Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Paragraph 94

In yet another instance, He saith: “A part of them heard the Word of God, and then, after they had understood it, distorted it, and knew that they did so.” This verse, too, doth indicate that the meaning of the Word of God hath been perverted, not that the actual words have been effaced. To the truth of this testify they that are sound of mind.

Here is the ninth paragraph, of thirteen, concerning the words, "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet."

Back in paragraph 92, Baha'u'llah talked about how the Jewish people changed the application of the Law without actually changing the words of the text itself. In paragraph 93, He points out that the people couldn't just change the text itself because the text was spread all over the world. Now He is talking about those who understand the text, but then consciously distort it. They deliberately distort the meaning away from its intent.

We can understand the rationale of the Jewish people of the day, struggling to understand how to survive in their dire circumstances. They may have overstepped their bounds, but we can understand it.

Here, deliberately distorting the truth, is something that we know is wrong. Over and over again, Baha'u'llah reminds us that we need to sanctify our heart. We have to consider the past. We need to truly seek after the truth, care for it, really love it. And we must be careful with it. Over the past 70 paragraphs, Baha'u'llah has continually shown us that there are myriad meanings of each and every one of these verses, but we can't just read them any way we want. We can't allow our own passions and desires to dictate our understanding of these precious words.

There is a coherency to religion. There is a context in which all these verses are placed. And our understanding must be in line with this general understanding.

For example, the whole of the message of Jesus is "love". If we ever understand anything from the Bible that leads us to anything other than love, we can be sure that we have mis-understood.

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