I often daydream about what goes on in the minds of the readers who witness the important words in this blog. My hope is that people are more likely to be intellectual than emotionally swayed. The emotional “knee jerk” reaction to finding out that they have been “kept in the dark” from learning may lead people to continue to “seek the truth,” or it may frighten them out of their curiosity because believing the lies that the masses believe is easier.

Jeff’s article below, explains how our community has a “faith based on proof.” In the movie, “National Treasure,” the hero believes that he is endowed with mental skills large enough to figure out where the treasure was hidden. Likewise, I believe that human beings are smart enough to figure out the “code” by which God has given us important instructions. If we break the “code” of prophecy and determine who speaks for God, then all messages from that messenger are believable. Many readers will believe that Jesus speaks for God, but they follow church doctrine instead of Jesus.

We invite you, dear reader, to use the skills God has given you to recognize God.
More important than a “National Treasure,” we set before you the “pearl of great price.”

“The physical existence we have is our opportunity to recognize and accept God. In doing this we acquire Godly attributes and are able to advance toward God, and possibly obtain that station which God has ordained, or put aside for us in the next life. We can hasten or halt our progress toward that station by our beliefs, and the deeds that we do in this life. If we do not accomplish this during our existence here on the physical plane, we enter the next life handicapped. Our progress toward that station in the next life is only by God’s Mercy. There is no free will in the next life. Those that come into the Kingdom here on earth receive the pearl of great price, for they used their free will to come into the Kingdom. This pearl of great price is the High station that God had set aside for them, which is glorious beyond all conceptions.”
(”Entry by Troops” by J.T. Lamb pages 460-461.)

Did you get that? The pearl of great price is glorious beyond all conceptions. Glorious!
Collin

Faith is basically beliefs on things unseen. But we don’t want to have blind faith. God doesn’t expect us to have blind faith. God is obviously scientific and logical for these are foundations of Creation. So naturally when it comes to the Messangers speaking on behalf of the One True God we should be able to follow logical proofs to sort out the True Ones from the charlitans. The proofs we will examine here are prophecy. We can see by looking at prophecy Jesus and Baha’u'llah both fullfilled that they fit the bill, so to speak. We will examine the specific prophecies that reveal the exact dates when both Jesus and Baha’u'llah would begin their missions, where this would take place, where their identities were foretold. These specific prophetic points are what we refer to as the Golden Criteria. Let’s look at the specific prophecies from the Bible.

The Old Testament paints a picture for two different Messiahs from the House of David coming on two separate occasions, and not the same Messiah appearing twice (Zech 4:14): “these are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth”. Jesus was the first Messiah, being descended from the House through His physical father Joseph. Baha’u'llah, founder of the Baha’i Faith, is literally seated on the Throne of David, fulfilling the prophet Isaiah’s visions of this Messiah in Chapters 2, 9, and 11.

Name

Jesus’ name was prophesied to come by Isaiah. Emmanuel, in the Hebrew language is Jesus in the Greek:

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Matthew is showing this prophecy fulfilled here:

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us… And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he [Joseph] called his name JESUS.” (Matthew 1: 23-25)

This connection shows that he was prophesied to come by Isaiah and fulfilled in Jesus.

Bahá’u'lláh (Arabic for the English “Glory of God/Lord”) is prophesied by name so many times throughout the Bible that to give them all would be too much. One instance occurs in the 43rd chapter of Ezekiel:

“As the glory of the Lord [Bahá'u'lláh in Arabic] entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” (Ezekiel 43: 4, 5 RSV)

This entire chapter is prophecies regarding Bahá’u'lláh

Date

The prophet Daniel gives a specific date for the “Messiah” in chapter 9:

24 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” (King James Bible, Daniel 9:24-27)

