The “essence of the religion of God” and the “dogmas” in each religion; “Everything in the world is subject to change” including religion; The world of humanity is in the dark. Our aim is to illumine mankind.”; “In this age every face must turn to God, so that spiritual enlightenment will go hand in hand with material education.”

I came from a distant land. I have travelled twenty thousand miles until I came to you in Stuttgart. Forty years I was a prisoner. I was young when I was put into prison and my hair was white when the prison doors opened. After all these long years of the sufferings of prison life I willingly took upon myself all the hardships of a long journey. Now I am here in order to be united with you, in order to meet you. My purpose is that perchance you may illumine the world of humanity; that all men may unite in perfect love and friendship; that religious prejudices, national prejudices, race distinctions, all may be completely abandoned. The religions of today consist of dogmas. Because these dogmas differ from each other, discord and even hatred is manifest. Religion must be the basis of all good fellowship. Think of the turmoil that today exists in the Balkans; how much blood is shed; how many thousands of mothers have lost their sons, how many children have become orphans, and how many buildings, villages, and cities have been destroyed! The Balkan states have become a volcano. All this ruin originates from the prejudices created by the different dogmas, called forth by superstitions and race prejudices.

The essence of the religion of God is love, and the Holy Books bear testimony to that, for the essence of the religion of God is the light of the world of humanity; but mankind today has forgotten what constitutes true religion. Each nation and each people today hold to some definite dogma.

Everything in the world is subject to change. But this transmutation and change are requirements of life. See, for instance, these flowers before us. They come forth from a seed. They grow to perfection, but when they have reached the state of perfection they go back again. This is the invariable law of creation. Likewise man develops until he has grown to maturity. When he reaches beyond the state of maturity he begins to decline. All religions of God are subject to this same law. They are founded in order to blossom out and develop and fulfill their mission. They reach their zenith and then decline and come to an end. So a few thousand years ago came Moses. He promulgated the ten commandments. Later these laws were changed, and this change was so complete that of the original nothing more was visible. Then God sent the Roman Empire to destroy the Holy Land, because the Jews had forgotten the law of God. They had in the end only a bundle of superstitions. When this religion had sunk to such a depth, God sent his Holiness Jesus Christ. His Holiness Christ appeared as the Light of the Sun, and He founded anew the religion of God. He revivified the light which had been given by Moses and fulfilled that law.

On the Jews’ Rejection of Jesus Christ

Sunday, 22 December 1912

Blomfield Residence, 97 Cadogan Gardens London, England

[The following transcript was originally recorded, in Persian, in Khiṭábát-i- Haḍrat-i-‘Abdu’l-Bahá, vol. 3, pp. 74–75. It has been rendered into English provisionally and annotated by the present compiler. This rendering has not yet been reviewed or approved by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.]

He is God

Last night, there was a theatrical performance about the birth of Jesus Christ. [1] It was truly skillful to the utmost. It was, however, surprising that all those involved in this event acted as if they were awaiting the Messiah and that they recognized Him. Yet when Christ appeared, He remained a stranger, single and alone; the Messiah came and no one realized it. And so it was that the people went on searching for the Messiah in anticipation of His advent. Christ had come, but the Jewish leaders continued to await the Messiah’s appearance—a desire they cherished. But when He came, they were deprived [of Him]; indeed, they rejected Him, saying, “This is not the true Messiah!” Rather, they made allegations that I am ashamed to recount. You all have surely read the Gospel and seen that title which they gave Christ.

To put it briefly, they dubbed Him “Beelzebub,” meaning “Satan.” [2] It is with this title that they made Christ notorious. A hundred thousand times alas, a hundred thousand times indeed, that they called that celestial Beauty “Beelzebub”! A hundred thousand times alas, a hundred thousand times indeed, that they failed to recognize Him! A hundred thousand times alas, a hundred thousand times indeed, that that Sun of Truth remained concealed by the clouds of vain imaginings!

And to this very day, the Jews still await the advent of the Messiah. It has been two thousand years since the Messiah appeared, and yet the Jews continue to wait. Observe what unawareness does! They set their expectations on the text of Isaiah—that the Messiah would come from the skies, an unknown place, [3]

and that, when He came, He would break the mountains apart and cause a mighty earthquake. [4] In fact, these things did happen, but they did not understand the symbolism thereof. They failed to apprehend this allegory: that by “mountains” was not meant mountains of stone, but rather people who resembled mountains and were scattered apart, and that the intended meaning of “earthquake” pertained to the realm of human thoughts, not this world of dust.

Attributes of God; “the Reality of the Symbols and the mystic meanings of the Holy Books”

circa 27 December 1912

London, England

God, the Almighty, is the Creator. His Highness, the Divine God, has certain attributes. In thinking of God, one presupposes certain virtues and perfections. If one could for one moment imagine the cessation of the outpouring of these virtues, then would the Divinity cease. His Highness, the Almighty, is unknowable. All we human beings can know of Him, is the manifestation of His virtues: all the children of humanity can comprehend is through the showing forth of His attributes to the world.

To illustrate this point — the sun continues to be the sun only as long as it floods the world with its heat and with its rays. Therefore, we cannot think of the sun without its attributes of light and heat. If you could imagine the sun as a dark, sad body, it would no longer be the sun. It would, in fact, be impossible to imagine such a thing. If we could imagine such a thing, the reality of the sun would be accidental, not eternal. Could any one imagine a time when the sun was without rays, or without heat or light?

We attribute to the Reality of God certain virtues, or qualities, which are as follows: Knowledge, Omnipotence, Creative Power; He is the Provider, the Life-giver, the Perfecter. And if we could even imagine a time when God was not adorned with these attributes, then He were no longer God. We can only think of the Reality of God as an infinite and unlimited Being. If we could imagine the cessation of these virtues, the Divine World would exist no longer.