Paragraph 125

Such things have come to pass in the days of every Manifestation of God. Even as Jesus said: “Ye must be born again.” 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.” The purport 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 all the scriptures, the books and chronicles, the sentence of death, of fire, of blindness, of want of understanding and hearing, hath been pronounced against those whose lips have tasted not the ethereal cup of true knowledge, and whose hearts have been deprived of the grace of the holy Spirit in their day. Even as it hath been previously recorded: “Hearts have they with which they understand not.”

"Such things have come to pass..." What things? Perhaps those things He has mentioned in paragraph 124. The "people strayed from the way of God". The Day of Resurrection has been ushered in. His light and tokens have encompassed everything. The people have "derided Him, gave themselves up to those idols which the divines of that age... had conceived, and deprived themselves of the light of heavenly grace and of the showers of divine mercy." This is the pattern. We saw it in the very beginning of the book when He described the other Messengers of the past, and we are seeing it again.

We also notice that throughout this book, Baha'u'llah has continually referenced the relation between Jesus' prophecies and the Revelation of Muhammad. Here He is doing the same thing. He is quoting Jesus, but now goes a step further. This isn't just in relation to Muhammad, but occurs "in the days of every Manifestation of God". Presumably, if we are seeing a similar occurrence today in the way people are acting, we might be able to presume the cause. By showing us this pattern, He is opening our awareness to look for it.

Here, in the middle of this paragraph, Baha'u'llah offers us two paths, from which we can choose which one we wish to walk. The first is "life", "resurrection", and "paradise". The second is "death", "deprivation", "fire", and "wrath".

This first one begins with our life. It can be likened to the very beginning of this book, in which it is up to us to sanctify our soul, "that haply (we) may attain that station which God hath destined for" us. If we do this, then, with luck, we can be resurrected and find that paradise of nearness to our Creator. This, obviously, is the path that we all wish to walk.

The second path, though, begins with our death. If we are not living a spiritual life, as those first quotes from Jesus point out, then we can be seen as dead. This lack of spirituality leads to our deprivation. We are deprived of the development of our virtues, of the understanding of these spiritual issues, and of so much that can contribute to both our well-being and our happiness. This, quite naturally, will lead to our misery, both in this life and the next. It can truly be seen as a fire. The very fact that we do not believe in the Manifestation for today leads us to so many questions that only He can answer. And this misery of searching in vain leads us to feel as if our very soul is on fire. We search for something that we know is there, but we adamantly deny it when it is presented to us. This is a true torture. The denial itself becomes the source of that wrath of God.

Of course, this word, "wrath" also reminds us of that Hidden Word, "How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of Me." We were wondering about this word "accursed", when we read it. It seemed so strong here, yet, when we examined the context, we realized that it was perfectly appropriate. We are not, for example, merely noting someone else's faults, but busying ourselves with them. There is an extremeness to it. When we do this, then they, quite naturally, won't want to be around us. They will avoid us. We will be miserable, by only seeing the faults of others. This, it seems to us, would be a fairly good definition of being under a curse. We are, in fact, the very cause of our own cursing.

When we deny the Manifestation of God in Their Day, and act as the fanatics of old have done, we become the very embodiment of that wrath of God, inflicting all that pain upon ourselves.

This, it seems to us, is our choice. We can choose either of these paths, whichever we prefer.

All this is bracketed by those quotes from Jesus. We are reminded at the beginning that this is all referring to a spiritual state, not a physical one, being of the spirit and not of the flesh. And it ends with the reminder that it is the state of our heart that determines our ability to choose.