of the spirit. For the life of the flesh is common to both men and animals, whereas the life of the spirit is possessed only by the pure in heart who have quaffed from the ocean of faith and partaken of the fruit of certitude. This life knoweth no death, and this existence is crowned by immortality. Even as it hath been said: “He who is a true believer liveth both in this world and in the world to come.” If by “life” be meant this earthly life, it is evident that death must needs overtake it.—Kitáb-i-Íqán, pp. 114, 118, 120–21.
According to the Bahá’í teaching the Resurrection has nothing to do with the gross physical body. That body, once dead, is done with. It becomes decomposed and its atoms will never be recomposed into the same body.
Resurrection is the birth of the individual to spiritual life, through the gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed through the Manifestation of God. The grave from which he arises is the grave of ignorance and negligence of God. The sleep from which he awakens is the dormant spiritual condition in which many await the dawn of the Day of God. This dawn illumines all who have lived on the face of the earth, whether they are in the body or out of the body, but those who are spiritually blind cannot perceive it. The Day of Resurrection is not a day of twenty-four hours, but an era which has now begun and will last as long as the present world cycle continues. It will continue when all traces of the present civilization will have been wiped off the surface of the globe.”
(Continued on next post)