For the advent of the Messiah, the prophet Daniel gave seventy weeks from the “commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem”. The commandment was ordered by Artaxerxes on March 21st, 457 BC. In seventy weeks there are 490 days, and according to the Holy text each day in prophecy is reckoned as a year (Numbers 14:34). Furthermore, versions like Revised Standard state more specifically: “seventy weeks of years”. That is, there were four hundred and ninety years from the order of Artaxerxes to the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah. That is, Jesus was crucified at the age of 33 in 34 AD, or 457 BC minus 490 years equals 34 AD

In the 25th verse of Daniel 9 this is expressed in another manner of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks and one week. It took seven weeks, or 49 years, after the order to rebuild Jerusalem (issued on March 21st, 457 BC) for the city to be rebuilt. In 408 BC the city was rebuilt including the walls and the moat. Then there was an interim period of sixty-two weeks, or four hundred and thirty-four (434) days/years, between the rebuilding of the city and the last week. That brings us to March 21st, 27 AD, when John the Baptist began his ministry. Three and one-half (3-1/2) years later he baptized Jesus on September 21st, 30 AD:

21 “Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22: And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. 23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph,” (King James Bible, Luke 3:21-23)

Then, three and a half (3-1/2) years later on March 21st, 34 AD, Jesus was crucified. Jesus, at the age of 33, was martyred in 34 AD.

Address

Jesus was prophesied to come in Bethlehem by Micah:

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.” (KJV, Micah 5:2)The fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy was explained by Matthew:

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea…” (KJV, Matthew 2:1).This shows that Jesus came from Bethlehem. This is where the wise men found him. Matthew continues:

“And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.” (KJV, Matthew 2:5, 6)

Bahá’u'lláh’s “address” was prophecied by Isaiah. He came from the east near the city of Tehran, Iran in the Province of Mazindaran, the site of the throne of King David that Bahá’u'lláh’s father sat upon, thus Bahá’u'lláh came from the east to Mt. Carmel in Haifa, Israel.

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the Majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord [Bahá'u'lláh], the majesty of our God.”(Isaiah 35:1, 2 RSV)

So we can see that believing in Jesus and Baha’u'llah is founded on solid ground: The Golden Criteria.

Question: Where is God…!?
When war kills a baby;when a flood destroys a city;when pain and suffering are the only thing some people know their entire lives??

Answer: We are here for an unbelievably short time. We are not here for an impossibly long time before we arrive here and again after we leave. Our suffering is short as our lives. The poor who are made to suffer by the weak minded and selfish are given special consideration in the next life. The little ones are especially well cared for. The innocent are vindicated and the prisoners are freed.

God is an invisible essence that exists everywhere but is not Himself the creation.

God did not create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light so is evil the absence of good. Man, by exercising his free will and desiring that which is unbecoming of the human creation brings evil to this plane. In the next life we will not have this physical body or its suffering. We will live more in the abstract and if we have in our life on earth strived to be closer to God we will live in the light in the next life near God. If we have been slave to our passions, cruel, oppressive and the like, we will suffer the hell of remorse. Pray for the truth and the light.

The 144,000 Troops

In the book of Revelation it is prophesied that there will be an army of God consisting of 144,000 who are “sealed on the forehead.”

If you Google the phrase “144000 troops” you can find several news articles with this excerpt in it:

President Bush says he has not received any request to send more American forces to Iraq and that commanders have told him the 144,000 troops already deployed are “what they can live with.”

I first heard about this last November in a coffee shop here in the New Jerusalem of the Rocky Mountains. Immediately I knew what was going on. George WWIII Bush, who used family ties to dodge the draft, who failed and ruined several of his daddies oil businesses, who was a notorious alcoholic and cocaine addict, suddenly and conveniently became a “born again” evangelical “christian” actually thinks that he is the leader of the Army of God and he wants to have 144,000 troops in Iraq as his proof that he is the one. The one what though? Isn’t it Jesus on his return that is supposed to command this army?

Does Dubya think he’s the return of Jesus?

Somebody impeach this guy before he pushes the button, thinking that this will force the “rapture” to happen!